So late one evening after the family went to bed, I downloaded the client, reactivated my account, and saw New Eden through Adhar's eyes once again. EVE, you're as beautiful as you ever were. Moreso, if truth be told. The detail on the ships, the movement, the glowing, dotted trails outside the stations. It's all beautiful; always has been.
But that's not what I wanted to share with this post, precisely. It is wrapped up in my return to EVE, though. A lot has changed in the intervening years. Hacking - completely different. Scanning down sites - I'm glad to see that probes still play a role, but I haven't messed about with them yet, so I'm not sure what's changed there. Apparently Planetary Interaction went through a phase where pilots could outsource to research teams, or something like that. The new manufacturing interfaces look really sharp - and I'm not quite sure yet, but it looks like there is no limit on how many jobs a station facility can run. That was always a pain in the backside. Oh, and clone grades went away - very cool; bet there was some salt over that one about making EVE too inviting for new players.
With all that's changed, I thought perhaps a tour through the New Player Experience would help. Specifically, the NPE version re-launched toward the end of 2016, if you're reading this some time in the future.
And that experience, at least so far, is the purpose of this post.
Biomassing History
Which character goes to the ash heap of history? Certainly not Adhar - folly! That left two mostly unused alts; I was never one for multi-character play, and back in the day, one alt just lived in Jita for price checks. It was a matter of minutes to sweep out the hangar and get it ready for a new inhabitant.
Recruiting Greatness
I can hear some of you now -
"Greatness? Pfft, new players aren't great, they're fodder."More on that later. Rolling up (dating myself here, I know) a new character was much the way I remembered it from the last character. Getting through the tutorial was more important than the new character's physical appearance, so I didn't spend a lot of time there.
Aura and the Drifters
Aura's overhaul and voice acting were great, as well as the military commander. Overall the experience and in media res approach worked very well. The opportunity to look at all of the ships on display before the big fight was cool, and certainly brought back memories of past glories. All of the ships were standard as far as I noticed, also fine for a new player. One thing that could have been worked in (perhaps it was and I missed it) was a reminder that bigger isn't necessarily better. Of course, the list of "could have been worked in" is likely longer than I care to imagine. It would have been a good use of some of those ship's captains voice overs, maybe.
Overall the introductory adventure and directions flowed well, all the way through the end of the hive.
