Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Recently I've had the „pleasure” of repairing my Amarr standings back from -5.9 to -4,98 (effective; circa -8 raw). As a returning and unsubbed (alpha) player, I was limited to Diplomacy 3 and Social 3, IIRC. The alpha part is important here, because at that time I wasn't convinced wether I should resub or not.

The entire process was spread over 3 weeks of godawful grind and waiting through mission decline timers, all which nearly drove me into rage-desperation-quitting. ONLY 3 weeks, because: a) I was flying a Tristan and drones allowed me to slash a lot of travel time, and b) I've found a Native Freshfood „mission hub” in Minmatar space with four lvl 1 agents in one system, which sped things up even more.

Still, It required 11 storyline missions (so, 176 normal missions), for which I was awarded standings increases ranging from ~0,21% to ~0,71%. Again, ONLY 11 storylines, because the last one was a faction kill storyline (~1,72%) I did out of sheer desperation. I'm estimating 14-20 otherwise.


Therefore, I'd like to propose some changes which will undoubtly improve the lvl 1 missioning experience:

1) Every PvE dev should grab a max-skill alpha clone, set one faction standings to -6 effective and work their standings back up to -4,99.
This is a truly unforgettable experience and I am convinced that you absolutely, positively shouldn't miss that.

2) Remove faction kill missions from lvl 1 mission pool and lvl 1 storyline mission pool.
The benefits of this are twofold:
a) it prevents new players from riuning their standings because they don't know the mechanics;
b) it helps bittervets grind through a little bit faster.

3) Even out the standing rewards for the storyline missions; perhaps boost them a little.
Again, this should effectively speed up the entire process.

4) Reconsider the old idea of tags-for-standings, like tags-for-sec - pretty please, with sugar on top.
This could utilise the tags which drop from faction NPCs in FW space, creating aditional demand, benefitial for the market in general.

o/

Did you follow the Faction Repair Plan?
If you did I doubt it would have taken you three weeks, but that is based on my experiences.

1. No changes needed here, the standings grind is part of the consequences of your actions. I mean what did you think you could go off and shoot at enemy factions in missions and not suffer some form of consequence for those actions.

2. If level 1 missions were for the true new players only I would agree with this. Since they are an integral part of bringing standings back up for vet players like you they need to stay as is.

3. Not a fan of this idea. Standings both positive and negative are harder to affect the closer you get to either +10 or -10 and that is how it should be. Yes this does allow those new players to mess up their standings a lot quicker, it also allows them to repair them just as quickly.

4. No tags for standings because new players. If this were a thing we would have all manor of new players going off and getting themselves blown up in BS running level 4 missions in the first week or so in the game and that would be a really bad thing to have happen.

Friends and corp mates are still a thing in this game. Considering the public claims made by the Alpha Waffles about being new new player friendly, having mentors and a community that will support you one has to wonder.
Did you even bother to ask if someone could help you with your standings? If not shame on you and for that reason alone no changes are needed to the game.
If you did and they refused what does that say about the corp you are in, and what does it say about their dedication to those ideals of being a community and offering mentors etc.