Calling all new players. (PS2-Uni) Thoughts?

I am currently an experienced Beta player and regular Platoon Lead with T42 (VS) on Connery. As an old EVE player of 2 years, who had quit an amazing 4 times in 6 months starting out, I completely understand and appreciate player-run educational groups such as EVE-Uni. I find that one of the biggest problems currently affecting the game is new player immersion and education (the tutorials are not entirely to blame - you cannot explain everything there is to know about this game, from the get go).

I repeatedly hear from new players in our Public Platoons that they have no idea where to begin and I also read quite frequently on reddit about the same issues, so I decided to try and change this trend and offer what help I can to new players - just as EVE-Uni had done for myself and thousands of others.

What I propose is simple - every Monday (starting next week) fom ~7-9PM Central on Connery VS I will be hosting a Public Platoon only open to characters of Battle Rank 20 or lower (just an idea). I've yet to finalize exactly what will be done in this platoon, but I'm set on starting with 30-60 minutes of basic information (certs, vehicles, resources, lattice, outfits, squad/platoons, classes, the map screen and alerts), around 40 minutes of basic Platoon Ops and I'd like to finish with 15 minutes of open questions about anything.

I'll be talking with other PLs in my outfit as well as any Squad Leads to come and help with the whole thing. Depending on "class" sizes I may have only experienced Squad Leaders, or I may mix squads with new players and experienced outfit members. Again, undecided and completely voluntary.

I understand not very many day or week old players frequent the forums - so I'm asking the community to kindly direct any new players my way. If you have friends interested in joining, or friends who have uninstalled but would like to relearn the ropes, feel free to PM me on these forums or in-game. Better yet, if you've been playing for a month and still don't feel confident that you have a solid understanding of the game, feel free to platoon up as well.

As previously mentioned, this platoon will be hosted on the Vanu Sovereignty empire, Connery server. If there are any players interested, yet are located on a different server or are located on Connery yet are not VS, feel free to create a character to participate, then feel free to delete it afterwards.

I am a PS1 vet and as an MMO exclusive gamer I'd like to try and give back to the community and help any new players interested in starting out. I understand there are outfits on other servers who have (or do), essentially the same thing (training Platoons), although the idea here is not to simply send out invites and throw newbies into the fray. I believe an explanation of the game and all of it's systems should be essential to helping new players find a home here that they understand.

If any experienced Connery players (be it TR, NC, VS) would like to help out (PTS sessions perhaps? RvsB weekly wars between new players?), volunteer and lend some experience it would be greatly appreciated.

Thinking of filming the sessions and uploading to YouTube for further exposure to new players.

P.S: said Platoon will NOT be taking part in any Alerts that occur on the public server. Keeping it simple for now.
P.S.S: this is NOT a recruitment drive for the outfit I'm in. It is unaffiliated completely as of this writing.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks.

It's a real shame that the players have to take it upon themselves to create tutorials. Shame on you SOE, you are letting your customers down, and losing them as well.

I can agree that learning a new game can be pretty daunting. I endorse what you are doing and I do recommend making a solid round of videos as well as a reddit sub specifically for this (probably to primarily answer questions). I've played plenty of games that had little in the ways of tutorial and some players did a lot of what you are considering doing. I always recommended new players check out those tutorial type videos. Part of the issue is that you can't be sure who is new. Even if they have a low BR, you don't know for certain.

I know for the last few years planetside 1 had a pretty decent set of tutorials. I am so baffled so often as to where SOE's priorities are in developing this game. 2 years in development and this game still feels like it's barely out of alpha.

the fact of the matter is that no tutorial can prepare you for planet side.

the game is too complex, and the tactics change frequently.

players really are the best tutorial you can offer

That is a very negative view.
The game is far to complex for an initial tutorial to cover everything. Most would quit out of boredom.
Having experienced players giving opinions and a practical introduction ot the game beats it.
Why not see it positively: There are players willing to run a frigging school to help new guys. That is awesome.

That's a great idea! My gaming background is similar to yours & I even spent a month or so in Eve Uni. Thinking back now I realize just how much post-tutorial knowledge I took away from that experience.

I have personally taught 15-20 players new to PS2 the "less obvious" aspects of the game (one-on-one) & organized/ran "new player" training sessions for my outfit 3 or 4 times. While I admire your innovation & initiative, I think getting the word out to the new players who would find it beneficial might prove difficult. The squad browser will definitely be an essential tool, but I feel that most new players just use insert to join. Proxy chat & random invites may be helpful.

I wish you the best of luck please let us know how the first session goes. If you have success, perhaps I will try something similar on Waterson.

Good luck with that, m8.

This is a great idea.

I played EvE for a while, and spent almost all my time there in E-UNI. It was an excellent corp for beginners and a good one even for vets who never had an interest in joining the nullsec drama llamas. If it takes off, and once you get some recruits who have learned enough to lead a squad or two, you should extend it to cover other days too, in addition to having designated events.

It would be nice to have a persistent public outfit that is focused on simple ops that new players may have a chance of pulling off and learning something from.

I understand the fun and purpose of EVE uni.

But PS2 Uni ... not sure if its really needed, afterall this game is tetris compared to EVE online. We used to run more Basic training within the outfit but noticed those werent really needed, its mostly flying, squad leading, platoon leading and such that use abit more explaining then just joining normal public platoons and picking up as you go.

Could be different on your server in situation so I wish you good luck

It is tetris compared to EVE online - but then again that's because EVE is considered the spreadsheet game, where one comes home from work to head back to work.

Compared to PS2, COD and any other current FPS game out there are considered tetris-simple as well. Player's new to the genre (of an MMOFPS) need an outlet and an explication for the game and everything related because evidently no such thing exists.

Again it's more or less a complete rundown of the game. Menu's, maps, certs, vehicles, what are outfits and what purpose do they serve, cert trees, lattice, bases and their benefits, what are alerts and why are they in the game, redeploy, squad beacons, chat channels, classes and their roles/weaknesses, upgrade slots etc etc.

I'm sure a complete guide of the game is adequate enough - but who's going to write a book for free? Even then, new players need to visually observe how the game is meant to be played, how to play as part of a team and how everything works. You can read books all you want but until you go and change your tire for the first time you won't really know how to do it, or it'll be extremely awkward and confusing (Clearly a quick example, don't spend too much time on the analogy).

Bump for community input.

Very nice initiative P4nda. I sure hope this spreads to other servers and other empires as well.

You could count me in to help out. I've also been doing some streaming lately, so maybe I'll stream it all as well. Unless of course there are objections to being streamed.

Just remember to send me a pm where you guys are going, so I can farm those BR20<

As do I to be honest. The more servers that can support a newbie-friendly platoon (regardless of outfits), the better in my opinion.

That'd be a real good idea, just make sure you're in Outfit chat beforehand so we can go over some things and whatnot.

My personal experience is that when you put a ton of extremely new and lost players together they just get farmed - leader or no leader. There are many things they just have a very hard time dealing with - I've gotten some pretty absurd viper lightning, MAX, infiltrator kill streaks because they either don't know how to effectively deal with them or haven't certed counters(no C4 on their LA especially). Better to mix them up where there are some experienced players evening things out, and to sort-of protect them, than put them all in one place.

I am not sure how familiar you are with how most tutorials work, but nearly all that I have seen weren't just a solid event. Most tutorials, including the ones in planetside 1, were broken up into a series. It's strange that you claim the view I have is very negative, and then you use really negative ideas on the concept of tutorials. I disagree with you as strongly as I can, you are plainly wrong, it's nice that players are willing to 'run a school', but a series of in game tutorials would be the best in terms of potential thoroughness and reliability.

You can do a lot with a squad full of newbies.

1. Get them to stay in the same hex, and preferably within 50m of their SL. That alone will multiple their combat effectiveness.
2. Use waypoints to tell them where to meet up. Put the waypoint on the sundy / galaxy rally point.
3. Use colored smoke to show them which way to point their guns. Or tell them the threat axis.
4. Give firm deadlines for getting back to the warp gate and into the galaxy (these days galaxies should never stay more then 30s at the warp gate). Or a firm 30s deadline for getting to the rally point.
5. Kick anyone (politely) who doesn't stay with the squad.
6. Be polite but firm.

From my leading experience, I love leading squads of newbies; those are my favorite squad next to outfit squads. If you are polite and 'fun', they will follow your orders to the word. You might get back seat commanders but all you need to do is to calmly explain to do where they are wrong/why would you rather not do that. The only issue is that you cannot rely on them on a combat perspective.

I agree that we need more in-depth tutorials, such as tuts on leading/running with squads/platoons, how each class should play, how each vehicle should play, the best way to acquaint yourself with the map etc.. but I disagree when you mention that a tutorial would be better than what is proposed. Tutorials are never over 10 minutes in length (otherwise people skip them) - I challenge you to find me one - which is completely inadequate considering the depth of this game. What might be a better idea would be a web-based interactive tutorial. Or a system set up where you have to progress through "chapters" or "quiz's" that are entirely optional and are only set up to further a player's understanding of the game. I think that'd be cool.

You can never bring them into an Alert though - not right off the bat. They'll get chewed up by the massive 2-3 platoon vs 2-3 platoon fights which are considered "end game" if you will. Starting out they have to realize that 25-48 fights are just as important and can actually be more fun depending on who you are. So we'll be focusing on that.

Yup. It's refreshing meeting new types of people every day, the only downside is their low BR and unless they're "MLGPRO" they're not really going to affect a fight at all.

Depends on the alert really. A bio-lab alert? Yeah, they're just fodder. But even on Mattherson there are a lot of alerts with 12-24 vs 12-24 fights where your squad of greens who stick together can make a big difference.

• Have them all change to HAs with the default launcher. Drop them from a Galaxy or spawn beacon them onto the enemy sunderer positions.
• Pull 3-4 sunderers with basilisks and go tank hunting.
• Redeploy frequently to hit soft targets.