The thing is, this isn't DF. I did the same; two readthroughs of the Complete Newb tutorial or something and I was playing normally. I'm still learning how to play Aurora. It isn't the sort of game where you can sit down for an hour or two with a guide and at the end you know how to do pretty much everything.
I'm not entirely sure that's true. The main problem is that for most intents and purposes
there is no guide for Aurora.
I learned to play DF the same way I learned to play Aurora - trawling the Wiki and, when that failed, the forums. (Of course the Wiki failed me a lot more often with Aurora). As I said, that's sort of the problem - there
is no well organized repository of 'how to play Aurora'. Since I've ascended the learning cliff, maybe I'm (almost certainly) underestimating what it was like at the bottom, but I think a good tutorial would really help some people.
Hands-on experience and taking an active stance towards things is definitely important, but I remember first encountering Aurora, having trouble getting the interface comfortable on my 1366x768 screen while working through the tutorial, and thinking that the whole thing was incredibly obtuse; why should I struggle with a game that may not even be much fun when I get the hang of it? After all, he can't be bothered to make it playable at a reasonably common resolution; who knows what other corners he's cut! (note: I am aware he has good reasons for this particular gripe. That doesn't make it not frustrating!)
My main point is that it seems a lot of folks seem to have stories about trying Aurora, getting fed up / confused / angry at / saddened by it,
If I recall correctly, the tutorial doesn't cover a
lot of things - how to make missile ships, how to shuttle cargo, civilians, etc. around, how to assign a planetary governor or staff officers, etc. (I remember being nearly in tears because I didn't realize that you had to manually select 'Governor of Earth' to assign him - it was the only option on the menu, so I assumed hitting the 'Assign' button would work!) When I started DF, there was a bit on the wiki about starting your first fort - what to look for in a site, what skills you should give your dwarves, etc., and then a bit on stuff like setting up farms and mining and workshops and blah da blah.
Reading over the Aurora tutorial, it stops short - sort of like telling you to embark then slapping you on the ass and wishing you luck. Not to mention a
lot of it seems to be information overload - "here's what every little thing in the Summary tab of the F2 window means, also here's how shipyards get blown up, etc. etc." And really, information overload is the problem to start with!
Really, something a bit more like a walkthrough of a typical first year or so would probably do wonders. Something along the lines of:
- How to generate the universe
- How to build spend your starting RP & build typical ship types
- How to get your industry building things
- How to assign your governors, staff officers, etc.
- How to set up your survey ships
- How to set up a colony on Mars
- Extrasolar Exploration & the Galaxy Map
- Basic Combat Tips / Operation
Really, a complete shakedown of the F2 (Economics) and F12 (Task Group) menus, preferably doled out in such a fashion that it's understandable and not "here's what each individual bit means, hope you have a superhuman information retention ability", should suffice.
Of course, this would re-covering some ground from the already extant tutorials, but honestly the more I look at those the less newbie friendly they look. I've actually been considering doing something like this - a reasonably experienced player starting a new game and detailing how and why they're doing what they're doing. Sort of like an AAR, without the fictionalization and with a greater focus on explaining the interface.
And speaking of AARs, people always suggest reading Steve's, but I feel that it's a bit of a waste for someone completely new to the game. It does help with understanding the basic game flow, but if you don't have your head grounded in the mechanics of the game, a lot of stuff kind of goes over your head. (For example, I read the Trans-Newtonian and Soviet vs. NATO campaigns before and while I was starting; they were entertaining, and I had a vague idea of what was going on with the ship designs, but I actually
learned more from Kurt's Terran Empire campaign because I actually had a handle on what those bundles of code meant.)
Incidentally, I
made a post the other day that went from being a few intended tips to being kind of an off-the-cuff-at-6-AM-after-not-being-able-to-sleep-due-to-illness tutorial that kinda-sorta goes about some of the things I mentioned.
I'm leery of actually committing to anything because my interest comes and goes in spurts, but if folks think my vague outline is a good idea, I could try to cobble something together.