EVE General Discussion

Eve and WoW have completely different playstyles, WoW is an arcade-style story driven RPG, Eve is a player-centric social strategy game with some PvP elements, (most uniquely the ability to feel what it's like to play a leader of any type and scope from petty Tyrant to Multinational CEO). Serious PvPers don't play Eve they play Call of Duty or Overwatch.

WoW is a huge game with so many facets but at its heart it is a very traditional arcade crawler similar to Sonic the Hedgehog or Metroid.

Eve can never be WoW, Eve Valkyrie has some of the elements of an arcade style game but Wow is a decade old and no one will ever catch them on content.

I cant remember what the game was called but it was in the PS4 Dust area, It was a board game that you could play. It would be amazing if EVE had something similar in it. A way to compete with other players that had very little riding on it. Low risk low reward, like Project Discovery. I know the rest of the web exists but it would be amazing to have something with an EVEcentric flair.

After trying to bring a few people into eve their biggest complaint was the downtime. As much as warping into combat puts your heart in your throat, EVE has a lot of downtime.

Tristan Valentina

I think alot of the player base would disagree from the perspective that this is some of the core fundamentals of eve online. I agree people might like roles and responsibilities linked to structure. However we need to balance that with player driven content that is central to the eve online experience.

For the new player we do need to do more to help them into this complex world.

For me, I started this post because I think we as the player base could do more to help ccp bring new players into the game. When they are here that is in part a different but important matter.

New players are expensive to find more should be done to keep those who are engaged, engaged within the game. As I looked to who you are, your playing style just should not exist. Blanket war decing every entity there is and sitting on gates in hubs does not provide engagement. People aren't looking for games to be fair they want it to be engaging and you can guarantee some of the mechanics move us away, far away from that. My level 5 maxed skills mean **** all against 5 F2P noobs.

The should implement some systems where there is no pvp, no can stealing etc. for noobs and only toons that are younger than X can enter this system and ask ISD to police local. It needs to be clear to the player that they have a safe haven to mine, trade, pve in and training for them in how to deal with the greifers. Let them have access to the system/region for 2 months while they train up and get to grips with the game. Magic would happen, old school - using Miner I to mine with and frigs. They can co-operate and form gangs to do PvE or mine and form bonds and corps.
Unless you cotton wrap up some players at the start they will get frustrated and leave, it's to harsh for a lot of players at the start; not all, but some.

As a new player let me just throw in my 2 cents. I have a lot of problems with EvE but I think this is a suggestion that is feasibly possible for CCP to do without hurting the current players. And please read the whole thing I realize its a wall of text but I wanted to be clear.

I would like the ability to find and join other new players to do content with in a quick fashion. To put it simplistically a 'looking for group' function that doesn't put you into a corp but a more temporary group.

Old WoW analogy time; when you first start out you are often thrown into situations where you have to group up with new players. Hogger is probably one of the best examples of this; hes an elite enemy part of a quest you cant complete at the level you get the quest. You have to group up with randoms if you want to take him down and you can find them easily because surprise surprise they are all standing around Hogger waiting for others to invite them into a party. Its a nice feature because it forces you to interact with people of your own level and experience to take down content.

Could I go join one of the many educational corps in EvE and have them give me ISK, books and come with me on content and help take it down? Sure, but thats boring. I dont want to play with people who know what they are doing, I want to fail with people who are like me. I want to to feel like we're figuring it out on our own, making our own progress, without being tied down so early on into a corp community I may not want to interact with. Now I could go look for a corp thats casual, or even set up my own corp but thats a lot of work for what is going to be a short lived adventure. The freedom to jump around different content early on with people is a good way to feel a part of a community without burdening someone with over-commitment.

It should go without saying that finding that content for these groups should be easier too. Perhaps they could have their own system and station, a place that gives a wide variety of jobs in different areas of careers, difficulty and space. If a group want to just test the waters in a high sec exploration job that has some light combat, or go in the deep end of a mission that forces them to hunt down a random player in nul. And it should have a wide choice in difficulty options, dont hold peoples hands on this. The point isnt to hold their hand through a series of missions with multiple people. Its about letting people get together in an accessible fashion even if that ends up with them all dead, podded and crying. I realize EvE has missions like this for players to do right now but I dont think its accessible for new people.

I really hope accessibility is not a dirty word around here. I dont mean make the game easy, I just mean make it convenient. All the same risks of doing a mission in nul with other people exist, its just I found those people without any hassle.

In a way its like a syndicate. A group of people coming together to do a certain objective before parting ways. Not so subtle name drop for what they should call it by the way.

So thats my 2 cents. Proceed with calling me a noob and trash talking me off the forum.

The ability to access youtube and social media from inside the captains quarters?

I think it's more of a retention problem than a finding new players problem.

When I first started it was the overwhelming size of the game and the "sandbox" effect that had my head spinning. There is no real direction once someone finds their wheels spinning.

I think one way to retain and possibly get new players (By word of mouth) is to provide something to do while finding out what to do next. The Scope event was nice as it provided varying thing to do, both combat and mining. They could expand on that to include industrial and market missions as well to give new players a taste of what EvE has to offer as well as giving established players something spin their wheels to.

Instead of racing to gather points for skill boosters they could offer something like LP and a store to buy from with gathered points. Or something to that effect.

Eve is a great game to play if you let it sink its claws into you.. We just need to find a way to convince the newbros to expose their flesh.

I think a sort of wizard that explain the differences between shield tanking, armor tanking, and speed tanking fits, as well as the pros and cons of different weapon systems would be helpful to newbies looking to jump into the pew pews.

Also I think if the game recommended fittings for the ships you were in (based on community submissions) it would be very helpful to new players.

That would be a good start at generating and keeping new player interest.

I think you are kind of missing the point of Newbie alliances, it isn't about becoming an automaton for an experienced player using you to play vicariously through, it's about collecting people of a similar education and understanding level together so that they can learn from one another's successes and failures whilst being supported by a community that can help rationalise the complexities of eve in a supportive environment.

Yes many of them offer support in the form of starter packages but that doesn't mean you have to take advantage of that, want to graft for your own rewards? Do so!

I firmly believe that the newbro alliances are fundamental to early player retention, I think the point was made earlier that this thread in essence is discussing retention not acquisition and I think they were right in saying that and ultimately it is the direction I would have taken this thread because many players flirt with eve but are put off because of scale and the general lack of direction input. This is where the more experienced players need to step up.

Also a point was made by one poster that this is not our responsibility as players but that of CCP, altruism should never be discouraged and I would suggest that belligerence holds no place in a thread composed and maintained for the purpose of encouragement and positivity...you don't have to help...but for the love of Jove don't discourage those who do!