I would like to recommend a system, including CCP produced videos with volunteer Null sec Alliance leaders and fc’s that encourage newbros to join the major newbro corps on the first day they play the game.
Also make it so they start with tier 3 frigate of the race they choose on their character. Show them how they can tackle and spam ewar on day 1 in null sec fleets from tier 1 frig hulls.
This will increase new player retention by 16600%-43200% guaranteed, like fitting a 500mn MWD to a rifter.
The corps/alliances would simply apply to CCP and make some videos with them. Then there would be a catalogue they could go through, to see if they want to be part of a giant alliance or a surgically striking and roaming mid-sized alliance.
Ever seen what a fresh tier 1 gallente pilot can bring to a roam with 2 sensor damps in a maulus?
Even after nearly 20 years EVE is still very unique among MMO’s in that soooooo much depends on your soft skills (experience) vs your hard skills (the skills your ingame train for).
Which is what makes EVE such a great analogy for RL.
You can go to school and get a degree/certification/license in whatever, come out, and not know jack-squat about how to really make a living in the field. Same with EVE. You can skill up to whatever class of ship and weapons, then go out and get killed on your first encounter.
You craft your own journey in EVE based on the choices of game play you strive for.
This is why I think null sec is the right place for new players.
They can learn from a wide plethora of veteran players on day 1 while having fun.
How many new players built their first bling mission boat, only to get smoked 10 minutes later, because no one taught them how dangerous it is to fit bling to ships in high sec (then they got mad and quit the game, instead of realizing that a t2 mod would have done 98.5% the performance of the bling mod and saved them a lot of ISK and an embarrassing lossmail!).
Overall, the “real life experience” needed to survive lowsec and highsec (while making a good profit) is actually greater than null sec. Players can learn from friendly newbro alliance how the game works, and then slowly branch themselves back into lowsec or highsec if they desire, while knowing how to conduct themselves in such places via word of mouth and other’s experiences/advice.
I"m sure 9/10 of new players quit without ever knowing null sec exists lol.
Im not against the idea, it actually sounds solid but really Nullsec should have been called Dullsec because while i made a trillion ISK in nullsec in just over a year, running anoms combat or otherwise is pretty tedious stuff and the battles are usually of two types: 120 ships vs some unfortunate Rando who went through the wrong gate at the wrong time or thousands of ships where you cannot do anything because of the lag intensity.
Also, there is a huge difference between an alliance wanting you and them actually investing in you as an individual. Most are happy to have you but you better figure things out for yourself or you are out!
Again, in favor of the idea (assuming other types of alliances can do the same thing) but massive changes in retention should not be anticipated, EVE just isnt for most people and without destroying the concept of EVE, that will never change.
I think if more new players went into null fleets, with super cheap SRP/handouts for tier 1 frigs and cruisers, nullsec wouldn’t be dullsec, cuz they’d want to fight, very much like RvB in high sec.
With ESS mechanics, they don’t have to worry about kitey bs fleets abusing them or super drops. With some basic ewar they could even put hurt on marauders that jumped into the ESS (even with 50% EWAR resists in bastion).
Also they’d be able to make enough isk ratting for a large skill injector or two to get all basic skills out of the way.
My understanding is that many of the large null corps/alliances have lots of resources, mentors, fleets etc for new members. But you have to access it and use it. Not served to you (as in life).
Once you are in, especially the largest alliances, you get lost in the numbers. I played during my time in the alliance for 8-16 hours a day mining my Rorqual fleet because of that, I was on the primary comms all the time and speaking because what else are you going to do buring down mountain sized asteroids?
Even though there were only about 20 ‘regulars’ on the comms I doubt that after speaking for more than a year as much as I mentioned above, I doubt there was one person on those comms that could have told you my avatars name by hearing my voice alone (I learned all of theirs within about 2 weeks).
This is what I mean by not being invested in and to be honest, I believe other alliances would be even worse in this particuar way.
Btw, your snipe and implication that I feel that everyone should ‘serve’ me did not go unnoticed but since it is both inapplicable in my case and rude, I will leave my acknowledgement that it did not go unnoticed as my only response to it.
