Lately I've observed a drastic increase in the numbers of new players who feel awfully mistreated when you destroy their ship in grey space.

I usually explain to them that this is a space combat game and that grey space is dangerous. When you got into it, you need to expect to be shot down. I also frequently tell them that this is mentioned in the tutorials and that they should have read them. They usually reply either that they did not read it (because rading is boring) or they oversaw it or they throw juvenile insults around.

I therefore propose another big warning that shows when a new player plots course to a grey space sector for the first time in his characters VO-career.
Have the warning say something like:

"WARNING: You have plotted course for a sector that is located within the grey space area. In grey space, it is much more likely to be attacked by other players (e.g. pirates, killers, bounty hunters.). Be sure to keep this in mind when you start flight for your desired destination!"

Once this is added, even the lazy new players will know what is up when they are shot down in grey space suddenly. It should help with reducing the surprise and anger when it happens.

+1 and also the same kind of warning the first time some moron tries to set their home at a station located in greyspace. Some of them get so salty dying over and over and over again, but despite having the credits to buy Corvus taur with FC and jacks after Corvus taur with FC and jacks...they claim not to have the credits to pay for safe passage.

Boom, cry, rinse & repeat.

-1 there are plenty of warnings. I knew from the tutorials that grey space was dangerous. Players in my own guild don't heed the warning even after being warned many times over and over and some would repeatedly make the same mistakes going to grey space (like homing at sedina d2 of all stations to choose from).

I say keep it as it is and let the devs work on something more productive. In the meantime, these players are excellent tools to use to collect multiple pks. If they're so sore, they could delete the character and restart, listening to the tutorials their second time!

-1

The newb whining is the best part of piracy.

But the best part of noob whining is when they do it despite all the warnings that would have saved them, had they but listened. This just gives us another stick with which to mock the idiots (99% of those we find homed in grey now) while offering some tiny help to the more intelligent fraction of nooblets.

Abandon all hope...

Au contraire! If they truly abandon hope, we'll have missed the chance to make them truly salty:

It is sometimes wise, Gordon Pasha, to provide the man with a few sunny hours of fraudulent hope; so that, when night comes, he will have a more perfect inward vision of the truth of his hopelessness.

This is why every few deaths, you should let them jump out of the Corvus station sector in which they're homed, before you end their miserable life yet again. Keeps them motivated, feeling like they actually lost something :)

See also: una salus victis nullam sperare salutem, which arguably refers to the only salvation of the defeated being utter acceptance of their miserable fate, rather than 'death or victory' providing a literal chance to snatch victory from defeat.

No more warnings. We have too many walls of text as it is. The more text you throw at users the LESS they read. More warnings will just make the problem worse for the above reason.

Prevent them from homing at a station with less than neutral standing. We had a whole thread about this that Inc seemed like he was going to act on. Getting killed in grey is unfortunate, but unavoidable. Homing in grey as a newblet is completely avoidable and the cause of 99.97243% of player frustration.

I don't really oppose a one time warning. It's difficult for vets to remember that early newb deaths feel much more significant. Unless you are Lecter, and then it's impossible to remember given the empathy vacuum.

+1

Unless you are Lecter, and then it's impossible to remember given the empathy vacuum.

To paraphrase the most recent incarnation of my namesake...it's only an empathy vacuum if we're equals.

Optionally just prevent grey access till comabt 3. Give them a reason to work towards it.

Or keep them in the training sector until combat 3. That'll shut them up about not seeing anyone.

-1 Death Hobum
+0 OP
+1 Savet

Here, put GTS Signs outside of any wormholes leading to greyspace. The prerequisite symbols, "Pirates" and "Danger" already exist.

I do like that idea, but it wouldn't actually help with the goal of educating newbies.

I'm starting to think that a better option, and one that imo would improve the game experience overall would be to incorporate this 'warning' into the illusion of an AI interface players have with their ships, where this warning would come up both when plotting and when about to jump from nation space into Grey. But this should be part of an entire redux of the pda system, which while getting voice communication is a bit much to expect from GS at this point, would give the impression of player to ship / station communication rather than just selecting buttons or tabs.

Some to all of which the player would be able to turn off in the game settings.

For all purposes, players will still be selecting buttons and tabs, but I think the 'illusion' would add to the overall experience in a positive way- providing it isn't done in such a way that it makes actions cumbersome.

-1

Sedina B-8 is safe and always has free cargo floating in it, I don't get what the big deal is.