I am here speaking for all Alpha States, we all have varied ambitions, and most of us are happy with our Alpha Status. But there is one barrier to Alpha’s; the processes to deploy and own a citadel or station, which involves the Entosis Link module as a needed piece of equipment into the second half of the deployment process. Alpha’s cannot use Entosis Links, as the required skill, (Infomorph Psychology) has an Alpha Limit. Alpha’s can only train Infomorph Psychology to Lv. 1 under the Alpha Limit, and the Entosis Link requires Lv. 2 ability in Infomorph Psychology. This has made an extensive problem for Alpha’s, if they don’t have an Omega State to operate the Entosis Link, than they’d have to hire one, permanently or temporarily, which would take extended timeframes to find a willing Omega, or maybe amounts of ISK into the billions range to hire an Omega State for an hour, or they can’t afford to purchase the PLEX needed to upgrade themselves or another pilot to Omega. Anyway this issue is looked at, it reveals that Alpha’s get the short end of the stick when it comes to setting up Personal Stations and Citadels, how is that fair? That Omega’s get to deploy and claim stations / citadels, and Alpha’s can only deploy stations and citadels. I made this discussion to raise the Alpha Limit to Lv. 2 for Infomorph Psychology, let Omega States have the other three, give us Alpha’s the baseline for minimum control of the Entosis Link.
While I understand your frustration this limited ability for Alpha clones, it is a deliberate design choice on CCP’s part to reserve a large portion of enhanced gameplay features for Omega clone states as an incentive for players to upgrade to Omega clone state and provide revenue to CCP. This is a subscription-based game, and CCP has to retain sufficient incentives for driving subscriptions to be profitable. Deployment of some structures is included in the incentive package for Omega upgrade, and is in line with other helpful, but not required-to-play, features in EVE Online (such as T2/3 ship classes, use of cloaking modules, etc.)
While player-owned structures are handy, they are not required to play EVE, and Alpha clone states are not entitled to deployment capability for them. Further, if an Alpha player can afford to deploy and protect the structure, it is highly likely they have sufficient income stream to PLEX to Omega and maintain the necessary income levels to continue PLEXing every 30 days. If a corp cannot afford to PLEX a single account, they are most likely not ready to manage upkeep on the structure (including war declaration defense).
Well ■■■■ me running, that was a really good answer. I’m going to bookmark that response so that I could quote it to the next alpha asking for more ships/skills/whatever.
Alphas have a place and merit their share, but this is asking for too much. If you are regularly engaged in sufficiently high enough content such that entosis and structures have become part of your bread and butter gameplay, there is no reason why you shouldn’t get Omega to support engaging in higher-end content, nor is there reason why you couldn’t afford to to ISK->PLEX->Omega with the knowledge, assets, and/or readily-available fleetmates required to continuously engage in that content.
Congratulations for making it into the big leagues; now pay the teeny-weensy fee required for the privilege of playing there . (Fun fact: you’ll be able to earn far more than you pay - and you’ll enjoy the game more, too.)
I don’t think it’s necessary to give Alpha accounts any more abilities than they already have. Someone who is playing the game often enough as an alpha to need/want to do the things being asked for should be subscribing.
Entosis Links are specific to Sov-related structure management (thus the claiming/capturing reference in the OP) - which is why I made the point about affordability of PLEXing a single account. If you can afford to hold sov by claiming structures that require an Entosis Link, you can afford to PLEX an account. If you can’t afford to PLEX an account, you are so not going to manage to hold sov anywhere.
As the OP observed:
It’s a confusingly phrased post, but they are aware of the differences. Some non-station structures related to Sov also require an Entosis link to deploy, if I am remembering them all correctly.
. (Fun fact: you’ll be able to earn far more than you pay - and you’ll enjoy the game more, too.)