Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I don't really think a new player would have any idea what is the real difference between null and high. And considering that probably many players come from other games, where the term "PvP" means something quite different...

That's actually a pretty cool idea.

I actually think the option of starting in null would be quite cool. In many ways a newbie is better equipped for life there. Cheap clone, no implants, cheap ships and fittings.

Currently the basic combat career tutorial includes a storyline of a pirate offering to recruit the newbie capsuleer. What if the pilot was given a choice to accept? After like 3 or 4 warning messages of course. If he goes for it he gets given a free oneway trip to that pirate faction's NPC space.
To make it more enticing you could add a hefty "allowance" paid out every day the newbie stays active in null, or give him a massive(5-10x) multiplier to mission payouts and bounties. This would expire after a month or so. Hopefully by this point the newbie has either found a 0.0 corp to join, decides to go back to highsec, or can manage well enough on his own.

Oh, and I suppose the option for a once-off teleport back to highsec should be there, because hey, people often don't know what they're getting into when ignoring warning messages.

I flew out to null in a rifter. There is nothing there to do except die, since you can't even kill rats. missions would be camped as badly as the gates into null sec are now.

if you want more new players in null sec start a corp / alliance out there and recruit them with free isk.. 1 mil seems a fortune if you're doing the tutorial.

You can at least kill the lower bounty battleship rats (500k, 650k) in a rifter, it just takes a while.

The limiting factor is your damage output, they won't be able to hurt your speed tank.

Usually newbies start making money in 0.0 with salvaging, until they get into a battlecruiser and start ratting.
But this does of course require friends that leave plenty NPC wrecks behind.

Solo play in 0.0 can be fairly frustrating for a really new player (but is generally possible in NPC 0.0 for more experienced players with patience).

Mission running is possible if you have friends (running lvl3 missions in 0.0 as I write this), if you don't you'll probably run into trouble at some times (you're bound to one station and hostiles might just bubble the undock).

As has been mentioned before, newbies have some advantages - cheap clones, cheap ships, little to lose, a lot to gain (until you are able to run lvl4s and Incursions, income in 0.0 is in my experience significantly more than you could expect in high-sec; after that it varies a bit based on what you do to make money in 0.0).

The United Highsec Front offers a neverending supply of free frigates if you join us in the Great Wildlands
(join in-game channel "99 percent")

I think baiting people with ISK gifts would attract the wrong sort of recruits.
You want people that are not afraid of getting blown up repeatedly, not people with a hoarding mentality (ISK as a tool to get more pvp ships as opposed to ISK accumulation as a purpose in itself).
Also after doing the tutorials and epic arc you should have around 10m ISK and some "free" ships, modules, skillbooks, ...

Gates and pipes are usually not permacamped - if you are able to play outside of EU/US primetime you will often find completely empty routes in and out of 0.0.
Other than that the central mantra is "pack light, buy locally" - get your corp to rent an office in the 0.0 station you want to live at, set medical clone to that office, self destruct your pod and buy your ships from the local market.
When you move on sell your ships on contracts and re-buy at the new location.
Unless you have access to a carrier or jf and are willing to risk it that's the most sensible course of action.

I'd be sceptical of giving people the option to start out in nullsec, for the simple reason that if it's an actual newbie, chances are they won't have any clue whatsoever what it actually means, and the instant they get popped and podded, -1 first impression. Combine that with the fact that if you're an actual newbie and join up with a non-~elitepvp~ alliance who actually has things for newbies to do both in PVE and PVP, you're just a corp application and a suicide away from being in null.


If you're a rifter newbie, I would suggest doing PI and salvaging other people's wrecks, and fitting a point and an MWD and keeping enemy ships from warping or being used as a warpout/ping spot for the entire fleet. All of which I can attest to being highly satisfying when you're a newbie to how nullsec works.

The OP's idea implies that any new player knows what 'null-sec' means...but a truly new player won't.

When I was completely new to the game some 33 months ago, i was attracted to the game because I read "The Empyrean Age" book, so when I joined and made my first character I didn't know anything about the reality of the game and I've had to learn as I play, with the help of corpmates and so on. I've even had some limited experience of occasionally living in null with a previous alliance, but the politics and the hassle of doing so was such a pain for a casual player like me (i.e. a couple of hours a day) that in the end it spolied the entertainment factor of the game.

I note that there are claims that Goons will accept a 'brand new' character - but I wonder if by that, they mean a brand new alt of a player who already knows the game.

Once again this seems to be a thinly-veiled 'let's have more cannon fodder in null-sec' thread...what people need to understand is that there's nothing wrong with null-sec space, but there's lots wrong with the players in null-sec space!

And thats the reason I would say that carebears won't move to null - because of the players, not the game.

G

That lazy huh?

maybe make a trip to Solitude to witness that bustling hive of player activity that inevitably results when a high-sec island meets surrounding 0.0.

(yes, I am being sarcastic - Solitude matches your description and is empty)

Null sec is empty because everyone WTFPWNS everything that enters.

Alliances would have far more to gain if they actually provided protection and built infrastructure and just taxed the hell out of everything.

Kinda like the Mafia.

The Mafia doesn't exactly constantly burn down the business every time someone tries to start it, instead they just tax them. If they always burn it down, it won't make any money, and they won't be able to collect any protection money. Business owner goes somewhere else, they get nothing.

Why the null-sec alliances have not figured out this basic rule that has existed for thousands of years is beyond me.

Perhaps they're all stupid and economically illiterate.

Oh well, enjoy working your ass off for moon goo instead of letting the masses do all of the work for you and taking a larger chunk off the top. Idiots.

Idea: +1, good idea

Work out: -1 for 2 reasons:

1.) it's already possible, people who want to go to null-sec from the start can start a toon which starts in high-sec and then after they done the amount of toturials they think neccesary they can just cruise to NPC nullsec (Great Wildlands for instance).

2.) obviously any enemy will start trial / new accounts in that system so they can field an endless supply of scout alts when they need, no need to take them the extra couple of jumps to place they are needed.

In general, I like the idea, but it's also to make it possible with current matters, I think CCP should make more gate links between null and empire. More possible routes means less likely to be camped as people have to camp more possible routes then that are currently are available.