Wife has been playing again and said she doesn't understand how a new player without a mentor can learn the game and strategy.

well new players are expected to read stickied threads on strategy room.

I agree that tutorial should be better.

I agree as well. It's something that needs to be done but I've struggled to come up with a good way to craft the content.

Crowdsourcing it didn't work and the staff has been too swamped/doing non-game stuff to build the content.

It's certainly something I recognize needs to be done in order to grow the game. Simply bringing people to the game isn't going to suffice anymore.

I think hawk volunteered... :P

As for suggestions, there's always been the messages in game but maybe there should be like a beginners guide in game with pop ups that explain what everything does... you remember the Microsoft Word paperclip? Something like that could be interesting.

"It looks like you're trying to make a landgrab!"

They need rebuilt 700 turn countries to be able to understand how important specialising is for your build type.

Farmer
Casher
Indy
Tech

Even "loaner" countries like I was given to figure this beautiful mess out.

Each strat broken down

Learner mode that teaches them how to play from the alpha server.

They get started on turn 800 and following a basic strat for 200 turns, then move to the next strat:
* Indy
* Farmer
* Casher
* Techer

Then use a guided "script" which helps them buy defense from the market, buy offense, lg an opponent after getting a spy op, and Followed by ask for help on IRC and the forums.

If they complete this learning startup phase; They get a one time "gift" of 16 points to use on any 1 server type (express, primary, tourney, ffa, alliance, team)


For my friend that tried it... The startup phase was boring and he lost interest. If they knew the fun after the startup... They would look passed it

that's why ffa has auto startups, nothing good but atleast decent and saves playing 1.6k turns by hand.