When you think of other games, their main purpose is typically not teaching a player how to play the game. Usually it provides the player with some basic information on the first start and will then add some necessary details, if it expands possibilities for the player to take advantage of. Therefore the difficulty of a game rarely is supposed to be based on the fact that the game hides basic, necessary information from players. I mean sure, you are supposed to find the best best tactics against Thargoids for yourself. But hiding the information on how to find the right tools to fight the Thargoids, that would be an issue. Whenever a game loop comes down to a simple trial and error process, games are often criticised for that. So that situation should be avoided, especially in ED, since a lot of time consuming travel might be involved in a process. It is a good basis for frustration.
Just to provide a little analogy...
I once played an RTS which had a comprehensive set of tutorials.
It started off telling me to build a command-centre.
Then it told me to build a resource-gatherer.
Then it told me to build a barracks.
Then it told me my base was being attacked and I needed to build soldiers to defend it.
Then it told me to build a science lab.
Then it told me to research some upgrades.
Then it told me to build defence turrets.
Then it told me to build anti-aircraft guns.
Then it told me to build a factory.
Then it told me to upgrade my barracks.
Then it told me to upgrade my factory.
Etc.
Then, eventually, it told me I'd completed the tutorials.
At which point, I thought "So, what do I do now?"
I spent about half an hour ordering my little soldiers and tanks around, exploring the map, but there was clearly
something the game expected me to do to complete the level and I just wasn't doing it.
I quit the game and never played it again.
For me, that's always been a terrific example of how
not to do tutorials.
It's telling the player
what to do but not telling them
why they should do it.
Thing is (and I
really don't mean this as a criticism) ED is actually an incredibly simple game to play.
You waggle the joystick around to make your spaceship do stuff and when you land there's a bunch of different things you can do to earn credits and upgrade your ship.
That's it, really (at the moment, at least)*.
Everything else that you'll need to find out about IS the game, as opposed to being how to
play the game.
As long as the game makes you aware of all the tools you have available to you, discovering everything else (to me, at least) is what
playing the game all about.
*On that note, we're currently at a stage of ED's development where we're led to believe that major changes are coming.
It doesn't seem terribly useful to spend the time improving a newbie's experience of the current paradigm while you're also working on something that will substantially change that paradigm.
