Relative newcomer in here too, I moved from TG 0.9 after using it for a week or two (great timing), so I didn't have much time to get used to the old program before I started absorbing the huge amount of features in TG2.
The way I worked my way around things was that I used a pre-generated heightmap and started plotting down surface layers and trying to work out all the kinks from surface shaders, while reading the current documention about 3-4 times over
Anyway, what I really would've appreciated in the documentation section was an explanation of a basic workflow on how to create a moderately complex scene with multiple surface layers, clouds, water, all that - from start to finish. The tutorials are good on their own - I'd never reached anything like my first render without them - but I found out they didn't really give me out a view of the "big picture", and I found out how to use surface layers, child layers, distribution shaders, and other things mainly by experimenting.
The NWDA tutorials were of a great help in this, especially the creating the "Wilderness" scene which taught me how to use fake rocks. Props to those guys!
I know one shouldn't offer critique without a solution, so maybe I'll write something of a scene tutorial myself - I don't know how the others approach constructing a full scene from start to finish, but maybe it would be helpful to someone.
Oh, and great looking scene there by the way!
