[SC] Newbie Experience

This game has been dying for years now, and everyone knows it. 5 or 6 years ago you could log on to any server and thousands of people would be playing at a time, and now every server except the global ones are ghost towns. You know why? The new player experience is absolute garbage. Yeah, you get a few LF3's and BO2's from the starter missions, and company protection for a few days, and that update was a step in the right direction, but after that, you are exposed to UFE's hitting 100-200k while you're still in a ship that barely hits 1,000 x1. It's demoralizing to leave the portal to try to do basic things like kill saimons only to get uncloaked on, 10 times in a hour. This is why almost all new players quit, and only the die-hard darkorbit fans who spend $100 every month are still playing. I invited two of my friends to come play darkorbit, and they both quit in less than a week because of this very reason. The power creep is too strong and there is no counter to it.

Edit: I gues the counter is to drop $500 on a MHH? Then again, what new player who knows nothing about this game would be willing to pay that much? Thats an entire car payment... Or 8-9 new games for my PS4.

The solution to this is to either extend the "company protection" to level 12, so you can at least get an almost FE ship without dying 100 times and ragequitting the game, or make lower level ships faster. A level 10 ship with a base speed of 300 should be faster than a level 20 ship with a base speed of 350. That way new players can at least escape the guys hitting 200k. When I was in my liberator I could kill saimons in peace but now i'm dying so many times to the point where i'm considering quitting this unbalanced game.

 

You have made a point that has been pointed out in several different threads and yes even Veteran Players left the game with the release of the LF-4/Upgrade System as they felt they spent enough to own everything and become FE+ (full Bio) just to find they were starting over with the people farming Galaxy Gates and getting full LF-4 and upgrading everything to a point where it is like hitting with LF-5 lasers (which I hope they do not create). FE is still easy to get and a lot easier now that the Auction returns credits bid instead of keeping them. UFE players should be restricted to attack only players within 4 levels of themselves (in the lower maps) unless they are attacked first. We used to have Portal Guards (before the Advanced Jump Chip) that would prevent the enemy pilots from entering into the lower maps from their maps, but now that is a waste of time as they can just jump into any map as they choose.

 

In the end this game is a struggle between those pouring in the dough, and the new players with intestinal fortitude. The rest get pushed to the side. I don't see the point in dropping so much cash on a weekly or a monthly basis in this game. I am guessing much of it goes to making gates since it is too much for players to box or pally for spins. Of course these same players hunt in the pally and box maps after doing some gates. Some say its a way of keeping others down and out. With most players in a rush to do things in the game, its no wonder the stress from getting popped is so high.

Although, the idea of limiting who you can attack is valid, there are so many events in lowers, limiting who you can target is not something that could altogether work.

 

The limitations could be revoked or changed during the event. Whoever doesn't want to risk getting popped can just log off... just like I used to sit in a corner and wait till scoremageddon finished.

 

The limitations I am suggesting is strictly PvP and would have no effect on the Events on PvE attacks. This would be protection to those New or low level players who are not strong enough to defend against the UFE hunters but would also not prevent them from doing quests in the maps including PvP as long as they were attacking someone within 4 levels of their level, meaning a level 22 player could not attack a level 17 player and so on. By the time you are level 16 or higher you should be able to defend yourself or at least be strong enough to make it to a portal with a few tricks without going pop.

 

The difference between level 16 and 21 is 32x less experience points and thus approximately the same amount of playing experience and 'power'. Level 16 pops as easily as 15 or 17, especially on battle maps. There is no trickery that can save an FE ship from ~200k dmg/s.

 

The PVP aspect was recognized the first time you brought this up. By all rights just increasing the NOOB protection for lowers until a player is level 16 should be enough. It would not help me, level 16 and rolling along, but maybe those new guys and gals playing could get some footing. Now if they could just figure out how to leave well enough alone. I watch new players all the time try to take pop shots at strong enemy players sitting at port, and without my chat working, all I can do is sit back in my bigboy and try to keep my stomach together. (Please no advise about chat fixes. I am done with chat all together. Silent game is better.) Although, this in theory does have its merrits, I am seeing a lot o pack hunting as of late. Nothing wrong with that except for this scenario, a lot of them are barely level 18 if that, come with 5 friends with only 1 or 2 ufe for backup against strong defenders.

Hmm, by the time a player is level 16, getting popped should not affect the pride, but then again, this is Dark Orbit.

 

I've found the current game structure much simpler to play than it was before: pop, repair, pop, repair, sit at gate, kill one npc, repeat