There's been some discussion in game about character creation and how the choice of attributes relate to extensions and training time. Do you focus your attributes? Or do you hybrid? Train one character per account, or more? What's obvious to me is, given the required understanding of all the extensions as well as some hefty math, most new players don't comprehend, in real terms, the consequences of their choices at the time they're made.

I think the final screen of character generation should give the player some context. The devs should come up with some grab bags of extensions (and levels) to provide a frame of reference to players regarding how long it might take to develop certain aspects of their characters. These grab bags are akin to certificates in Eve. There would be, for example, a "basic assault pilot" bag as well as advanced and elite versions. Manufacturing would be split not only for material/time efficiency, but small-time ( < 5? concurrent factory lines) vs mass producer. There'd be other bags for ewar, NEXUS, marketeering, etc. Yes; it's a lot. But there's a lot that can be done, so a lot to explain.

For each grab bag, the total training time would be displayed for each of the focused attribute sets (e.g., combat school -> combat career -> combat kernel) as well as the player's selected attributes.

Only by offering this glimpse into the future will players understand just what they're committing themselves to in terms of time necessary to achieve mere proficiency vs great expertise in a given area.

Also, it should be made clear that all accounts gain EP at the same rate (1/min). It's the primary/secondary attributes of an extension as well as rank (that the right word in this game?) that determine cost to advance. Also, unspent EP are tied to the account, not a character. (That should be repeated in the terminal agent window tutorial.)

It should also be explained that once created, a character name is tied to the account, even if the character is later deleted.

Lastly, the EP penalty for deleting a character and the reason it's necessary should be explained. Perhaps the penalty could be waived for deleting the first (if still the ONLY) character on the account. Then players could be encouraged to join the game and chat up the Help channel before committing to a build if they don't feel comfortable making decisions with such far-reaching consequences alone. Remind them it won't be wasted time. Their EP is accruing regardless of how long it takes for them to make their "real" character.

I think these changes would go a long way toward helping players be happy with their character the first time instead of experiencing the frustration of having to re-roll or, once the EP penalty for deleting characters goes in, feeling downright shafted for being noobs.