Making Things Matter: Nooblets

Not N00BS! Nooblets.  Those endlessly inquisitive, endlessly optimistic, endlessly hopeful characters most of us scrape off our boots on our way to a real fight.  Now the shoe might be moving a bit.  The redone T1 frigs and T1 cruisers are not to be ignored.  TheMittani.com has reported some nasty fighting and a couple nights ago Get Off My Lawn treated Retirement Club to a demonstration.  29 T2 ships against the 39 man LAWN fleet (later joined by some Space Monkeys pissed about a Pally loss and some more gnomes who missed the bridge) with results that left me stunned.  I was resigned to losing my Omen, and nearly did, dipping to 22% before I remembered to Orbit giving our hero logi squad the chance to save me.  I managed to limp home at 22% structure with my Omen!

I’m on FIRE!

And you know who else can fly Tech 1 Cruisers?  Nooblets.  Lots and lots of Nooblets.  With coaching and leadership these ships can be extremely effective.  And if you welp a fleet or 5, you still haven’t lost the 2.7 Billion + isk our 401k friends did.  These kinds of fleets need a LOT of leadership though, likely “skill” positions like fast tackle, Logi, and EWAR will be filled with a WIDE variety of skill levels.  Getting people to understand their role and what to do is a huge challenge opportunity to excel for leaders.

For years TEST and Goons have been championing the Rifter Stampede, where every Nooblet they could lay hands on was encouraged to hop in a rifter and go tackle something.  Now they can take those hundreds of people and put them in Omens and Stabbers and Vexors (oh my!) supported by Celestis, Arbitrators, Augorors, and nearly a dozen other ships I can’t even NAME; and they will be effective.  The previously crushing advantage held by more skilled players has been softened.  The sledgehammers the elitists in EvE once wielded with near impunity has been cut down and the eggshells Nooblets were expected to compete with given spikes, and a tougher skin.

One of the most common complaints a new player could make was that he had nothing to do other than fly a cheap ship, or PvE when he started out.  Now that is no longer true.  Now a new player can be flying a version of the Omen I used in about 3 weeks with minimal skills, and fully T2 the bastard in 3 months or so, including time to get the fitting skills right.  In this period of time a new pilot can finish the tutorials, take several classes in EvE University, take some Agony Unleashed courses and find a good place anywhere in EvE and contribute in frigates OR cruisers.  Having useful, powerful hulls that can compete right down to the ground floor of EvE is a great incentive to avoid the rush to Battleships that drives many a Nooblet (myself included) into a ship he cannot afford to lose, and cannot realistically fly.

There’s another big lesson to be learned with these ships.  That losing a ship is not the end of the world.  These ships are not exactly tough.  While they aren’t made of tissue paper, they aren’t bricks either, with the exception of YOU Mr. Maller!

You Smug Tough Bastard

But losing these ships, even repeatedly, wouldn’t strain the resources of a veteran, and most alliances, and even many corps, could realistically work to provide a stable of ready to go ships for their newer players to drop into and go.

To me at least, the ease of getting players into these ships, combined with their obvious utility, and the low risk of loss that comes with flying these ships combines to give new players more to play for, more to play with, and more reason to play.

BONUS:  Video of the fight from one of the few other Omen pilots we had.  Because apparently NO ONE LIKES LAZZORS PEW PEW PEW

I’m using it every time I can