EVE New Citizens Q&A

We direct newbies towards the SoE arc because A: the rewards for completing it have historically given many an aspiring newbie a good start, and B: parts of it are designed to make newbies think about asking for help, either in game or on the forums.

If people don't want to do it then that's fine, nobody is forcing them to. What do you suggest we point people at instead?

Adding to what Jonah Gravenstein said :

Probably the most important aspect of the Lv 1 SoE Epic Arc is that it gives new players time to train up their Core Fitting Skills while deciding on a career path to pursue. Also make some easy ISK as well.

And as Chihuahuaraffe said, I cant actually remember anyone complaining that they felt the SOE arc wasn't worthwhile after completing it.



DMC

The career agents blitz through so much info so fast, players get out of it barely knowing how to move their ship, much less put together a workable loadout. The epic arc reinforces those lessons through repetition. It is a long slog, sure, but you know what else is? Everything. Everything is.

Dunno. The story of the Arc felt detached from everything I experienced before or after, all I remember of it is the boring legwork and the sub-par rewards.

I'd rater tell them to learn the art of ninja-looting, or exploration.

Or even better, to join someone and socialize.


But it could be worse. You could always suggest the newcomer to go mining in a Ventrue.

I started EVE last year and the SOE arc was fine ISK and NPE wise when I did it for the first time. When I repeated it with an Alpha clone I stopped at the the "next step 20+ jumps away". While it is important to show the newbies around the roaming part could be reduced by a couple of jumps.

Perhaps I will switch to "find a corp OR do the SOE arc" .
Kind of the same topic: Stop telling every newbie to go exploring. Or at least tell them to look for places with low jump numbers. ISK per hour is plain bad if you do it in highsec and WHs connected to populated highsec systems.

And even if long time player give advice it often does not fit to the situation a new player is in. Like: Train for a Marauder, it's the best PVE ship. That always makes me cringe a bit.

Overall I think it would be great if the Career Agents and/or SOE arc would give out full fitted ships and would just explain the general concept. Like: This is a sniper fit ship, use it at 50+km, use the MWD do stay away form pirats. Go, go, go..

While I am not advocating the SoE arc as "highly recommended" for a new player, it is helpful in learning navigational and rudimentary asset management skills, as well as good to be familiar with to use for faction standing gain/repair. I don't know what the career agents are like now (my most recent NPE was almost 11 years ago), but the SoE arc is pretty easily completed by a character with less than 3m sp, and standing with SoE is never a bad thing, especially if you decide to get into exploration.

Yeah, 20+ jumps can be a pain, but this goes back to asset management; a new player is likely to have to move at least that far, (usually involving low or null sec) when they join a corporation. When I was with Noir. 20+ jumps was the weekly/biweekly redeploy. If you hate moving assets, it is worth finding out early.

As it is repeatable every 3-6 months (not sure on the 'cooldown' time on it), having an idea of how long it is can help you run it for faction standings a lot faster later; a blaster taranis with cargo expanders in the cargo hold can run the entire mission arc very quickly.

The only thing "epic" about the SoE arc is the length and travel time.


Re:
Career agents giving out fully fit ships as a reward.

Seriously? I don't understand how people can have a difficult time figuring out a fit. Ships have specific bonuses towards certain modules or weapon systems; make use of them, if you run out of PG or CPU, make some decisions. Between EFT, PYFA, and the various smart phone applications it is easier than ever to fit ships.

The Epic arcs are not supposed to be tied into anything you have done before or will do after. The Epic Arcs are self contained mini stories within the entirety of what EvE is. You see unlike most of those other games you may have played there is no "unifying" story to EvE, there is no common thread that ties all things together in this game other than they all occur within the same single thread gaming universe.

Getting back to your complaints about the SOE Epi Arc, 8 corporation changes in less than 2 months makes me wonder is it really the Arc or is it you? No matter what path you choose in EvE one thing is common, there will be at least as much time spent in boring repetitive activities as there are times of excitement. Your impatience as demonstrated by your corp history and your stated distaste for the Epic Arcs makes me wonder if you have the patience needed to play EvE over the long haul.

I agree with the OP. The SoE arc seems super ******* boring, and with other, more interesting (but harder) and rewarding activities available, I do not see a reason for people to start on the SoE arc straight after the career agents. The standings boost isn't useful for everyone, and that seems to be the main reward.

I'm not saying that it should not be suggested at all, but it should not be offered as the main "next step" considering how useless (and boring) it might be to a pilot.