BC3K greets most new players with a brick wall. This is particularly true for anyone that tries to play without reading the manual from cover to cover... twice... or is used to games designed with gentle introductory stages, in-game help, or tutorial levels... none of which BC3K has. This section is designed to provide such an introduction. The tutorial aims to introduce all the most important concepts and techniques in the game. It avoids describing different interfaces and systems one at a time, which is roughly how the manual is structured. Instead this tutorial is structured around topics and operations. It does not introduce *every* aspect of the game, nor does it have as much detail as the manual. Ultimately, you will need to read game documentation and try different things for yourself. If you would rather play than spend a week reading and randomly experimenting, this section is for you.
The later parts of the tutorial are quite advanced. These parts contain a few examples that might be regarded as spoilers. I think the balance - between explaining the basic concepts of the game and explaining absolutely everything - is about right.
The tutorial uses free-flight mode. Unfortunately, the somewhat random appearance of hostile craft means that a newbie-safe environment cannot be guaranteed. If you have the misfortune to be attacked prior to combat training, or have some unforeseen emergency occur, simply reload or startup a new character to continue on with the tutorial. The first 10-15 minutes of Free Flight mode are normally safe, so consider pausing the game whilst reading this text (in space, press Pause), and only unpausing (press Esc) to do things in-game. Such a technique should maximise the amount of 'safe time' you experience. An alternative, once the basic flight is known, is to travel to Moon region, which tends to be far quieter than others around Sol.