Change newbie area Antimatter charges to iron charges

Just a quick note I started a new Gallente combat character and one of the first rewards where a bunch of Anti Matter charges. Needless to say Anti Matter charges using a 75mm rail gun can not hit the side of a barn for a brand new character. I would switch this out to iron charges or Iridium as they have a 20% range boost. Needless to say this is not a good situation for a new Eve Online player. Anti matter charges missed 90% of the time on a small rat ship.

A player should know that they should be at their weapon’s optimal range to have better performance. Adding 20% range is not going to help new players hit better if they don’t know to be at that range. Now if that same ammo gives better tracking speed, then by all means, use that ammo instead as that would actually help rails hit, BUT iirc only T2 Javelin ammo gives a tracking speed bonus and newbros will not have the skill to use them.

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K I just started a character, just starting the new player tutorial and loaded the anti matter charges provided to me. I could not hit the target at 500 meters. So i warped out and loaded iron charges. I killed the rat ship very quickly. That is not a good situation for someone new to eve online. What will he think when the supplied ammunition can hot hit the target and now know why. Maybe add a ammunition and what they do part to the tutorial.

Were you orbiting at 500m or keeping at range…that would produce two very different results. I do think that there should be some changes to the NPE to explain how tracking and hitting works better. Transversal is what is likely causing your issue, not optimal range.

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I am confused as iron/antimatter have no tracking changes. While at 500m I can see small rails having some trouble tracking (150 tracking rate on newbie skills compared to 400 on blasters for example) But Iron ammo wouldn’t help that.

On checking with a fresh-ish toon, 75mm rails will struggle to hit at 1500m (orbiting at 500 ends up actually being around 1500). I popped 1 with antimatter at 4500m on the way in, and then couldn’t hit the remaining 2 in the close orbit. “Leaving and returning” with iron ammo, was able to drop both during the approach again as damage started being applied around 13km when tracking is negligible.

Tutorials should probably include a primer on how to check your optimal range and set your default orbit.

Hi was thinking and problems like not being able to hit a target with antimatter charges can be very bad for new player retention as someone will start the game and possibly just quit after such a situation. Eve does a lot to get people to play Omega but should also look into new player retention as some players will probably choose to play Omega.

You’re not supposed to fight at 500 meters with railguns. They’re long range weapons.

Load the ammo you have (antimatter or anything else), look at the optimal range of your weapon with that ammo and then fight at that range.

For railguns that won’t be 500 meters, that is blaster range.

Darn did not try that might check it later on with Antimatter charges as they have a negative fall off range.

Maybe this is a lesson in tracking speed?