EVE General Discussion

Personally, I've been sitting in the Trossere starter system engaging in conversation. On Saturday, we had a discussion on corpse collection in EVE, for example.

You don't have to be in the Rookie Help chat to help rookies.

You can go to a starter system, or one of the SOE epic arcs systems, where difficult missions take place, and help out.

Just say "Hi" in local and take it from there.

The local chat not the best, because the players need to jump systems for missions and other cases (ie: all belt mined out). Would be better to maintain higher support in the starter corp chats with MOTD, ISD/GM/CCP staff present.

BTW: Anyone can share with me, how to get in the Rookie Help with not rookie char?

thx.

I'm a newbie, so first thank you to everyone who manages all the questions in Rookie Help.

I feel like a large chunk of questions could be eliminated, or at least become less montonaous, with a better explanation in the new career agent missions. These are the most common ones I've seen:

"Where is the Mini Skill Injector?" - Personally I didn't have a problem finding this, however based on the number of times it's been asked in Rookie Help it seems a large number of new players are experiencing issues finding it.

"Why can't I use such-and-such skill book/ship/item/etc. [Alpha-Locked]?" - I feel CCP's presentation of what actually unlocks for new players is well presented visually, but for new players who aren't accustomed to the Omega symbol this isn't immediately understandable. CCP pops up an Omega Upgrade box saying Unlock Thes Ships! - but doesn't provide much information after that and I honestly thought I would be getting those ships when I upgraded to Omega and not just I have the ABILITY to train to use those ships.

Perhaps it would be best if during the initial missions it made a point to allow Alphas to "test" Alpha-Locked items like Mining Drones with a remark that this item isn't usable outside of a tutorial unless you subscribe.

"What's the best fit for X ship to do Y thing?" - Given my very little experience with EVE, I'm obviously not of any authoritative power, but I feel like this sort of question - and more importantly those that enable it by linking a fit, don't belong in Rookie Help. These players should be encouraged to look for a corp with like-minded goals that are welcoming to new players that have the time to get into, what appears to me, the ever-so-complex topic of min-maxing fitting for specific ships doing specific things. Or perhaps a channel dedicated to fitting.

Additionally, some feedback on the career agents. It would be extremely beneficial to new players to have tutorial missions that take an overview on fitting/rigging and what you can come to expect from each slot type, as well as how to read attributes of items and ship fitting stats. After the tutorial missions I basically had to look up optImal fits, read the information screens for each part, to even get a sense of what was going on and why I couldn't fit certain things places (such as not enough turret hardpoints).

Anyways, just some overall suggestions from a few day old player and my experience so far!

You're right about all of it, really. What happened in the past, last time they updated the tutorials, when they created the career agents, after patch day they start updating the tutorials to answer the most common questions. There will be about a month and a half where we just have to live with it as is, get a small update that causes new issues, then another month and a half until that gets fixed, and repeat ad nauseum. Welcome to EVE. ;)


There's a back door into it, that's supposed to be kinda hush hush. I'll leave it up to CCP/ISDs to decide if they'll publish it out, or you could message someone who's obviously got it.

+1 for thinking outside the box and trying to come up with a solution.


DMC

Just create a new EVE Online Alpha account, using a new email address. The next thing you know, you'll be trying to answer questions about how to find the criminal to shoot in the tutorial.... And giving people ISK to go play around and get blown up outside the tutorial!

[And yeah, private chat idea is excellent. That's the way to go].

You would help more people and spare yourself by spamming links to a wiki or such.

EVE has a particular problem that I encounter every time I begin learning a new computer program. Deep ones like Maya and 3ds Max and several other tools for 3D artists (seriously there are several proprietary programs available to do any one thing and you have to encounter them all to find the best combination, and they're immense)

Anyway

There's this innate expectation that a product or service will be designed in a way that makes it easy for you to grasp. If you're not used to examples of programs that kick your ass and test your fortitude, it can cause a bit of a crisis when a -video game- does it.

"This is supposed to be fun, and it's a game, why am I not finding success or even performing basic tasks?"

Maybe this is obvious, but I'm writing this out because I agree you are not helping a player in a lasting way by handing them answers on an individual basis. Rather, you won't make an impact on 4,000 rookies in one chat channel (holy **** lol).

I suggest either reminding them to google if it sounds like common knowledge. Or taking one individual player and offering individual advice over time.

Answering questions one at a time is hopeless, and instead they need to be shown how to find the information themselves because EVE is one of those immense experiences that you can't figure out on your own. The best thing is helping new players adjust their expectations and mindset about EVE.

EVE could stand to be more intuitive but there are easier issues to solve in the world like curing cancer and Svipuls.

Problem with linking wiki articles is the same problem with your post. Too long to read. Especially for a simple answer. I've read plenty of articles in my EVE career. I've often read 4 or 5 articles, thousands of words long to find the 1 sentence answer I was looking for. The art of helping in the help channels is brevity when possible, "google it" when not. Those are also the answers most likely to be read by and help the quiet lurkers as well, so yeah, you can potentially help hundreds with a 3 word sentence.

Number of (useful) helpers fluctuates. As does the number of trolls. :) Sometimes I'll pop in and be the only one there answering questions. Sometimes there will be a bunch, plus ISDs and GMs. Sometimes it can turn from one to the other in a matter of minutes. I don't know if there's ever a time where there are no helpers whatsoever, though some questions do fall through the cracks, are nonsensical questions, or are obscure/complicated so don't get answered.

imo, spend time in the normal help chat for a while first (f12 > join channel). Rookie chat has a faster rhythm to it that's harder to keep pace with, and occasionally gets clogged up with helpers who never learned how to give to-the-point answers. I spent more than 2 years in normal help before starting in rookie help, which obviously wasn't necessary, but there are reasons to prefer normal help besides.

How do you get into rookie help as an older player?

Im more than happy to help any newbie but have no idea how to do it