Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The following link defines Theme Park MMO's compared to Sandbox MMO's;

The Merits of “Sand Box” versus “Theme Park” MMO’s ~MMOCrunch

Basically what I propose is using agents to define a specific path for players to follow. An in depth storyline acquainting players with the the lore and culture of the agents they are working for and encouraging players to explore New Eden. Essentially building a theme park into the sandbox of Eve Online. This will help new players to smoothly get into the Eve universe with less of the "deer in headlights" response that most players have starting out.

Specifically what I am proposing is a system that clearly draws a path from one agent to the next. Stating clearly what is expected of a player at each turn in a fun and engaging way. This would be an option other than the sandbox that Eve players know and love, but it would be a play style that most MMO players feel comfortable with.

From the tutorial a player is presented with two options from their agent as a last step to their training.
1.) “You may join the sandbox at large where you must choose your own path and provide your own direction”
2.) “You may work for an agent who will give you specific tasks in return for ISK, and sometimes skills, mods, and/or ships.

If option one is chosen the game proceeds as it is already designed. If option two is chosen the agent then gives the player options in eve careers including, security, mining, R&D, and distribution. Say for example a player chooses mining the agent will refer them to a new mining agent who will have the player carry on a very specific list of missions. This new agent will also explain certifications (If necessary) and begin to require certifications for taking on new missions. A little bit at a time the player will be coaxed into expanding their characters skills as they earn ISK and new ships etc. This would work more or less the same for all mission types.

As time goes on missions become more challenging and more rewarding. New mission options would open up, including missions that require aid from other players. There would eventually be an end to these story driven missions. In other MMO's this means you have reached, “end-game content,” Which Eve has EPIC amounts of!

In order for this to work;

Either new agents would need to be created or old ones re-purposed. These agents would need to be given very specific missions to give to players to keep them interested and help to deepen the immersion for them.

A small team of writers may need to be hired to give these story lines some good meat.

The pacing would need to be set just right to keep players interested without having them blast through and finding themselves having to wait a couple weeks for a certification to finish. In a circumstance where a player has outrun their quota of missions in the time it takes to finish a certification the agent should gently nudge the player into working for other agents until the certification is finished and then send them a friendly reminder to come back and continue the mission once the certification is finished.

Some coding would be necessary to check for certifications before offering new missions to these pilots and the communication from the NPC agent to the pilot would need to be very clear to avoid confusion.

That's my idea in a nutshell. Maybe with these changes I could get some more of my family and friends more immersed into the Eve experience and when their “end-game” comes around I can say to them, “Oh you aint seen nothin' yet...” and then nub tears and many lols will be had for all.

This game is a sandbox and many like it because of that.

1. Hardcore pvper who want as little contact with NPCs and missioning as possible. He'll mainly rat in low/null and pvp.
2. Roleplayers who don't want themepark story to stand in the way of storytelling. It's a small community, but present.
3, Hardcore crafter, that want sandbox and great crafting system. Hell, this game has one of the greatest, most complicated and most rewarding crafting systems available. No ore no pewpew.
4. These who don't care about story at all, but only loot. We have you covered, guys!

Anybody else who want a themepark can unsub, and leave for other mmo.

It doesn't matter. Without pvp, Eve is asteroid mining simulator. If I have the ship and modules for pve, given current risk in Eve pve, which is negligible, you can mine all day and then just trash the ore, because without pvp lossses I'll not have the need to buy any ship you make, just like anybody else.

OK the primary thing I want to re-iterate is that "I DO NOT WISH TO SEE THE SANDBOX PART OF EVE HARMED IN ANY WAY!"

Now that that's clarified I need to explain where I am coming from.

Basically I have invited friends and family to eve on multiple occasions simply to watch them suffer the deer in the headlights feeling and quit for lack of direction. I could not provide them with direction because their frigates could not survive my level fours and my frigates ate their level ones before they could even get in range. I could have assigned them mining tasks, but I reserve that for my worst enemies. *Yawn*

I believe that I would have been at least 50% more effective in recruiting my friends and keeping them playing if they had been able to acclimatize to eve over a larger portion of time.

For you trolls out there I have something for you to consider. More newbs playing eve means more newbs trying to take shortcuts through lowsec. I'm sure you will show them that newbishness means death in an efficient fashion.

So you fail at helping new players find their way into the game. You don't seem to have much patience. Or your friends are not made for this niche game.

As others have said, there is already a little themepark for newbs in form of epic arcs and the starter agents, giving new players basic experiences of the universe and the stuff one can do. But this has to end at one point since this is a sandbox. IF the player is made for this kind of game, he should be curious by now and start to explore the universe by himself. Thinking you can get more players into a sandbox game by introducing more themepark is wrong and would not work. The "What to do now?" point would just come a few weeks later and the newb would leave since he now realy is in the themepark mindset

Making initial interaction with like-minded people easier would be a good thing. It's the one most important thing to get people hooked (and staying) in an MMO, imho.

AFAIR one of the beginner arcs does that.

Exactly. See below:

Fixed.

Joke aside, everyone is a pver. It's possible to not be a pvper, but impossible to not pve in some form. There used to be days where piracy is self sufficient. Last time it was viable, I remember doing it in a domi with the epic swarm of drones. I was still in middle school back them, seems like so long ago...

In any case, CCP is too lazy to add content. Thus they call it a sandbox, and calls it content. Storyline? That stuff needs work! Who wants to work?