My wife would not play KSP 1 due to vague tutorials, so I took a special interest in them here on launch day. First, I want to applaud the obvious effort put into the tutorial system thus far. They are far superior to what I expected (even with the hype). However, after encountering bugs in the first few, I built a data set of 20 views. Results are as follows:
Tutorials (twenty views each, number of each issue instances given as fraction within the set of twenty)
Space is the place
#2 Launch a Test Rocket:
The Pitch control portion occasionally does not register when the rocket has returned to the correct orientation (after following all instructions), preventing the tutorial from moving on. (8/20)
· Possible solution: add dialogue indicating a minimum angle to reach before pitching back to 0, as often (but not always) this would occur with shallow maneuvers.
Space is the place
#2 Launch a Test Rocket:
The windowed example graphic of the Kerbal using W/S controls remains persistent. It remains on the screen when continuing beyond the next tutorial, when restarting this same session, after leaving the training center, and even when backing all the way out to the main menu! Complete re-launch of the game is required to remove artifact. (14/20)
Space is the place
#6 Staging:
Hitting “continue” in the dialogue window (which calls for using the actual command) can stage the rocket too soon, triggering the “your rocket needs all its parts to continue” failure result. (6/20)
Missing the Ground:
No issues detected (20/20)
Orbits are Weird:
No issues detected (20/20)
Orbital Transfers:
No issues detected (20/20)
Suggestion: allow the spacebar/enter to be used as an alternative to clicking “continue” on the screen when prompted.
Recommended Tutorial Topics (to add for more complete on-boarding of new players):
· Introduction/overview of Engineer’s report
· TWR, ISP, COM, COT, and Delta-V concepts in construction/flight
· Intermediate parts (trusses, fuel lines, etc)
· Advanced parts (servos, etc)
