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Diving in the deep end. a new players alpha experience and perspective
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Worldstar Shimaya
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#1 - 2017-02-19 16:57:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Worldstar Shimaya
In a little over a week. I have had a handful of both exciting and disappointing experiences in this game. I feel like I could go on forever, but in the interest of keeping this on track I will share just a few.

I recall attempting to play this game back when I was in High school and the complexity was a turn off back then.
Recently noticed that alpha accounts weren't limited to time constraints, I decided to give this thing another shot. went through the tutorial and paid as much attention as my limited span allowed.

kept saying. ah man this is much less complicated than I remember. (I feel this is in part due to CCP's efforts in improving the new player experience)

For the first session of gameplay, I raided the rookie help channel with as many questions as I could come up with. Which helped a TON!!!!

After shopping around for a while, I have managed to settle into a corp who has decided to take me under their wing and provide a more immersive experience to this game. (this same corp had a member who was stalking me in a stealthed proteus while I was mining in lowsec with my venture) I decided to be brave, open up private coms with the guy. Next thing I know I am a member of a small group of experienced players who have been nothing but the most valuable part of this game.

Is this a game? Or is it a simulation of life in space?

I have braved the frontiers of space and dove head first into wormholes way under equipped for the ad(venture) I was on (in)!
Filled my cargo hold up with my entire life and risked everything I had to move to a new home.
My first highsec ganking experience being running my frigate straight into a much larger vessel spamming his smartbombs at the Jump gate I was warping to.

But I can tell you the exact minute I was hooked on this game.

My corp invited me to go roaming with them as a bait ship. Me not worried about my killsheet jumped on that opportunity IMMEDIATELY!!! I wanted redemption. I wanted to experience my first hunt and my first kill.

So Here I am... sitting in a super tanked out punisher fitted with an afterburner, a warp scrambler and some turrets which I felt would essentially do nothing. Just sitting on top of an activation gate for a faction warfare site, trying to attract someone to come in.

20 clicks above me and 20 clicks below me, my corp mates in fully fitted Curse ships Ready to pounce, completely invisible on the directional scan. The trap was set. I was anxious. I was getting bored. We moved around from site to site. system to system, just waiting for some action. A few highly experienced pilots who wanted to check the bait would show up and then disappear just as quickly as they came.

Well I had practiced using my dscan to pinpoint down ships in the area. Low and behold I spot a jackdaw on the scan and pinpoint it down to a Gala rendezvous point. He was out there farming for event skins. I let my corp members know I spotted him. They decided it would be worth it to try and take the fight. My orders were to warp in and charge him blind. try to point him down with my warp scrambler to keep him at the site, and they would come in and back me up.

We align to site.... One last check. yup still there. I warp in. hit approach, burn towards him while locking onto my prey!
Warp scram engaged! (CMON GUYS LETS GET HIM!!) He locks me on, I'm taking damage, my voice on coms is getting louder and more excited (my shields at 60, 30 gone!!!) I'm thinking in my head.. cmon guys where are you! hes getting away!! ( Hes speeding up! I lost my scrambler on him!) (overload your racks they tell me) I'm not guna let him get away!!! I heat em up and manage to point him down again! man that speed burst and range increase was the make it or break it of this fight I swear.
But still no corp members, I have tunnel vision. not watching overlay, just hoping they are right behind me and getting in range
(ARMOR 90!!! 70!!) cmon guys!!! where are you!... then.. BOOM!!!! all kinds of beautiful and colorful beams are nabbing this Ship right in front of me. Instantly I felt an equal mixture of relief and excitement! its on!!! his cap is draining. hes slowing down to a crawl!! WOO!!! there goes the drones flying right passed me! ten of them! swarm his ship and tear him apart in what felt like seconds! My first kill! yeah. it was pretty much all my corp mates, but it was my first kill in the game. You couldn't shut me up about it for the rest of the night. I felt like a giddy little schoolboy who just got a kiss from the girl he liked.

and here it is! My corp mates let me keep all of the contents of his cargo hold.
which I turned around and made a KILLING! in the market. Hooked. Sign me up. this game is a drug that cures my itch.

So I am sure you are wondering why I am rambling on about this in the CSM assembly hall.
Well. Because I am a new player. I decided to read over the minutes of the last summit. In the posts below this one I will be citing some of the stuff they went over, and just offer my input. Now I know I'm the little guy in this, and I am only one voice. But maybe just maybe I have a good idea in the bunch. Maybe its new maybe its not. I haven't spent too much time here But with the new player experience being a hot topic as of late. Well I'll give it a shot.
Worldstar Shimaya
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#2 - 2017-02-19 16:57:23 UTC  |  Edited by: Worldstar Shimaya
Now to start this off, reading the minutes of the summit I sort of honed in on a specific member who seemed to have new players on his mind the most. Xenuria.


Quote:
Xenuria: Current state is a vast and moving social medium, in a better state than previously but needs work. Dream change would be for the social aspect to help new players keep playing.

In a game where the community is in the drivers seat. (Eve being the shining star of this example)

-The things I have been told, and the experiences I have had thus far seem to be polar opposites of each other,
"Everyone in this game is an *******, you can't trust anyone". "At any given time you can be killed or betrayed".
While these statements may hold an inkling of truth to them, So far I have seen and received myself, a Great deal of help from veteran players. Even people who have killed me out there in lowsec. Have taken the time to have a conversation with me and even teach me how to be more proficient in "flying safe" I think in general. The community is still pretty darn helpful to newer players. Even if they do teach you a harsh lesson.
Worldstar Shimaya
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#3 - 2017-02-19 17:35:55 UTC
Quote:
Xenuria explained that he had guided a number of people through the NPE, and that he had found with all of them that they had been overwhelmed the first time they docked and were asked to inject a skill. One thing he also pointed out was that players are not told explicitly that skills will always be training regardless of whether or not you are logged in or not. CCP Paradox explained that this is something they have already fixed with the next version.


-The NPE did a great job initially, and yes. even with the improvements, aura does not cover many facets of your options for character development. One thing I did have to do research on was how attribute points worked. Both by googling and asking other players. As far as I can recall. the tutorial says nothing about them, and very little info is scripted into the game on how they work.
Worldstar Shimaya
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#4 - 2017-02-19 17:45:05 UTC  |  Edited by: Worldstar Shimaya
Quote:
Xenuria pointed out that one of the things that players have trouble with still is that weapons have limited ranges.


-Not only that! but they do nothing to explain the damage types that your weapons do, or how certain enemies can be tougher to kill using them. more on this in my personal thoughts.

Quote:
Xenuria brought up that it would be good to encourage players to complete a task that they need to do some learning on their own, so as to encourage them to start getting into the habit of searching for solutions. He pointed out that it needed to be relatively simple so that they can work it out on their own. CCP Surge asked if he thought it should come before the career agents, to which Xenuria replied yes.


- I really like the idea of this. But off the bat the only practical type of scenario I could come up with is Where an agent sends you to bring them something (lets call it the mystery box) and there are 3 different ones, only one of them being the correct answer. Which could cause you to spend extra time on your mission finding the right item.

-I see it as a test. Maybe you could get one before you set off for your first agent missions become available, then to end each of the starting agents, the same type of scenario.


Quote:
Xenuria asked if it would be possible to pay to force a video to be played in a specific area for the purpose of psychological warfare, to which CCP replied maybe. CCP also added that keeping videos in rotation is going to have a cost in the future, and that you would add them through account management.


- Such an awesome idea. Keep them coming! I really hope that this makes it into the game some day.

Quote:
Xenuria added that it would be good to make it so that the tasks also assess how well you completed the objective rather than did you complete the condition. CCP Surge like the idea of an efficiency rating.


- I really like this idea too, it seems that when I was running my missions. I was being reckless the entire time in order to get it done quickly. All I wanted was the mission speed bonus for a bigger pay out. I learned nothing about how well I was doing in a realistic perspective. I think that other factors which affect the payout, could help shape a pilot for the better.


My personal thoughts and suggestions

- One thing I wish I had learned earlier on in this game was about resistances. Since I am limited to faction specific weaponry (being amarr its beam and pulse lasers) along with my ships resistances and modules which could help.

Perhaps find a way for pilots to learn about them? Could be as simple as having an agent mention:
"these (insert whoever your fighting here) tend to favor (insert whatever type of damage their weapons do) and the ships they favor flying are most vulnerable to (insert whatever type of damage here). I suggest you fit your ship to compensate for the parameters of this mission"

The first time I had ever seen this was on one of ccp's youtube videos talking about the GALA event. I thought it might be nice for agents to offer the same kind of info sometimes, especially the lower level missions. I feel this could help pilots learn how to be more efficient and effective with the ships they fly.

-For a quality of life suggestion, after learning how to use the market better. there is one thing that still ercks me everytime.
When I have buy and sell orders up, and I use the "my orders" tab to look them up, I would love to see a colored bar on them if they are still the highest price purchase order, or the lowest price sell order. I like that I can see them in the market details clearly marked in blue. But if I have a lot of them on the market. It really is a pain to individually have to check on them to make sure I am still offering the best price.

-Now I know that scams are a part of this game, and the learning curve is really steep. But there is a specific item I looked up which is still in game and as far as I know, serves no purpose anymore. Which are the attribute boosters from previous events which are now expired. I know very little about them so this could be a shot in the dark. But instead of them only being sold on market to swindle someone out of their money. Maybe offer an option to repurpose them somehow?

Well I hope someone else here sees this and likes my input. Thanks for allowing me to take your time.