Gatekeeping for new players?

Communications Center General Discussion
21

First off, you’re not doing anything wrong. EVE Online simply isn’t matching your initial expectations of the game. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact that is probably one of the great learning experiences most players have in common.

We all come to EVE with a set of expectations, find out our expectations only take us so far, and then we adapt.

EVE’s “progression curve” is, imo, adaptable to each individual player. Within the design of EVE there is a framework that allows for each player to write his or her own story, i.e. personalized content.

Yes, we all share the same npc “themes” to choose from to write our stories, farming deds, plexing, missioning, mining, building, hauling, etc.; but, that’s not the game. That’s just the back ground we choose for our personalized version of the game. The game is rescuing a lost player in a wh, it’s setting a trap, its escaping a trap, it’s undercutting the market competition, it’s organizing and collaborating with other players to accomplish mutual, or complimentary, and sometimes even contradictory goals.

Interacting with other players is the game. All the npc stuff simply supports that, that interaction between players.

When I was two months into the game, I went on an adventure, in EVE. After soliciting advice on the EVE forums, of that time, I plotted a course and took a 3.3 million isk atron and went to an area of the game, named Curse. I got caught in gate camps, escaped, was chased by others, “coursed” might be a better description, shot at by more still, and just generally had a wonderful time. And I made it back alive, in my atron, which I still have to this day.

That trip is one of my favorite memories. Those memories can’t be taken from me.

That is the game.

So, when @Aiko_Danuja wrote:

she wasn’t joking. Farming isk

can, as you put it, burn you out.

As others have written, and has been advised since my newbie days at the very least, and I’ve been playing since 2013, find a group. Your group will support you. And, if they don’t, leave and find another group. It is very common for new players to switch groups, until they find one, that one group, they “click with”.

Then, you’ll start playing the game.

To put it simply, you’re missing the forest for the trees.

“Certain forms of content” are the players you play EVE with.

“Generate a good influx of currency”, well there is multiplicity of meanings there.

I’ll start with:

  1. Friendship, friendship which leads to, or can lead to,
  2. Ship replacement,
  3. New player packages of skill books and ship hulls,
  4. Group isk making activities
  5. Getting your “back covered” so you have friends show up to defend you, so you don’t lose your ship to start.
  6. Being gifted a new ship, when you’re personable, reliable, and just generally a decent, all around good sport.

A good attitude, if you look, will lead you to good friends, and the good friends will lead you to isk. It is as simple as that.

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22

This is the game for me:

“Take Isk → Buy things → Kill Things → Repeat”.

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23

But as you are mostly suicide ganking in HS, do you not also “lose things” as you “kill things”? :thinking:

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Fixed it for you. You’re welcome.

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25

So if I understand this correctly the trick to avoid getting killed by Aiko is to not be an ‘easy target’?

How do I do that?

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26

Fly faster or shoot better..

27

Many of the ships that get ganked are the same ships I’m flying, including even T3 ships, battleships, etc. It baffles me, for example, how anyone can get ganked in a ship with potentially 300K of EHP from ADC. Oh….wait…that person didn’t have ADC fitted.

And its the same story over and over for these ‘easy targets’. Most of them badly fitted. Many with no rigs, no real thought to proper tank, and so on. I’ve seen cases where I’ve looked at a fitting and doubled the EHP within a minute with a few simple changes.

The other day someone was using a Sunesis to transport expensive stuff, and on being ganked by just one Coercer I looked at their fitting and they had just 2.5K of EHP….an above 2 seconds align time…and empty slots. My own transport Sunesis has 18K of EHP and 1.75 seconds align time….and has never been ganked.

Most of the ‘easy targets’ are people who make themselves so.

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28

It’s not an instant gratification game.

It takes years to improve your skills, or a lot of money.

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29

Note: The following is general information to all players.

Eve Online is very slow to progress alpha or omega. The omega will boost the skill rate double. All of my friends, I have invited here to play Eve Online, know I never tell them to buy omega on day one. In fact, this is my teaching method;

Day one, set yourself up with 3 characters on 1 account and choose one to be your miner, another to be the hauler, and the third to be your fighter. Next in chat there is a “+” to add groups. Mike’s Skill Plans or the Magic 14 is what you should use to train the fighter over the first month. Your fighter will eventually become the PvE/PvP character.

Meanwhile you jump to any one of the 12 career schools and start learning to play. My friend and neighbor who I will call “Lady X” didn’t follow this step. She started the fighter training and left the game for a month or more. I suspect none of her characters are fully finished any of the school missions to this day. The 45 school missions can be repeated at the other schools. They have a time bonus. but you don’t need to rush them. These missions will train you in mining, hauling, and fighting.

Once you get into this process and better trained, in your second or third month or when your at 5 million XP, you can buy omega and it will actually pay off. Keep in mind there is an exponential curve to learning these skills, and the higher skill tier will be long even at omega. At 5 million XP, with the proper skill set, your characters will achieve better results. Omega will open up all the ship access, however you can’t be flying those ships, until you train the needed skill set for them.

This is why most of the people I have invited to play Eve are still here. I didn’t cram omega down their throats on day one. I tend to look at getting omega when needed. I question, am I going to be active enough to warrant buying omega? I personally never buy omega long term, as I am a casual player. At present, I have enough ISK to buy 500 PLEX to get omega, I will save this for winter when I am stuck inside.

I am not as nasty as Jer here who managed to get his alpha level capped at 20 million, then quit the game. However he does show you it can be done with some free omega boosts. He used Recruit a Friend omega bonus. This 20 million SP took him over one year with the free omega.

@RTry_Harder there is no way CCP will allow the whale, with the deepest of pockets, to fly a titan in their first week. Yes, they have a pay wall and yes they keep the new player from jumping in on day one and making an uber character. New characters will remain weak and helpless and it is intentional.

Fly safe o7

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Really?

I think that you’re very wrong.

CCP will let anyone buy any amount of injectors to skill up as far as they want.

You might not have been around when injectors came out and a guy pumped 200 million skill points into one new character after he bought them on the market.

I believe he maxed all available skills that we had at the time.

If you have very deep pockets you can fly a Titan on the first day, or week.

Whether you’ll understand all those skills and be a competent pilot is another matter.

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31

Umm newsflash.. If a whale can buy their way to something. A whale will do it. In any game. That is what whales do so. It is the nature of the beast when it comes to whales. They have more money than actual cents.. err sense..

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Theres the article of when he did it.

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33

Then according to this newsflash, you are stating, the game is pay to win. It is Boolean operation ( like a light switch on or off ) and you can’t have it set both ways. Pick one.

Have fun! o7

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You’re making the classic mistake of turning a systemic issue into an individual blame game. Yes, some pilots fly poorly fit ships. Yes, some even leave slots empty. But pretending that is the whole story is disingenuous.

The reality is that gankers do not need to wait for “bad fits.” They run math and bring exactly the number of Catalysts needed to erase even well-fit, brick-tanked ships. That is why freighters with 400k+ EHP still die regularly in high-sec. It is not because they forgot an ADC, it is because the system allows attackers to stack limitless force with near-zero risk until the target is doomed.

Your Sunesis example proves the opposite of your point. Gankers do not hunt “only” careless pilots, they hunt every pilot who passes through chokepoints, then cherry-pick the weakest first. That does not make it balanced gameplay, it just makes it predictable predation.

And let us not ignore the elephant in the room. You are presenting this like it is a neutral analysis, when in reality it lines up perfectly with ganker talking points. “Just fit better” is the same tired line we have heard for years, while the people doing the ganking face no symmetrical requirement to fit, risk, or engage on equal terms.

So yes, bad fits die faster, but pretending that is the root of the problem is smoke and mirrors. The real issue is that the mechanics themselves reward one-sided ambushes over actual combat.

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35

It is the whole story. I regularly fly through ganker filled systems and in 4 years have not been ganked. I’ve flown a totally unarmed 550m worth of Guardian through Uedama numerous times without being ganked….to give just one example of many.

I have fittings with 40K EHP or so that could easily be demolished by a fleet of 6 or 7 Catalysts. Yet they aren’t. Perhaps I know how to play the game so I don’t get ganked :slight_smile:

That contradicts your own earlier point. One minute you are denying that weak ships are the issue…and the next you are stating that is precisely the issue.

I am regularly in the ganker channel. I get to see most of the fits. Most of the ganked ships are fitted badly…..ironically even by a member of a corp who I know is responsible for ship doctrines.

There are two primary causes of being ganked. Bad fittings, and not paying attention ( or even being AFK ). An alert person is FAR less likely to be ganked. A person with a scout….even less so. Most people simply don’t grasp that THE best time to go through a system is ironically just after the gankers go flashy….which means they have already just ganked something. It is the accumulation of little bits of info like this that prevent a person being ganked.

It’s a lot better than playing the entitled victim.

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36

They don’t gank their allies.

I know that’s a “radical idea”, but you may want to consider it while looking down from your high horse.

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Asy in any MMO today and as Eternus8lux8lucis showed his post. That if a players wants to pay to win. CCP will be happy to take the money. Did you think think there was a limit as to how much blue goo a player can buy or boosters? Really?

Even in the much smaller and niche game that I play. It is entirely possible for a player to pay to win. Welcome to the 2020’s where since the mid to late 2010’s a whale can pay to win in almost any MMO.

Any gaming studio and company knows that a good chunk of their actual sales comes from whales. And being able to get ahead can always be bought. The only reason that most MMO’s are not seen as being pay to win. Is that the paying to win does not really get the whale any real advantage in the long run.

Therein lies the difference. Eve Online is still a marathon and not a sprint. Being able to buy your way into a Titan is possible, but without the experience of flying any other ship than a tech 1 frigate. It does the whale no good. He just becomes a pretty fireball in the sky. Lighting up the immediate sky with his very expensive fireworks.

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Actually I do know a few gankers.. And yeah, they would certainly gank me given the chance. Seriously though I make semi regular trips to Jita. I have come close a couple of times of being ganked. Fortune has been on my side. One player chased me from Jita into New Caldari. I ran for the nearest station.

Just because I know a few gankers does not make me immune. Just the other day I was busy mining in my retriever. Saw on dscan that a ship was coming in my direction. When he popped up on my overview and on grid. I was already warping out. I assure you that I knowing gankers is not going to save me from being ganked.

I have no illusions about that . I have learned in the last year and half to use every tool I can to not get ganked. People shoot at one another regularly. Even people who know each other or are friends.

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39

For ways to skill up, there is remapping but that is very long term, 1 year of 1 type of skills., then switch for year 2.

Not intended to take pauses,. but intended to play without having max skills. This isn’t WoW / SWTOR where you are meant to level to max in 30 days / 24 hours, and then raid every night at Y o clock in order to maintain your ilvl that is increased every expansion. Originally in Eve there was nothing but attributes, and skilling up did take years - but it was really cool when you did get new skills.

Exploration is one of the good incomes, if you look back at missions fx, the very peak of that income is what you are already getting, so from an income perspective, it will only a be a downgrade.

If you want to get into FW, then dive in, avoid corps that expect you to P2W 200million SP to max skill before they will play with you, there ought to be some that take actual new players around still.

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Lol. I’m not the one on the high horse…that would be you. I’m simply relating facts against your wild opinion.

Actually my personal corp is allied to Absolute Order…most of whom will see me as blue and vice versa. I am friendly towards gankers and support the ganking cause, but its nonsense to suggest I am ‘allied’ to any ganking group. They would just as soon gank me…and I’ve never asked for any preferential treatment nor would I want it.

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