Fits corresponding to their race would be a starting point
assault fit
logi fit
scout fit
heavy infantry/ AV fit
commando light av fit

Keep it basic,keep it simple but diverse,you dont want to overwhelm them with options at the gate.

Fits corresponding to their race would be a starting point
assault fit
logi fit
scout fit
heavy infantry/ AV fit
commando light av fit

Keep it basic,keep it simple but diverse,you dont want to overwhelm them with options at the gate.

One problem with this is that new players are forced to choose a race before they understand the implications of that decision. By giving them access to militia fits of other races (that they can build themselves but likely don't realize), you expose them to the racial flavors of the game early on, giving them the opportunity to make a different character before they become too invested in their first one.

I can appreciate that you don't want to overwhelm new players, but having a broader selection of suits to play around with shouldn't be too overwhelming, especially if they're well-labeled. I suspect most new players will want to try out each one, and get a "tour" of DUST's diversity as a result. It's not a good substitute for a real gameplay tutorial, but it seems like it should be easy to implement given the hotfix restrictions and would be a large improvement from what we have now.

I also have concerns about making militia versions of specialty suits. It makes more sense to stick to militia basic frames, since that's what's immediately available to them.

250,000 ISK

50x MLT variants of everything.

Empty BPO Frontline Frames for each class/role of a character's chosen race. *A MLT Dropsuit BPO Assault, Logi, Scout, Heavy, & Commando, No Weapons, No Modules.

Fittings suggestions and stats in an easier to use format with improved fonts. (Better U.I.)

If no PvE, then in-game Pop-Ups explaining HUD, TacNet, Vehicle & Warbarge Strike Deployment, Objective Descriptions, etc.

New Players are restricted to Academy until they reach 50,000 WP, after which they have the option to choose at any time to go to pubs or remain in Academy Battles until they are removed at 200,000 WP.

That's about as good as we can do without.... stuff.

250,000 ISK

50x MLT variants of everything.

Empty BPO Frontline Frames for each class/role of a character's chosen race. *A MLT Dropsuit BPO Assault, Logi, Scout, Heavy, & Commando, No Weapons, No Modules.

Fittings suggestions and stats in an easier to use format with improved fonts. (Better U.I.)

If no PvE, then in-game Pop-Ups explaining HUD, TacNet, Vehicle & Warbarge Strike Deployment, Objective Descriptions, etc.

New Players are restricted to Academy until they reach 50,000 WP, after which they have the option to choose at any time to go to pubs or remain in Academy Battles until they are removed at 200,000 WP.

That's about as good as we can do without.... stuff.

Would you rather I put it on protofits.com or just list it out here?

Edit: Also, do you want all militia or standard gear is cool too?

Suits still get people killed while in the Academy. A person who picked the Amarrian Race may like the characters look, but not know Amarr are Armor tankers. They may like Gallente suits, but not be exposed to that.

In the Race picking screen, there needs to be words saying

Caldari: Stack Shields, allowing for regen. Better for Solo players
Amarr: Stack armor, making them extremely powerful, but slow and reliant on a repair tool
Gallente: Use armor repair modules. Have a healthy mixture of regen of health, but can stack armor to get close to the amarr
Minmatar: Use Shields and speed modules to maneuver.

The new players need to have more tips and guides at their disposal first coming in. All the suits in the world won't help you if you don't know anything. A weapon should have the bonus percentages on it (Mass Drivers- 20% to shields, +20% to armor)

Getting back to the original post however, I'd love it if all Frontline starter suits had their militia side-arms as well. Only once the sidearm buff occurs however, not before

Getting back to the original post however, I'd love it if all Frontline starter suits had their militia side-arms as well. Only once the sidearm buff occurs however, not before

I'd like a forge gun starter fit... Just so I can easymode kill people who stand still without investment... Thanks.

There's definitely some great notes in here. I definitely think starter fits need a revisit, and I like the idea of providing limited numbers of other roles for people to try out. I have noted this thread in appropriate places. ;)

I'd like a forge gun starter fit... Just so I can easymode kill people who stand still without investment... Thanks.

As for fits, I say 0 starting isk (You can quickly make enough isk to start skilling in like one hour of gameplay and this ends the cancer that is isk farming multiple accounts) with race specific starter fits. Earning isk for Sp has never been an issue. The only people who have trouble earning isk are the ones who don't know how to budget their isk consumption through losing suits.

If you give new players too many frontlines, you will probably delay their interest in making their own suits. The issue with the NPE has always been the fact that they get kicked out of the battle academy and into the 500k-70+ million sp match making system. It doesn't matter to start how many militia fits there are although they could be given some non-frontline suggestion fits at around 10-20 each. Like militia forge av heavy and militia shotgun light suit, but soon enough they will be exposed to the plethora of options anyways via death statistics. Trial and error and/or research are the only ways for players to learn how to fit suits the way they want and you can't force them to, or convince them to like the game if they don't like customization. This isn't COD, they can't just run the default assault with a noob tube and expect to win in all situations.

This "How do we teach them how to fit suits?" and/or "How do we give them better tutorials?" is just a red herring to the desire to ignore the matchmaking issue that the power grind is very real and discouraging to new players.

Hell other than what has been said since the start that they should invest in core skills and try everything out to see what they want to skill into, there's not much else to say. What is good and what is bad meta wise changes with every patch/hotfix and new players who aren't turned off by their immediate waste of sp due to not having a crystal ball and quit will have to learn to live with the fact that versatility is the most practical sp investment for those who haven't been playing since beta (And by consequence have pretty much all the skills to chase any FOTM.)

For better or worse, that's the game we are stuck with in spite of how unpopular this system is with gamers. Good luck Legion, if it keeps these same stigmas.

*snip*

Sorry about only just getting to this thread Vellocet. Been kind of manic with CPM stuff and RL.

Racially slanted starter fits is something that we've already discussed amongst ourselves and we've brought the matter to the attention to the people we need to.

Delta is going to be looking at the rebalancing of sidearms and that will dovetail nicely with a chance to reevaluate to starter fits.