I'd like to respond to one specific part of your post, about the grind and missions.

I've always felt a bit weird that this is a sandbox game where players make their own fun, yet there is a mission system.  I too would like a storyline, but I think a mission system makes it less of a sandbox and more of a WoW in the future (to a very small extent, granted.)

I would support the removal of missions as they are now.  From what I can tell, you do missions for two reasons: to make money, and to increase relation.  I think relation as a component of refining/manufacturing efficiency is stupid, it doesn't make sense, and its a HUGE deterrent to potential manufacturers (myself).  Let extensions be the only factor in efficiency of production, and it becomes more attractive to industry-leaning players who don't want to be forced to grind ANYTHING for hours in order to be competitive (myself).

As far as making money, I still believe there needs to be a way for PvE play to produce money without involving industry.  Combat-focused characters not yet ready to head into PvP, or who just dislike PvP.  Already you can sell drops and kernels, but this isn't enough.  So, either add bounties on all NPCs (ala Eve), or increase the infinite buy orders for kernels dramatically. 

But grinding isn't fun either.  So when I go find a group of NPCs and kill them for their bounty and drops, how about an escalating storyline, spawned by a drop from one of the bots, or a distress call from an NPC agent, or something to get me to go to the next group of bots which were created as a result of my interactions.  This can culminate in a big event with great rewards.  All without a formal mission system or relation increases.  We can still have relation to a small extent, maybe we get a tip from an NPC corp that there is an artifact in this area, or a field of Imentium there, etc.  Something to work for maybe but not REQUIRED for anything.

Finally, we need player contracts bad.  I think there would be plenty of demand for player-created transport missions; maybe not between the three main stations, but that doesn't make sense anyway.  Players can pay NIC to have their valuable bots and goods moved to Beta; they are paying someone to take a risk, so the money is being truly earned.  Mining contracts, where instead of just placing a buy order, I hire a player to deliver X amount of ore by a certain date.  This would motivate miners to get out and do something, knowing they are getting a guaranteed return because it is a game mechanic, and maybe there is a bonus if they do it by a certain time.  As it is now, I can look at the market, see there is a demand for something, go mine it, and all the orders are filled and the price has dropped substantially.  Contracts could connect players, build relationships, maybe set up a standing order between players where miners are naturally supporting manufacturers who are supporting combat players, without necessarily using the market.

To me, that would make the sandbox much more fun and much more of a sandbox.

I'm ok with relation being a tedious grind and paying off if you stick through it.  What I'm not ok with is it being required to access any area of the game.  So I'm an industrial character exclusively focused on mining, but I'd really like to get into producing.  But I'm unwilling to do transport missions or "the grind," so I can't ever be competitive in that space.  I can't even refine my own ore, even if I put every single EP I get into it.

That's why I want relation to play a much smaller role.  To step up to harder missions, sure, but to be competitive in the marketplace, no.

It's possible I'm wrong.  I thought the patch they just put in took them out, and they added repeatable training missions instead.  Had a discussion about this in game and the consensus seemed to be they took them out.  Not sure, now.

I'd agree that preserving the game world integrity is super important (it really is a great world).  I'm not sure how to fix this.  The repetition is the real problem I think, and is being aggravated by the long travel.  More interesting, non grinding stuff to do would probably alleviate this, actually.

I am really tempted to try another month.  I keep having this itch to play, but once in the game I quickly lose steam.  I feel like I'd get destroyed in PvP, but combat missions are boringly repetitive, and grinding easier bots is a bit more profitable but also gets boring.

Tried a transport character on a 2nd trial account (don't want to spread out my EP on one account/two chars) since it's apparently the way to make money, but I got tired of running goods quickly, since there's basically no variation to it.

I want to play when I'm not in the world, maybe in small doses it's worth it.

Good discussion though guys, keep it up!

They haven't been renamed, nothing was done to them. It's just some players got confused with the new line of tutorial assignments and started crying wolf

The old 10 tutorial assignments are called like "Truhold-Markson tutorial assignment / File #1" and they are still called like this.

The new beginner assignments (which have nothing to do with the old tutorial assignments above) are called "Truhold-Markson combat rookie assignment / File #1". (or industrial/logistics)

I'm sorry if I'm the one not getting something here, but what exactly has changed?

Confirming the names as DEV ZOOM has stated. Have been working on these off and on for a week or so. No changes.

I started playing the game when the old tutorial system was in use. I found it really good. Compared to other MMOs it was relatively fast paced, the most pertinent information gets across and the player isn’t drowned in information. At the end of said tutorial, I knew how to play the game and had a large choice of missions ahead of me. As is were I considered it a strength in this game.

Considering how good it was I’m surprised that they tried to “improve” it.

I understand that they could be grinded for cash and the grave consequence of loosing the first light bot. Though now it seems that people are completely confused.

+1