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I created a Trial account and went through the current opportunities, it looks a whole lot better! There is a minor nitpicks I can think of though, it would probably be nice if the opportunities suggested which skill book you buy for the skilltraining opportunity or provided you with a skill book to inject itself as a reward for completing the first part to "set a skill in training" (as the starting money on the character is still 5,000 isk, and the majority of skillbooks cost more than that), and it's an easy way (from looking in rookie chat at a glance) for characters to get lost browsing the market to find skills that they can afford. The previous Aura Agent used to give the "repair systems" (Amarr/Gal) or "shield operaton" (Min/Caldari) skill out as a reward for completing the 1st or 2nd mission as part of that chain, and it only costs 2,000 isk or so on the market, so providing the 'repair system/shield operations' skill as a reward for the earlier part of the opportunity, or at least, suggesting that the player purchase either of these skills would be a big improvement and would streamline the process a bit.

Are there any plans for a voice-over for the opportunities text? One of the things that I remember was kind of frustrating about the trial, back when I started in 2007 (when the trial was way worse, and no-where near as concise or pretty as it is now :) ) was the lack of voice and having to read big-walls-of-text myself. I'm not sure if you have a way of adding voice overs to the client where you can click on a speaker icon or something and have a voice-over of the text on screen, but it would be a very big improvement, even it was just an in-house voiceover like CCP Logibro/CCP Mimic whom have been doing a fantastic job with the Flight Academy videos on youtube. It would add a lot to the player experience and eve in-client doesn't have a lot of audio explanations mostly visual or written.

Honestly? I just started a new trial on TQ, and got pushed the new Opportunities system. My first thought was...how in all that is holy did this go live? I'm not knocking the concept, but it seems SUPER unfinished, and I can see it chasing newbies away. There are zero rewards associated with the opportunities, and many of them have virtually no instructions.

I can see new players getting frustrated as all hell, especially when it gives you "Buy something from the market" and "Inject a skill book". When I got to these, I had exactly 5,000 ISK. This isn't enough to get anything useful from the market, and not enough for any skill books that the new player would likely find, if he even knows where to look for skill requirements. The worst part is, it gives no clear hints on what to do if you get to a part that you can't complete. The EVE UI is still terrible (worse than the old one IMO with these monocolor icons, but that's an opinion thing), and most newbs aren't going to want to poke around for a half hour to try to figure out what is supposed to be a tutorial.

As is, all this seems to do is cause a cluster**** in rookie chat, because it is very barebones, and the A/B deployment causes most people to have no idea what the hell the Opportunities newbs are talking about. This should never have launched until it actually had some more useful content, or at least is fleshed out a bit more. At least make it clear for fresh newbs how to get a little isk to be able to do anything.

I've been trying to do the new NPE (lots of questions asked in Rookie I don't have an answer to) but I'm just not getting them. I created several alt accounts and tried 15 chars in total, none of then got the new NPE.

Is there any way to force it?

Well, got it but oh boy... Don't get me wrong, I REALLY like the idea but the execution is horrible and it's amazing that for such a short bit of tutorial there's no many issues, mostly ones that could so easily have been avoided.

I approached it as a newbie and made notes on anything that made no sense and rather than try and bug report it somewhere (because we all know how well that works) I'll just dump it here.



* "Approach an Object" should state selecting a closeby NPC so it aproaches, if you select a celestial you don't get approach, this is not explained

* NPC need more EHP so you can actually read the "destroy your target" opp before you pop the target

* "Grab the loot" should include a cargo icon and explain looting range

* "orbit an asteroid" Should explain to switch overview to mining tab

* "lock an asteroid" should include locking via selected item window


There needs to be a better divider between the different main opportunities. Going from mining to explaining FTL needs a transition


* "faster than light" should mention to switch back to General/warp to overview tab

* "dock in a station" should, again, mention switching back to General/warp to overview tab

* "Fit a module" does not in any way explain how to organise the item hangar so one can drag the mod onto the ship. It could also talk about the window fetish EVE has and how to organise/close windows you don't need

* "Buy from the market" is a horrible mess that catches all newbies. Why not direct them to Trade Goods so they buy from cheap npc order. also it does not explain HOW to buy something, at all. The whole Opp makes no sense at the moment and tbh has no place here, newbie bought something, no idea what, and then the tutorial just goes on with undocking.

* "Start skill training" , why the HELL does this follow the "jump to new system" Opp? I'm hanging in space on a gate while doing the skill NPE.

* "inject a new skill" Asks me to buy a random skill (...) without explaining how to do it or which one to buy, while I'm still in space at a gate. It also mentioned ISIS for a brief second for no logical reason. This Opp catches all newbies out and frankly is a fcking mess. Also, newbies don't have the cash to buy a skill so that's kind of a deal breaker. Once (somehow) bought it's not explained how to find the station to get it.

This is dumb as hell.


* It needs an explanation transitioning from the NPE Opportunities system to the career agents window, and how to travel between several systems with the route and all that (the single jump one isn't enough).

I agree with literally everything Gregor has said, especially the bit quoted. The biggest thing in Rookie Help right now is "What how do I get a skill book? I can't afford a skill book, what do I do? Okay, I did some opportunities, now what?"

The NPE should be so much more guided than this. I think the old way is a bit bloaty and overreaching, but the new way is just a kick in the balls. "Here's a spaceship, good luck." The explanations for the opportunity goals are seriously lacking in depth, they're in no discernible order, and they don't leave you with any sense of how to play the game.

Now that I did the NPE I'm getting more and more angry because this is not a test on sisi, this is actually on TQ. I'm not talking about the UI or coding because that seems (for once) fine, one can always see improvements but on the whole it's workable and complete. I am talking about the actual tutorial text which is the EASIEST to get right.

We get newbies in Rookie channel frustrated, lost, screaming for help on how to buy "a skill" in a manner they don't know, from a place they're not at with money they don't have. There's so many obvious and easy to solve issues happening that one really has to wonder if people tested it at all. This whole thing reeks of amateurism and is a throwback to a CCP I'd rather forget ever existed.

Excellence is an attitude, this NPE is not that and in its current form it's doing more harm than good.

Steve, I probably scared you off, if what Sion says about your aversion to drama is true. But hopefully you will still read this.

That contrast between actual gameplay and expectations... it's already been set by things like the recent player submitted video trailer, and the great stories of epic battles.

We know what the sandbox is capable of, but new players don't... and right now the sandbox has been placed in front of their face without any kind of song and dance. If they've already been teased with EVE at its most exciting, is it truly damaging to provide some artificial action to mask the pain of a tutorial?

I don't think so, because tutorials need to happen. If this isn't accomplished with scripted NPCs, it wouldn't happen at all. I mean, who would handle that new player load... other players? Even if that was successful, how boring!

Players are getting stuck at not knowing how to steer their ship, or warp. So is a flashy scripted tutorial action sequence so bad, especially when new players already expect EVE to be that way?

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I'm still curious why voice actors haven't been used. For things like the new hints for missions... they would be so much better if at least a voice would narrate them. They're written very casually, in a conversational style (which I think is great). "You need to eliminate all hostiles in the area." or "You need to warp to the mission location."

Voice... voice... vooooiiceee please someone tell me I'm not crazy for thinking EVE and especially the NPE is missing this basic element that would make things so much nicer!

Lie to me, Jerry, lieee to me. [Chris Rock comedy clip. LANGUAGE WARNING]

CCP Mimic for Aura: the second decade

Hi there, I've been watching rookie chat whenever I can, but unfortunately can't always be there. Our thanks to you and everyone else who's been taking the time to help new players out.

If you do find yourself talking to a new players in the opportunity system and they're lost or find something impossible to do then encourage them to submit a support ticket or bug report as is appropriate. Remember this is an experiment so any information we can get back from the new players is super valuable and will help us identify and fix issues.

Are you seriously telling us to tell the new player "Hi, welcome to Eve. You got the and and improved New Player Experience, please start filling out bug reports about this and how those things you don't know could have been explained to you better."?

I do not think this will make them stay ...