Varying perspectives on EVE Online's new player experience
by James Egan 
Mar 17th 2009 at 1:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, Reviews, Opinion
The sci-fi massively multiplayer online game EVE Online has long been known for its harsh setting but also for its (almost) equally unforgiving learning curve. That is, until the Apocrypha expansion launched, bringing EVE's New Player Experience (NPE) with it. CCP Games aims to slowly ease new players into what is a rather complex game, giving them a feel for what they can already do and what they want to do in New Eden over time.
So how well does the New Player Experience for EVE Online tackle the difficulties of learning how to play one of the most complex MMOs on the market? Writing for Eurogamer, both Jim Rossignol and Oli Welsh write about the New Player Experience. Rossignol, from the viewpoint of a veteran player, and Welsh from the fresh perspective of a rookie. The end result is an overview of how EVE has changed, including a revamped tutorial and Neural Remapping (attribute respecs), as well as Epic Mission Arcs that allow players to make choices in how EVE's mission storylines progress.
While Rossignol praises some aspects of the NPE, he faults others, such as the fact that corporation (guild) recruitment still isn't explained to rookies well enough. Welsh's take on EVE as a rookie starts off with a sentiment many new players share. He writes, "I've been subjected to so much evangelism and scaremongering - sometimes in the same breath - from the players of EVE Online that when I finally approached the game itself this week, I did so with a mixture of awe and fear." That sounds about right.
Welsh explains that some of his apprehension wasn't necessary at all. He had a smooth experience with installation, progressing through character creation and tearing through the tutorial missions. Surprisingly, he states that the user interface (often maligned by gamers coming to EVE from other MMOs) is "staggeringly, eye-openingly easy."
Welsh's main criticism of EVE Online is that getting through the introductory experiences means the game progresses at a glacial pace. "In its early stages... the game feels like you're playing in a bubble, and although I was absorbed, I know I haven't encountered the real EVE Online. Its universe is still out there, somewhere," writes Welsh. Check out Eurogamer's take on EVE's New Player Experience for more on how the game is changing to bring more gamers into the fold.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
moo said on 1:12PM 3-17-2009
I hate it and think it takes even longer to get into the game and is a step back. They still make you choose the same things really as you did before in the character creation and they said it would be all on one screen and it isn't The only difference now is you don't choose attributes at the creation and you can do it in the game which I really don't see how that helps as the character creation before told you esactly what each attrbute does. They took away the voice on the tutorial so now you have to read the whole thing and you know I can't be bothered to read it all, I liked listening.
Now you have hardly any skills and have to buy them all and spend ages training them, when before you had all the basic skills you needed and you could get into what you wanted to do straight away, aswel as do the tutorial. Now you have no choice but to do the tutorial.
Learning skills are also still there to piss off new players after they've finished training up the basics. I really don't see the need in them but to be boring and make you not want to play.
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Delousion said on 10:07AM 3-18-2009
aww.. want a cookie? or do you just want your mmo experience spoon fed to you?
Yoh said on 4:13PM 3-17-2009
As a seasoned player coming back to EVE and trying out the NPE for myself, I can see where your coming from, but I don't completely agree.
A lot of the overwhelming features that used to be there have been taken out, and overall it feels like a easier curve to get over.
But my main gripe is the same as yours, that it just takes a very long time just to get upto scratch, where you had that coming out of the gate before, and that is a step backwards. x2 training speed is not enough.
However, it is something, and there is a fair likelihood that CCP will revisit the NPE and adjust when necessary.
Overall, its not so much a step backward, as a step to the side.
Is it perfect? hell no.
Is it better that before.... maybe, time will tell.
moo said on 5:52PM 3-17-2009
The thing is when ever game launched as a new player the game wasn't complex and I played from launch and I understood what to do. The only reason the game seems more complex now is because the veterans are way ahead of the noobs and there are more ships.
What the game needs is a SP cap like SWG where you can only train so many skills at the same time and if you want to learn something new and hit the cap then you have to drop skills and train new things. Obviously this will mean skill train times to drop and things to be changed with the current skill system to suit but this is needed as the current system rewards veterans too much and harms new players. The only thing that should really be the difference of new players and veterans is experience with the game.
W. Graves said on 4:23PM 3-17-2009
as far as alt creation goes... this is a huge step back, but as far as a truly NEW player experience, one of my friends joined up and hasn't had a question yet(started sunday afternoon)... so they must be doing something right!
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briannewton said on 4:44PM 3-17-2009
Most of your concerns only apply to people making alts Moo. The new player changes aren't for you. They're for people who haven't played the game before. Simplifying character creation and putting confusing things like stats, starting skills etc in the game itself instead of at the very start where people have no idea what they do I think is a great idea.
Now, I agree with you that learning skills are a silly idea because in order to be most efficient you're told to train skills which make it so you can't play for weeks. That's a bad intro for a newbie.
Also, I agree with the Eurogamer article that notes that the game doesn't do a good enough job of showing you what's in store for you later in the game and getting you involved with corps. Most players are going to come to EvE and treat it as a solo MMO and just do agent missions. If that's their only impression, they're only experiencing about 5% of the game, and one of the more boring parts at that.
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Kaamos said on 7:17PM 3-17-2009
The NPE is better than what is was before, this time i invested in the retail box, and the improved xp bonus along with the planned 24 hour period of skill training makes it a much easier animal to tame... thus far.
It feels more attractive, at least.
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Kaamos said on 7:19PM 3-17-2009
The NPE is better than what is was before, this time i invested in the retail box, and the improved xp bonus along with the planned 24 hour period of skill training makes it a much easier animal to tame... thus far.
It makes the game more attractive at least.
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TrevHead said on 9:23PM 3-17-2009
Still it would be nice to have the old sytem there just for the creation of alts as many of the 'out of the box alts' have now gone (amarr hauller,research and market alts)
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bongo123 said on 6:08AM 3-18-2009
Im gonna give this game another shot (this will be my 3rd time!) i love space, sci-fi and think the actual story behind eve is fantastic but everytime i went to play i just couldnt get past the boringness of it, that and the bloody tutorial..
Now everyone keeps harping on about get into a corp and the game opens up, how exactly does it open up for a newbie? its not like we can start PVPing in our wittle ships, so what does being a member of a corp offer?
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Mer Mann said on 6:29AM 3-18-2009
Small ships are great tacklers when working in a gang . they lock the target down fast and hold it until reinforcements arrive.
EVE PVP demands a mixed bag of ships, so small ships definitely have their place.
W. Graves said on 9:19AM 3-18-2009
in our corp we use new players as tackles and scouts in PVP and salvagers in PVE. New players have plenty to do if they want it bad enough.
GoingGrey said on 6:36AM 5-14-2009
I am a brand-spanking-new EVE player. Heard of EVE for the first time 5 days ago, and decided to give it a try. So far, I find the new player experience very good, although frankly, EVE is still very overwhelming!
There are definetly some areas of improvement tho - in some ways, it isn't nearly idiot-proofed enough!! Some of those newbie missions don't give you enough information or are misleading in their descriptions, others send you to fight pirates too early, when you still are in a Velator, because you haven't even learned how to buy a new ship much less had enough time to train skills that will help you survive even the lamest of NPCs! Well, at least the Velator is free :) Don't ask how many I used to kill just a few simple little NPCs on my first kill mission *grins* ...it's embarrassing.
I have one huge complaint/annoyance with the career track tutorial missions. This one mission, can't remember the name, but it is #8 of 10, and I was supposed to build and transport a ship that requires 500m3 of cargo space, but at the time (day two of playing) I wasn't at a skill level yet where I could buy (or build) a ship that can hold 500m3 of cargo... so I go off and do a different career path mission arc, which at the end of the arc does give me a ship that can hold lots of cargo... but I can't USE the ship because I haven't trained Gallante Industrial, and I can't train Gallante Industrial, because I am still in a trial account!! Frustrating and annoying! Having a newbie mission that can't be completed without the benefit of a ship granted to me through a different newbie mission that I can't use as a, well, newbie! Obviously, it's a tactic to "encourage" you to whip out the credit card and upgrade to a paid account... frankly, it's a pissy tactic, one that almost made me just log off and stop playing. Putting up roadblocks to new players that occur within a day or two of first starting to play is a good way to lose potential long-term paying players. But I still have 9 days left on my free trial... I like to take full advantage of free trials :)
BTW, to finish that mission, on day four of playing, I bought a Catalyst ship, threw on some cargo hold expanders, which gave me just barely enough room to move that ship and finish the mission. The Catalyst has been a great investment for me - I put 6 125mm rail guns, a salvager, and a mining thing on it, those railguns make these newbie npc kill missions almost a cake walk, and I can double or triple the payout by mining the asteroids and salvaging the alien wrecks once I've finished the mission objective, without the hassle of having to warp back to the station, swap configs, warp back to the encounter point, salvage and mine, then warp back to the station and let the agent know I have finished the mission.
Speaking of annoying *grins* it is annoying that while a mission is running, I can find asteroids to take advantage of in the encounter areas, but if I complete the mission and go back to that same space, the asteroids are gone!! Obviously I've figured out a way around it...it's so hard for a new player to find asteroids in the so-called asteroid belts... so far every single one I've been to has been completely empty...on the other hand, I've not trained the skills necessary to use a scanner or probe or whatever it is I need to maybe find them. On the other hand, it is good that the missions throw asteroids into them that you can mine, provided you think outside the box and set up your ship so you can multi-task: fly in, destroy pirates, salvage, mine, rinse and repeat.
I like the fact I have had to train skills right from the beginning - it allows me to learn exactly what each skill is and does, and allows me to cherry-pick the skills I want most now, so I can take advantage of that 100% training time bonus most effectively. Just giving me a bunch of skills right from the beginning with a brief explanation doesn't "teach" me anything - and could end up leading me down a path of wasted time advancing skills I didn't need.
I *adore* the people manning the zoo that is known as Rookie Chat. Helpful, friendly, they answer super-fast, they never get annoyed at answering the same newbie questions over and over and over again, and go out of their way to make you feel like you aren't an idiot, even when you are :) It would be nice if there was some sort of 'bot or something in that chat that would automatically ban/block the spammers flooding the channel.
Wish they would finish already with the 1.2 patch... 2 more hours hopefully and I'll be able to get back in the game!! :)
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