Player Features and Ideas Discussion

CCP has made tutorials for new players that provide the basics of how to get started in EVE, then off you go with no idea on what later ship types you may pilot are like, or how they are flown.

I have read for years about the problems and re-play the tutorials after a fresh reworking to see what has changed.

Many of the same problems exist.
People are given skills that they later complain are useless.
People are not immersed in the possibilities of EVE before up and quitting.
Lack of depth.

This is a proposal - Feel free to flame or add constructively.

First, noob systems are well defined by CCP, so these changes can apply to those systems without much difference.
Second, ship mods already exist that only work in tutorial missions, so these changes would be similar.
Third, skills needed in tutorials to complete tutorials are frustrating as hell for new players who just want to learn to play.

Therefore, I suggest that the tutorial systems allow for specialty ships that look, fly, and fight like normal ships we all play. Give the new players the feeling of fighting in more types of ships than just the rookie ships. Let them pilot a battleship, but call it a "training battleship" that cannot use a jumpgate, cannot lock target on other players (or is really weak against player ships like a rookie ship), cannot be refitted (not that a new player can refit anything). Use some of the same missions, but teach the difference between armor tanking and shield tanking by providing civilian counterparts of typical ships that can perform the role. Teach the difference in ammunition types for range bonuses, falloff, optimal, resistances, etc using training ships equipped for dynamic combat in a controlled setting for new players.
Let a new player experience what it's like to align in a training freighter versus a training destroyer to teach that the bigger you are, the slower you maneuver. Through all of the exposure to ship types and how they fly, a player might get a better feel for the direction they will want to put their time, and not just pick one and hope it's good.

As for skills - Do not auto inject skills for the tutorial missions. Do not force the player to learn how to fly a particular ship to run a tutorial mission. Do not force a player to learn a particular skill to complete a mission. Instead, award a player skill points in the area of the tutorial for completing the mission. Do not award unassigned skill points, but (for example) 600 points in industry 1 for completing the initial industrial tutorial mission. By time the whole tutorial is complete, they will have been awarded skill points to equal Industry level 2, mining level 2, etc. Same goes for combat missions in awarding skill points towards the racial frigate. By time it's over, the skills will be equivalent as though they were learned, but not having to wait to do the mission because you had to learn the skill necessary to complete the tutorial mission. Especially since the missions will include a greater number of ships and ship types more closer to what the player can expect to see in the game.

There are way to make this work.

As for the other skill books received while doing the tutorials, do not change that. continue to provide civilian ship mods that perform the tutorial function, and provide the skill necessary to use the in-game mods if the player chooses to inject the skill.

This means that the first tutorial for all new pilots will be how to queue a skill and start learning it. That will never change.
After mission one of how to learn skills, the next mission could be anything because the tutorials would be the best source of skill points for new pilots and they may actually complete the tutorial section under these conditions.



I want to see more pilots who start EVE to stick with EVE.

CCP was talking about 'newbie incursions' so they new players could work together and blow things up.

I proposed the idea that rookie ships should get buffed, including an extra high slot for the iris probe launcher from the Zephyr so new players could get the hang of exploration (no need for a civilian one, the iris will do quite nicely!)

Everything in a 1.0 system should be doable in a rookie ship, as that is the vessel that new players will be using to get a feel for the game. They can try missions, trading, mining or exploration.

Basically, rookie ships should have some buffs to make them more useful and survivable in the early hours of playing, and to allow them to see what EVE has to offer.

* Give them rig slots - small rigs are cheap and disposable, so why not.
* An extra high slot for the iris probe launcher, which is full of basic core probes.
* An extra 25% armour or shield HP (depending on race).
* 1 extra mid or low slot (depending on race).
* 25% more cargo space.
* 50% more capacitor.
* A 5% cargobay space bonus per level (for trading and mining).

Im definitely for pre-fit training ships that cant leave newbie system - T2 frigate; T2 BC and T2 BS will show newbies why not go for BS from begining and that bigger is not always better (not even talking about cost).

Only one small thing - On one hand these ships do need to be provided in unlimited quantity - so noob would learn that they can loose ship but will have another to try again. On another this thing must be limited else newbies will stay in there and just wait and pvp in unlimited amounth of ships until they learn skills.

Also some dueling system, that would warn you before acepting chalenge from elite player, will block fleet boost, should be introduced, soo newbies can learn pvp in a fair way (not even talking about how great this would be for duels in hi-sec overall).

Civilian Implants

Required skill: none
Bonus: 0.5

Developed by CONCORD, these stripped down implants don't provide the same bonus and degrade as you train skills (free skill points don't count), but don't require any skill training prior to their use and are always given to capsuleers for free. You will recieve new ones when you die.

I think it would be a good idea to maybe give an idea to new players of what to train for when starting out, such as assault frigates for PvP instead of battleships, but I think this would be better done through an improvement of the certificates system. And with an increased focus on explaining it in the tutorials.

Increasing third party support, and encouraging players to use battleclinic, EFT and the like would also be good. But I'm not sure how that could be integrated in game. One issue with new players is that they are determined to create their own fits, which is good, but some of the monstrosities they come up with are not.

Also, and this is a part I'm unsure of, creating a class of corporation for noobs that is specifically set up for training new pilots. This could be as simple as creating a new tag within the "search for corporation" feature, or it could be slightly more complex.

As it stands the "new player friendly" tag in recruitment search is pretty vague, for example I just searched for a new player friendly corp with 100-200 members in any area, and it directed me to a corp claiming to be based in NPC 0.0. Probably not the best place for new players.

It did surprise me when I replayed the tutorial to find myself scrambling for a rookie ship in my pod.

It seems that others have noticed the lack of tutorial depth necessary to understand how to fly a ship when starting out in EVE.
I hope CCP takes note and does some reworking to better the transfer of necessary knowledge and experience to retain new pilots.

We aren't saying that training should replace 'Newb Friendly Corps".