New User Out Of Box Experience: The most important thing that was missing

[tfabris]

I spent the weekend playing Kerbal Space Program for the first time. First the demo, then I bought the full version on Steam. The sandbox/simulator nature of the game made for some of the most interesting emergent gameplay I've had in a long time. It's amazing.

But there's one thing that bothered me, one thing that was troublesome to me from the very beginning, and which Google searches and Wiki searches didn't give me an answer to right away. I had to discover it myself, almost accidentally. I'm sending this as a note to the developers, from a brand-new player, about something they could do to improve the OOBE.

This was my problem: Every time I would launch a spacecraft, it would be impossible to control, oscillating off course, and I would have a devil of a time getting it corrected back. I searched on the internet and I saw a lot of tips about spacecraft design, but this happened with even the simple stock spacecraft. The google searches didn't reveal the secret, and the secret was this:

- RCS and SAS are turned off by default and you have to turn them on with the R and T keys before launch.

That's all. That piece of information eluded me and wasn't made clear. Once I learned that, everything was smooth sailing. But it took a long long time before I discovered it.

My suggestion:

- In future releases of the game, either turn them on by default at the launch pad, or,

- Somehow make this secret information much more public, like, putting it on the wiki as a big bold top-level entry called "Making your craft easier to control" or something.

That's all!

[Zeblote]

If you played the tutorial scenarios, you would know this c:

[tfabris]

Agreed. However, I'm guessing I'm not the only gamer who skips tutorials.

I'm making the suggestion from the point of view of a new user who's never seen the thing before. I'm relating what my personal experience was, and how my particular OOBE was. The information (out-of-control spaceship means you're a newbie who didn't turn on RCS/SAS) was hard to find, even when I was actively searching for the knowledge.

I think the devs would be interested to know that. It's precisely the sort of thing that devs want to know, because they're usually shielded from that kind of experience.

[Chrisd857]

Probably not what you're looking for, but http://www.kerbalcomics.com/2012/11/11/episode-16-troubleshooting/.

[tfabris]

ROFL

Excactly!!!!!

[Crush]

Google searches and Wiki searches didn't give me an answer to right away. I had to discover it myself, almost accidentally.

[...]

Somehow make this secret information much more public, like, putting it on the wiki as a big bold top-level entry called "Making your craft easier to control" or something.

I'm guessing I'm not the only gamer who skips tutorials.

face -> palm

Maybe put a big bold top-level entry called "play the tutorial" to the wiki?

Seriously, you ignore the tutorial provided by the game and then you complain when the information contained in it isn't given to you?

[tfabris]

Agreed that this information was already in a tutorial, and, agreed I should have run the tutorial. But I *also* think it should be in a more prominent place in the Wiki, and possibly even be the launchpad default.

And I didn't mean it as a complaint, sorry if I came across that way. I meant it as a *suggestion* to the devs. (This forum is called "Suggestions" right?) I mean, it's a common enough mistake that a cartoon was made about it. Maybe that fact says something?

I do software QA for a living, and sometimes the best suggestions are the ones made by the person who's laying their eyes on a piece of software for the first time. It's the newbies who are often the best barometer for the overall design and UI. Experienced users (and the Devs count as experienced users) will ignore the bad parts of the design once they know their way around it, and won't necessarily notice that there's room for improvement there. I'm just saying, hey devs, I'm a newbie, I tried your game for the first time, and here was *my* experience.

The fact that I'm a newbie who didn't run the tutorial doesn't invalidate the suggestion, in fact, it gives the suggestion more weight.

Note that I also happen to be a newbie who successfully designed more than one mun launch vehicle and performed a mun surface rescue, and multiple in-orbit rendevous and rescues without running a tutorial. I even did Hohmann transfers before I knew what the name was for it. The game *can* be played and enjoyed without running the tutorials. The "T" key was the *only* serious snag I hit in all of that. That's what I'm reporting.

[Skyrunner27]

The game developers provided you the information to fix your problem, but no lets have everything on now and just have the issue the wrong way around. Some people don't like RCS in the atmosphere because they like to use wings instead. Your suggestion will create more issues than it will solve.

[JSD]

If you get in a car without driving license/any driving experience at all, an you DO happen to hit a person, would you blame the company how made the car?

Tutorials has one purpose; They explain how the game works. Do you skip them? I understand, I do it a lot of the time myself too. Trying to find out myself. But at the end of the day it was a choice YOU made. What your asking is a fool proof for something that doesn't need a fool proof..

[stupid_chris]

Alright people, lets not go off too much here please. No need to keep repeating to OP how he should play the tutorial, I think he understood it by now. Let's not scare our new users alright?

Now, OP, I understand your confusion, but this might not be the best idea ever. RCS is terrible within the atmosphere, if it was to be turned on by default, people would be complaining that they have no more monopropellant once in orbit. And For SAS, it's the same, depending on what ou're trying to launch, SAS is not always needed at liftoff. Not knowing what does what when you are new is normal, but after a while you'll get the hang of it, just follow the learning curve.

[tfabris]

I see why making it the launchpad default would be a bad idea. Making it somehow more prominent in the Wiki was my other suggestion. I actively searched forums and the Wiki for this information and either didn't find it, or if I saw it, didn't clearly understand how it related to my problem.

[UbioZur]

- RCS and SAS are turned off by default and you have to turn them on with the R and T keys before launch.

RCS: They are not really useful in the atmosphere, so starting with it on would be a waste of fuel, better use the control surfaces.

SAS: Would you like your car to start with the cruise control on?

If you don't know how to switch them on, then you won't know how to switch them off and you will end up with problem later in the rendez-vous/docking/landing etc...

Plus pre .21, having both on would have bring lot and lot of problems. like not been able to move the rocket at all, and emptying all the rcs fuel quickly.

edit: ninja'd by Chris

[Apollo13]

Agree with Chris. RCS on in the atmosphere? Oh hell no! SCS on? Absolutely YES! But, I'd do it myself so I'm certain of vehicle status.

[vexx32]

I think a brief 'Controls' screen wouldn't go amiss as a gentle reminder on the first launch. If they miss it then, they can always check the Options to see what the keybinds are.

[regex]

I most certainly do not want both on by default.

[LongHairedHuman]

After going trough the interface a bit, I came up with two ideas:

Move the training button to the first menu, and rename it to tutorials. Some first-timers might not notice it that well, and go straight to starting a new game.

Add a before-flight checklist. Just have it pop up with the option to not show it again, and show again in settings. It should contain some basic tips, and some basic controls. Might come in handy even if you already did the tutorials, if you forgot some keys.

[KrazyKrl]

With the SAS tweaked, it should be default enabled on all launches. Before, SAS would return you to the held trajectory when you release a key to change your direction. Now SAS will update its direction to wherever you intended to aim.

SAS is now, properly, a resistance to unintended trajectory changes. And as such, would be helpful to have default enabled. Further fixes for SAS would be useful, like making it more aggressive the farther it is off of your intended vector, but still having "Gaussian blah blah" to stop the yo-yo effect.

A simple message on-screen for when you enable/disable SAS/RCS would be helpful. Somewhere near the time warp text. All it says is "SAS Trajectory Assist Enabled. Press "T" to Disable." and "Reaction Control System(RCS) Activated. Press "R" to Disable."

[DaveofDefeat]

Here have a look at all of the default keybinds, easily found by searching ksp keybinds.

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Key_Bindings

[Specialist290]

Another resource you might find useful (in general, not just for this issue in particular) is the Drawing Board, which is located in the "Tutorials" subforum of the "Tutorials and Gameplay Questions" forum. (I've also got a link to it in my signature below, incidentally.)

[Dunbaratu]

- In future releases of the game, either turn them on by default at the launch pad, or,

- Somehow make this secret information much more public, like, putting it on the wiki as a big bold top-level entry called "Making your craft easier to control" or something.

That's all!

Better idea: Make the little "SAS" and "RCS" buttons on the navball clickable to toggle them.

Having both a hotkey AND a mousey way to do things is a good thing, and helps the newbie experience.

[Nuke]

ptft

play the tutorials

...wait whats the f for...

frankly they should be off by default. you dont get into your car and expect it to have its engine running and shifted into drive. having to press buttons makes it feel more like im launching a rocket and not having a game that is being played for me.

Edited September 17, 2013 by Nuke

[Luis]

I like the idea of a pre-flight checklist with some simple suggestions for the new user though.

Checklist:

Launch clamps set to disengage when the engines fire?

Throttle at 100%?

SAS turned on?

[] Don't show this message again.

[UbioZur]

A simple message on-screen for when you enable/disable SAS/RCS would be helpful. Somewhere near the time warp text. All it says is "SAS Trajectory Assist Enabled. Press "T" to Disable." and "Reaction Control System(RCS) Activated. Press "R" to Disable."

That would be redundant with the current GUI light that we have.

Better idea: Make the little "SAS" and "RCS" buttons on the navball clickable to toggle them.

Now that is a good idea.

[John FX]

Actually I would like to be able to turn SAS and RCS on and off by clicking on the navball lights which is fairly intuitive to the point that I have to stop myself doing it...

Myself, I looked at the complete list of key bindings and saw SAS and RCS there and they are highlighted so I knew what to press to do what I wanted.

EDIT: I was ninja`d it seems but this is my pennies worth.

Edited September 24, 2013 by John FX
Ninja`d

[tfabris]

Myself, I looked at the complete list of key bindings and saw SAS and RCS there and they are highlighted so I knew what to press to do what I wanted.

As a new player, I didn't know what RCS and SAS were, so I didn't know that those were the features I needed to activate to keep my ship from spinning out of control.

I actively searched for that information. When I googled for things like "how to keep my ship from spinning out of control", all of the results were long threads about ship construction details, ways to build more stable ships. None of the threads started off with "did you press T?".

So there should be something out there that makes that more clear for new users.