Absolutely agree, but coming up with a better layout is tricky. I mean, we've gone back and forth a bit with some of the same ideas (align aptitudes and related skills) but... well, didn't come up with anything better. But hadn't given up, either
I've made some design suggestions. Please have a look at
this thread.
I hear what you're saying. Having to read 19 skills once you've gained your first skill-point in-game isn't that much better, though.
Well, you are right with that. But thinking further ahead, we will end up with about 40 skills to choose from. To present them to a new player all at once would likely scare him away. How about a introduction phase? The player could be presented with ~1-2 new skills/apt every level up to level ~5-10. Until then (or only then) respecing is possible. That would a) limit the information to process and b) give opportunity to experience the game universe and what skills do in it, enabling a more informed skill decision. Skills that allow permanent change of the sector (industry skills?) would have to wait until respecing is disabled. I will think some more about this.
Hmm. Where would you put them? Upper left seems like the first place someone would look, assuming their native language reads top to bottom and left to right. It's also conveniently free of any widgets, and isn't smack dab in the middle of the screen.
I think initially finding the text box is not a problem. The problem is that your attention (and your cursor) is dragged around. You look at your ship in the center, back in the corner, to the center, to the corner... It's true that there are no widgets there, but that's a double edged... butter-knife, because you still have to look at the things the text talks about, and it's not optimal if they are as far away as possible. It's hard to say without testing, but I would guess that the position just above the FPS count could work much better.
This is btw all based on a widescreen resolution.
I did think about adding shortcuts, but that seems to be the kind of thing someone doing a tutorial for the first time might not find all that useful. You probably just wanted to breeze through it to figure it out, though... correct me if I'm wrong, I'm definitely open to input. Just giving my current opinion here.
Yeah, I'm specifically thinking of people who just want to breeze trough. To repeatedly aim your cursor at a small word needs time and concentration. A sentence like "click continue or press Enter (or n or ->) to proceed" would also eschew the awkward "camera movement while moving cursor to text boxt" -issue.