I just went through this and I concur it was alot of fun. I'm not so sure how much of this would apply to Elemental, but it was a job well done to be sure.

At the same time, they can also look at it for an example of what *NOT* to do with DRM!

Yeah, it's true. When a game is really complicated, a tutorial is a huge help to get people into it. Just throwing them into the deep end is a good way to scare people off.

Yep.  With Anno 1404 I could have done without the tutorial after about chapter 3 or so as by then I understood things like production chains and trade routes but it wasn't too annoying because they integrated the tutorial type hints into the story line so it was actually important to hear them tell you whats going on and with it you'd get the suggestion to setup a quartz mine to supply your glass factory for example.

Good ideas.

Have a short campaign tutorial. But have key goals on the processes and more in it. Perhaps one for the Humans and one for the Fallen - if there are many differences between them and the ways they build, expand, research etc.

Perhaps some interesting info and background relevant to the main campaign(s) could be in the tutorial (as another enticement to do it - at least once)

Games used to come with things called manuals...

When this happened in-game tutorials really weren't necessary...

 I would rather get a novel of a manual to read than have to play through some handholding missions.

It's not a true tutorial in a way.  It's a true fully fleshed out campaign that goes across 8 chapters and includes things as some peaceful city building and quests to massive island invasion and naval battles.  The tutorial part is that your main ally for the chapter will prompt you to build certain things if you aren't already.  Like you need glass to build a cathedral or something, your ally will prompt you to build the factories and resources in the production chain to make glass.  Thus it also acts as a tutorial.  And after all that It probably only covered half of what is available to you.  It is a pretty massive game.

Quests themselves also act as sort of a tutorial.  So for example an ally may request you to build 3 large warships for them in trade.  Ok, so how exactly do I get the materials together to build these warships?  If you spend too much time your ally will give you hints on what factories or building to build to get those materials.  So it acts as a tutorial in a way.

It's very hard to explain because it's not an explicit tutorial like is included in say Sins.  It's craftly (in my mind) integrated right into the game play of the campaign and senarios.

If I played the campaign again I could probably finish in 10 hours or so if I rushed it.  But there is no manual for this game and I had no idea what I was doing at first.  After the first 2 chapters I had the UI down and I just took my time exploring all my options, even those not needed to finish the chapter.  Also remember this is a city builder/RTS type game so with some things you just have to wait to build things until enough resources come in.

Currently I'm playing one of the easy level senarios which is simply to accumulate 150,000 gold, 5000 population with 2000 of them being nobles.  My "benefactor" is there and still offers hints from time to time.  But with each hint you gain various achievements, honor (with which you can buy things) and so forth so it's nice.

So there are 3 "modes" for this game:

1) Campaign.  The main story behind what's going on.  8 chapters and can be played at various difficulty levels.  You get hints from your allies so it acts as sort of a tutorial.

2) Senarios. There are 6 senarios of various difficulty.  Basically they are open ended games with a specific goal in mind.

3) Continous Turn.  This is where there is no goal.  Very much like Sim City games or Tropico.  You're just building up your city.

Dawn of Discovery / Anno 1404 belongs in the trashcan together with all the other DRM rootkits.