Nope, you can only use the skills on the alpha list, cloaking isn’t one of those, you still keep the skill “trained” but you lose access to it, just like you lose access to T2 ships if you lapse from omega to alpha now
They know exactly how it will work, its been detailed in multiple blogs now and its built on the already existing alpha system, is functionally the same in terms of skill retention and there is a blog detailing the full expanded alpha skill list already
Indeed, there is a list there with the new skills, not exactly what i expected but oh well…
Whats the difference between “Skill-Level” and “Skill-Rank”?
Skill level is the one you already know about. Skill rank is the multiplication value that every skill has, ie a basic skill might be x2 where an advanced skill might be x10 or whatever and take that much longer to train.
One is the max level a skill can be trained while an alpha. Skill level I think.
The other is a stat for the skill itself. For example, a racial frigate has a value of 1. A racial titan skill has a value of 14. The higher this value, the longer it takes to train a skill. I think this skill rating.
It’s true, you can spend more ISK/Plex than an Omega to get less benefit than an Omega, so long as you only want Alpha skills and only for 24 hrs of boost at a time.
So yes, if you wish to log in every day to rip yourself off, you can do that ‘without going Omega’.
There is a difference between want and need. I need food, I don’t need caviar. I need water, I don’t need sparkling mineral water. I want scotch, but I don’t need it. I buy all of these things, and I am made better off by those who sell them to me since my ability to produce all of those things are extremely limited.
Trade lets us specialize in a a given task or set of tasks which in turn allows us to be more productive. The more productive one is that means one makes more money (which is really nothing more than a claim on resources). So the more productive I am, the more resources I can go out and trade for. And because I am more productive there is more resources to be traded. And when everyone does this you get things like economic growth. Add on innovation and you get even more economic growth. If your growth rate is 1.0X where X is some positive number that growth over time is…exponential. And the higher the number the faster the growth. The crude rule of thumb for doubling times is take the growth rate (i.e. 1.0X - 1, or X) and divide it into 72. If your growth rate is 1% the economy will double in 72 years. If it is 2% 36 years. If it is 3% 24 years to double. Add on competition to the economy and that growth becomes diffused throughout the population over time. Yes, some people can get fabulously wealthy, but only by creating more value than they can retain.
No, ISK decreases in value over time would cause the price of PLEX, expressed in ISK, to rise. The real life currency value of PLEX has not really changed at all.
But there is already a PLEX price discussion thread, I recommend going there to have more of a discussion.
Basically in some way you need to “pay”. You pay either via a subscription or you pay via a PLEX. And you can pay with PLEX by having somebody else buy them and you trade ISK (more accurately your leisure time) for the PLEX.