In the Sky on a Whim: The Best Way to Get Started

Star Trek: Into Darkness: not remotely Steampunk, but goddam was it an exciting movie. When my friends and I saw it, we wanted to be a bridge crew. Fortunately for us, there was a little action airship combat game on sale, so we all pitched in to pick it up. This is the IDEAL way to start Guns of Icarus Online, as learning the game can be difficult, but it's not as bad when nobody on board knows what they're doing.

You can run the tutorials while in some sort of chat program with your friends, but as soon as you get in your first lobby, you're gonna wanna switch to in-game chat. It's not so crucial now, but good habit forming is important. 

The Novice Lobbies are an excellent way to start off slowly. Lots of more complicated mechanics are locked, and everyone is more or less as confused as you are. This insures you won't get stomped in higher-level lobbies, but also allows you a space to experiment without worrying about upsetting the more competitive players. At this point, the most fun part of the game is going to be messing around and trying new things. Figure out your playstyle and find out what's fun to you. Higher leveled players cannot get into Novice Lobbies, so this keeps you from getting destroyed (not fun).

Finally: stick to preset loadouts on beginner ships. As fun as the Galleon may look, it's extensively difficult to fly, engineer AND gun on. The Goldfish and Pyramidon are very good fun. If you want to do a combat role, bring the Pyramidion with a front gatling gun and mortar. If you want to play more disable/support, bring a Goldfish with a front Hawacha.

I'll go a bit more into ship loadouts and my experiences (positive and negative) next post.
The next two posts will be mostly informational, so if you're looking for a specific role, it will be bolded for you.

Clear Skies!