id rather get them to survive, so they play SL, if you keep obliterating them right out of noob camp they wont want to play anymore

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When the lamb opened the fourth seal, i heard the voice of the fourth living creature say,"Come!!" i looked and there before me was a pale horse!!! Its rider was named Death and hades followed close behind.

Yeah i was joking.
I think the new player missions should be re wrote anyway, if there still the same from what i can remember from when i first joined.

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The night is dark and full of terrors

They've changed since you first joined. They're okay now, the only real problem I see with them is that if you stay and do them all the way through it takes a long time and the n00b arena isn't overly active so it can get boring. I think the current missions are designed for a more active game.

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Make your move, reindeer games.

@Dios: Was not my decision either, but it was decided on previously. Both opinions have their merits, and I was outvoted in my case. This is somewhat mitigated by very few newbies taking full advantage of the opportunity presented to them.

Edit: Possibly due to it being somewhat boring in the newie arena, true dat.

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SkyLords Head Programmer

Spelled: I I R I (not irii, irri, or iri).

Force of nature.

Really they have changed?
Well really its a decision, a new player has to make.
As i have heard, you no longer have to do all the missions to enter the real arena which means, what stops new players wanting to rush ahead and just jump into the real arena and get them selves defeated before they know what they are doing?
There should be a time restriction on how long they can stay in the new player arena and the right amount of missions detailing the ins and outs of SL in the right proportion

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The night is dark and full of terrors

Lets let the game get back on it's feet before we start suggesting massive changes.

I'm a bit half and half on this one. On the one hand, I can see the advantage in forcing people to stay in the Newbie Arena; they'll come through on a far stronger footing to survive. On the flip side of that, doing so can make you very bored and tempted to quit. I know I only stuck around because a friend of mine from NationStates was playing as well, so we could chat about that amongst other things. That was when you did have to get through all the missions (admitedly, far less than you have now) to get through.

Also - why not let people jump through? Where is the garentee that they will get defeated? Granted it can be highly frustrating for a new player if they jump in and die straight away, or even worse if they save up a small HW and lose it. But if someone likes the game they will start again, if you wouldn't do that then I doubt you'll stay around in SL long anyway.

I'm not sure it's right to rob that choice from a new player. It should be strongly advised to reach an X point in terms of resources and ships before joining, but I'm not sure that stopping them jumping in is the right move. You never know, some may well suprise you, there's certainly been a few players I can think of that coasted through the Newbie Arena very quickly and came out as good players.

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Make your move, reindeer games.

True.
But like you said the game needs to get back on its feet.
And 1 of the main things the game is lacking at the moment is active players.
We need to think about long term here, not just solving problems now.
Yes there are problems that need to be solved now and have higher priority than other things, im sure everybody has a list of 100+ things they would love to be implemented into SL. I know how much I personally annoy Iiri at every given chance about changes to SL.
Im not requesting that the missions or the new player arena be changed im just saying that if we want new players to stick around then someone needs to be changed. Heck the amount of systems i run into each day which hosts a new player, a spc and a green planet.

Your right some players are quick of the mark and excel alot faster than other new players do, infact some new players take over older players that have been around longer and are more powerful.
I just think we need to give them more incentive to play not make them look at something and then they think " Eh? " and click the logout button and dont return again.

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The night is dark and full of terrors

True. I'm not saying it doesn't need changing, I'm saying that the way you change it needs to be well considered. If you merely bracket all new players into the newbie arena you could lose out, similarly if you fling them all into the real arena, you can lose out - it has to be well thought out and a balance between the two.

I think the bugs etc... are more important now. Bear in mind that SL isn't Iiri's entire life - he does have his own things to be getting on with Personally I'm extremely greatful that he got the game running again and is working on fixing it in his spare time; that's a truly heroic effort after so long a time. For the moment I'll be more than happy with fixing the general bugs on SL and having a vague idea on the direction the game should be going.

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Make your move, reindeer games.

yes, theres alot that can be said for changes but too many changes too fast can leave people with a bad taste in their mouth, so taking it slow is optimal at this point

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When the lamb opened the fourth seal, i heard the voice of the fourth living creature say,"Come!!" i looked and there before me was a pale horse!!! Its rider was named Death and hades followed close behind.

I jumped into the real arena after a day and a half on this account =.=

But I had planets in every quadrant of the universe (since the newbie arena is so densely packed you just send out random probes and detect several systems)

And I had a homeworld, 2.5 mil transports, and fully trained assaults from my old account being held by another iDGer

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Now with 93% less edge and teenage angst