an FPSer in an RPG world

So....I got Mass Effect for Christmas. As far as RPGs (Role-Playing-Games) go, I've played Oblivion (an action-RPG) to the end and basically that's about it. I've attempted other RPGs but never got very far. Especially those that had a party....meaning you are controlling a main character and several other Non-Player Characters.

I'm trying to get the mechanics of the game down but having issues. It's more a big feeling of "what am I supposed to be doing?" There are so many choices/options. Plus, as I cruise around doing things....I find stuff and I'm not sure what to do with it

Case in point: I land on a planet. At first, I had no idea what to do or where to go. I'm in this vehicle. So I drive around aimlessly. I then remember I have a map on the "mission computer". I go look at it and see where I have to go. So I start driving in what I think is the general direction. I have to keep pulling up the map and going back to it, correcting my course along the way because you can't go in just a straight line. There are mountains in the way. On the 3rd planet I do this routine on, I finally figure out (by actually looking at the whole screen) that I can set destination markers which then show up in my compass/radar display so I don't have to keep flipping back and forth. Along the way to my destination, other things pop up on the radar. I go over and investigate this new item. I'm in the "mako" (the vehicle) and I see it's some kind of deposit but I can't do anything to it. Ok.....now what? Arbitrarily, I get out of the vehicle and approach it. Ah-ha! I can scan it. After scanning it......which I can do as a person outside the vehicle and NOT in the vehicle, I determine it's uranium but I can't do anything with it. Do I somehow report this back to the powers that be? Is it just automagically handled that I discovered this and I get credits for it? I think the latter now that I finally made it to a store and saw how much money I had.

I honestly think that RPG players instinctively know what to do. The FPSer (First Person Shooter) in the RPG world does not.