As I see it, the restrictions for Alphas are such that:
- Alphas can try out and enjoy nearly every type of gameplay
- Every type of gameplay can be significantly improved by going Omega as an incentive to pay
- The strategic or financial reason to make an Alpha alt is very limited
Explanations of those points:
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Alpha, or free accounts are intended to offer new or returning players a view of everything the game has to offer. You can do missions, mining, pvp, exploration, etc. I think even blops fleets are possible as Alpa with the Astero, although you cannot cloak up. Players can stay Alpha indefinitely, in the hopes that they like the game enough to start supporting the game as Omega.
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If there is any type of gameplay that cannot be significantly improved by going Omega, what point is there to go Omega if you enjoy that specific activity? For any activity, there should always be a good reason to go Omega, if not, CCP is doing something wrong.
This is why a lot of higher skill levels and specialist skills are restricted to Omega, together with the modules and (T2/3) ships that are behind those skill requirements. And until you hit those restrictions, the Alpha is exactly as powerful as a new Omega pilot. -
It’s really easy and free to make Alpha alts. If there was any significant strategic or financial reason to do so, everyone would be using tens or hundreds of Alphas for everything. This is the main reason Alphas are restricted from using cloaks, PI, better mining ships than the Venture, multiboxing, higher trade skills, industry, tier 4 and 5 missions, etc. And this is also a main reason all the login rewards are untradable and automatically applied.
Alphas are in a good place right now as I see it.
If you think Alphas could use access to something new, please give suggestions. And check if it fits within the points I mentioned above.