Overall there are quite a few blanks between the steps, things that Factorio players take for granted. You should aim to reduce the number of WTF moments when the player has no idea what to do next or why something they are trying is not working.
It is not explained where to take the fuel from when the player is instructed to use the smelter.
Stone looks a lot like iron. Players try to put in stone into the smelter instead of iron. It can leave people wondering if its a bug or the game is broken. It says stone cannot be smelted. Might give impression that it can never be.
The edge of map is a bit immersion breaking, block off with cliff/water? This can't be too hard to fix. There is no edge of map in freeplay, should there be one in the tutorial?
Hard to figure out how to pick up ore from mining drill, it is never explained how how pick up and drop stuff from the ground. How do you expect a new player to figure out to press "F" out of all things. Also the drill output is next to invisible. New players don't notice that a few black pixels appeared next to the drill. Especially since the ore it's drilling is also a cluster of black pixels.
The fuel slot for the smelter is really easy to figure out due to the icon, but the other 2 slots are a bit confusing, maybe put an arrow or somehow accentuate the output slot. This is something that can be done for the design of every machine.
If you don't know what the next step is, it takes an eternity until the robot comes to help out.
Also after that there was a crash:
- IMG_20190310_103822.jpg (1.54 MiB) Viewed 1266 times
The helper bot should be more interactive. What if instead of following a script, it follows the player around explaining the world? Instead of giving instructions it can go around giving player ideas how to improve certain parts of the factory.
For example: player goes to the iron ore, the bot explains this is iron ore, what it's used for, it also suggests crafting and placing a drill if the player has the materials in the inventory, otherwise it suggests the player which required resource to get.
Another example: when the player needs to insert fuel, it could also take the player to the trees and explain them how to get the necessary fuel.
A really good example: the bot notices the drill output is blocked because there is a item there which is not picked up so the drill is not working. It explains the player how to pick up the item so the player knows how to pick up items and unblocks the drill output. After this it can also transition into explaining how to place a box there is it does not have to be manually picked up after each item.
