At this time it's pretty much useless to state your issues or opinion on the matter, we tried this for every iteration before it went live, we tried this as it went live. At some point you just have to come to the conclusion that new CCP hasn't really made any positive changes compared to old CCP on the subject of iteration, features and making sure stuff works before implementing it.

They either can't see it, don't want to see it or (by default) discard player input.

Boo hoo, solipsistic party of one.

It really isn't difficult to come up with a meaningful NPE, it just isn't. It doesn't take more than 20-30 minutes of brain storming to think of something a whole lot better than what we have. And given that they still haven't even TRIED to make something slightly less terrible, to me, is an indication that they can't or won't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92Ge2S8M1Y

they do, they have, just because they have not hit it out of the park does not mean they are not trying

m

There's some good ideas in there but it's not really a solution to the stated issue, mostly because it talks about stuff AFTER the first exposure to EVE. The NPE (as in the tutorial as a whole in whatever form) should create SUCH a pull, a hunger for more EVE with all kinds of memorable situations, while at the same time showcasing different aspects of the game enticing people to look beyond the "must grind, man this is boring". Giving them enough momentum to make them get past the initial hurdles.

And that is doable. You don't need focus groups, graphs and numbers for that. All one needs is creativity and the will (and capability) to make changes.

... "yeah that'll do" mentality.

The NPE (as in the tutorial as a whole in whatever form) should create SUCH a pull, a hunger for more EVE with all kinds of memorable situations, while at the same time showcasing different aspects of the game enticing people to look beyond the "must grind, man this is boring". Giving them enough momentum to make them get past the initial hurdles.

That's called Agile development.

That's called Agile development.

I call it mediocrity.

"Good enough for government work."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92Ge2S8M1Y

they do, they have, just because they have not hit it out of the park does not mean they are not trying

m

Could you clarify if you think that is a positive or negative comment?

I'd say right now NPE should encourage grouping with people willing to guide and teach. I think I'm only here because I was told to join a corp long before I installed the game, heh.

NPE won't fix attitude though. I was following certain community recently and what can I say... Only newbies that aren't ridiculed there are ones that come and display understanding of mech, ability to use EFT / dotlan / other utilities in their first post. In short, people who aren't really those newbies who rely on NPE, whatever it is. That can't be fixed by CCP.

Q: 'Attributes aren't very interesting, you should remove them'
A: Again, we agree. Team Size Matters discussed removing them on the o7 show (or some other public venue) awhile back and it's still something we are very interested in. We need to figure out a good way to handle all the learning implants in the game though, which is actually a difficult problem. If any of you have awesome ideas for how to handle it don't hesitate to make suggestions.

an alternative way of distributing the 1-2 mil SP to new players is by giving this power to corporations. if corporations actively seek to host training events and training programs and tournaments for rookies then both parties can profit from this event. rookies get SP boosts in the right direction (depending on what type of program the corporation is hosting), the corporations get a steady supply of new recruits. and best of all no unnecessary SP needs to be given out, only the rookie decides what SP boost he wants by choosing a training program that is being offered.

We've seen many posts this week on starting skills and the NPE as a whole (especially on reddit :) so I thought you might like a small status update on these things.

Let's do it as a kind of FAQ format and if I miss something major let me know.

1.
Q: 'Opportunities are bad, they've made the NPE much worse'
A: As you know, we did a lot of testing on this system and would not have pushed it out to 100% of new players if it was doing damage. That said, it isn't doing enormously better than the old tutorial and we think there is still lots of room for improvement. We have an iteration plan already in place which we will begin testing within the next couple weeks.

2.
Q: 'Can we send new players to career agents since that's what veteran players are recommending anyway'
A: Yes. This is one of the changes on our plan to try and test very shortly. We will probably have an Opportunity to go to career agents somewhere early in the Opportunity path.

3.
Q: 'Starting skills are a huge barrier, can we give a lot more to new players'
A: Yes. But this is not a simple change. You guys seem fairly agreed that the small amount of starting skills, combined with a high amount of 'must have' support and requirement skills, leads to some really icky barriers to participation for new players. We are inclined to agree and we are in the process of laying out a plan to address the problem. Nothing is set in stone yet but it seems likely that we will try and move new players towards starting with significantly more SP. Maybe between 1 and 2 million. It also seems likely that we will probably avoid any major skill reworks or skill removals. As this plan solidifies you will hear more from us.

4.
Q: 'Attributes aren't very interesting, you should remove them'
A: Again, we agree. Team Size Matters discussed removing them on the o7 show (or some other public venue) awhile back and it's still something we are very interested in. We need to figure out a good way to handle all the learning implants in the game though, which is actually a difficult problem. If any of you have awesome ideas for how to handle it don't hesitate to make suggestions.

Each topic probably deserves more detail but I think waiting until things are slated for release to go deeper probably makes sense.

One last note: even if we aren't actively posting in these discussions on reddit or elsewhere, we are avid readers of community content and it helps us enormously to see your discussions (don't take that as a 'CCP PLS' posts are awesome though :P)

o/