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I've played alot of MMOs for over a decade now, what i can say is that the weird thing about Eve is that some of the things that drives away players from it are also the things that keep some (or most?) people to play the game, for example :

• Long skill train to reach point X. Say if i want to fly something, like a proper skilled scimitar, it would take me months from scratch, but it will also give me a greater sense of achievement and also appreciation for an investment that i've made for a virtual thing that i can't get (or never got) from any other MMO i've played so far.


• Death in Eve, is real, in a virtual sense. This one's pretty obvious, i know a lot of people who'll laugh when they compare death in Eve and any other MMOs. Death in Eve would mean that you'd lose something, permanently, whether it's isk/ship, skillpoints or *cough* spacehonour. This, in some cases, drives new players away, and from what i've seen so far, probably because of shock. My first death was 'horrible' in a sense that i've never had that kind of impact from dying in a game before. But afterwards, i see it differently, when i became a victim of people shooting at me, that would mean that if i do the same thing to them, it should have the same impact or if it doesn't, at least they'll lose something and not just magically respawn somewhere. This was also an appealing aspect for me and i'm sure to a lot of other players aswell.


• Eve, without a doubt, has the steepest learning curve in an MMO (or from those that i've played so far). This means that Eve has an equal size of complexity, meaning that Eve also has the broadest gameplay content i've seen, i rarely (if ever) seen anyone who knows 'everything' about Eve, even after many years of playing, so that means, more things to explore to try out new things.


• Eve also has one of the harshest environment and social interaction i've seen, there are practically no limitations to what people can do, or done to others, you can be polite if you want, you can be a jerk if you want, you can even scam others and it was perfectly legal (well, it used to be). While it seems like a bad thing in an MMO, to some extent this part of Eve actually attracts people seeing that they won't be bound by any sort of rules aside from their own (aside from the EULA ofc). This also promotes a more diverse social interaction and gives out more chance for people to build their own community to what they envisioned.

Although to a lot of people this seems not 'important', i find it weird that an MMO this good, i mean, the graphics, the gameplay, the content are all 10/10 in my book, but the UI made it feel like i'm playing spreadsheet-online instead of spaceship MMO. I wish there are planned changes regarding the UI in whole, because i agree, as far as the UI goes, iteration really aren't enough, this game is one of the best, or probably the best there is out there, but the UI really doesn't represent how good Eve truly is.

From the feedback I have had off friends and family trying out Eve it is the initial training time to do anything useful that puts them off. I would suggest tying SP rewards into the tutorial missions, doesn't have to be much say 2-3M SP given over the course of the tutorial so that they can get on track a bit quicker. Don't see the harm in that.

And i am going to pick on you since I have heard this argument so many times.
If you really want to experience like a new player, start afresh, no isk, no friends and tell me if that's true, that a 2M SP player is same as 20M SP player.

A) most new players are unskilled in pvp and do not have focus to put 2M SP in a single career

B) eve is incredibly boring if you can do only 1 thing. A 20M SP character can get in cov ops to try null sec, next day he/she can get in hulk to mine, just get in a plex running ship because his friends found a good site. A new player can't. The iinitial investment required from SP standpoint is the single biggest factor why new players run away from this game.

..fixed that for you.

I think the bit on fitting guides would be good, but keep it simple. Actually trying to explain fitting and cover a diverse line of ships is a complicated and lengthy procedure no matter how you look at it. The fact there are different rules for each class and race of ships just makes it more so

I think the most effective means would be to incorporate it into a short lesson which covered the basics of the UI and specifically the fitting screen and saved fittings. Provide 2 or 3 basic fits for race specific frigates that will be readily available and grant another frigate prepped for the next series of tutorials and show them how to save the fitting once they get into it. Simple, easy, and rewarding

With regards to the actual fitting explanation itself, a basic description of each module and why it's there as well as how it impacts the ships capabilities and performance should be enough. Also, it would help if you've made sure they would have all required skills trained by this point.

One of the problems with tutorials that I've noticed is quite often you get the skill before you're ready to train it, and often it is hours or sometimes days before you can actually have it at the level that the tutorial requires. I might be exagerating on days, but I'm pretty sure one skill and prereqs during a tutorial I did some time ago required me to wait a full day to continue

Time and continuation is important in tutorials. You can't have the only option being to sit in space or log off while the player waits for the next step in the tutorial to become practical to continue or available. I think that's an important point

Aside from that, I think a good intro would be to cover the star map with a more detailed animated scene and show the current state of affairs in Nullsec as well as Incursion sites, all in real time. So whatever the current sov status is for Nullsec could be loaded on gamestart and represented on this map, and the Intro could highlight various area and show names the names of the Alliances controling them

Following that, it could identify the position of EVE Gate with a brief introduction clip and highlight current Sansha Incursions with warnings to indicate the high threat status of these areas, then proceed to identify Lowsec regions and finally wind down into their current location and an introduction to their clone status and finally give them the option of entering hangar or CQ with a brief explanation of requirements etc.

After that it could proceed into the initial stages of introduction to skill training and proceed into proper tutorials. Effectively we're looking at a solid introduction to EVE through history, background on gameplay, current events, and a lead off into gameplay

Just my thoughts on the subject, but its been awhile since I did any tutorials and I've never really seen the new player experience as I usually skip it. I suppose you might say if it isn't interesting or engaging enough to try at least once for an experienced player, it's probably not enough to gain the interest of a newer player. A lot of that is just knowing that it isn't really going to cover anything you don't already know though.

edit: Of course, you might also change that up a bit depending on what Faction and Race is chosen or to some degree on what background is chosen. Possibly even return to some form of initial career option like we used to have without actually going back to attribute restrictions and initial skill allotments.

Basically, just an initial career choice option that doesn't really have to stick but guides the initial introduction and tutorials, after which they can rethink things, (you have to let them know at this point as I've seen many players ask if they are being forced into this or restricted to set career goals as many games do), and decide if they want to choose another path without it being necessary to start over.

They may want to anyway, just so they can see another optional intro and what would happen if they had made another choice. I know I went through nearly every optional start the first time I played EVE just to find out what skills and attributes were alloted to each character type and background at startup.

Comparatively, the new avatars with the current character development resulted in seeing what clothing was optional depending on where your character was from and what you could look like. Of much more superficial value when you think about it and certainly not indicative of gameplay or granting any knowledge of skill progression and selection or even the value of attributes and how they are applied to the training process.

Not saying it's bad, just that it cut a lot of primary information and replaced it with clothing and less intellectual properties.

edit2: Something else you might want to consider is an introductory skill tree for the current path showing training times and an optomised skill plan, and how to focus their skill points to get the most out of it while still remaining versatile for alternative training.

Possibly give a one-time "remap to this," or "begin with this attribute slection" option that doesn't count towards their initial remaps but suggests a starting point instead prior to beginning any skill training. It would of course have to remain somewhat generalized to prevent undue expoitation.

Waaaay too late in the piece, I know. If anyone from CCP is reading this, Crompton Aberforth posted a thread back when she started playing about the issues she was having with the NPE: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=53598