Matamure brings out a valid point - new player vs The-Powers-That-Be.   But, in this regard, the only effect on newbs is that it currently takes waaaay more time than needed to convince a newb he/she/it has a long way to go and becoming competitive is a tough row to Person who sells themself for money.

And, we know it.  Bottom line:  I ain't gonna catch ya, Amigo.

Knowin' that, what bones can a newb chew on while dreaming delusions of Cosmic Grandeur?  And do they want to spend the time to chew on'em?  .

The issue of 'time' in various events and endeavors is not uncommon throughout the Forum posts.  It's pretty clearly not an alien notion.  Consider  that a 'smoke-signal' and share some o'your own?  What changes the game positively for us and makes it sticky as hell to a newb?

ALRIGHT!  Ok.  I've got it.  "Ya goofy newb-o-nauts should be restricted from postin' in this thread."

HAH!  But nobody did that and here comes another 'know-nuthin' upsetting the apple cart.

I'd still like the feedback from y'all (Be gentle. I'm pretty sensitive.).

I'm looking at how likely it is for new players to hang around. 

NOTE:  Nope.  I can't code. 

New Player:  It takes soooo long to do stuff.   Yeah, it's s'posed to represent time investment.  But, if y'all want newbs to hang out a bit, maybe you could make the transition times 10% of what they are now.  I think it's just one line of code, plugged in wherever timer results are, right?

New Player:  I can't open a Truck Stop and set my own prices!?  Not all of us are political (which appears to be the thrust of the game, so far).  Hey!  Ain't that a single line of code, too?  ***COMMAND>...SELL ORDER <set price>***  Opens the door to a new profession, i.e., 'Merchant'.

What would you folks that actually HAVE experience recommend?  Surely, bein' a big fish in a small pond has to rub your scales some, huh?

At the end o'the day, SirEmi gets a larger (and potentially more profitable) game base from retaining new visitors, the various Corporations get a recruiting pool of active folks and we all have someone else to shoot at.  What's not to like?

More solid intel...cool.  The MAU/SHG loadout being a sensible call has been noted in a number of other Forum posts.  Can't argue with success.

Got another question or two, though.  Is there no role for the other weapons systems?  Are the other weapons simply end-game, hey-look-what-I've-got, clutter?

And, just out of curiousity, what attack settings for the MAU (Standard, Find  Weakness...etc.) are more effective?   Make any difference at all or is it hey-diddlediddle-straight-up-the-middle?

[Nutz, don't throw stuff at me!]

Intense pirate hunters?O.o Npcs only I hope.

Just wondering are PIRATES allowed lol

And SCORPs belief is that this "boring" portion of the game is actually where the player begins to grasp the game and start to understand it. Free modules are great, but you should give a player a month or so to feel the game on his own (are there female players actually???)

Rofl...Yep, there's at least one female player (and I can almost certainly put my finger on another).  I know 'cuz she attacked me, I chased'er off and then she found and beat up a lone ship o'mine.  Nutz, don't throw stuff at me!  She did a pretty good job of eating my lunch.  (Thumbs up where they're due, it was Cadd17.  As a guitarist, it boggles my mind how I might fret a Cadd17 chord. lol)

Make sure your shield strength is no less than half of the total enemy power. And max out the combat tech research trees

Good stuff, Rostin.  Was my shields that kept me from really ridiculous embarrassment (And, my heartfelt thanks to the Empire of Sargas for those.  It ain't a bad thing to tie up with a Corp that is able to help ya.)  Been puttin' RPs into Combat since escaping SEA school.

What else, y'all?  Purely from an economic standpoint, satisfyin' a COM contract in one shot is a gooood thing.

How do newbs position/outfit themselves the best to achieve that?

I can see it now...

...just like Starbuck's...

...I'd like a quarter factory with a quarter freighter and a splash or two of reinforced hull...

...or a triple armor/shield/weapon enhancement with a splash of reinforced hull...

Am still chuckling over this post...Good stuff.

It's not an outrageous idea, though. 

Alrighty, then.  I've been suckin' up all the info I can from the Forum.  I've picked, prodded and purloined all the intel I can about how a newb-o-saur can get his feet under him.  And then I ran into my 1st COM mission.

What the hell??

As background, I'm former military -- a couple of times -- and used to teach folks about how to conduct combat.  One of the pearls of wisdom I used to preach is "Don't attack with less than 3:1 odds."  There's lots that goes into that 3:1, it ain't just numbers, but it's a handy rule of thumb.

Have gotten my tail kicked twice on COM ops with 5:1 odds to win and had to re-attack in order to fulfill the contract.

So, t'would appear the devs and I don't share the same book.

What can some of you Monsters of the Cosmos share that will help us clueless li'l critters be more effective when it comes to Combat?

I'm curious about Sargas's observation.  I've yet to run any sort of scan.  Is there a minimum scan depth?  It's early for critters like me to be thinkin' 'bout this sort of stuff but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like it in the tool box...secondarily, is there a way to defend against ship probes?

And that's absolutely my intent, Amigo.   It'll likely be some time before the information I envision showin' up in this thread is stuff I can even USE, though.  I reckon I'm just about as far from 'Pro' as it's possible to be.  Still, I'm pretty certain that there's a place for this sort of informational gold.

How 'bout it, folks?  This'd be a cool place for you Elite creatures to tease da noobs, baffle your targets, mislead, misguide and misdirect threats to your holdings and maybe even give a promising space-Neanderthal a leg up on what to think about next.  

Oh?  How did doin' that hurt, Rostin?  I have exactly 0 combats under my belt aside from the one in the SEA course.  How would you set up a weapons load out if you were new but taking the long view?  I've read here an' there that a MAU/Shield load out is effective.  Are there more effective/practical configurations?

I've got a boat that I've outfitted for SoS/Com ops and it's wallowing toward its 1st mission now.  (it's not a COM tasking)  Before I step on my whoozis, maybe some of y'all could share some thoughts about how to fit out a craft for a newb's first forays into Universal conflict.

Cool.  Thank ya, much.  Am off to exercise my OCD muscles now.  Gotta make these tin cans look pretty!   

Just a stray thought that got out when I was dreaming delusions of grandeur.

Would love to see this thread become a kinda central repository for various tips, strategies, configurations, etc., that the Monsters of the Universe have discovered.

JJL is particularly good at this, a lot of his posts around the Forum have an "I used to do this but now I'm..." content.

Who else has info like this that could serve as guideposts and/or targets to/of opportunity? 

If you need fuel, ask me and I will try to set up a small station nearby. My 25 solari per cubic is a lot less expensive than the snakes that survive on our tragedies.

Sargas, you've touched on a subject near and dear to my blackened li'l heart -- Commerce.

How does one go about sellin' goodies for less than Sol?  I am really interested in this. Would love, love, love a primer on how to set that up.   

Got a pair of questions about this.  First, does module placement have any sort of effect?  If so, any recommendations?

Just thought of another, is there a way to reposition ship modules that isn't too complicated?  Is it always a several step process or is there a 'Pro Tip' that'll simplify it some?

It's probably late enough that not many others are goin' to weigh in on this segment of the 'Junk Drawer.'

So, a big thumbs up to all o'y'all that commented on it...the lesson is clear.  "Follow instructions, ya whacko."
'
My only defense is that I aggressively pursue any competitive advantage.  It bit me in the tail, this time.

Cool little sub-set of the Drawer, though. What mistakes did you folks make gettin' the ball rolling?  I think it'd be useful as all get-out to have a 'Don't be an idiot' section.