EVE New Citizens Q&A

Other Suggestion Threads:

Your First Hour And Experience In EVE: Feedback from new Players - By The Big Lebowski
Suggestions from a new player. - By Usdom Chaffmen

Why doesn't CCP provide a standard fitted rookie ship instead to begin with?

As a new player who recently ran all the tutorials and Sister of Eve missions, I think this is a great suggestion. In retrospect I found the industry and business the most difficult/frustrating. My GF has started playing and is working through the tutorials. I've mentioned more than once that the 'Advanced military' is actually the easiest of the 5.

An other note, fantastic game, wish I would have tried it years ago. I've never has so much fun being this frustrated.

I have been playing quite a bit already, but had my girlfriend join recently. This exposed me to the tutorials again, since I also used them as a warm up.

I really like the career tutorials. They have good rewards and story line, expose you to a lot of the professions and inspire you to join the rest of the Eve universe. But than they end. The transition from the career paths to the rest of the game is really jarring. Eve is all about margins, take industry for example. Trying to manufactor anything and make a bit of profit is near impossible without a lot of work as a beginner. You don't have too much money and are still learning the market etc.

My suggestion would be to put a bit more emphasis on the NPC market as used by haulers. A really good save intro to hauling is trading in trade goods. It will not make you rich, but you will also not get scammed as quickly and can slowly get used to the market workings. It would be great if something like this would excist for manufactoring too. If there were blue prints that would make items that all NPC stations would need, like the trade goods, it would give new players something to create while warming up to the rest of eve.

I feel combat already has this with the combat missions, and mining in a way too. It is the somewhat deeper elements that are the least explained and hardest to get into. Creating a less intimidating play ground for beginners would help.

Another note would be the combat career story line. One of the main NPC enemies mentions you could join him (these were the Caldari missions), but that is kind of a false promise. Currently there are no real tutorials or hints on how to join the 'darker side' of eve. These kinds of pirate tricks would also help players with pvp-ing I think, and might help with making people more used to loosing ships. My best example would be how you can join the Dark Brotherhood in the game Oblivion. Both sides of the coin get equal love with missions and narrative. Just an idea :)

Indeed very very true. However running the SoE epic arc as an industrial pilot gives you some ISK, some ships (that you can sell for more ISK) and just experience in how EVE works. That ISK you got from the SoE can then be used as starting cash in your industry plans.

Been a long time for me too (about 2 years). So could be mistaken the SoE with a career agent or something. Still the ISK is quite a nice starting amount for any industrialist.

I finished all of the starter agent missions and working my way through the SoE arc.

Business - I really wanted to learn more about player contracts. I think the tutorial only hints about what the contracts are like, but going through the process of what accepting and working through a contract would be a huge help.

Industry - I though this went by pretty well. I didn't have to worry much at all about material gathering and manufacturing. I actually had fun figuring out what I needed to make all of the ammunition. A game where the in game calculator and notes actually helped!

Exploration - I loved these tutorials. Setting up the probes, scanning for different types of spots and using the mods to open them up. I wouldn't change this at all.

Military - What else can be said, you get a small ship and you blow things up.

Advanced Military - Yes, it's military with a little twist. I get the idea of the missions, there's more to combat than shooting things; like following orders and learning about electronic warfare. I think this is the one where players hunt down wolf. The final fight did surprise me a lot and was a little tough to get through, you know newbies and those webs.

Over all, the impression I got was that the missions were very helpful. I certainly would want to have more tutorials for planetary interaction and research. Having those two major features out of the game feels like I'm not getting to have a taste of what the full Eve experience is.

You need to tackle all of the learning types at once. Auditory, visual, kinetic! Make little instructional videos (visual) with aura's voice (auditory) AND keep the little hint popups next to where someone needs to click (tactile)! I've learned so much from youtube--more than CCP ever taught me, no offense guys...

Edit: stuff like this-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBfEVd3bbf4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heYfTA00Idg

You need to explain specifics as well as paint the world. Give meaning to what the new player is being told to do. I can't find it at the moment but I recently read something along the lines of "My first two hours in eve" somewhere in the forum. After I laughed my ass off reading it I realized that what is really missing for the new player is meaning. They're given a list of things to do and no reason why. Then at the end of that they're cut loose and don't really know what to do next.

I was also thinking, eve is all about player interaction. You should have a mentor system if you don't already have one. If you do have one... advertise it to new players.

I agree with everything you said but I'm not suggesting CCP introduces something that teaches everyone everything. I just think the tutorial should approach all learning style and show new players how they can experience meaningful events. My noob experience was weird, granted the tutorial was different back then. When I started playing I wasn't really having fun and I didn't really know what to do, granted the game had some impressive moments. I actually made 3 different trials before getting hooked, and what hooked me was PVP. Basically the reason I kept coming back and the reason I pushed through the terrible new player experience in this game is because I KNEW what the game was, I knew what the potential experiences were, and I wanted to be a part of that. But like most people, when I started I was terrified of the brutal consequences of the game.

I think the tutorial and subsequent new player experience should not only teach a player how to use the daunting interface but also show them how their actions can be very meaningful, even in the beginning. I didn't get that impression at all. I had to come back to the game 3 times over the course of 8 years to finally get it. The only thing that made me go back were the amazing trailers for the game which clearly illustrated how I could be involved in it. So i guess we either accept the fact that eve is a brutal ***** mother of a game in the beginning or make sure that each noob is accounted for and enjoying themselves, which is pretty much impossible. So if they see some videos of cool things they can do maybe they'll stay hooked longer. Because I mean, I've had RL friends try the game and they couldn't get through the tutorial--that is a big problem IMO. I dunno, just spit-balling. I don't want to dumb down eve but I think the learning curve needs softening.

Maybe the tutorial is fine. I was thinking last night and imagining how awesome it would be if there was a massive CDIA Files archive, almost like mass effect. Granted the EVElopedia has everything you need to know pretty much. The CDIA Files Missioning video and Sansha video are just so awesome and informative, It would be great if the series was continued. There is a clear template already laid out. Or maybe they could be incorporated with the tutorial. Just a thought. I don't know if it solves the problem but when I picture it in my head it seems really cool.