CCP recently has already been giving away Omega every time there is an expansion. I’m not sure there’s a lot of benefit in giving Alphas free Omega right away; sure, they’d get a few more skill points, but I doubt they’d be able to explore much of what is available to Omegas without the skill points or the game knowledge to exploit it.
The only people this would really benefit is veterans. Train up cloaking, and you’d have a cloaky alt for a few days for free.
It would also put unlimited suicide ganking back on the table. So no, it’s not a good idea to give new accounts free Omega right away.
If you really wanted to do some version of this, it should be attached to the air rewards system. Once you reach some threshold, maybe halfway through… and again when you’ve completed it. That would have a much greater chance of converting people to Omega, because the people doing it are actually invested in playing.
True veterans can exploit everything. One way to limit it was what I’ve mentioned it being account limited (thus not character limited).
The idea you bring to (further) limit it to the AIR Career Program is good, it solves both the problem you mention (Alphas might not be properly trained to fully take advantage of such an opportunity) and to limit veterans from exploiting this option (nobody would go through a career path or whatever just to can have a cloaky scout for a week or two when they can earn more ISK/h by simply ratting and PLEXing instead).
With the AIR Career Program to back up the feature it could ensure the player is both taught and assisted when trying out the new features to take full advantage of the opportunity.
I think a valid option would be a related Expert System to be created that would grant certain Omega features when a related (new) AIR Career Path (or call it whatever) is completed, thus several paths for different related Expert Systems, each of which grants a week or two / few of related Omega features.
By having them separate it further narrows down veterans exploiting as the benefits would be even less for the effort while non-veteran Alphas would still find it worthwhile.
Some such paths with related Expert Systems could be:
Piloting mining barges (I think the related Expert System already exists)
Using cloaking devices
Access to Planetary Industry
Access to capitals (maybe only to a “civilian” / “newbro” capital that is very limited?)
Enabling ganking (criminal / red safety in hisec, I’m sure @Aiko_Danuja would approve )
Access to Omega only sub-capital ships (maybe different Expert System per category like explorations vessels, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, Triglavian, EDENCOM and so on; I think some of these already exist or at least the exploration frigates one though not sure if that grants access to T2 ones and such)
Vets that exploit the system, would just create a new account.
This is what was done prior to the introduction of Alphas for cyno alts. If you made an Amarr character, you could even make use of the Amarr rookie ship to light it.
Beyond all the other reasons For CCP to make Alpha clones, one of the reasons, I’m sure, was to stop the continual creation of trial accounts from people who had no intention of using them past the 2 week period.
I did mention earlier in this thread, that CCP should use expert systems to test the waters for any potential changes they make.
I’m not really a fan of making red safety be an expert system unlock. Maybe if it took a lot of effort to unlock it, but even then it seems too abusive.
Yes I’m aware, this is why the benefit should be less than what they could achieve with the same effort and time investment farming ISK and spending it on PLEXing their account, actually far more tedious and rewarding to make sure it does not worth it to create new accounts just for these trial rewards.
Well PvP and such is all part of the sandbox, we wouldn’t want to discriminate against a playstyle simply because of personal bias, right?
The same applies as above though, it should be absolutely not worth it for a veteran to create an alt just for a limited period of ganking, not even for a new player, instead would just be a very limited time taste of the playstyle nothing more.
Btw there is no need to make every of these Expert Systems last for two weeks, for balance reasons and to prevent exploiting the creation of new accounts some Expert Systems could last for one week or even less, for instance the ganking one could last for 3 days only.
Also imagine the hilarity of having an AIR Career goal like:
Gank 5 Ventures in hi-sec space or
Gank a mining barge in hi-sec space or
Gank 5 ships of any kind in hi-sec space
Which could also be used as a limiting factor so once any of the goals are reached the Expert System is removed.
As a reward for completing one of the above goals the character could be rewarded with a decoration (medal) to their decorations tab commemorating the accomplishment (they can hide it from view if they want). (Nothing of actual ISK value to prevent exploiting but something rewarding still.)
It’s not bais. I actually like that suicide ganking is in the game. It’s not a feature that belongs on Alphas though… just like cloaking isn’t something that belongs on Alphas. Both of those things have a high potential for abuse, so if Alphas can achieve them in some degree, they need to take a lot of effort.
Which is something you said in your opening paragraph, but I want to emphasize it for those features specifically, since the potential for abuse is much higher than other features.
I’m not opposed to that, but there should be a warning about kill rights somewhere. New players should not be baited into a feature where they die and don’t understand why.
Yes as we’re talking about AIR Career Program or similar feature it obviously should include an in-depth tutorial and related information with details about key aspects like consequences of the playstyle and related actions.
I personally don’t see a problem with pirate cruisers. They are one a the few ways an Alpha can reliably grind ISK to buy PLEX and go Omega and thus become a paying customer even if indirectly.
When I came back from my break in November, I was Alpha and was too short on cash to subscribe, so I hopped into my Gila and grinded T4 Firestorms until I could PLEX and go Omega. Otherwise I wouldn’t be playing at all.
No, only those who buy plex from ccp and sell it for isk are paying for that omega. But that’s a fair trade, so in effect, the people who buy plex for isk, are paying for it themselves.
How is it an issue? It increases the demand for PLEX which in turn gives more value to those who sell PLEX for money and gives CCP more revenue from those who buy the PLEX to sell. Me buying that PLEX and using it is the same for CCP as if I bought the PLEX from them and activated it. But for me, it saves me real money I can’t afford to spend on games right now.
Are you sure? You seem overly concerned about “freeloaders.”
Some people don’t want Alphas to have anything, because “grr alphas having stuff.” A big part of it is some sort of weird revenge on people asking for more things, and some sort of odd melomaniac desire to punish them for said requests.
We did come to a point earlier in the thread where it looked like we could get a decent balance.
Remove everything bc and higher. No t2 (as it is currently) and also no pirate ships. In exchange, Alphas would have access to all combat support skills at L5 that affect t1 frigates, destroyers, and cruisers.
We didn’t really talk about non combat related skills, but it probably wouldn’t make that much difference if alphas could train L5 in all the other skills they has access to either (salvage, hacking, ect.)
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