A big deal is between two extremes. Brand new ranks and the seasoned veterans.

I think it'd be useful to incorporate something more to hook and keep the new fish in. The trainee program was a good start.

However, if a trainee so happens to be plopped into an inactive legion, they're going to think the games beat; that's ignoring the fact they have a very limited amount of energy thus very limited opportunity to scan planets to get any kind of production to yield interest and ship growth. -- Bottom line new ships have no production, no means to obtain it (unless trainer legions provide planets) and if they attempt to play the game they can only play for several minutes at a time before they run out of E.
- No hull + repair timer (5 minutes) - they can not effectively NPC or PvP because they can't repair right away (no arti = no repair nanos)
- Energy - even if they invest all their points into engineers their E is quickly extinguished
- Traps - stop ships in tracks - no null because no arti

The game should enable these fresh ships to quickly get to 100 then start to taper into a slower, more gradual, incline. Not the other way around.

Seasoned Vets:
- Repetitive cycle
- No more challenges or new content beyond a certain rank
- More and more retirees causing less incentive for other vets to stick around (no friends no fun)

GAME NEEDS TO BECOME MORE SOCIAL
WE NEED INCENTIVE FOR THOSE THAT DEDICATE TIME TO THE GAME
--possibly an extension to the daily reward

We also should be having more face time with Dan. I love the recent effort but interaction between the maker and the players would do great to restore confidence for the vets.

Sorry if there's some repetitive stuff in here I just typed what came to mind immediately -- thoughts guys

The game has always allowed you to Rank quickly and then slow down if you choose.
I do not understand why you think you can't already do this?

I'm aware that high ranks can easily rank on command. I was singling out the new ships. The game is very slow for the new ships, and that is a crucial time for them to get hooked on the game.

Yes mate, my point was not in the slightest about high ranks, nor new players... low ranks do not have to be very slow, that is almost entirely a choice.

If you compare our two ships, for example, we have almost exactly the same amount of time played, but with very different ranking patterns.
This is as it should be, imo, I think choices are a good thing.

I don't want to suggest one choice or another is better or worse, but I can tell you that ranking quickly early is not something that I regret in the slightest and is very possible.

In my case, I happily ignored the predictions of doom and gloom, ranking past 500 well within a year and 1000 well within 18 months.
All it did to me was allow me to build AP through lots of scanning, having lots of planet slots and producing lots of terraformers, IFGs and magnetosphere chargers through NPCing.

I don't for a second regret making sure I could autorank whenever I wanted as soon as I could and I never found the early game slow as a result.

I am forever grateful that people advised me of the importance of building energy.
As they wisely pointed out, having lots and lots of attack means very little if you can't use it.

I'm interested to see if as people retire the game resets itself in a way. The archon image of the lsb with tons of attack mentoring people with them having he real day to day gaming parallels real life in manner aspects. As we age we tend to relax and approach things differently. A lot of great ships and players have retired. This might in the long run open the slates for new players to really make an imprint. That said, the need is really more an influx of players versus a ton of stuff to do.

I think low ranks have their hands full with stuff to do. Legion missions, mission chains, dailies, events, pvp, planets and scanning. It would be fairly overwhelming i'd think. So much there. That is part of what drew me in , nigh five years ago. The game in that time has added bases, legions, badges, allies, most of the % modules, legion missions, new planet types, ct lab, many seasonals..and so on. Dan has done a marvelous job inventing and morphing the game. The issue is more activity in my mind than ranks or availability.

An active legion with chat to accompany is the draw. I don't disagree Penns on the concept of more for new players...just worry that more would be overwhelming. I would encourage a temporary halo benefit for new players...some free e cubes, higher e regen, etc... Though that could lead to quick unproductive growth. So its a tough quandry.

I totally respect Diego in game and real life. But i would point to outliers versus mainstream play. There is an eschelon of players who are learned and experienced beyond their rank and play that way. I have run into a shocking # of people who are way below what i woudl have considered (imho) given knowledge on gameplay. So many people wonder how ships got so strong, did so well, etc. Some never ask, some never learn, some never are around the right group to find out.

It took me a good 3 of my five years to get my head out of my ass and learn and benefit. Since then the curve has been spectacular...but it did take that long. Hard to rush knowledge to people. Baby steps. Back on topic the big ships just need more npc's and challenges. With unchecked growth and levels i can't imagine what those would be without making it even more a landslide effect, but doesnt mean its not worthy of consideration.

Elegant and agreed. I understand where you're coming from as well Deigo

we need more elites for us higher ranks past 2200 and past rank 6k need to get more of a npc pool out there for us some of us have what 100 targets and then others there target list for pvp drops fast. so giving us more npcs to target gives those ships more motive to stick around and play.

what allot of the higher ranks have what to look for if they npc queens and fab plants that is a pure joke for them to do npc and those ships also have like 5 targets to hit as well so pvp is also out of question so only thing left is hitting base's well that does not take up much time to do .so they get bored and then that leads to finding other games to play and losing interest in this game.

this has been mentioned many times and dan has ignored it so we should all take it as dan does not care and losing higher ranks leaving the game will soon lead the game into many others quiting and then what