NPE - Just a thought - probably not a good one

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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So, I’ve been playing EVE a long time, and like most, will agree that the best part about the game is the community.

I’ve had several accounts since 2003 (losing some, or starting afresh… whatever). Blah blah blah…

Anyways - NPE. So… new players need community? Why not have a selection on character creation, that allows a new player to join a Player Owned Corporation (POC) instantly… (this may be something that someone has already brought up… I’m not a forum troll).

Would work something like this - POCs in EVE can “volunteer” to be apart of the NPE. Their corporation would be among the list of selectable (not sure why that’s not in the dictionary) POCs a new player could join.

The mechanics would obviously need some thought behind them - and there would obviously be a high-sec presence requirement (wouldn’t want to be dropping newbros into Null… or would we?).

Either way… give the new player the ability to choose their path, right from the start. There also have to be some kind of information about the corporation being selected… etc. etc. Likely even a limit on the number (too many choices is not always a good thing). Or maybe even tie it to Race… where volunteering POCs can choose to “represent a particular race”. This would allow you to have more corporations, spanning a wider selection. Want to join Goons immediately, you have to roll Amarr (just a thought…).

The ability to start within an NPC corp will still be there, but imagine… seeing a video of Brave, or Goons, or PHorde and joining the game, to be instantly slotted into the ranks of that corporation / alliance. Then, let the players take if from there - as was intended.

Just some thoughts… that I think would be at least… neat. I’ll let the people who actually develop the game determine if that’s something that is even a good idea, or achievable.

-Edit: Also a thought, this could allow the marketing team (What’s left of them… :confused: ) to start using Player in-game activities to be the main focus, and allowing the “I’m doing my part” marketing. And allow players to “join-up” and “pick a side”. Could be total backfire… who knows.

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I too would like to have newbies automatically join my corp and provide tax revenue until they figure out how to go elsewhere.

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That could potentially be a requirement of the specific corp they join - there could easily be conditions that need to be met prior to being “accepted” as a POC NPE corp…

Not really a good counter argument, honestly.

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Don’t these and other player corps have some pretty high bars to entry and long wait times?

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Well, not their new-player corps… Those were just examples - and almost every main player organization within this game already has hand in the New Player Alpha cookie jar… in some way.

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It’s not a bad idea, but it may involve CCP having to vet some of these corps that volunteer, to prevent trolling, incompetence, or such, which I’m not sure CCP is all that fired up to do.

There was a suggestion in another thread to give new players the option to start in low or maybe even null “starter” systems. Someplace where nearby player corps can set up shop to help newbies through the NPE, and in a way show that they are competing for their admittance. That was one idea at least but would need to be fleshed out more… :man_shrugging:

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Yeah - I think dropping players in Null is a good idea, but not without the infrastructure required… which is why I feel allowing new players to “join a cause” seems pretty interesting. And, another unique aspect they could “beat their chest too”… as no other MMO game (to my knowledge) does that.

Also - a requirement could potentially be a CCP vetted video explaining the corporation. And ISD could potentially be utilized as “auditors” of these corps, not sure how or if that could function. Whatever the criteria is, would have to be sorted first… there isn’t a whole lot I know of exploiting corporations, I’d be interested to hear what has happened in the past in terms of corporation exploitation - specifically relating to new players.

Obviously - it’s just a thought, and probably not a good one :wink: .

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Well, again, it’s not a bad idea. I think one issue is you need the framework on how you would take some of the burden off CCP on vetting volunteer corps, to have a better chance of selling the idea.

However, there may be no reason to not have an “all of the above” approach, if all the issues can be resolved. New player gets to choose from starting in npc corp in high sec, npc corp in low/null sec, or player corp at their headquarters.

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That’s kind of what I was thinking - though communicating the differences between NPC and Player Owned would have to be done really well in order to not “confuse” any prospective new players.

I think with some real thought around it, it’s something that is totally achievable, at least conceptually. From a deployment perspective… no idea. There’s probably a reason they don’t mess with the character creation side of the client, hehe.

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it may involve CCP having to vet some of these corps that volunteer, to prevent trolling, incompetence, or such, which I’m not sure CCP is all that fired up to do.

Unacceptable. CCP can not pick winners and give special privileges to certain player groups. If there is a system for newbies auto-joining player corps then it must be open to every corp that wishes to participate in the system.

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On this, I would have to agree that the idea of CCP vetting corps is unacceptable as the idea currently stands, but maybe more for time/resource reasons.

I think I kinda understand where you are coming from. I don’t have any answers in this regards, but we all know there are boneheaded or trolling groups out there. And as for new players especially, the very first moments of interaction likely may be the most important for retention, first impressions and all… I don’t feel just any group is capable of guiding new players in their first few days. And again, I don’t have answers for this, just know that the idea needs more work.

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If the idea requires CCP to pick winners and give out special privileges then it isn’t going to work and you should give up on it.

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This is a bad idea because it will benefit the larger groups but make new players just join and play the way someone else tells them to and never really learn the game. Part of Eve is making your own way.

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That’s a legitimate concern, but you can’t deny that new player organizations are beneficial to the game, rather than not. This would simply “open the doors” to those new player organizations. No one is ever “trapped” either.

Those organizations do an incredible job of getting new players up to speed, and allowing them to learn a lot of the harder aspects of the game. And I have yet to hear anyone who plays eve ever tell a “newbro” NOT to join one of those organizations anyways… usually it’s the first thing people tell new players to do.

“Join Eve-uni, or Phorde, or Karmafleet, or Brave, or…” the list goes on, but you get the point, the players are already facilitating this behavior. Why not make it easier?

New players joining those organizations tend to stay longer:

CcPs MeTrIcS SaY sO.

And at the end of the day, there would still be choice… It could be shown in such a way to make the NPC corp appeal to those “wishing to make their own way” in the verbiage when selecting NPC or POC.

Again, a legitimate argument, but easily mitigated in my opinion.

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I see where you’re coming from - I had to re-read your post.

Who says it has to be CCP, could it be CSM? And also - I agree, ideally it would be great to allow any and all corps who want to participate to participate, just not sure how effective that would be.

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Again, I think I see where you are coming from, but your post is a bit, for lack of a better term, pessimistic? Perhaps give it a bit more time for people to come up with ideas…

Tada! This is the start of a good idea maybe. Perhaps CCP approved CSM or other player-based selection process may be the better road. It’s a start at least. :sweat_smile:

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Because one option involves the players making choices and participating on an equal playing field while the other involves CCP picking who gets to benefit from automatic membership, a powerful advantage that their competition can’t benefit from.

CSM isn’t really any better because CSM members have their own agendas and would almost certainly be favoring their sides.

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Yeah - I suppose. I think you’re getting hung up on a single aspect of this.

I agreed with you that it would ideally allow any wanting corp to participate.

There has to be some kind of conditions to be met though. Such as a minimum player count, activity, etc.

Not even sure how to measure those metrics though, and how you could enforce them. It can’t simply be a free-for-all. It would also give smaller corps, something to strive for. “Let’s meet these minimum requirements, so that we can participate in new-player corporation program”. Could mitigate recruitment strains for many organizations that look for new players specifically.

If you ask me, in that way, it’s a pretty level playing field. Remove the one complaint you’ve had, and I’d be curious what other considerations you would have.

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Or maybe we could get a better corp finder tool in game and make it more noticeable for new players.

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That is equally a good idea. :slight_smile: And likely less complicated, but how to make it better?