I've read many suggestions, complaints and ideas about this topic and others around attracting and retaining new players, both as an independent suggestion and as responses to suggestions.
My suggestion is based around my experience playing the old versions of the British game "Elite" and "Frontier".
You start off with a Crobra Mk III and a pitiful bunch of credits and the lowest rank. From there you can simply head out into space and do stuff, like travel to different systems, trade, pirate and battle. Loads of fun. Further to game play, you can upgrade your ship components or the ship entirely. As long as you have the moola of course. When you upgrade to a ship that requires additional crew, you have to hire them and pay them. I don't remember any requirements around food, toilets or sleep. Anyway, the game kicks you into the thick of it straight away.
With Starmade this can be achieved and has for a while now mainly to customized servers. One in particular is Light vs Dark, which has a great way of getting the new players involved off the bat by joining one of two custom NPC factions.
This is where my idea kicks in. Why not have the game give you the option of starting as a member of one of the existing NPC factions. You would start off with a simple ship that has battle and mining capabilities. If the player is unsure, start by default with the player a member of the Traders faction. Naturally they should also have the credits to buy additional or upgrade/modify etc.
This would immediately immerse the player into the game with the ability to build on what they have without starting from the bare minimum of a bunch of blocks and some credits.
*UPDATE*
Fixed some typo's and added the following.
Oh, this is mainly an idea for single player. Which is often where people start and learn.
My suggestion is based around my experience playing the old versions of the British game "Elite" and "Frontier".
You start off with a Crobra Mk III and a pitiful bunch of credits and the lowest rank. From there you can simply head out into space and do stuff, like travel to different systems, trade, pirate and battle. Loads of fun. Further to game play, you can upgrade your ship components or the ship entirely. As long as you have the moola of course. When you upgrade to a ship that requires additional crew, you have to hire them and pay them. I don't remember any requirements around food, toilets or sleep. Anyway, the game kicks you into the thick of it straight away.
With Starmade this can be achieved and has for a while now mainly to customized servers. One in particular is Light vs Dark, which has a great way of getting the new players involved off the bat by joining one of two custom NPC factions.
This is where my idea kicks in. Why not have the game give you the option of starting as a member of one of the existing NPC factions. You would start off with a simple ship that has battle and mining capabilities. If the player is unsure, start by default with the player a member of the Traders faction. Naturally they should also have the credits to buy additional or upgrade/modify etc.
This would immediately immerse the player into the game with the ability to build on what they have without starting from the bare minimum of a bunch of blocks and some credits.
*UPDATE*
Fixed some typo's and added the following.
Oh, this is mainly an idea for single player. Which is often where people start and learn.
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