This is *probably* creator bias kicking in, but I found that I could pretty much just sit there on trainee for some time and not die. Again, I'm lowering hostile forces counts on lower difficulties, to account for the fact that there is a much wider range of how well people use the new stuff like backburning/sidethrust/glide than I initially expected (I thought I was pretty bad, in comparison to my testers, actually - maybe they were just *really good at it*).
Some missions have checkpoints, others do not. Depends on the mission and if I felt it was necessary. Most missions are actually fairly short and continuous so there's no good place to put it. If there is one, it'll prompt you via training message when you've reached the checkpoint (CHECKPOINT REACHED), and the next time you start the mission it will prompt you again via training message to press a button to load checkpoint. Mostly checkpoints are to skip periods of expository downtime rather than saving combat progress.
Urr...no clue why skipping cutscene is not working. Check key bindings?
Yes, I know that one doesn't simply know how to use all the new tools immediately, but I think I've made at least the first chapter's missions fairly light, but challenging enough to prompt you to try out new things. Sounds like you're already most of the way through chapter 2 if you've reached the 6v1 ambush mission (which is not "fairly early", that's already past the mid point of the campaign already, actually). That said, chapter 2 was built after chapter 3 so if anything things get a bit easier. I've gone through and reduced the difficulty for chapter 2 (in some places drastically). This was due to a testing oversight and I apologize.
Iunno about autoaim - I've noticed it too, its...probably a quirk with how FSO handles autoaim - sometimes it's just...off like that. Might be because nobody's used it until now. I still think it's preferable to having no autoaim/converge though, that just makes it even harder (in more ways than one - makes the AI more accurate too, actually...) I think how effective it is depends on the angle - it's not very good when trailing/chasing.
About the autoaim--yeah, that's my impression as well. I'd much, much rather have it than not, but in some situations it seems utterly incapable of hitting the target. Come to think of it, though, Diaspora feels like an exception to that--I have no idea what it does differently, but it might be worth a look to see if there is some kind of simple (or not) solution to the problem.
About trying the new mechanics--it's not about trying them, it's about learning them. Trial and error is grossly inefficient as a learning process when you aren't sure what is actually working or not, why, and how much so. It's like the difference between trying to learn golf entirely on your own through trial and error and having someone teach you--aside from the very talented, the former method is far longer and more difficult of a way to get better.
To put it another way: the tutorial tells you which buttons to press to use lateral thrust. It doesn't tell or teach you how to USE that effectively, and how different usages of it will result in X, Y, or Z effects, and why it does/why it matters. It doesn't tell me when and when not to use reverse AB in combat, and why. It doesn't tell me tips for dealing with a dozen swarm fighters surrounding me and breaking free of the juggling effect that even one of them can initiate.
Further, though, some of the weapons are really inadequately explained, introduced, or clear as to what they actually are/do. That three-stage anti-squadron missile is still a total enigma to me, both in terms of its specific intended usage and how it really works. I have no idea what the actual range and effective usage of the Diamondback is, because it has no rangefinder and no mention of its range/behavior anywhere in the game. It doesn't tell me *how* effective it is as an anti-shipping weapon, either. The shield mechanic for the Phoenix makes no sense to me at all, even after reading everything I could find on it (in-game), so I never bothered using that fighter. When it came time to attack the Amaterasu, I did the whole trench-run thing, until I spent five minutes trying to find where the hell I was supposed to go to get to the hangar from 'inside' the ship. I eventually just flew around, trying to find the outside entrances to the hangar, made possible after a few minutes of searching and god mode, of course. Some target-able waypoints would really help here.
----
As an aside: "The Exarchy has been the galaxy's guardians for longer than your species has looked to the stars." --Said as they're systematically glassing population centers of a species in an unprovoked attack, threatening and promising xenocide of a species that doesn't even know what they did wrong (and were never told, even when they asked), and lets its war-driven peons invade other species with impunity while declaring xenocide if those species so much as take a step in Exarchy territory.
Erm, is every free-thinker in the Exarchy THAT much of an extreme hypocritical moron?
