Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Unnecessary Limitations

I'm back from the wilds of Eastern Ontario and while I was getting high on nature (or the smoke fumes from the campfire) I was struck by an epiphany that I just had to share. I'm going to describe what I think is the state of the game in terms of one mechanic, then point out why this is a problematic state of affairs vis a vis new players versus veteran players, and finally I will propose a solution to this identified problem that will probably be very unpopular to the general playerbase.

Ready? Let's go!

* * * * *

Question: What is required to effectively own and pilot a ship?

Answer: There are three things you need.

First, you must have the skill points to be allowed to not only sit in the ship itself and not only to fit the appropriate modules but also the core skills that affect a ship's properties for fitting, tanking, offensiveness, and movement.

Second, you need enough ISK to afford the ship and its modules and its charges as well as enough ISK to cover its loss. I don't subscribe to the school of thought that you should have enough ISK to replace every loss but you should be comfortable enough losing a ship to not be crippled by it. I made that mistake once.

Finally, to be effective in a ship you need experience in flying it (or a ship very similar) and using its modules which usually involves some losses and missteps (more for some than others) until you become proficient.

Whether you are a one day old newbie or a 7 year veteran, these three things are a constant prerequisite for being effective in every ship in the game (1). On the surface this seems reasonable as it limits progression evenly for players to advance in a logical manner: newer players can become effective in small cheap ships that require few skill points while older players require ever increasing amounts of skill points and ISK to get into larger and more powerful ships.

Actually its not quite that clear cut and to explain why let's look at the skill list required by a new player to sit in and undock in my favourite frigate, the Incursus with my usual blaster and dual rep setup.

Gallente Frigate I
Small Hybrid Turret V
Motion Prediction III
Small Blaster Specialization I
Afterburner III
High Speed Maneuvering III
Propulsion Jamming II
Capacitor Systems Operation III
Repair Systems III
Mechanics III
Hull Upgrades I
Jury Rigging III
Armor Rigging I
Drones III
Light Drone Operation V
Drones V
Gallente Drone Specialization I

This is the bare minimum and does not include all the helper skills to improve fitting, cap use, hit points, ranges, tracking speeds, damage, etc. Now let's look at the bare minimum requirements for a player to get into a Thorax cruiser with similar fitting philosophy.

Gallente Frigate I
Small Hybrid Turret V
Motion Prediction III
Small Blaster Specialization I
Afterburner III
High Speed Maneuvering III
Propulsion Jamming II
Capacitor Systems Operation III
Repair Systems III
Mechanics III
Hull Upgrades I
Jury Rigging III
Armor Rigging I
Drones III
Light Drone Operation V
Drones V
Gallente Drone Specialization I
+
Gallente Frigate III
Gallente Destroyer III
Gallente Cruiser I
High Speed Maneuvering IV
Gunnery III
Medium Hybrid Turret V
Motion Prediction IV
Medium Blaster Specialization I
Medium Drone Operation V
Mechanics IV
Repair Systems IV

The number of additional skills for the bigger ship, guns, and drones is relatively smaller. Yes, they have more points and higher training times, but there is no additional hidden support skills to include either. Now let's look at a Megathron Battleship with same blaster concept:

Gallente Frigate I
Small Hybrid Turret V
Motion Prediction III
Small Blaster Specialization I
Afterburner III
High Speed Maneuvering III
Propulsion Jamming II
Capacitor Systems Operation III
Repair Systems III
Mechanics III
Hull Upgrades I
Jury Rigging III
Armor Rigging I
Drones III
Light Drone Operation V
Drones V
Gallente Drone Specialization I
Gallente Frigate III
Gallente Destroyer III
Gallente Cruiser I
High Speed Maneuvering IV
Gunnery III
Medium Hybrid Turret V
Motion Prediction IV
Medium Blaster Specialization I
Medium Drone Operation V
Mechanics IV
Repair Systems IV
+
Gallente Battlecruiser III
Gallente Battleship I
Heavy Drone Operation V
Gunnery V
Large Hybrid Turret V
Motion Prediction V
Large Blaster Specialization I
Mechanics V

Again, the skills have higher time investment to achieve but again the list of additional supporting skills is zero and the list of skills to get into a battleship is low compared to the original list of skills and hidden supporting skills to get into the Incursus.

Here's the rub: Although the training times to train the higher ranked skills are much higher, there are a vast number of supporting skills that a newer player has to train to be equally effective in their frigate that a veteran player already has trained for their battleship (or Tech II frigate, or super capital, or faction cruiser, ad nauseum).

In fact, I went through and added all the support skills I could reasonably identify that a players should train to make themselves move effective in that Incursus and added them to the plan to only level IV and it took the original base plan of ~23 days to 97 days. That means no support skills to level V.

But once that player has done that training, its done forever for any other ship they want to fly. That extra 74 days of support skills does not have to be trained for the Thorax or Megathron once its been trained for the new pilot. It takes longer for a new player to get all those support skills to level IV than it takes the Thorax pilot to sit in a Megathron with Tech II Neutron Blaster Cannons. Going from an Incursus to sitting in a Thorax takes less than half that time.

Support skills are a penalty to new players for being new. And this contributes directly to the horrible retention rate of new players in EVE online.

How many of you remember the Learning Skills? The same arguments for getting rid of them really apply to a lot of these skills that do very little but improve stats on modules and ships once trained and apply to most of the ships in the game. For example, Mechanics that adds 5% extra hull point per level, or Weapon Upgrades that reduces CPU needs of weapons by 5% per level, or Drone Interfacing that gives 10% damage or mining yield per level. Once a player has trained them, they apply to so many ships and situations that it becomes manadatory to have them trained to at least level IV. In other words, we penalize new players for not having these near universal skills trained out of the gate, and we penalize them in an environment where their competition includes multi-year veterans who trained these skills years ago.

No wonder people don't stick around!

Here is a hypothetical situation to highlight this tragedy. Let's say a new faction of ships was added tomorrow with its own frigates and cruisers and battleships, call them The Jovians. They have their own skill books for the ships like Jove Frigate and Jove Cruiser, etc. For me to cross train and become effective in a Jove frigate it would take mere days since I have all the support skills and weapon skills trained up being a multi-year veteran. A new player getting starting out in the Jove frigate line would require at least 100 days to even have a hope of coming close to my base statistics while flying the ship, and that ignores the advantages I have in ISK reserves and experience. And there is no way to reduce that time limit.

Over three months to even hope to be almost competitive for a Tech I frigate.

Forget about the learning cliff, we are literally stabbing newbies with a knife several times and tossing their bleeding and wounded bodies into a shark tank. With a plastic spoon for defense. The real miracle of EVE online is that its managed to survive ten years! Actually we know why EVE has managed to survive all this time, its because of the heroic efforts of many players and organizations to protect and nuture new players through this painful and unnecessary phase of learning the game, getting the ISK, and training the support skills to be effective. And its time to make their job easier by removing one of those limitations.

I encourage CCP to look into getting rid of the support skill grind. Level the playing field for new players by putting those bonuses they provide right into the ships and modules from the start and just remove the skills. Alternatively, start all players with a few million skill points and all the support skills trained to IV or V (preferably the latter). There are a zillion ways veterans have advantages in terms of ISK for faction mods, implants, boosters as well as the sheer experience advantage, so penalizing new players with lower stats adds insult to injury.

Come on CCP, do the right thing. Its better for everyone.

UPDATE:  Ripard Teg brought this up before in the winter.

1- Barring rookie ships which are free and come with skill-less modules.

22 comments:

  1. Why not cap skills instead of eliminating them?

    Make it so High Speed Maneuvering only gives bonuses to frigates up to level 1, destroyers 2, and so on. Training to 4/5 would only apply to BC and larger. Then you can re-balance the base stats to keep level 5 vets at par for current fittings and close the gap for new players. You could then make the skills apply to T2/T3/Capital ships up to level 5. This should ideally create an environment where new players quickly are equal to vets in T1 ships and shifts more of the support skill grind out later in the progression cycle.

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  2. You make a good point. But to put the grind in context, it's only a time gate. Compare this to WoW and other traditional exp grind systems, and it' actually better. Those actually require effort at the keyboard, and are realistically the same time length.

    The real issue is the absolute necessity of T2 weaponry. We frequently swap out T2 mids and lows for meta versions, but that's simply not feasible for turrets and launchers (or drones really). Particularly if you fly Amarr... there's not a laser boat out there that flies without Scorch, and the Executioner, what should be the rookie PvP ship, cannot fly to its strength without it.

    Take that need out, and you save at least a week or two for the newbie pilot.

    (Also: Welcome back!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Welcome back! Now I must disagree with you.

    I’ve been playing EVE for about 18 months, so while I’m not really a noob anymore, I’m also definitely not a veteran. But it sure looks like I’m hooked for the long term!

    The labyrinthine complexity of EVE is exactly one of the things that pulled me into this game, and skill training is a perfect example. I’ve been carefully focused on getting really good at flying one race’s frigates and training support skills as high as possible, and that’s a process that requires two critical traits: patience and planning.

    If a player doesn’t have patience and the ability to plan ahead a few months, he/she is probably not going to stick with EVE anyway.

    By the way, in the last 18 months, I have never felt “stabbed and tossed into a shark tank” in EVE. Of course that’s just me … YMMV ... but I suspect that the kind of new players who express feelings like that are probably not going to be around long anyway.

    And that’s OK! Because EVE is not a game for everybody. It’s not even a game for most people — it is always going to have very limited long-term appeal to the gaming masses. And I strongly suspect that has something to do with the “miracle” of why it’s survived and (mostly) thrived for as long as it has.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You bring up a very interesting and completely pointless facts my friend. (And welcome back btw!) But you are way off kilter with this line of reasoning for several obvious reasons. Perhaps you haven't been surrounded by new players as much as I have, or you've gone over the edge into total bitter vet - whatever the case - no.

    First of all, as Lyxes points out very nicely, complexity is Eve's thing. Completing the grind is immersion is commitment is longevity is learning is experience is staying with something. And while I agree that something needs to be done in regards to the NPE leveling up starter skills is not the answer. Making Eve easier is not a goal any of us should have, Eve needs to be better and the entry points need to be re-thought, but ease of use should not be a deciding factor.

    That "grind' you refer to is an important part of every new player's life in-game. That is when you find your way, learn how things work, take risks, gain experience, build something, find friends, and develop the skills that make achieving something meaningful. Achieving something meaningful. Those are important words. We are not given things, we take them for ourselves. Good grief, we already have enough new players flying Battleships, the last thing we need is more of them. I caught a six month old player in a Rokh the other day ratting in Low Sec! C'mon.

    I'm sorry, but I don't see this one. I'm all for helping new players and I want to do more, but just handing out candy is not the answer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This proves it's not pointless facts (http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-seven-percent-solution.html).

      That presentation on player retention shows that social group interaction is the predominant determinant of new player retention. A well balanced game makes certain that EVERY social group has a positive reason to want new players (Not just those that make new players a priority). Part of making new players a positive rather than a negative is to flatten the early part of the skill process and support skills are a good place to start.

      Delete
  5. I don't understand where the notion that the gap between vet and new player needs or should be closed. Eve is a skill training game to skill up a character is several areas. You're singling out PvP combat and PvE skills here. Not everyone will do either. Should manufacturing and mining and production skills be set higher for noobs too?

    If new players are getting frustrated and leaving because they can't compete with vets in the PvP arena, yes, that's by design. Again, Eve is a time intensive game. Gratification shouldn't be immediate. It's not designed that way. Should a yellow belt in karate be able to beat a black belt 3rd degree? They can't. THey haven't invested the hours and years of training to get to that level.

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  6. There are many limitations preventing a player from advancing too quickly. Support skills are an unnecessary limitation that only new players suffer for.

    I'm not against new players needing time to become effective and competitive, I just think that the ISK and experience limitations along with skill progression limitation are sufficient and that support skills are too much of a penalty on new players.

    Veterans have all the advantages already, support skills is one more that they don't need.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, we need all the advantages we can get. I know I do.

      Delete
    2. Not to beat a dead horse, but I just want to add that as a new player, I also learned a tremendous amount about game mechanics by deciding which support skills to train first, by making trade-offs. Should I train Thermodynamics V before I train Surgical Strike V? Well, let me do a little research, try out the different skill levels in EFT, and see which one will boost my effectiveness the most in the short run.

      Far from being a penalty or a limitation, I really feel like support skills are a platform for learning about the intricacies of EVE. I’ll shut up now.

      Delete
  7. 103 more comments for you to read, plus my own opinion:

    http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2014/01/core-implosion.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shoo, ex-bloggers are not allowed to comment! ;)

      I forgot you floated this balloon before, my apologies. I'll add the link.

      Delete
    2. Oh, and I guess I'll point out that in the eight months since I wrote this, Brave Newbies has started using mandatory-or-close-to-it fleet doctrines.

      Delete
  8. If Eve was simply a spaceship fight game then I would agree with you (and a notable non-blogging other who also raised this argument). However, I continue to hold out hope for an Eve which exercises its vast ocean of imaginative potential, instead.

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  9. The problem is that you only look at combat pilots.
    These support skills aren't necessary for a miner, an explorer, a salvager, a station trader, a manufacturer, a PI operator. Would you also hand out 100 days worth of mining SP, so a newbie miner is instantly competitive? And 100 days worth of exploring skills (those T2 codebrakers are needed for rewarding minigames). And 100 days of ...

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    Replies
    1. Yes they are necessary (outside of highsec).

      I would hand out 100 days worth of mining SP, exploration SP, and more if it would double the player base with a greater long term retention.

      Delete
    2. You think making the game easy will add players.........i guess it worked for wow.....seriously I dont care about player retention cuz hardcore mmos are a niche. If you can't live on 400k or less subs you are in trouble.

      Delete
  10. I was going to make the point Art and Gevlon made just before me. Newbies should not expect to be able to jump into 1v1 combat soon after starting Eve. They should run simple missions, do basic industry and learn how New Eden works while they are training support skills.

    With that said, I guess it's different for different people. I was happy to do the non-PvP activities I mentioned when I started a year ago, but a workmate of mine quit Eve after just a few months because PvP felt so unbalanced to him. I tried to get him to do other stuff, or fly with our corp, but he couldn't use headphones (home issues) and felt cut off from his corpmates. He set up long trains for combat skills and said, flat out, I'm not undocking till I can fly this ship with this fit. Eventually he lost interest while waiting and quit the game.

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    Replies
    1. This is the issue, all right. With all the new skills and all the new expectations, it can literally take a year before you're at the point where you feel like you're contributing meaningfully. By any measure, that's too freakin' long.

      Even Brave Newbies are flying Eagles and Archons these days, for Heaven's sake.

      Delete
  11. I still think some kind of active component to skill increases, at least before level V, would be best. No handouts, give the player something to do and keep them in game.

    For example:

    Every hour calculate a series of stats that are stored on the killboard. Only fights resulting in a kill (doesn't matter who loses) give rewards

    Unique players tackled - 1 minute of Skill Points to Propulsion Jamming (max 30 mins per hour)
    Shots landed - 0.1 minute of Motion Tracking (max 20 mins per hour)

    Not sure if non combat skills are tracked

    Jump gates taken: 1 minute of SP to Warp Drive Operation (max 30 per hour) and 0.1 minutes of Capacitor (max 20 mins per hour)
    Archaeology: minutes of SP per hack
    Scanning: minutes of SP per 100% signal scanned down

    Can you game it? A bit. This is EVE. Keep it slow enough not to be worth gaming around it but fast enough to encourage getting out there.

    Is it worth gaming? Not that much if the cap is level III or level IV

    Is it worth the new players time? Of course. They are in the world DOING stuff. The complexity and plans don't change, if anything this adds to it.

    Other downsides : adds to the ISK cost in terms of losses.

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    Replies
    1. Clever idea, I like this! You get skill points for actually using the skill :)

      Delete
  12. Or you would end up with the large meat walls from Darkfall 1.0 (and probably other games) where some people were standing still getting shot at, other were shooting and yet another group was healing. Set macro and profit

    For eve: get a repping cap stable ship (doesn't take too much iirc) with a single gun and web+scram and leave it orbiting a friend earning SP while you do something else

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    Replies
    1. Hence the limits like being on a killmail. But in the end, this is EVE, game on.

      Delete