After a short discussion on irc we came up with some obvious conclusions;

- Players are thrown into the game with no idea what to do
- Missions are too hard
- They do not progress enough in the nexus to continue into the real game

Looking back upon the years, why so were many people beginning to play?

- Missions were simple
- The game was relatively non-complex after a short while
- It was FUN





Proposal

Integrate beginners into the game by progressing them further than just the nexus.

f2p level cap: 50-150. This allows players to become more integrated into the community, choose a class and have an AIM in the game. At level 20, people have no idea what to do.

- Class specific missions
Provide players with advice and missions on playing certain classes and subsequent class related equipment to let them begin. This will allow people to get used to playing some classes, but if you provide them a class specific low tech ship (e.g. T10 and under) they will learn about aspects of game and how to more efficiently do things. There could even be a small progression of ships, i.e. Tech 5 (level 20~), Tech 8( (level 50~) and so on up to about tech 10 maximum (seems reasonable but could be deemed to high).


This will allow players to immerse themselves with various parts of the game and will want to expand on their progress.


Thoughts?

From reading this post I can draw several conclusions:
1) You've not done the new nexus. (there's a couple hard missions... but not really)
2) You don't know how F2P system works currently. (no level cap.)
3) You've idealized how the game used to be and forgotten how insanely difficult it was at first.
4) You don't like C2, which leads you to believe other people don't like C2 (it was fun?)

I've not personally touched Strontium-90 but supposedly it picks up where Nexus leaves off and starts the little noobs getting more independent, like they need to be to survive in SS.

Content that teaches players how to obtain and use RC, and an instanced gal that teaches the basics of base building, would both be really cool I think. They could provide some XP rewards too.

I agree with class locked missions to integrate new players into their class better, but level 20 isn't the f2p cap anymore.

The level cap is 2000. 2 followed by 3 zeros.

Wish there were a Nexus bot that worked whitout RC and alows for 1 slave to be used T0-1? how ever no stasis gen can be used and it cant be docked
if it dies 1 time it goes to stasis and the bot gets 50% the once it dies again the ship blows up, ship aswell as bot sticky to ship would be obtained thrue a mission, ship has everything stickyed and is 1 time mission.

Does it fully integrate them into the game and make them want to pay for it though?

1.No, i haven't played since last september. So i'm not aware of the new nexus unless its been changed since then.
2. If there is no level cap then why would people want to pay for this game (Unless there is a cap on skills and content)
3. It was difficult at first, but you did soon get a grip of things. The things I'm proposing are supposed to help with this. Aiding people from what i have suggested would hopefully encourage a greater influx of new players.
4. I have no opinion on C2 as i haven't played it, but i seem to hear a lot about inactivity. Inactivity will eventually lead to people leaving this game and there needs to be a source of new players

Nexus has been completely remade, so yea, your argument on that side is outdated.

F2p limit is way up but limited in content (cant fight/build in wild space and cant go in perilous space along other things). (we pretty much went with the approach that if something doesn't cost us anything, then its f2p accessible).

Personally ive always felt RC, aswell as maybe DD should have missions and be levelable through the nexus that teaches their uses, limitations, aswell as other helpful information. There are a few other things that it would be good to introduce them to this early as well but none others as necessarily as these for new players.

The issue with our point of view is that we're old players, we know how to move our ship around and fire, these players have none of those skills so missions that might seem simple enough to us can be really tough for them. And I don't think that the inbuilt devices are explained cause they're really helpful at low levels. Also I remember one of positive parts of having a low lvl cap (of 20) was that you can learn basic skills like basebuilding while in a safe risk free environment. (no massive loss of credits). At lvl 20 you got to try everything, from building a character fit to make stations to one designed specifically for optimizing tractoring, 100sp was all you had and you had to make it work to the best of your ability. I must admit having a higher level cap is a good thing but at the same time I feel new players are sitting in their comfort zones, not willing to build bases or make slaves if their a sniper for example because that's not the done thing. And following basic setups not exploring new ones.

As for strontium-90, isn't that p2p only? It's hardly a continuation of nexus.

Nexus definitely should introduce new players to RC, seeing how that's about the only viable way to level at the moment.

First, we get a way to make the server able to tell the difference between a Combat Slave, and a Trade Slave, seeing how JeffL obviously couldn't, and banned both from the Nexus.

I have actually done a ton of these missions myself just to see what the content was like. On my lv 2200ish speed demon I have gotten all the way through to the gold priority target missions and completed a few of them.

So for the positive aspects of missions like this I have the following observations.

1. The missions are a clear and easy way to level up. At the appropriate level, you can get 2 or 3 full levels just by completing a single mission, and typically more just by killing the targets. They aren't "short" as you might have to kill 70 of a particular AI to finish the mission, but they are without question definately doable.

2. The typical "real" reward from doing the missions in addition to the experience is tokens to unlock more missions, and a big chunk of credits. A good credit income is vital for low level characters as many other ways to generate credits without extensive numbers of bases have been nerfed over the years.

3. The missions are (after a long time) repeatable, so you should never be locked out of progression because you've already done some of the missions, but haven't gotten enough money or levels to continue advancing.

There are some downsides though that need a bit of polishing to really help alleviate the issues people have just starting to get into the game.

1. There needs to be more guidance to drive people to go to the mission hub galaxies like strontium-90 and brigaind's stronghold. Perhaps some kind of special color coded map icon specifically for these types of galaxies as well as some kind of HUD where you can find information on what kinds of things you're looking for. So for example, if I could dock at any AI base and query a mission database, it would return galaxies I should check out, based on my level and the tech level of my gear perhaps. Kind of like the "help wanted" board in The Witcher or guild hubs/city hubs/class specific halls in other fantasy mmorpgs. While all of these games feature other, more difficult to find missions in various locations, sometimes even hidden missions or quests, there needs to be some kind of centralized, easily accessible information database to guide newer players to where they can go for better skills, equipment, augmenters, money, etc. Think something like the /mc command, but instead of searching player shops, it searches AI base missions based on a set of user defined criteria.

2. The game at the low end relies on a lot of trial and error due to lack of information presented to the player. A more "strontium-90" approach where the rough capabilities and challenges of what you face taking on the priority targets is needed at the low level. For example, the strontium-90 missions for the premium targets often give a bit of fluff on the target, and what weaknesses they have. More information for the player to use would really help lower level players overcome the information overload that is associated with a huge, expansive, open ended game like this. People take for granted there is very little in this game that is intiutive, and the reward for actually knowing that a particular AI is weak vs. surgical damage, or has poor tracking and can't shoot behind it in addition to being slow, or has speed but short range will really help you overcome those challenges.

3. Another really cool, really helpful thing could be like a kind of "bestiary" of various ships you collect as you accept missions. So as your personal schematic archive grows from various intel you get for accepting a mission, or perhaps killing certain AI a number of times, you can look up information in game to help you determine things like what would the best damage type to use, and how much damage you would need to inflict, and a general location (or specific location if an AI is only found in one place). Now lower level players can create a reference to work from, BUT it's a reference they have to actually work for to achieve. The reference should only include a simpler, "vital stats" breakdown as opposed to every single aspect of the AI for simplicity sake and to convey only the most important information.

Skyfyre, your post is 100% certified genius. Every bit of it should be done, and ASAP. ESPECIALLY the parts concerning focusing players to the mission hubs.

1200% /signed!

Wiki? I know its sort of crap now, but most games have wikis that people use to find out this sort of thing. Historically, we haven't put strategy tips on the wiki because most high-end players don't like to share strategy, for reasons of competitive advantage, and that attitude has permeated the whole game.

Only about 1/10 of the players(or even less) in SS use the forum and wiki. Normally, a player looks for in game sources before trying outside game and fan made sources.

Without official stat and website support from the admins, the wiki technically is still a fan made source.