Solved Brand new to 3D printing - RoBo 3D R1+ - Multiple issues

It looks like your slicer question was targeted at Mark since you quoted him but I'll offer my opinion.
MC was great to get me started and the wife still likes it. I moved to CURA to get MORE setting and MORE choices.
"User Friendly" is relative to your experience. You have more options and choices and details.
Is it simpler? No. MC is simpler but a bit less capable than CURA.

I'm gong to go with Simple 3D in the future but I have other things I want to buy first. CURA is doing fine for me at this time.

 

Thanks everybody for your software notes. I'll probably be trying Cura in the near future, but I decided to stick with MatterControl for now since I'm more used to it.

@mark tomlinson : I have a followup question regarding the z-axis offset. I'm still not getting a skirt that matches the photo shown in that link, even when I try pushing the offset down to 0.5mm. The issue seems to be that the nozzle is too close to the skirt and the heat causes the nozzle to pull the already printed portions of the skirt and then it messes up the print. Do you know what I'm trying to explain? Any suggestions?

I've been able to print some pretty neat stuff with my offset at around 0.7mm, but the skirt still doesn't look "finished." Check out the attached photos. The first one shows the difference between my earlier skirt and my improved skirt. While the skirt is better, it's still not great.
The second photo is an R2D2 model that I was able to print last night, just for fun.

 

Thanks guys, for your responses. Its strange that these settings aren't easier to adjust than they are. Looks like I'll have to check the extruder steps.

@Geof , I agree that Z-offset may be too high, but when I experimented with lowering it, the nozzle ended up touching the already printed lines and then dragging them and ruining the print. How do I avoid that?

 

I'm using the V2 firmware I downloaded from Robo's website. Why would there be an issue with their firmware?

 

Thanks everyone for your help. I did not need to work on the extruder accuracy this weekend because I believe I may have found what the issue was. My "first layer height" in the settings was at 0. I changed it to 0.4mm and it ended up producing much better bottom layers!
I'll tag this thread as solved.