Warpdrive operation
Capacitor management
Capacitor systems operations
CPU management
Powergrid management
Cybernetics
These skills are probably some of the core and oldest skills in the game. They are from a time before specialisations really were a buzzword in Eve and even now after 18 odd years stick in my mind as being needlessly frustrating. They represent around 60days of training. And for new players often feel like they are hurdles to jump before they can even begin looking at what they want to be flying.
Combined the capacitor and warp-drive operations create an insane experience for newbs where they can fail to warp an entire star system and then eventually arrive with very little capacitor. These are outdated in the age of softer NPI and frankly, the number of skills added over the years more than offsets the removal of these.
Capacitor amount and recharge are not all that bad as beginner mods and equipment either donât use that much capacitor or can be mitigated with enduring mods.
With regards to cybernetics, new players donât need the best implants from day one. Itâs even better they donât. An SP wall will prevent them from making early mistakes.
Fitting skills are indeed frustrating when it comes to sharing fits. But itâs not going to be solved by making fitting skills unnecessary because of the difference in requirements between T2 mods and meta mods. High SP fits are still going to be different to noob fits.
Warp drive operation could be gotten rid of however and I doubt it will be missed.
One skill you missed was drones. Drones takes over a week for Alphas to train from 4 to 5 and basically means you canât properly use a drone ship like a Tristan, Algos or Dragoon for far too long despite being entry level ships. Imagine having to wait a week before you could use all the guns on your frig or destroyers. Why this is still a thing I donât know.
No, I didnât miss drones. Or it really being about alphas.
My list is based on the most annoying skills that directly affect every ship you get in ever and really feel like unneeded hurdles. I have tried to isolate the 6 skills that basically are core for training into, fitting, and playing in every ship. you could dream of specializing in from the start. And have avoided anything that might be specific to one ship or playstyle. Including weapon upgrades or even spaceship command as it has no direct impact on fitting.
There is an argument for expanding it to category core skills. but then where do you stop?
Basically, I rolled an alt and looked at what does every pilot ever really needs in the first 3 months.
And thought to myself. If I was starting EVE new I would be pretty quickly researching how to optimize getting into what ships I want. This would lead me to these skills pretty fast. I would then realize pretty fast that I have to choose between compromising on flying anything or spending 2 months Just working on generic skills. This Would hugely put me off playing. I would then look for a way to speed it up. Outside of injecting that would be some implants. And that is why I have included cybernetics. As the next are you kidding me would be: I have to train, to train faster into the ship I want.
Yes, there are injectors to bypass this. But a real new player is unlikely to be happy having to grind for injectors or pay extra IRL money in the first few months without being put off. I certainly would have been like âhell noâ. And just stopped playing at that point.
Thats why alpha injectors exist. You dont have to get all those skills to 5 to be able to fly any ship.
I dont think as alpha you can anyway (yes im mentioning alpha because we are all considering alphas are the base of npe and not omega)
Alpha injectors are cheap for a reason. To make it easier for new players to hit their 20m cap without buying large skill injectors which diminish at 5m sp (10 alpha injectors =500k sp & 200 mil cheaper than one large skill injector)
In that case might as well remove skill training altogetherâŚ
No. I think the skills you mentioned arenât a âhurdleâ to anyone who understands what it is to play a video game. They may be a hurdle to the deluded and self-entitled but thatâs their problem.
Stop trying to change the game to suit your taste under the pretext of NPE. Play the game as is or quit.
Yeah, now that I think about it, I canât remember exactly how it used to be. Still, with all the fairly recent changes to warp speeds and autopilot, maybe warp drive operation should be eliminated to give the rookies a better experience.
I donât think it really does, so I disagree. It takes a few hours to train them to level 3 - at which point you will be able to cover most distances in Eve in a single warp, and when you land ongrid your capacitor will have sufficiently recharged. It was not a problem for any of the characters I ever created.
I think it could be good if CCP looked at streamlining some of the early game skills, but not all of the skills listed in the OP.
As others said, cybernetics should stay - it stops newbies from using the more expensive implants day one which I think is a good thing.
Drone skill should be reworked/removed to allow players to use 5 drones from the start. No other weapon system requires you to first train âweapon turret hardslotsâ to 5 before you can use all hardpoints, or âmissile hardslotsâ. Such restriction for drones isnât really interesting for newbies.
Rest of the skills: Iâm not opposed to removing the warpdrive operation. I donât see why the other listed support skills need to be removed though. CPU and PG skills arenât necessary from the start for fits, these mainly become useful once the player wants to fit the harder-to-fit T2 modules for example, but newbies wonât have the skills or funds to use those yet.
Alpha newbie: âcan I fly a Tristan?â
rookie helper: âsure but first you have to train a specific drone skill for over a week before itâs feasibleâ.
Alpha newbie: ânever mind thenâ
Ideas for improving NPE tend to revolve around a model where we are trying to get them out to null in a big corp and in a viable endgame ship right out of the gates. I generally disagree with the premise that making life more fun for new players means sort of fast forwarding them through early game. The early game is fun, so that seems like a waste to me. In fact, I think the most fun Iâve had in EvE was when I first, finally, managed to be able to afford a BC and ventured into lowsec.
IMO, the problem with the early game that dissuades a lot of players has more to do with players not knowing what theyâre supposed to do. Iâd rather they improve the early game activities. Update missions, for example. Lots of new players assume that doing missions is the main thing theyâre supposed to do, because it is in other games. So, make that a better experience. For example, we have the SoE epic arc, then it just kind of dead ends- the next epic arc is available like a year later or more when your standing gets high enough. Why not add another one that is tougher than SoE, but easier than the main faction ones, that is accessible as soon as you complete SoE? Why not set up some level 3 and 4 missions that use the new, smarter, more interesting, AI, but with sufficiently weak ships to make that doable? Why not double the number of missions so theyâre less repetitive? Why not fix the missions that have been bugged for a decade.
I bet a lot of players quit after they run the SoE arc, then do regular missions, and get the same mission 2 or 3 times, hit a bugged mission or two, and conclude thatâs it, theyâre out of content, and the content isnât really worth replaying over and over.
9 days for an alpha or 4 days for an omega. for Drones which its also several of the drone skills⌠while they are only 256k SP total for some a few of thedrone skills⌠its a significant jump from Level 4 to Level 5⌠a difference of takes of shoes and socks 210,745 SP between 4 and 5 of Drones/avionics/navigation/sharpshooting.
If an alpha utilizes the 1 mil SP they can get, only 256k can go towards drones or they can utilize 5 alpha injectors.
Core skill improve ship fitting and use. And you arenât required to train them. But its recommended to train them at lease a few levels.
Other advantage of these skills it teaches new players the benefit of training skills and what some think are useless skills can be advantageous. It also helps show up poor/bad trainers/FC ,if they fail to point out the benefits of these skills.
Core skills are a requirement, but not a given right, fail to learn and youâre likely to die because youâve not been taught about skills and how they interact with each other and your ship.
Yes its a hard lesson for those that fail to do these core skills and special those that skill inject using mastery lvls as list of required skills.
So these skills are a hidden trap for whales and those wanting fast advancement without lreaning how to play first.
