How to ease the issue with player retention. (Being Split Into Seperate Discussions)

The ultimate goal with these changes is to not hit new, f2p players with the equivalence of a mac truck. I had a friend grit his teeth and push through a tutorial (granted he was impatient) so that he could play a few rounds with me. I took note of his major complaints about the game.- Don't force players to buy the enforcer. Let them spend their first 110k on a ship of their own choice. Giving them freedom of choice sooner rather than later is extremely attractive for new players, since it means they're not going through the motions as much.(Steggs has responded in this thread, and explained the reasoning behind the decision. The enforcer is a popular ship among new players, and most new players leave at the choice of purchasing ships. Perhaps giving a few Free (temporary) ships each week would also come in handy?)Dedicated Thread: http://steamcommunity.com/app/310380/discussions/0/135507548128206634/ - A pack of 15 implants, and a few crew pods to offer them some more customization. Don't worry the grind won't be any less intimidating.Dedicated Thread:- Offer bonuses with ship purchases (An additional pod for crew/implants?). New players need a little more than miniscule credit bonuses to get any actual progression climb.Dedicated Thread:- Have a "Training" section to include more in depth training to prepare players for numerous scenarios. Give small completion bonuses for competing training on core concepts for game modes (capturing mines, capping gamma).Dedicated Thread:- Game information being refined. This includes combat mechanics, tool tips and in depth coverage of advanced mechanics. The community is more than willing to help.Dedicated Thread:- Still waiting on credit gains to be fixed. Just go back to the previous formula. I didn't see any complaints about stat-padding before this change was decidedly implemented.(Editing the OP to add more and more things. Comment suggestions/points of concern to create a solid list of improvements.)- Draft Dodgers need to die. It was mentioned a long time ago in an interview that dodgers would be replaced w/ai and be suspended from the matchmaker for the length of the match they left, but we haven't heard anything about it as of recent. We could be waiting for them to fix some of the issues people draft dodge for (Not being able to choose ships).(Steggs responded to the matter. There is a change coming to end draft dodging and how it ruins the game.)- Implant values (I've whined about this before) are in need of changes. Either defense needs to be as irrelevant as the offense and utility, or offense and utility need to be as relevant as defense.- Bring back the sentinel, vent and Pioneer being available at the start. They're great gateways into various play styles for new players.(Col/Prot/Hunter combo would be acceptable as well. Perhaps have Flavor of the Week ships from each manufacturer?)- The introduction of other modes to increase the number of things to try and play. Includes but not limited to: Objective-based coop, outright TDM, TDM with AI ship allies to get an "epic space battle" feel.- Frontline is too simplified for new players, and it makes the change to conquest a brutal experience. Consider either game mode-specific tutorials or redoing Frontlines.- To communicate that the starter ships aren't bad, offer either an in game page or a link to a web page showing a chart of ships win rates over the past 30 days (Would really help if you add additional info as well, such as how often the ship is played, how many unique players played it and preferred load out options.).- Perhaps make several competitive game modes that players can vote on before ship selection (KoTH, CTF, TDM, etc).- Reduce the snowball effect in Conquest mode. Refer to Operator's post. I couldn't put it better myself. Different gamma maps would be amazing.- Serafine mentioned once upon a time making the weapon load outs more diversese. They all just follow the formula of varying volley/refire and yield.It's just a few things here and there, but the ultimate strategy is to reduce the serious presence of Pay to Progress. Make it feel like it's humanly possible to catch 'em all without putting in their bank info.