Please make a tutorial!

I totally agree.

The way the economy works, and especially population and morale (needs patching IMO), are not readily apparent to new players and the lack of a tutorial scenario doesnt help that learning curve.

olaf

Yes a tutorial. Suggestions; Not just a type written tutorial but a modern walkthrough of sample simplest game senerio. And then a typed tutorial as well (Post this until have a modern video style tut done.), super tight synopsis of the game concepts in a couple paragraphs, then tight listing of how a game unfolds including spy, ecconomy managment, juggling planets and ships. Then all of Brads gameplay examples. This should be posted in the download manager ASAP, IMO. The quick start with the retail box is very shallow. Look at the phonebook MOO3 came with.

~SDC~

I agree. The morale(spelled as moral on the galaxy view page if there are any spell checkers out there), seems always to be hovering at 50 percent. I've built them hospitals, soil converters, etc.. the little buggers are never happy. I've tried off loading civilians, but that is only a temporary fix. Maybe there should be a birth control mandate for a planet that you can choose..

-Jude

Manual needs to be converted to a font that is immediatly compatabile with 800x600. If desktop is set at 800x600 it is unreadable. Bookmarks in pdf format and Word format like is on Java's site. So we can add our own notes and easily print off sections. Thanks.

~SDC~

I would agree that the acrobat manual is pitiful (but I personally hate acrobat). There is a quickstart thing done in webpages that comes with the game (downloaded version at least) that helps a little. Both the quickstart thing and the manual posted online (as web pages, available via the 'Encyclopedia' above) have a brief walkthrough.

The web quickstart does well to get one started. There are also some gameplay examples in the 'Encyclopedia' section here that illustrate some of the games slick features that one might not know about from the manuals (such as one-click massive production changes). If nothing else, most of the gameplay examples are entertaining since they feature the AI developer getting beat! There is also a document on this site that does a little to explain how morale, economics, and production work vs planet size (the gist of which is don't colonize anything below size 15 or you will suffer).

In my experience, any given game tutorial helps one get acquanted with the interface and helps one get started with basic strategy. This game has a LOT of potential little nuances that would never be covered in a tutorial - they're the kinds of things you learn by playing the game, experimenting, (and reading these forums for advice from others who've done the same).

The interfaces for the game, IMO, are easy to use and figure out considering the wealth of information at your disposal.

There's a "Survival Guide" in your start menu that should help. Frogboy has posted some gameplay examples/AAR's in the Encyclopedia section of this site (link top-left), as well as several different writeups on some of the poorly documented gameplay features. Also, these forums are superb for asking questions and getting helpful explanations.

The game itself isn't that complicated to play... and with all these resources at your disposal, figuring out the nuances really isn't too difficult.

- Ash