Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Introduction - Please read this at least
I know not many people care about the new players, but we were all new at one time. While it was a gruesome time getting skills up to par with others just to be able to do a lot of the fun things in the game, we shouldn't ignore that it is a part of the game that should be looked it. I understand this post is very long, but it has a lot of good points to help in various different ways in terms of the New Player Experience. Please read, as I believe it would help a lot with this issue.

Basically, group missions are for new players, guiding them into various aspects of the game like Mechanics, social interaction, travel, and of course entertainment. A few group mission ideas:

Group Missions Types
- Have missions that require a target to be disrupted in order to fight without dying. Make the target with enough EHP to require at least two pilots.
-Have another mission where two different containers have to be opened at the same time to complete.
-Make a mission where the NPC is too fast to track, and needs to be webbed.
-When microjumps come out, make a mission where the NPC jumps all over the place, and the pilots have to scramble the target to complete.
-Also look at having missions that could require a T1 logistics of some sort
-Of course, make some missions with where NPC groups are chained aggression, making it hard for a pilot to solo

For now, you get the idea. A lot of these ideas were obviously somewhat used in the career agent missions, but never did a pilot have to constantly use to module in a real situation, nor did their life depend on it. Basically missions that would be somewhat easy to an EVE veteran, but make the new pilot think. Even if the player asked on the forums, or googled the solution, at least they will understand how the modules come into play in the game. To make sure that only new players could use these missions, they could be made to where the player has to be less than 180 days old to even start the mission (Maybe newbie booster mechanic would work for this), and if it's not too much of an issue, allow the acceleration gate to reject people older than said lifetime. As for access to the sites, restrict ships to frigs/cruisers. This could also be a place where the "mentor" idea could come into play that was mentioned in the CSM7 minutes, maybe allowing a "Mentor" to enter the dungeon as well.

Rewards
Of course, one question would to be towards the rewards. Make it something decent for a new player, but not in the sense of a "faucet". Maybe give the player various items as rewards as well, like T2 low-tier weapons (rocket launchers, small ACs, small Hybrid, etc), or small shield modules; things they could get some use out of, but not make a huge profit on the market with. In that idea, make the weapons region specific, instead of giving the player a plethora of different weapons for different specs. For instance, laser items from Amarr region, Projectiles from Minmatar regions, etc, etc. Basically, give them a way to fit their ships how they want/need to by running missions instead of running regular missions to try to make money, and fight the market.

Making use of Social Channels
Instead of having to find a corp, they could use local or constellation chat to find these people, and surely those people would be wanting to do the same missions. With the rewards being based on the area, we give the players a common interest right away. Not only that, we are giving players the opportunity to meet other players to actually group with.

Group Mission Limitations
As for the mechanic to have a group mission, only allow the mission to be excepted if there is a fleet of two players, the mission is handed off to both pilots upon accepting, and only allowing an agent to provide one group mission. It could be set to allow the missions to be like Epic Arcs in the sense that they reset over a certain period of time; let's say a week, but always repeatable until the pilot(s) reach the maximum age restriction. With this the missions hold the interest of the pilot for a longer period of time, if they are wanting to collect a lot of the same rewards. Another reason behind the idea, is to set these missions in various constellations so that the new players venture out into space in search for new group missions, or different rewards. Allow the agents to give hints about where to find certain modules as rewards in group missions. Basically, give the player a reason to explore more, and not contain themselves to a small area around where they started.

TL;DR Version (aka Summary)
Basically, new players are almost punished as to what they can do until they progress further in the game. Most other MMOs have people that like to start new characters just to play the beginning again, but in EVE it's a part not many of us really want to experience again. Making group areas for the NPE allows us to entertain the player, while learning more about how the game works, and giving them a reason to seek out help in a social manner. Giving rewards that new players want gives them something to strive for while they wait for other skills to finish, instead of wishing their skills would train faster. We want to keep our new players, and give them more to do without having to think about how long it will be before they can do what everyone else is doing.