New Player Feedback

[faint phoenix]

I started "playing" today but I was not prepared for the tutorial not even attempting to teach anything.
The 3rd "Build your boat" tutorial was especially noteworthy.

When "building the engine" I was constantly told to add this or that block and rotate it aimlessly and seemingly at random until I would hit the one correct orientation out of 24 possibles.
At no point is there any explanation on what the goal is. If there is any means to tell a "right" orientation.
There are bobs and knobs outside of those blocks but they are not significant to the process at all?
Sure, I completed it rotating things randomly until the machine was happy for no discernible reason but that's no way to learn anything.

If that is going to be the tone of the tutorial then what is the point of it?

If you WANT to skip over all the details and have "engine building" as a different tutorial THEN DO THAT. Instead of confusing the player (me) with aimless clicking, add the whole engine block as a prefab and move on.

In the same mission the same applies to "building" the missile system. Again, randomly rotating xyz blocks until the machine was happy with it but no explanation for what MAKES the machine happy.

These kind of things happen in development when someone with 5000 hours in the game writes a tutorial script and the testers with 7000 hours in it approve it as "working".

[sinful sleet]

Testers? Lol

J/k

I get what you are saying but I think there's an element of subconsciously learning how to use block build while knowing the general way to build things.
Nick doesn't want to teach much but the bare minimum in the tutorials because he's an engineer by profession and wants you to tinker. I shall pass on your comments though! Thanks for taking the time to write it up!

[silent plover]

In regards to really obtuse engine connections... Turbos are really bad about this

They still reference the white section of the carburator, which no longer exists in its current model, and it's missing certain green connection points

I've tried multiple times to build a turbo engine but it's a massive pain to deduce how it wants to be placed and also how to route the exhaust around.

[cobalt lion]

Idk if it’s a good idea designing the tutorial around the concept that you want players to experiment and teach as little as possible

That’s how I self taught myself to play (and asking questions here) but that technique isn’t for everyone

When I tried the tutorials, I felt I wasn’t learning anything. The only useful tutorials were the UI ones