Initial thoughts

First up, great work folks! I am looking forward to playing this game on a long term. Love 4x. Love subscription model. Love the art. Love the speed!
Although the server crashes and screen freezes we've all been seeing are obviously important to fix, I'm sure you guys will work that stuff out... I have faith...
All my comments below are with the intention of building a strong player base and helping the game. Suggestions to make this game easier for people to get into and understand quickly so they can enjoy all the work you all have done so far.

1. There should be a tutorial walking you through a typical first hour or so of play. Not only what to build and start researching, but why. For instance, what do I actually get when I build a harvester and put it on a nearby planet? Where can I SEE what I got once the task has been given to a unit. Walk us through the concepts.

2. The push notifications are great, but the app does not appear in my phones notifications section. Maybe why I have yet to actually receive one?

3. Took me a while to realize that "AI" meant "ships that have been given orders and that "ships" meant that these were my idle ships... Why not name them "auto pilot" and "Idle" respectively?
As I don't have any fleets yet, I'm not sure how that tab really functions.

4. As of right now when looking at a planet, seeing the ships coming and going I have no idea which are actually doing something and which are not. A small icon (green arrow perhaps) over each ship would be useful if its been given an Auto Pilot order. In fact, I don't even need to see harvesters at all, what I need to see is some connecting arrow icon maybe between my source and destination planets which when I click on, tells me how many harvesters I have on the route and how much they are generating

5. You should auto join the general chat when you log in. Also, when you join a chat room, the text should go to the last entry, not the first which forces you to scroll all the way to the bottom of a long list of conversations.

6. I still have no idea how much my harvesters are harvesting for my destination planet. Not sure if I'm missing something or not... I'm assuming that my home world solar system planets require no outpost ship to be built and sent to it before I can harvest... is that right...?? The fact that I don't get this yet is odd and leads me back to point 1.

**Ok have found out that all the planets in the home world system have orbitals already and that you just send harvesters there. Also found out that you can see how much a harvester is carrying only on its way back to the destination planet and that the max load is 250.

7. There are time stamps all over the game but I have no idea what time zone these are listed in. There should be a setting to put it to your choice.

8. It seems odd that when I scout a distant planet that the info on that planet is not retained after my probe leaves that planet. This forces me to make a note (not functioning in game yet) or write myself an email (which I did) Both are redundant and the info, once attained, should not be forgotten. I do agree however that anything new that would happen to that planet would not be known to me until I sent another probe there.

** Just realized that sending a probe to a planet to get the detailed info is not necessary unless you want to get the exact ore production per hour. I hadn't realized that ALL planets of a certain type look EXACTLY the same and that you can find out more or less all you need to know about it from the planet list tab up top, then "Planet guide" in the middle of screen. Sometimes its hard to tell between a Terran planet and a water planet though. Makes me wonder why not simply have the type, "lava", "rock" etc at the bottom of a planet when you click it??

9. I would have figured there would be staff in the Help forums this first day? Why are you reading this....? Go to the chat rooms!!! (jk)

10. ...more to come once the actual real server opens I'm sure :)

Once again, great work and I will send my wife to find you when she complains how much I'm staring at my phone from now on...

What are other peoples ideas about how to make the game easier to get into for a brand new player?
What were the things that REALLY confused you when you started and how can they be smoothed??