Tutorial Notes

[texteng]

I played through the tutorial. I completely understand that creating a tutorial is difficult. It is always good to have fresh eyes to look at it though. I also threw in some suggestions about the base game.

The Basics:
- After concrete extractor is constructed, it seems to tells you to create a waste rock storage first. However, the arrows point to you creating a concrete depot first.
- I rarely build recharge stations. I really don't know when is the best time to build one and where to do so.

Rovers, Exploration, and Maintenance
- There is no discussion of dust in this tutorial. It would be good to have some sort of heat map showing you where there is a lot of dust and where there isn't.
- When told to refuel the rocket, there is an arrow pointing to the fuel depot but not the RC transport. That could be a little confusing.
- Why can't RC transports bring materials directly onto construction sites? It is annoying to deliver a bunch of materials right next to a construction site to have drones take the materials back to the depot that you took the material from.
- I hate making this comment because it makes me feel like the arrogant American. However, the world "expand" is a verb, not a noun. You don't build a "expand". You build an "expansion". You can "expand" your base by creating an "expansion". The term "expand" rather than expansion is used twice in this tutorial.
-When trying to create a trade route from the universal depot to the new expansion site, there is an arrow on the universal depot and the expansion site. Because these arrows cannot be seen on the same screen, this can be confusing.
- When constructing the Sterling generator at the expansion, the resources from the original trade run are not sufficient to create it. New users might be frustrated about why the Stirling Generator isn't complete. It is also annoying to wait for the RC transport to make a second run.
- In the scanning sectors part of the tutorial, scanning with the probe works. Then you are asked to scanning the additional sectors. There are no instructions on what to do afterwards. Do I scan even more sectors?
- You could consider adding the autoexplore mod into the base game.

Power, Water & Maintenance:
- After constructing the water mine, the screen it does tell you to build additional solar panels and wind turbines. However, if you close the window, it does not say to do the same in the hint box underneath the infobar. People like me who like to rush, might not see that you need to build additional wind turbines and solar panels to power everything.
- This is a minor problem in the next three tutorials. When told to go to Earth screen, the arrow points to the rocket, and then the icon with the rocket turns blue. I think it would be better if you did that in reverse.
-There are abandoned solar panels on the bottom right corner of the base. Did you mean to have them there to teach people how to restore abandoned buildings?
- You might want to say that pipes carry Oxygen.

Colonists.
- When you go to Earth, it tells you that you can select colonists by certain traits. However, the tutorial immediately points to the launch button. I originally thought that I could launch an empty rocket, but the rocket already had 12 colonists. You might want to take the time to actually show people how to choose which colonists they need.
- You aren't actually told to land the rocket. or that colonists die after a certain amount of time if you don't land.
- I am not sure what to do when all colonists are landed and you are waiting for founder stage to end.

Multiple Domes
- This is a suggestion that applies to the game itself, not the tutorial. Bt the animation creating a passage, makes it seem like the passage is complete before it actually is. You might want to slow down this animation so when the whole passage materializes the passage is actually complete.
- You are told how to access the command center but not actually how to use it.

General Notes:
- Most games give achievements for completing tutorials. That would be a nice thing to have.
- There is no tutorial on how to select a sponsor, game rules, and where to land on Mars. It might be nice to have one of those.
- If you can make a tutorial this complex, it might be cool to have a scenario mode in the future. Rather than building a Mars colony from scratch, you can have a mode where a player can start with a deeply troubled Mars colony that users can try to save.
- There is nothing on how to deal with cold waves.
- I am probably going to post this on the paradox forum and the steam one.

[Jean le Chauve]

Originally posted by texteng:

Rovers, Exploration, and Maintenance
- There is no discussion of dust in this tutorial.

I totally agree, maintenace is the key of this game.

Originally posted by texteng:

- Why can't RC transports materials directly onto construction sites? It is annoying to deliver a bunch of materials right next to a construction site to have drones take the materials back to the depot that you took the material from.

You can, check this video how to :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7D8gX7gfWw&t=0s&list=PLSg2VeBHVvYF0DZTPU15z-YnYzQl8tdh8&index=2
it would be nice if the tutorial showed this method.

Originally posted by texteng:

- You could consider adding the autoexplore mod into the base game.

I don't agree, with experience and higher difficulty you need to choose the right anomalie at the right time.