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total crap for a newbie


dcruse2

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you get to level 10ish around 30 minutes to an hour into the game with about 12 way points discovered. then the main guy sends you across the hostile universe looking for some obscure shipyard that should have been placed inside the starting station. with no way points or anything in the description telling you how to get from mars to Vega . that bodes evil to someone who has never played this game before. suggestion ... place a shipyard in the starting station or at the very very very least put in the mission text exactly what jump points to use to go from where you are to Vega even google maps don't show how. and you shouldn't even have to look it up on google in the first place. took me 3 hours of blind flying and a few tells to a gm before finally giving up and logging. i played Everquest from kunark for 13 years so I'm used to a learning curve but at least allakahzams maps were accurate .

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Hi dcruse2,


I am sorry to hear of your experience and that you think that the game is too hard/extreme for a new player. I will explain the origins of this Emulator of Earth and Beyond:


Originally a WestWood Studios creation on behalf of EA Games who subsequently bought out WestWood Studios and eventuall closed the game down in 2004 (Sunset). The founder of Net-7.org took it upon themselves to approach EA and sought an agreemet to allow them to "Emulate" the game and thus the EMU Earth and Beyond was born in 2005. The Net-7 that you see to day is a "Not for Profit" organisation and is funed solely by donations as per the agreement reached with EA to allow then to use the enbdemo.exe as the base.


Following many years of pains taking development the and testing a stable system was created in 2009/10 (I'm sure someone will correct me on this if wrong.) The staff (Admin/GM's and Dev's) are all volunteers and not paid a cent/penney/shekle and do it for the love of the game, and as such you will not see teh level of support or development taht one would expect IF you paid a subscription.


With that out of the way, the the game UI and initial missions is set in stone and we cannot change what was in the original mission lines created by WestWood/EA as part of the agreement, thus you are playing a game thats 20+ years old and the thought path then was to challenge your grey cells and make you interact with other players (MMO basics rather than a solo player game.) That said you can play solo but life is alot harder, if one was to ask in New Player chat for help many of the players would jump at the chance to aid you so you can continue your journey through the game (Note the player bas is a small comunity so is very helpful most of teh time- you will get the odd sarcastic remark though.)


Since you have chose a Progen Sentinel which is part of the Progen race - a warrior clone  race that thrives on adversity,hardship and live for battle and have the largest hulls of the three races.


The virix invaded their homeworld where the shipyards were located in Primus (thus initially this was not a problem for new plays) but since the invasion things have gotten more complicated as the storyline unfolded. If you had chosen a Terran  or Jenquai class character life would have been so much easier, sadly you are a Progen Sentinel and as that race you need to "Buck up and take it on the chin," as they say unlike the wussy terrans and Jenquai.


Now that you have somewhat of an understanding of why you as a Progen have to traverse several sectors to get your hull upgrade perhaps you will give the class/character another go and interact with the community who will help you beyond your dreams trust me they are a great bunch.

 

I do look forward to seeing you back in game and should you have issues please ask for GM help in New Player chat, if there is a GM online they will respond unless they are afk for some reason - remember we are voulenteers so be patient.)

 

All the best,
Yeti[GM]

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Sorry about your bad first experience. As Yeti says, its a community game. As such it helps to hit the place at the right time of day. Typing /who will tell you the population of the server. If its below 30 the ability to get help is obviously more limited, particularly as the emu allow multiple player characters at the same time. We have a population that includes Europe, the US, and Australia.

Use the New Player channel to let us know you are there.

As for getting around, another volunteer site - enbmaps.de is your most current road map to the galaxy.

Search the forum for the Quick Reference Sheet for key commands.

The wiki for the game is accessed through the main Net7 site, left hand column, scroll down, click on wiki, use same name and password as for the Net7 site. Enter Skill-Acquisition in the search box and you will be taken to a link page for walkthroughs for nearly all the initial missions. The wiki has walkthroughs for nearly all missions you may encounter afterwards as well.

I'm just another player in the game and not on all the time as life does call. However, I have created welcome wagon alts at Mars, Jupiter, and Earth with free gear that is not the vendor brand x to make your initial progression easier.  I do not know when someone first joins and can only rely upon postings in New Players.

I have sent my alts to escort new Progens to the shipyards knowing that its  a challenging journey.  Often offering the service prior to any request if I know they're headed that way for the first time. It's all about catching one of many of the other helpful players in the game being on.

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/3/2022 at 3:48 AM, dcruse2 said:

at the very very very least put in the mission text exactly what jump points to use to go from where you are to Vega

Yes, mission text could easily be updated in the database to provide the system and sector information to a new player. The rest, can be found or deduced with the in-game map.

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I've made this point and received a blunt rebuttal.  Same thing happened to my wife; please go to x and complete the mission.  She stops at the nav before and a lvl20 1 shots her.  "Learning curve."  She was OL4.  She has played MMORPGs for 25 years and there was never a learning curve quite this steep, she says.  I agree.  She logged off for 2 weeks and I'm slowly getting her to come back into the game.

 

For sure, not a learning curve, not at that level.  It's poor design.  There is no learning.  There is instant death and a feeling of resignation and intrepidation as you go from nav to nav with the fear of dying on arrival.

 

The map is a great source, the database is a fantastic tool, especially with character and item management available from the web.  Wiki is hit and miss, oft quoted by a GM in-game as being *the* place to find information.  However, it often has misinformation that the player base actually knows is incorrect, but doesnt want to update because they prefer to manage the information available.  I could provide examples, but I fear I would annoy people if I did.  However. the more grizzled pilots out there know exactly what I'm talking about.  When the same GM is approached about this, the response is, "well it's player-sourced!"  That's fine, but don't mislead people into thinking it's the holy grail of information, it's far from it.

 

 

***

Oh, and if you need someone to go through the mission text to add information, to submit for QA or actually QA changes - that's kind of part of the process of my job irl.  I do data, logic and system code creation, modification and verification to an ERMS.  Also educated to degree level in England in Information Systems (Networking),  The offer is on the table.

Edited by Tweetz
Offer a solution, rather than just a problem
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It's all in the charm of ENB lol. The game was certainly never easy starting out and it takes a very long time to learn, so long that people may not stick around. New people really need to rely on the community. This game really is not a solo game until you have multiple 150's, which could take months for casuals. I recommend trying to find someone who has navs and get a tour group with that 1 experienced player and 5 new characters for a tour, which will net an easy 20 explore lvls. After that try to get to another 15 lvls between combat/trade which will put you at lvl 35. than start doing the lvl 50 terminal jobs (which can be started at ol35)... and do many many terminal jobs. Also, I recommend starting with a Jenqui for beams so that you aren't spending credits on ammo. make progens and terrans later imo. 

Edited by Athanasios
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On 1/17/2023 at 1:33 PM, Tweetz said:

Wiki is hit and miss, oft quoted by a GM in-game as being *the* place to find information.

 

Hi Tweetz,

 I would like to point something out that you seem to have gotten completely wrong,  I have NEVER said its "THE" place to get information I have said the following though:

 

1: Its a Player maintained information source and as such reliant on the player base to enter the correct and up to date information and is not updated nor maintained by any of the Net-7 staff (be they Admins/Devs/GMs etc...).

2: It is A source of information which may or may not be accurate, thus one needs to take the information presented with a modicum of salt as with most information out on the internet that is presented by player base.

3: I have NEVER said or intermaited:  "mislead people into thinking it's the holy grail of information."

 

I trust that clears up the issue once and for all. With that said YOU could update the wiki to reflect what you have found as you seem keen to demonstrate your abilities by offering you services.

 

All the best,

Yeti[GM]

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This game was my first MMorg way back in the day...

 

Its better now than way back then, but it is a bit of a waiting game in aspects. Warping admittedly takes time and isnt segmented like newer games.. To some extent, this game isn't solo in a number of ways, but I certainly tried my best to play solo most of the time for much of the first year. but after that.. wormholes, raid groups, touring... Yeah, higher levels end up grouping more, mostly out of some sort of necessity, be it travel, raiding or touring.

 

A possible suggestion would be to have a map of sectors and navs that show the npc danger according to the nav. Example of Varen's Girdle, where most of the navs in the sector would be yellow or read [hostiles patrolling the nav or in visibility distance of said nav].

 

A spreadsheet could be done alternatively too for this... Because generally, when one is new, they're going from nav to nav like we generally did the first time not really knowing much else. I could help that way in time... Maybe?

Edited by dcwestby
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  • 4 months later...

this game was fun when you were 6/6 formation grouping.

 

not seen it done lately but 6/6 exploring with low characters getting maps explored is a great way to bump your ease for a few levels. easily get explore 25 with enough effort.  with the right pilot.

 

the other thing is to always have 200% player made gear.   rough if just starting out.

 

if your a couple playing together. have one a warrior and the other support class for buffs and heals/ crafting

 

worst game for learning curve imo would be Eve Online.

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On 12/3/2022 at 4:48 AM, dcruse2 said:

you get to level 10ish around 30 minutes to an hour into the game with about 12 way points discovered. then the main guy sends you across the hostile universe looking for some obscure shipyard that should have been placed inside the starting station. with no way points or anything in the description telling you how to get from mars to Vega . that bodes evil to someone who has never played this game before. suggestion ... place a shipyard in the starting station or at the very very very least put in the mission text exactly what jump points to use to go from where you are to Vega even google maps don't show how. and you shouldn't even have to look it up on google in the first place. took me 3 hours of blind flying and a few tells to a gm before finally giving up and logging. i played Everquest from kunark for 13 years so I'm used to a learning curve but at least allakahzams maps were accurate .

 

Wife had exactly the same experience.  It took me 2 months to coax her back in.  She now has a 150 TT and a soon-to-be 150 JE.  Persistence is key. 

 

But for sure, the start is unforgiving, the missions are unfortunately lacking in information, and it would be nice to have the maps at http://enbmaps.de/ linked somewhere in really bold font.  I do wholeheartedly agree that warping from Nav to Nav to find a starbase or ship to talk to, to complete a mission ends up in certain death in some cases - there's a very early TT mission that comes to mind.  The recommendations I've seen to ask for help in New Player chat is lacking these days - there simply isn't the playerbase anymore to support this course of action.  There's 20-25 avatars shown as logged in during most week days (EST working hours time) now - and of those many are multibox / semi-afk script jobbing or mining accounts.

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