Worth doing the tutorial?

[BagreMago]

That's probably a weird question, but i just got the game and started to do the training session, and i want to ask you guys, when you did started to play, you did everything by yourself or did you learn how to make functional ships before? I ask that because maybe the training can take away that feeling of achievement done after you make your own spaceship get to the moon.. and, as usual, sorry about the bad english.

[Llamageddon]

Was a bit of both for me. But I found some of the youtube tutorials were more informative and helpful. Scott Manly is a great place to start if you want some video tutorials, was struggling with some of the trickier concepts in the game until I came across his stuff on youtube.

[AlexMBrennan]

I ask that because maybe the training can take away that feeling of achievement done after you make your own spaceship get to the moon

The tutorial teaches you how you do things (e.g. which key you need to press to activate engines, how you rotate the camera, etc), but not what to do (which engines to use in your rocket, etc).

I think that the achievement in landing on the moon is in designing the rocket and executing the mission and not in struggling with the controls/interface/etc.

[andylaugel]

The training missions are worthwhile, but you can play them whenever you're ready. There is a lot of fun to be had just messing around first.

Going back through them as an experienced player, I still found a few interesting things to learn. I also found a lot of flaws in them as well. In one (intercept/docking?), it suggests using the RCS thrusters, but it doesn't explain how to use them until much later in the same tutorial.

On a related mater, the ship designs that appear in the tutorials, scenerios, and stock ships do leave a lot to be desired. They are sufficient for what they are being used for, but aren't particularly well designed or efficient. Flying these can be more challenging than a craft designed by a semi-experienced player.

[MechBFP]

Absolutely worthwhile. What I did was play a tutorial, then play career mode until I ran into a situation covered by the next tutorial, so then I would play that next tutorial and go back to career mode and rinse and repeat until I did all the tutorials.

[dunbaratu]

The training missions give you information that you can't really learn by trial and error (like how the user interface works and where all the hidden options are). This is useful *even for people who already know the rocket science*. (i.e. knowing what a Hohmann Transfer is doesn't help tell you what the "X", key does in the editor, or that there's a secret hidden menu behind the altimeter that you use when you need to recover the vessel.)

For that sort of thing, the tutorial is quite useful. It walks you through some of the more important user interface features that are quite well hidden (too well hidden - I love the game but some of the UI decisions are kinda dumb because they made vitally important controls imposible to discover through user exploration.

The problem I have with the tutorial is that it tries too hard to be "cute", which detracts from its purpose of just getting to the point and explaining things. Often you'll find the dialog boxes that pop up contain about 10 sentences, of which only 2 actually mean anything and the other 8 are "cute" flavortext fluff that mask the relevant information.

So yes, you should play the tutorials through, but they can get a bit infurating with the low information to fluff ratio. I'd suggest only playing the beginner first ones at first, then playing the game for a bit, then coming back to do some more tutorials, then play the game for a bit, then a few more tutorials, etc. It will make the tutorials make more sense, and it will make you more skillfull at realizing what the important information embedded in them is.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

I did a few of the training missions, then played a bit in sandbox(science) to use the techiniques I'd learned from tutorial, then went back and finished the tutorials.

They sort of long (and not exactly boring), but you'll be much more informed about how to play this game if you understand the basic concepts.

edit: also recommend Scott Manly's videos

[BagreMago]

And you guys were right, i managed to do almost everything in the tutorial(besides the docking missions and forward because this is probably late game and pro ♥♥♥♥) and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this game is awesome, i'm currently having a problem with spaceplanes, but i'm getting there, thanks for all the answers.

[Cakeeater]

Yes, for me it was helpful

[Harry_Robinson1]

I only did one tutorial, the one that helps you land on the Mun, and that was because despite me being able to do it in sandbox, I couldn't do it in career when it was first released.

I would skip them myself, only do them if you can't figure out how to do things yourself. It worked for me: it only took 5 years to become a skilled KSP rocket scientist.