Experiment successful. Discovery is not a good place for newbies.

[Combiseries]

What is the point in having a starting credit of 500c when you can ask for help and get 1 million. You might as well just start new players on 1 million straight away. You might as well do away with the cheaper ships altogether then, because new players who have asked for the cash advance will go straight to a good one.

I started from scratch, started exploring looking for the good trade routes, stuck to them and built my way up. Now I have a tidy ship and good profit in trading. This only took me around 5 hours game time (give or take a few), spread over a week or so.

Personally, I don`t like to `give` a load of money to someone new. It`s not RP, and the RP server is an RP server. You don`t get that sort of thing in the real world.

There is a way to help new starters and if you let me, I propose this :

A Buddy System

You could have a few volunteers from different time zones acting as buddies to new starters. These `buddies` would seek a new starter and offer help. Not in the form of cash, but in the form of `showing the ropes`. The buddies could accompany the new flyers and give advice on what to do first, wether it be in the form of trading or doing missions. They could help with the missions, so the new flyer does not get frustrated in getting blown up in the first few and then giving up and not playing anymore.

If giving help in trading, offer to accompany them where ever they want to go to look for a good trade route. Asking them where they might think there may be a good route. And if their choice isn`t a good one, point out one that would benefit them in the short term.

While on route, you could go chat one on one in private mode and discuss the RP requirements of the server and the rules governing ID, ship type, etc. When the new player feels comfortable building on their trade route, you could offer them a little more advice and then send them on their way, giving them the option of getting in touch with you whenever they may need help again.

I know you`ve got the Angels, but they are more or less just `stewards` of the server. You could have these stewards and then have the buddies as well.

Or, just be a buddy to someone new. Most people, me included who come to play multiplayer, are just looking to make new friends.

The first person to actually talk to me in RP was when I made my couple of million, bought an Armoured Transport and then they demanded I pay them 800k to be let go. That was my first contact with anyone else who was human, and it was a pirate. I put it to you, that this might be the first contact of another human that any new player has..... a pirate, demanding cash... Not really a good thing, but not a bad thing either.

Incidentally, I gave him my last 555k. I told him it was all I had, and that he cleaned me out (all in RP mind). Five minutes later, he gave my 600k back and apologised saying he didn`t know I was that short of money. I wouldn`t have minded if he kept it, because after I sold my goods, I made 1.5 mil.

I for one, having been a freelancer player for years and years. Been on the server before, and maybe new, but not new. I`m going to be a `buddy` to someone who has never played here before and we can learn together.....

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In actual life every great enterprise begins with and takes its first forward step in faith...

Friedrich von Schlegel