The new player experience, what can be done to get beginners into the game more easily this time?

[Rejected Spawn]

Something that turned a lot of players off about KSP1 was just how hard it's always been to overcome the initial learning curve before being able to really go somewhere and do anything memorable - it's like making it to Mun is the turning point at which a player sees the light and becomes a long time player while those who fail to get that far in the first few days drop the game forever. Those of us who did overcome may not feel that the hurdle was that bad but I do know some who never managed to climb that mountain far enough to see the view from the top and it's a real shame. So without further stalling, what can we think of that would help smooth out the giant cliff into a gentler hill this time? We're told there will be better tutorials but that remains to be seen and may not cover enough and may not appeal to impatient players who just want to get to the fun stuff quickly - humans are not perfect learning machines and not always willing to sit in a virtual school just to start playing a game.

• Key bindings: Ensure they are accessible through an options menu while in flight, KSP1 is terribad in this regard as the player must leave the entire playing experience and go back out to the main menu just to see which button did "that one thing" they needed. Even if the keys can't be edited while in flight they should at minimum be possible to view.
• Pop up tips on a new playthrough: Should be possible to set to multiple levels of "helpfulness". Pretty sure most of us recall how to use the VAB to build a rocket so we don't need to be told this on each new playthrough - however there may be some more advanced tips not all of us are familiar with even after we get a couple of interplanetary voyages under our belt. Having a helpful kerbal linger in the corner of the screen blurting out a little speech bubble at times when you seem lost ("Having trouble with staging?" if you leave a parachute and an engine on the same stage in the editor for more than 15 seconds) so you can click it to get more info if you choose to might be one way to go about this, of course you should at any time be able to just say "Nah I got this." to make the kerbal go away completely but there should also be an option to reactivate from the menu - maybe together with switches to turn on/off subsets of tips depending on our individual knowledge profiles.
• In game knowledge base: Having at least a collection of helpful information in game is pretty standard stuff, what many games don't do however is get the player to the right page quickly. If you open the menu while in flight and click the knowledge base it would be very helpful for it to display shortcuts to everything that might be relevant to what you were doing 2 seconds ago, such as steering a rocket and orbits and docking and stuff. Of course it should always have shortcut #1 be to the complete list of topics.

Any suggestions are welcome, I'll add yours to the list if it seems like a good idea. (moderators please feel free to edit the list as well if I'm absent, my health is very unpredictable)

Would like to add that one of the reasons I object to KSP2 having any early access phase is that it has a multitude of pitfalls that are very dangerous for games that are in any way advanced. Most notably it eases the players into new features as they are added and turns them into all-knowing super beings that don't crave tutorials or further information, then when the average joe buys the game on 1.0 day he sits there completely confounded by how any human could have transcended mortality and climbed the intergalactic learning curve right in front of him. I may have exaggerated marginally for effect but you probably get it.

[Xd the great]

Include Scott Manley and Danny2462 videos.

The former to learn how to play the game properly, the latter to learn that explosions are a fun part of the game.

[razark]

How about a godsdamn farkin' manual that explains things, and the expectation that players have the ability and inclination to read it?

Or is that just too much to expect these days?

[mcwaffles2003]

A tutorial section that has separate video demonstrations of different maneuvers being performed with simple breakdowns of why the maneuvers are performed as they are. For instance, showing players how an inclination change in orbit is performed, maybe sowing the current and objective orbits, then demonstrating why one would burn normal/anti-normal to achieve that change and where the burn is done.

 

All voiced by scott manley, obviously.

[RoninFrog]

My first couple launches followed this tutorial.  My third launch was a 3-kerbal (slightly overpowered) Mun rocket flown with the aid of this other tutorial.  And it I landed it.

...and I came back.

..and I didn't watch a single Scott Manley video.

Things I don't advise are: starting by downloading MechJeb, copying the tutorials' rocket designs exactly (or even worse, downloading them off KerbalX), and not venturing outside Kerbin's SOI.  They hinder learning and exploring. 

I would suggest just using the KSP wiki.  Do the tutorials, learn about the NavBall and maneuver nodes, learn the key bindings, learn about delta-V and Isp and TWR, and learn about all the planets and moons.  And don't be afraid to try doing things when you don't know what will happen (just make sure you have a quicksave).  To get beginners into the game, they need to learn about the game quickly.  Confusion and a lack of knowledge will cause people to walk away from KSP.

Edited March 22, 2020 by RoninFrog

[Klapaucius]

It really comes down to accessible tutorials. I love Scott Manley, BUT...when I was learning, most of his beginner videos were very out of date. And the rest of his newer videos were too advanced for me.  I probably would have given up had it not been for this amazing and criminally underrated tutor called Nerdy Spaceman:

 

 

Scott Manley, Matt Lowne, Marcus House, Shadowzone etc are all amazing, but they are all geared to those who already have a good grasp of the base game. There is a real dearth of quality tutorials for beginners.

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Klapaucius

[shdwlrd]

Thinking back to when I started playing, the biggest thing I was missing (and in some cases, still need) was inflight, on screen guides. An example of what I'm think of would be the navball guidance that MJ uses for gravity turns. Or for some games, use rings or whatever to show the typical flight path you should be using.

An easy flight mode for planes. Basically it auto levels the wings after turning or banking. When turning, the plane automatically banks, and adjusts to hold (as best as possible) the pitch you have.

Basically, make the in flight stuff easy for beginners. 

The rest, the typical tutorials work. Just make easy to find for the situation the what's info for. Like building in the VAB, have a permanent button that say something like "for more info".

[DStaal]

I want to take a moment to defend MechJeb or a similar system here: I learned much of how to fly in KSP by watching MechJeb try - and sometimes *fail* - to fly my ships.  By seeing what it was attempting to do, I could get a feel for how the flight needed to work - something a description can't do near as well, and even a video is less-than-perfect at, as it's not interactive.

It also allows you to focus on learning *part* of KSP at a time - let MechJeb work on your transfers while you work on your launches and landings, for instance.  This allows a new player to expand further - and therefore get more into the game - without having to climb the entire learning curve hill all at once.

I'm not necessarily saying it's the best system to teach players how to fly, but it can be a *good* system, potentially better than tutorials or similar.  Yes it can be used as a crutch, but it can also be used as the on-screen guide who can take over any part of a flight and show you a good way to do it - though often not the *best* way.

[dnbattley]

What could bring inexperienced players into this game? "A commercial flight option": in a career game let the player build a "cubesat"-type payload, a craft constrained heavily by both weight and dimensions, and then they pay for it to be put into a specific type of orbit, for a price. The pricing mechanism could deliberately be near-parity to building your own at first, but deviate significantly over time to encourage a player not to rely on it. The computer then uses a stock ship for the payload weight, and runs on (an optional) auto pilot to demonstrate putting the payload into space, up to and including inter planetary manoeuvres/docking with existing infrastructure etc., but the player can take/relinquish control at any time.

[dnbattley]

Oh, and for those missions have the auto save use intelligent nomenclature: "pre-flight", "in orbit", "on trajectory to the Mun", "On approach to target object", "Proximal to target" etc. to make replaying sections easy (and even recommended, E.g."would you like to try that last manoeuvre?")

[Tw1]

Bring  back proper visual destivtinves between parts, so it's more clear which engine, and which tank is what

[GluttonyReaper]

A properly set-up career mode that's balanced enough to gently guide players through the early game, but to still progressively get more challenging.

[Lord Aurelius]

I think the solution for this is a combination of a solid, story driven campaign mode (something like a series of scenarios that cover all common mission profiles) that acts as a disguised tutorial and is heavily featured on the main menu as the "correct" way to start a new game for beginners, and also a series of more explicit training scenarios (i.e. tutorials) that are easy to find and include text explaining how things work.

Both these modes need to be backed up with a MechJeb like system. This is how real rockets are flown, they aren't flown by hand. I very nearly burned out on KSP's learning wall before I discovered MechJeb, and it's what actually made the game fun and enjoyable for me.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Lord Aurelius