Factorio's tutorial/demo has problems

[Peter34]

This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_yFHCRht2w

...is not the only YouTuber that I've seen having problems with the demo/tutorial. This guy, like some others, are fortunately able to perservere (or at least it seems that way) and overcome the hurdles of the poorly designed demo/tutorials, and proceed to actually learn the game.

I am somewhat pressed for time right now, but I'll return to this thread later, with some concrete suggestions for how to improve the tutorial. Meanwhile, I encourage everyone to watch the above Let's Play, and perhaps also the earlier part 1 Let's Play, dealing with the earlier tutorial/demo level.

[bobucles]

Factorio has many mechanics that are unique to new players. I think it's very important to show rather than tell about how things work.

The first level is okay. Showing players how to mine and get their first smelters up is pretty important. The introduction to combat needs work. It throws players into the fire without teaching important stuff like modules and fish and turrets. The introduction to trains needs work. There needs to be at least one working train network for players to work with.

[AlexMBrennan]

The first level is okay. Showing players how to mine and get their first smelters up is pretty important

Personally, I would have to vehemently disagree - the first tutorial is unbelievably dull. Manually mining ores is technically part of the game, and will have to be covered at some point, but it's not something you'll be doing after the first five minutes of the game so dwelling on it for ages (you literally have to keep RMB pressed for 5min while watching the progress bar fill up very slowly ten times) seems very likely to put players off the game for good. When I played the demo, I got very close to saying "screw this" and ditching the game.

This is almost entirely unnecessary - players are not going to learn any more about manually gathering ores by making them repeat the task 10 more times, so you could just as easily spawn the player with only one stone/ore missing. Or spawn the player with a tool. Try to avoid dwelling on the dullest part of the game for a disproportionally long time.

[Peter34]

Sorry I haven't yet replied as promised with concrete feedback.

But yes, I agree that the very first demo/tutorial limit should demonstrate to the player how Factorio is different from the many other survival/crafting-type games in that it's not about grinding, it's not about doing manual labour.

Starting the player with something like X-1 Iron Plate, Y-2 Copper Ore and Z-1 Wood, where X, Y and Z are the values needed to progress in the first tutorial (i.e. increasing the degree of automation), is a really good idea. I'm all for that.