No they don’t. Granularity have no far enough. If they gave me ability to full F2P and SP gaining via SP injectors then they would be doing what you wrote.
They do give you both, though not at the same time. The reality, like I said, was that you get to pick what level you want and thats what you pay for.
Sure, but letting your customers decide what they want to pay is not always the most profitable, or even a viable business model.
In this case though evolving a business model for their game is CCP’s problem. They have MBAs, data scientists and gaming market people to figure this out and it is CCP will suffer the consequences (both negative and positive) of any change. There are plenty of free-to-play/premium business models for games that make massive profits for gaming companies, so it isn’t especially strange for CCP to want to transition their old business model to one used widely with success in the industry.
I think without question any new game developed by CCP would be a free-to-play (or perhaps buy once to play like Valkyrie) model. The uncertainty though that many current players are expressing have though is whether such a transition can be made to Eve without unduly affecting game balance and breaking the game. Like this thread where one player expressed concerns that criminals in highsec will be significantly buffed by these changes to the alpha clone skills. I don’t think this is going to have any noticeable impact to ganking (and if it did, couldn’t more interactions be considered a good thing?) just like the original changes to alpha clones produced no noticeable increase in suicide ganking despite a moderate section of the player-base screaming for safeties to be locked or we would have a gankageddon in highsec.
If you ask me, I do think expanding the alpha skill set will cost CCP significant subscriptions as many casuals just go perma-alpha and will dramatically amplify the problem of alpha abuse by existing players who seem to be already routinely flouting the EULA and multi boxing them along side other accounts. Team Security really should make a lot of noise with a ban wave to remind players this is against the rules and will have consequences before these changes are implemented. But I agree with CCP Rise the expanded alpha skills is likely to keep new players longer (and increase the PCU) and that seems to be a tradeoff CCP is willing to make.
I hope it works out for them.
I actually agree with most of what you are saying here. It is CCPs issue and they have the numbers and the data to see it through. Sure it could bite the entire game in the proverbial ass but we shall see.
And yes I also agree with the perma-alphas issue, though I think it will be offset a tad by whales buying the game. If CCP increases and/or caters to those I cant see an issue with people enjoying Eve and making the game player count higher or be targets and background environment.
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Initial Alpha boost ended with even less PCU.
I do not see what will make this new change have different effect: those who were leaving will leave (middle of 2018: people propose new improvement for “new players” - multichar login or T2 ships), some of those who was paying will stop to pay and switch to F2P, others will continue to pay.
I’m pretty sure we currently have 2 types of Rookie.
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Those that are happy to push to the limits of their Alpha account and enjoy themselves while doing so, and then consider Omega. They can be found in Rookie Help asking what they can or can’t do with their Alpha account, and when told of the limits, decide they are going to upgrade to Omega.
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Those that are very unhappy with the limits of their Alpha account and are very frustrated with the limits, but don’t want to pay for Omega. They can be found in Rookie Help ranting about what they can’t do with their Alpha account. They call Omega ‘Pay 2 Win’ and refuse to even consider paying.
Maybe a slight oversimplification and no doubt there are type 1’s who end up not paying and type 2’s who end up paying, but the above is the general trend when you read the comments in Rookie Help on a daily basis.
To me, it feels like these changes are unecessary in the case of type 1 and will just make playing the game without spending any money on it a more viable option for type 2. Type 2 Rookies are looking for ways to access as much of the game as possible without any cost. There is the possibility that type 2’s will end up having a better experience and decide they want to pay of course, but I am cynical about that.
I think the Alpha limits are necessary to push Rookies one way or the other. Will be interesting to see the result of these changes but I am not sure it will achieve what CCP are hoping for.
In the future we will have four kinds of players:
- the eternal Alphas with 5m SP
- the part-time Omegas that will fall back to Alpha at 20m SP
- the fall back Omegas that were paying now and don’t see enough benefit to do so in the future (of course they could also just finance their accounts by selling their SP, but that’s “effort”)
- and the full Omegas
Someone at CCP seems to think that 2. and the most likely overall increase in player numbers will offset 3. Initially, I was very sceptical about that, but now I think it could work for some time (at least longer than the initial Alpha spike).
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So the past Alpha expansion, it was tied to rookie start experience where it was all redesigned and was a more cinematic way of showing this world. How it worked? We are back to the previous levels of PCU. Maybe slightly more people playing, but how much of those are alphas?
So I think it was all wasted effort when delivering alone. Why? Because people would at the end see the rest of the game. There had to be something else coming also and it will come now.
Now the alpha changes will be after the update, bringing the content finder aka “Agency” and some freshly designed content with cooperation in mind to high sec. I think it have more chances of being succesfull, but it may be also too late. And then there is the rest of the game mechanics, how long people will enjoy it, or will they even consider sinking time into it? We will see.
It’s almost like it’s meant as something for real new players to make it more interesting for them earlier instead of for old hands looking for new ways to do things more cheaply.
I know … sounds improbable doesn’t it … just a thought 
The Alpha changes essentially add in a 3rd clone type that give current Alphas more incentive to try a Sub, or buy skill injections… on top of that it gives old vets that have stopped playing a better model to use.
These changes are designed to boost the player population so EVE can feel like the game CCP wants.
The main limiting factor on ganks is cost & that’s not changing any.
If you’re ganking for profit an Omega will already use T1 if at all practically possible so chances are more than good there most likely won’t be much if any change to the current situation.
Ganking for fun with no concern for cost? … you’ll always run out of ISK sooner or later … then you’ll have to change tack & gank for profit, or do some industry, or pve, or buy PLEX from CCP.
Something I don’t understand:
less than 5 mil SP - alpha skill set
between 5 - 20 - ?
Edit: ok there won’t be 5mil they’ll just boost it to 20 mil.
No, it’s changing a bit. Basically the new expanded alpha skill set is about 20M SP and allows alphas to fly up to Battleships and most T2 weapons. What isn’t changing though is that you only can earn up to 5M SP training as an alpha. That means for alphas already maxed out, they will be unable to train any of the new expanded skills. New alphas, can indeed train any of the new, larger skill set, but only up to ~5M sp after which they will no longer train.
All alphas will however be able to buy additional SP either through going omega for some months, or by using skill injectors. Further, CCP Rise suggest there may be new alpha-training-for-PLEX options coming to the NES where PLEX can be used to train some more SP.
I read the whole thread and found the stupidest argument!
Here it is, guys! ^^^
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I expect these changes to make recruitment easier for the New Order, as alphas are currently too weak to really contribute to gank fleets (cough)burnjita(cough).
However I do so hope CCP finds the sweet spot and doesn’t over do it.
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Haha that’s funny 
I would assume it’s the same as it is now, your have a predetermined list of skills you can train, everything else is yellow.
Once you hit 5m you can’t queue more skills and have to inject. If you lapse you keep all your skills in that predetermined list.
Not much will change. Tech 2 guns and specialization skills for all 4 races across small and medium weapons will be a large chunk if that 20m SP probably. At least 1-2m each maybe. If you already have them trained you keep them when your alpha.
May seem stupid to you but for me it means, doing something other than ratting, mining, manufacturing for hours just to keep my accounts subbed. Which in turn means I can spend my time doing things other than Eve.
Once upon a time Eve was fun - Now it is simply doesn’t have a lot to offer.
I would however be interested in your reason for stating it is the stupidest argument.
Hmm, well…
You apparently work the equivalent of a part time job doing things in this game you don’t even want to be doing because you feel that you must in order to enjoy a few fleets a week. But the truly stupid part is that you seem to think that your enslavement style of play is a good thing and should be preserved.
Just stop grinding and go play whatever other game it is you’d rather be playing. Jesus christ dude…
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Ok so why do you even play eve? What draws you to play? I would hate to play this game knowing that I’m a Slave to some unfun activity till I’ve paid my plex.
If all you do is do some boring thing to play your sub, then go play another game… what’s the point? Bare minimum if you have to make it a job, at least do something you enjoy in the game after “work” is over.
You are like the saddest eve player ever. I feel so sorry for you. I really want to help you out. Tell me what you enjoy doing or what you would enjoy doing and I’ll try to help you out.