Wanna see dem ships
Yep, a teaser would be nice too.
Could happen. Will say no more.
So there is just Easy and Normal? No hard mode?
Well, since the point of a lot of these additions was to ease the learning curve for new players, no
Also, it's really not a full-fledged mode, just the starting conditions.
a graphic of stylish female officer who is your "second in command"
...
Yes I know suggesting a female first officer is probably being a bit sexist, yet playing on well studied phenomena in young males I'm sure they'll pay more attention.
Just... no. One of the benefits of being independent is being able to ignore the practical aspects of an argument like this.
(I had been thinking about presenting this info through your actual officers, though. But as there are no officers at this point...)
A. They can just hit "Leave" / ESC and kill it fast, or turn it off entirely, I don't think you can ever really give players too much information that way.
That's sort of the problem, right? If they cancel out of 3 dialogs because there are too many, but might have read if there was only 1, then 1>3.
B. Make sure there's a way to turn it back on; probably needs a check box in the Options.
My reaction when too much explanatory text is forced upon me is usually: "Let me alone with this, give me at least a chance to find things out for myself!... uh, but stick around, in case I miss something, k?".
So, I would suggest to just introduce a "gameplay" category in the codex where all help texts can be re-read. And to say clearly that they can be found there at the beginning of a campaign and give them a clear title under which they can be found, so there are no inhibitions to click them away when they are annoying.
Hmm. Let me see how easy it is to dump it there. There's already a popup at the beginning of the campaign, too, so that'd be a good place to say all the stuff can be reviewed via the Codex.
I guess to some degree "dismiss without checking don't show this again" satisfies this, too.
Oh, and... will mouse-steer as a checkbox ever happen? I literally can't imagine playing this game any other way (the default makes my hand cramp after a while, amongst other things) and a lot of people find that easier.
I'll take a quick look.