New players starting

[LotuS]

I think we have been thinking of tons of sugestions to help new players learn the game, make it fun for them, make them stick with it. But one idea we never touched was what exactly they start with.

Right now they get....
Newbie merchant vessel (1/2)
40 cargo holds
200 turns?
a laser
5000 cash
No help or tutorial
0 relations
0 maps

This has to be daunting to someone who is for the first time seeing the game. I have heard the game is weird until you get used to it(links ect) but they prolly browse alot of the links and dont find much related to help. most newbies dont read the manual. they probably start moving around, find a port, if they dont know how to bargain, they might just accept the price and wont figure out how to make exp or anything. short end of the stick is that most new players dont know how to do anything and they got bare minimum equipment to help them figure it out.

I think we should make some changes... here is what I sugest we do.

For people ranked newbie or beginer
-When they first join the game and enter it. They have a personal msg waiting for them in their inbox with a explination of basic gameplay, explain alliances, give links to manual, IRC, #smr-help room explained, and some helpful websites.
-Start in newbie merchant vessel. Start it with full cargo/shields/armor/scanner(add). so 1/6 rating, this will also not let level 1 ports kill them in 1 shot!
-Start with 500 turns. why? because what do you do when you see a new game. you wander around and try to figure out what is what and whats this whats that. your not thinking about i goto find a good route and maximize my exp/cash gain. they dont know any of this. so lets give them some room for error and be glad if one of them manages to get some decent exp!
-Boost newbie turns to 1000 at start of game. rest of game would still be 500. help them stay out of a pod for a little while longer.
-Start them with 900 or so relations with their own race, so they only have to trade a little while to start geting exp.
-Start them with 50k on ship and 100k in their personal bank accounts.
-When they die. They should be able to get a free newbie merchant vessel again at their HQ.

Benefits! oh ya!
Suddenly, recruiting newbs aint such a bad idea! if you train them, they can become very profitable for your alliance! I think the smart alliances would bring in new players each game to help get themselves a little lead on the competition!

[Ardbeg]

The idea is a very good one on the surface, unfortunately it crashes into the age-old problem of abuse. If you give the newbies too many benefits, you are rewarding the cheats and the multis, and making such abuse more tempting. Unfortunately, I see no way around this, except not giving the newbies enough advantages to unbalance the game when the multis are created.

One possibility I have been thinking about is not letting players put money into alliance or anon accounts until they have vet status.

[Vladdy]

lets forget about the multis for once >_< people that are caught with them will be punished, stop bringing in the argument of multis against the idea....

[OmegaRenegade]

I agree, multi's will exist no matter what, we cant not help newbies just to prevent those low enough to cheat to gain an advantage.

That all sounds pretty good, I'd also let them have full maps for thier racial galaxy, that combined with an explaination of how to trade (and how trading works, port multipliers an such) they should be able to find a decent route. I remember when I started on NG3 on SM way way back in the day, I didnt understand trade routes, I just found ports that bought what I was selling, and tried to find the best route that way, was freaking annoying lol.

[B.O.B.]

I like the idea personally, and despite what advantages/disadvantages you give n00bs, there will always be multis. Everyone online game I know of battles with it. I knew a guy way back in SM that wouldn't play vet games, everytime he got to vet status he would create a new account and start over in the NGs.

[Resevoir Dog]

Some of these suggestions make the game too easy for newbies. It almost takes away the incentive to advance through the player rankings. It would be a good idea to give them maps of their racial galaxy and full cargo holds right away so that they can start actually playing immediately. But giving them 500 extra newbie turns, nearly full relations (900 is way too much because you only need somewhere around 960 to get perfect prices) and free NMVs will prevent them from truly learning the game. They will just get frustrated once they hit fledgling and get podded by vet hunters and have no idea how to get back on their feet again because they'd been bottle fed for so long.

[Blum]

Well, the problem is that the learning curve is too steep and most of the suggestions we have barely move the steep place from the beginning of playing carreer to a place a bit further on.....

[Thauglor]

I still think whats needed for actually getting people startet, those first 15 min where many drop trying to figure out the game is a tutorial. After that whats going to hook people has to be alliances. The question is how to make that work, so they get in working alliances and not just a group that all have the same alliance name without actually doing anything.

[Ardbeg]

tutorials can be daunting. What I think would be most useful is a set of well-written and factually correct short pieces (along the lines of my op guide) which are all in one place and not polluted with opinions and spam - possibly a locked advice forum or a set of ingame links. Whatever it is, newbies would need to have it pointed out to them again and again and again - put it on startup screens, leaving newbie screens, pod screens, whatever.

I would be happy to do some writing, or to check and edit what other people write, it is essential that this stuff be written only by those who can do the job (punk vets who think they know the game need not apply).

[Travdan]

I'd be happy to make both a really cool and informative tutorial. It would easily span the gamut of game experiences in a matter of 10-15 minutes.

Personally, I think this would be much better than an entirely "written" set of guides like Ardbeg's or the helpfiles. I think those types of guides are meant for newbies who have learned the basics of the game and what the game generally entails, but wish to further their understanding and have a desire to learn the game mechanics.

Ask and you shall receive.... although Nariis seems intent on insisting that I'm not offering my services.