EVE New Citizens Q&A

Windmills do not work that way.

The economy would only function like that if new activities were added that you could perform concurrently with your normal activities. When adding new activities or content to the game the metric you're looking for is the rate of isk being added. If adding new Epic Arcs provided a superior rate of ISK gain it would be a problem. However if they had a comparative or lesser rate than similar activities, it would not functionally add more money to the game.





That's the problem. EVE basically has the best story no one's ever heard of. Story is both a player hook and a conflict driver. One that is woefully underutilized by the game. Just saying its a sandbox so it shouldn't have a point or explaination to it is a ridiculous argument. Just because a game is a sandbox doesn't mean it can't have an engaging universe and in fact a sandbox game can be greatly helped by having compelling worldbuilding to make people care about the sandbox.

Functionally speaking, one of EVE's biggest problems for a new player is a lack of any clear goals combined with the lack of knowledge to define your own goals. It leads to boredom pretty quick. Story driven content could very much help that. Not only does it give a new player a sense of purpose, but it gives them a sense of identity in the game ( Their chosen race, empire, etc ) and drives social tribalism ( Humanity's greatest conflict driver ).




Good for you, but that sounds rather boring and illustrates the problem with EVE's worldbuilding perfectly.

Hell, I learned more about the game's storyline and history from 15 minutes of reading Isk The Guide than I ever have in 2 years of playing the game itself.

A sandbox game does not mean you can't have functional storylines, plots, factions, etc. In fact the most popular best selling sandbox games do in fact have all these things. Its EVE thats the odd one out in this regard. So your point is utterly moot. EVE is not the end all be all of sandboxes by which all sandboxes are measured. Its the odd niche sandbox off in the corner that can't have nice things because everyone yells at it whenever it tries anything new.

A true open world sandbox functions as an enviroment onto itself with or without the presence of the player. EVE is a complete void without the presence of its players.





Adding story components and interaction to the EVE will in no way negate what the game already is. That's completely absurd. Do you really think CCP put all this work and effort into building EVE's story because they didn't care about it? Of course they care about it. They built it. They wrote it. It's their career and their life no doubt.




You haven't really played a lot of other MMOs have you? This continued insistence on these forums that all other MMOs are Hello Kitty Online while EVE is this sacred cow is both silly and shows a profound lack of understanding about the industry as a whole. It stifles EVE's potential growth when its own playerbase keeps it in a chokehold from evolving in any way.




Again you're inadvertantly illustrating my point perfectly. EVE has no show, only a lot of tell and none of the tell is important because the game has no real components that make it important. Who you are and what you do should be important not just to other players but also to the universe we all inhabit.




Citation Needed.

We seem to have gotten a little bit off topic for this thread. This is going to be my final warning for this, I really will hate having to lock this thread but if we get off topic again I will have to.

The topic is about the New Player Experience (Tutorials and the beginning of a new pilot's career in EVE) and how that can be improved. This thread is to here to help find where things need to be worked on and what should be kept for the NPE. If you wish to debate other things such as the Sandbox or what EVE is lacking overall or how a story line will change all of EVE please make a new thread about it.

Back in my day, the Tutorial was
"right, here's a ship, that's your lot, good luck"

Be thankful they thought they should touch on it in the first place, my friend.

adding a Storyline into the game explaining the races histories current situation and point the player towards what types of ship a race flies how to fly them and providing skillbooks/ships/modules(partly) to aid them towards a goal helps build a connection to both the game and your character, it also allows the player to learn about the game AND how to play the game, they could also add in a sense tech x civilian modules acquired through past story missions to help them progress through and ultimately all they would have acquired from the arc would be knowledge on how to fly, where to fly, what to fly along with skillbooks up to cruiser level for basic fitting, this basically transforms those boring tutorial missions into a Lore mission arc that can only be completed once with the tutorial text still being in aura to read at a later date.

Doesn't this keep everyone happy?

i took a while doing the tutorials, listened to rookie chat, looked up terms on evelopedia. i had a few issues with the manufacturing and not having the book i was supposed to train (shieold operation or afterburners?). all in all got it all done and enjoyed every minute of it - i enjoyed the seemingly laid back chill atmosphere of the game. i can see how this isn't for everyone...

however ISDs are VERY helpful in game when they are online and they specifically answered a few of the questions i had. i think it is awesome that there are even ISDs in the first place and generally work really hard to answer questions. at my first impression i was blown away the game even had in game live help like that. (impatient people that repeated their question over and over till they got a direct ISD response were still obnoxious)

So, last night I logged some time in this game. I had ran the trial a few months ago, but at the time was subbed to another MMO and didn't want two subs at once. Now that I have dropped that, I came back to Eve with the full intention of really committing myself to learning it and spending time in it, because what little I played and what I have read seemed very appealing.

A quick note; last night I completed all the Eva tutorial missions and ran a couple of the early agent missions (combat ones) that Eva points you towards. Suffice to say I am very early in the game. I think the biggest adivce is to go in with an open mind. I pick up most MMOs these days in one day of play because they share common gameplay elements; Eve I am still clueless as to much of everything. But I go back to my first MMO days, and even though some of the early MMOs I played were standard operating procedure in terms of how they played; at the time, they seemed entirely new to me. I can recall running around in Guild Wars, for instance, as a healing monk using a bow, simply because it had more damage than my staff. Ouch.

I found the tutorial so far to be largely sufficient for my needs. Given the enormity of Eve, I don't think the tutorial can come close to covering everything without being 100 hours long, and that would definitely get boring. I feel like I have at least learned how to pilot my ship from one point to another, use the inventory and skills system, and other basic gameplay elements that are required.

If I may make a few suggestions for the tutorial, it would be to make sure that the tutorial is absolutely clear on what to click and when, particularly given how many icons the UI throws at you right from the get-go. In that regard, I find that the voice over from Eva being different from the text boxes can be a bit disconcerting, as I often felt that one or the other didn't go as in-depth as, well, the other. Secondly, I wouldn't mind seeing more flashes/arrows/etc. indicating what menu or box to push. The tutorial does this easily enough for, say, "Character Screen" or "Inventory Screen" but then once inside a window it often neglects to highlight which tab or subgroup to choose, if it's a multistep process. I spent a few pauses on occasion trying to figure out exactly where an item I had to pick up and move to my ship was located in a dock, or if I was in the right window in my character screen.

The biggest hurdles to this game or more... adjustment based. I have read time and time again to just "go out there" on my rookie or early ships because the cost of losing it is comparatively small, and learning combat is more important than learning the skills for combat. But to make that leap is so hard because it is daunting and new. Do I pick a fight? Do I watch one? Once I lose will that person stalk me for the rest of my Eve days? Etc. Taking the first leap is hard. I guess in that way, I wish the tutorial might suggest ways to do that, or encourage some early group combat of sorts. Or even just tell a new player a few things to expect and that early combat isn't a bad choice (if true). For those not looking for combat, perhaps give them a nudge towards how to start a trading career or some such. What you might look for. Obviously, the community wants this to be a sandbox, non hand-holding game, so I wouldn't suggest that the tutorial really "helps" you to get or do something, but at least tellls you how to get to that point or what to expect. Once you do get there, well, the rest is up to you.

I'll be spending some more time tonight running missions and hopefully getting a better feel for the game. I am not entirely sure what I want to do yet, or even how to go about doing it, but the expansive and more comtemplative gameplay seems like a real goldmine. Cheers.

I'm a new old player. I started playing over a year ago, but RL intervened when I was still a N00b, so I'm still a N00b.

Well I reactivated my account the other day, so I decided to do the Aura's tutorials in order to reacclimatize to the game. It's better than it was, but I still ended up getting bored with it after about 3 missions.

So I stopped with the tutorial and went to google and youtube instead, where I found some Agony Unleashed Uni advice for N00bs and Eve University youtube lectures. I also found a bunch of awesome blogs, containing huge amounts of information, many of which apart from being full of all the info I need, are well written and an absolute pleasure to read. Now that's the kind of stuff that does make me excited to log in.

IDK, it's a sandbox game, so it makes sense to me that the best new player resources are generated by other players. I guess maybe genuine New Players who are probably used to being spoon fed by themepark games may need a bit of help realising that, perhaps Aura could give them a nudge that-a-way? A tutorial in sandbox survival?

I don't think I have the fortitude to persist with Aura's tutorials, but fortunately there's no need because the web abounds with amazing player generated tutorials and resources. Watch the youtube Eve Uni tutorials, by the time you are a quarter of the way through watching one you won't be able to stop yourself logging into the game to try apply the theory you've learnt.

Anyway it's great to be back. And a huge thanks to all the players and Corps who have put so many great resources, tutorials and videos for n00bs out on the interwebs.

I have one mission left in the tutorial and in my opinion they were helpful with the basics. After doing one or two quests in each arc I quit listening and skimmed through for the useful information, but there were a few times when I had to consult Google.

The quests did get repetitive but I found the quests rewards worth doing. After completing most of the tutorial I'm sitting on 3.8M ISK and have a couple of ships in reserve. The extra ships that I got from doing the quests make me feel a little better about exploring into low sec space. While the money I have is by no means enough I feel that if I loose a ship I have enough to re-outfit a new one to continue playing.

My biggest gripe, and it isn't a big deal, was accepting a quest and then having to wait for the necessary skill to do that quest to train. Which 7-8 minutes is a drop in the bucket compared to later skill levels.

My experience in short with the trial thus far is that the game looks great but missions are dull and repetitive. Mining is boring but the game economy is interesting. There is definitely a steep learning curve but I was expecting this. Competitive player versus player combat could be more accessible early on by lowering the importance of building skills for months and years.

My main gripe is really the last part, which would not be terribly bad if during the build-up to being competitive in player versus player there were more things to do in the game for us player versus player oriented individuals. That is other than grind flavorless missions or mine lifeless rock in high security space. Really, as I did these things, the thought often occurred to me, I might as well just log in a few minutes a day and set my skills to level for a few months before I actually started 'playing'. But realistically, I cannot do that, I need to play the game to learn how to build a character, navigate the user interface and learn how to maximize my combat efforts. I get the feeling the first months are going to feel more like a job than anything else.

My thoughts on what might alleviate some of these things, you could in the starter military stations for each race, have a 'noob on noob' room/area with structured/consensual player versus player combat. Concord would not get involved unless there was pod-killing after the fight. Noobs could construct fleets of noobs and engage in group combat early on (which appears to be one of the best features of Eve).

It would need a skill point cap where exceeding a certain number disallows admittance to the area and ship restrictions, limiting it to just the cheapest early frigates and or just the rookie ships. It would be explained lore/immersion wise in the game as a mock-pick-up fight simulator to prepare combat capsuleers by sparring and honing their skills for future engagements.

I will at this point be fully subscribing and plan on giving a good shot at over-coming the 'cliff' learning curve and giving you old-timers a hard time in space.

See you on the battlefield (eventually).