EVE New Citizens Q&A

Will only say this:

Malcanis' Law

Some will know it.
For those who don't, good luck.

Bingo

And if you read what I wrote, I specifically state that no new mechanics to make it easier on newbies should be developed. As a sandbox, easing newbies into the game is mostly the player's responsibility.

I know.

But most people (usually fairly new players too) suggest to make a place in space where only new players can come and make it 100% safe. It WILL be abused, can you imagine the mining alts of older toons, sitting there perfectly safe.

And I also agree that getting new players settled in EVE is a player responsibility. Though there are already plenty of "University" corps (like E-Uni) and new player friendly corporations that are doing that exact thing. And then there is also this forum part with it's own inhabitants:

o/ Xer, Oraac, Tau, Surfin, Schmata, Homo Jesus (or his new name), Keno and all others I've missed

What I would suggest.

CCP should make looking for corporations easier and more clear.
CCP should direct people a bit more to the forums.
OPEN Rookie help to older players (but only after been passed a good check - kind of unofficial ISD, can join, can't moderate, etc.)

The problem with giving new characters "useful" xp is that it'll make for "overpowered" alts, we all remember what one could do with the old 900k starter SP chars. I know the buddy system is about to be changed but it still works fine as you still get a time reward, which still makes it effectively zero cost. Per usual Malcanis' law applies, I really don't want to go back to that and especially not giving them MORE XP than they previously had.

Perhaps put a system in place that if you upgrade a non-buddy account THEN you get X amount of free xp to distribute to your own liking for one character on that account, this also means that people can "specialise" to whatever they want right from the start and perhaps there could be basic "templates" for people to choose or they can choose the manual option. Going back to the previous "what career do you want to do" at char creation also works ofcourse.

That would lower the "risk" of people creating OP alts for whatever reason and would kinda ensure it'd help new players rather than someone's army of shadow alts.

Your idea looks good.

Only flaw in it: Power of 2

Most people create alts using power of 2 as it gives them bigger monetary advantage over a longer time period.

I don't think current buddy invite is bad.

It's the people that offer different quantities of ISK to new players that ruin it.
Giving a new player 200 mil will just spoil him + you will on your own gain another 400 mil from selling that PLEX.
So you are looking like you are doing a favor to new players while in term you are just doing yourself a good favor.

It IS bad, right now you can create 10 51-day full account alts per month for zero cost. Meaning hilarious use of haulers, scouts, cyno alts, scammers and ofcourse suicide alts. It's gotten out of control (I've been using it extensively since it was introduced, albeit it not for nefarious tasks). Most of the "new" players you see ingame, on these forums and joining existing corporations are buddy alt accounts, to a point where any sensible newbie corp simply shouldn't accept anyone under 51 days old because it's a massive security risk as the account looks clean even if you look further than most, but ofcourse isn't safe at all. I do agree with the "free stuff" issue, as I pointed out earlier in the thread.

So yes, the buddy system as it is atm needs to go, it's out of control and it's actually weighing heavily on CCP's profitability, in a bad way. The tinfoil explanation why CCP let it slide for so long is because it helped bolster the tanked PCU numbers after the :18 months: debacle, while in reality CCP was probably too lazy&slow to bother changing it, per usual.

Watch the PCU, 51+ days after the buddy invite change.

Now I understand your sudden hostility :)