Aura and the EvE Tutorial

With the current Quadrant Foundation there was an update of Aura. I actually only know Aura from my early days and there it accompanied the tutorial, as it does today. With the time Aura has changed again and again. I have picked out a few impressions of Aura.

Aura had an important task in the game. To explain and explain the game. We all certainly remember the first versions of the tutorial. The most frequently asked question here is. Which tutorial? In the meantime it has changed a lot and also and especially with the introduction of the career agents. New players now get much more information than before and get the game, at least the basics explained very well. And after that, you are directed to the agents accordingly.

As you can see, I ventured to our tutorial once again after more than 13 years and also completed the Career Agents (the first time). My short conclusion here is that Aura was well integrated and also makes quite a bit. Through the following agents there is quite a break, because here is first of all the usual MIssionrunner dryness and also the logic is sometimes not so really consistent. I would like to have more aura here, this character makes too much sense for that.

In the following article I present you my ideas how I imagine the entry in EvE and how Aura gets more time in action.

The idea of career agents is great. Here you can have a look at the main focus in EvE. The only thing is that the NPC are not really iconic for EvE. They are currently primarily generic characters nothing special and I consider that a weakness. EvE has so much to offer and can do so much. Why not draw here once from the full and show what is in EvE. Here for I could very well imagine that it will be created for each school appropriate characters. There was a certain time these characters. The mentors and something like that can also be generated from the appearance and the story for each focus.

These can be built per faction and school. These NPCs are supported by Aura to give her more time and space. As I said, I find the appearance too short.

But career agents should also be rebuilt somewhat and doled out as follows:

  • Business
  • Exploration
  • Industry
  • Combat

It is not much different from the current options, but the content should be more precise. These should show and explain much more of the game but without going too deep. This is about whetting the appetite for more and showing the possibilities. Also the possibilities to use NPC-Citadels for the mission to get to know them would be interesting. In addition, one can also use the systematics of the expert system and provide the player with additional skills for div. missions at short notice. Not only teach the basics but at the same time also give a view of what is possible without being boring.

  • Business

    What has puzzled me in this area so far. Why do I have to fly combat missions here? Under business, I personally understand points that have to do with trade and deliveries. I would do a few delivery missions here and learn something about navigation.

    But the more important thing is to get familiar with the market window. Why not just do a task like fly to station B and buy an NPC item from the market there and bring it to station C to sell it there for a profit.

    Aura explains the difference between buy and sell orders.
    The transports could also be spiced up a bit. For example, you could bring fuel to a waiting fleet of jump freighters. As soon as this was handed over one sees how the freighters jump away by Cynoeffekt. The opposite would also be conceivable. So you have to wait for a convoy and bring various goods from the ships to the station. Or you join a convoy and jump with it through various systems and accompany it as a transport ship. This consists then of several freighters and transporters of the own faction.

  • Exploration

    There is basically no scan here except for a few videos. Therefore I would suggest to let Aura take over some things here and directly ingame. It also works in the normal tutorial that buttons get a highlight.

    Why not work on the living object? In the current career agent is shown relatively stupide what an anomaly, gas, Relic or Datasite is. It is first flown through all variants and then you have to find them yourself. The design here is very minimalistic and small to me.

    Make it bigger. What speaks against it, if one is in a Datasite in the remains of a large battlefield on the way around from div. ships the Blackbox to receive around so the battle to retrace and data to save. In the Relicsite, illuminate an old mysterious base of the Drifters or other older faction and find new research material. Just as well, we can then discover and enter huge gas clouds where small amounts of div. gases are contained that can be harvested.

    Also here one could open the player the view into a special wormhole. In this special wormhole the same rules as in a highsec system prevail and we are controlled by the police forces. In this area I could then also well imagine the Relicsites.

  • Industry

    The backbone of the whole economy and the player-driven market is production. In addition to production, industry also includes the collection of raw materials. Research, Reactions, PI, Moonmining or also Refining belongs to this for me.
    The new player can thus gain insight into the individual areas. It should be shown as said only briefly also how the system works and that there is this. Especially in the area of mining and production can be combined well. Thus one should be able to dock in the context of the training at a NPC Athanor in the proximity a special asteroid belt lies. However, this should only contain raw materials that can be used purely in the tutorial.

    The same applies directly to the topic Moon Mining. We encounter a large NPC mining fleet that mines ore, moon parts and ice. This fleet includes all kinds of mining ships, Rorqual in Indumodus, Orca and Exhumer. Fittingly, Indus that fly between them and the station behind and behind. So you learn the differences between the various products.

    These raw materials would then have to be processed in the tutorial. We do Reactions, build ships, materials and put that together little by little to give a flavor on the complexity. And at all points, Aura would have its appearance.

  • Combat

    The most fun in EvE. Destroying stuff and turning lots of NPCs into kindling. We are here in the tutorial therefore no other players. Here, too, you can give the player some impressions. So far, the tutorial has been relatively simple. Fly there and destroy that and there are lots of aspects to consider before it even gets that far.
    So I would briefly explain the fitting system and give the player the task to fit a certain ship and so the points CPU and powergrid he know. What makes less sense to fit (keyword: same Armor and Shieldtank)? What is the difference between Armor, Shield or Structure. The handling of the faction typical weapons should be shown and demanded.
    I would also give the player a look at the different ship types, here first T1 and especially with his frigate practice. In parallel, briefly touch on the topic of E-War including Webber and Scrambler. Simply to show that also some.

    And one thing I would show the player above all. The effects of ship losses, i.e. the player is given a ready ship and the mission is simply jump to XY and fight the target with the addition that the outcome is not relevant. In this mission, after some time, the player would be baked in, causing him to lose his ship. Once he docks again the mission is done.
    I don’t say at this point that there should be no normal combat missions here in between so that he deepens his learned.

    The highlight of this tutorial should be a nice battle. Maybe not against NPC pirates but in the way of factionwarfare. Means in plain language we get the task to jump on a keepstar in deadspace and meet there with a fleet of subcaps. Together we then warp to a station of the respective enemy faction, also in deadspace, and the battle begins. For the player, only certain NPCs are attackable. All others fight among themselves. Battles in EvE Online have a habit of escalating and we want to see the full glory here. That means we also experience bombing runs that may be triggered by script near us or in front of our camera. We capitals jump in and launch their fighters, dreadnoughts in victory mode and as an absolute highlight a Titan jumps in from our side and it ends with the destruction of the station by a Doomsday. After that the enemy ships jump out.

So we learn or get shown the most important basics in the game without going into too much detail. I think that’s how you get more people to stay. The greed for more at this point. There are enough things that make EvE stand out and I think you can show very well in the tutorial what variations there are. Also, I wouldn’t make the tutorials like the simple agent dialog but in the form of small holo players or comm transmissions like Aura does. The introduction of the expert system offers a very good possibility to provide skills to the new players at short notice.

What do you think? Does the tutorial need an overhaul or the career agents? What do you want to have or what can you imagine?

3 Rückmeldungen “Aura and the EvE Tutorial

  1. Ich bin die NEP vor ein paar Wochen mit meinem Community Char geflogen und muss sagen: Chapeau. Gut gemacht, CCP. Wenn ich bedenke, wie schwer ich es 2006 hatte, mich in New Eden zurecht zu finden, ist die NEP wirklich sehr gut gelungen. Nicht alles was CCP raus haut, ist Mist. Die New Player Experience auf jeden Fall, gehört zu den guten Dingen.

    P.S.: Die neue Aura ist toll!

    1. Hallo Neo,
      sehe ich ähnlich. Meine Kritik geht vor allem in Richtung der Karriereagent.
      Aber das Tutorial mit Aura ist top, da gebe ich dir recht.

      Gruß
      Sen

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