Talk:Tutorial:Quick Start Guide

Suggestions for improvement

A few suggestions:

• Since it's a quick start guide, probably best not to go configuring things too much. Nothing wrong with explaining what the options do (or linking to a separate page with more details), but for a first play-through, probably best to stick with defaults. At most, I'd mention the "peaceful mode" option, as it's a bit more friendly for beginners.
• You may want to consider using a more encyclopedic tone. This usually involves speaking in the third person (not referencing yourself -- the author -- directly). It also means leaving out asides (like this one). I don't want to step on your toes, but I could reword a lot of it to fit this tone, if you'd like.
• A few things that would be good to point out as you introduce some of the concepts:
  • When you talk about it automatically building all of the prerequisites, you should point out the indicator at the bottom of the tooltip where it shows how many raw resources are required and highlights any that you don't have.
  • When discussing electrical systems, it would be good to explain how each piece fits together and in what order: pumps to get water moving, boilers to heat it, and steam engines to take the hot water and turn it into electrical power.
  • An image showing the blue area-of-effect of the power poles would be useful.
• More topics that would be worth covering early on:
  • Defending against enemies (walls, turrets)
  • Reading the map
  • Radar
  • Production and power graphs
  • Ratios of goods and times of production

I'm happy to implement any of these changes/additions for you. RevEng (talk) 00:37, 5 August 2014 (CEST)

Thanks for the feedback. I'll try and implement some of these things myself. I like the relaxed tone that I portray in my articles, but perhaps that is not appropriate for the official wiki of the game. --InfinitySamurai (talk) 01:34, 5 August 2014 (CEST)

About the suggestions

I read through RevEng's suggestions and these are the points that still need to be dealt with as of now (in my opinion).

1) The tone is kinda fine the way it is now, but of course it can always be improved. However I'd like it to be more suggestions-like and less manual-like; after all this is a tutorial for beginners. We don't want to scare them away!

2) An image of the blue area overage of power poles. Off topic: can we use .gif animations?

3) Links to pages that deal with the fighting.

4) Power graphs, electric efficiency.

5) Production graphs and optimal ratios, although I don't think they fit in a beginners' tutorial. Maybe links?

6) Checking for consistency with the 0.11 update. I skimmed through the article and it seems fine; the early game wasn't changed much if at all, but still.

--CorrettoSambuca (talk) 16:41, 1 November 2014 (CET)

to 1: what is the difference between writing doc and suggest? can you rewrite a small part to show us?

to 2: gif animations: Wiki Howto#Making_animations

to 3: just do it. :)

to 4: is in my eyes an own page. The user should learn to play it, the infocharts are not needed for that.

to 5: Same as above, nearly everything is explained in the wiki, you just need to link it correctly.

to 6: gates, tank, spitters are new. But else?

Ssilk (talk) 01:54, 2 November 2014 (CET)

1) For example, the page as it is now has a friendly tone right from the opening saying: "So, you've just picked up Factorio, played through the tutorial and now have no clue what to do? Well, let's try to ease you into the game a little bit."

A manual would read: "This is an introductory page for first time players of Factorio; its purpose is to ease the player's early-game experience to prevent him/her from getting stuck on Factorio's mechanics."

I'd like this page to have a friendly tone, and not a boring one like the example here :)

2) I'll look into those GIFs. I'm assuming the wiki allows them.

3) Done(ish).

4) Linked to infocharts.

5) Let them have fun. Also maybe link to my "designs" page when (if) it comes to life.

6) Yeah, you're right, nothing new in the early game.

--CorrettoSambuca (talk) 19:59, 17 November 2014 (CET)