Take a look at this devblog for more details on the future of the new starter pack which was released on June 26th!
Might also make sense to limit the damage boosters to say small weapons, or add an SP cap to go along with the character age cap.
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CCP said they weren’t going to sell SP. CCP then made Daily Alpha Injectors, which is SP fabricated via cash paid to CCP. Nothing else ever needed to be said, all CCP’s words are lies, all justifications unsupported. Everyone knows this; Everyone knows not to bother further breaking it down because CCP does not listen/care about the same things players do.
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Blockquote
We also should have spoken with the CSM regarding this pack before we released it.
Same old dance, different day… you guys are always ready to quote that s**t when it hits the fan.
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Alpha injectors are nothing more than omega training speed. If you count them as cash for SP, a subscription is cash for SP also and has been since the game started. Grow up.
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“SP don’t matter”
“We will sell SP to help new players”
You just monetize new players before they leave. It won’t solve retention problems. I was there as a newbee I would have no clue on what spend that SP.
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If there was a way to limit a booster to only applying when a character is in HS, that might be more ideal. As it is now, vets can string together referral and pack bonuses to munchkin a super-powered frigate for LS fac war or wolf rayets. Devs would have better numbers on the proliferation of these re-roll tactics, yet it does feel concerning.
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So the reasoning of bittervets is:
“It took me sooo long to get all my skill points, everyone should be forced to invest the same time” ?
Accumulating skill points over time in itself takes no skill (pun intended) - all you have to do is pay the subscription and have your training queue filled.
How about instead:
“I got to enjoy this great game for 10+ years longer than anyone starting today and the only way to ensure that we have enough new players to keep enjoying it for 10 more is a skill advantage for the newbros”?
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No, the reasoning is CCP promised to never invent SP and sell them for cash.
Unfortunately, here we are. CCP’s word is as good as useless, demonstrated yet again.
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CCP, we still love you. Dont change. Eve is forever.
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We’re very aware of the community’s concerns regarding “pay to win” mentality and microtransactions that would take EVE in that direction. Let me be abundantly clear that this is not the intention.
Recent development decisions seem to indicate otherwise.
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I see the reasoning behind it, though the implementation is not ideal. It isnt a bad thing to help new players get a jump into being better able to utilize their ships and weapons. What this solution is missing is a way of teaching new players how to fit ships and what skills are best suited for what they want to accomplish in game. As all experienced players know, the learning curve for learning to properly fit and fly your ships is a steep one… practically vertical. Unfortunately, I dont have any suggestion for a solution to that issue that wouldnt detract from the game.
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Bingo!
Extra SP is useless if the person purchasing it has no idea where to put it in order to advance along their chosen path.
Traditionally that part of a newbies experience, for those willing to reach out or look for information, has been guided by experienced players and the out of game resources that they’ve created
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I think the game loses something from all the injectors and free skill points, yes, everyone wants to mine in their bling titan, but they would learn more and have more fun if there were more small fleets roaming about in punishers and atrons, power creep doesn’t actually improve the game
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Yes, but finding the out of game resources can be overwhelming… I speak from experience when I started. It would be a task, possibly a big one, but maybe CCP could put somewhere in the NPE links to information from players about the different aspects and styles of game play to help new players learn. Just a though… and will probably be flamed…
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The aim of this DLC pack is to give new pilots a head start in their training without having to commit to the full price of a month of Omega time.
Then only make it available to new users. Not new characters or accounts. New users. The way CCP handles it, it will not benefit new users, it will benefit older users who know how to game your lackluster idea implementation.
Furthermore: You want to help new users by making them pay extra? Greed is strong in you, don’t you think?
We see them as a service to our new players, not a way to make money.
Great. In the past you kept telling us that you know how overwhelmed new users are with all the choices and activities. Now you want to help them by not only grabbing more money out of their pockets but also giving them something as useless as 1M freely available skill points that they do not know how to use? I mean, that’s beyond challenged. What is it now? Are new users challenged and overwhelmed to make informed decisions how to use such a huge burden as 1M unallocated SP as you told us in the past, or are they not?
We understand that we made a misstep with this DLC pack by not restricting it,
You made a misstep. Great. Again. You also made a misstep when you introduced unrestricted and overpowered Rorq mining. You also made a misstep when you introduced overpowered capital ratting. You also made a misstep with unrestricted structure placement. You also made a misstep when you forced this Capitals Online and Capitals Only gameplay onto EVE for Steve knows what reason. You also made a misstep with introducing macrotransaction in EVE in the first place (thanks to the greed of Hillmar). You also made a misstep when you introduced SP trading that no one asked for, no one needed, it was not restricted and it is being abused. You also made a misstep when you kept promising things and didn’t follow through properly and keep dumping half-baked content. You make a lot of missteps if you ask me. Maybe you should stop walking and pause for a few moments to reflect on all these missteps. Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it?
We’re working on improving our early player retention numbers and part of doing so means that we’re going to keep experimenting with various ways to make a new player’s life easier and their first steps in New Eden clearer and more streamlined.
How fiendish. You want to make it easier for a price. An ever increasing price. First you tell them that they can use EVE for free as alpha. Then you told them that there are skill injectors for them for RL money. Now you tell them there are starter packs with more SP for more money. You do not want to help new players, you want to earn more. That 1% figure is eyewash, nothing else. Long-term you just condition and raise a “candid” player population that keeps buying these things because they “help” them.
and will only be offered to new players as part of the account creation and onboarding process.
This will remove the option to buy the pack unless it’s presented to you as you go through this process.
So, I as an EVE player of 10 years can still get these packs by just creating new accounts?
Also: Maybe you should have done just that from the start? I mean, there would still have been (understandable) outrage but at least it would have been part of a whole system and not mindlessly thrown out like that where it can be easily misinterpreted. Why do you not see black swans when they present themselves to you in their full glory? Why do you keep throwing out half-assed things instead of just doing them properly? You could have spared you so much trouble if you had only waited a bit longer with this pack and actually made it available when you introduced this (money-grabbing) alpha offers stuff. Why are you always doing these stupid things? Is bad word of mouth really that valuable to you? Are you so addicted to understandable outrage over obvious development catastrophes?
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Thank you CCP for the speedy response at least to the outcry. All that can be expected in a situation like this.
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How about instead: “we should keep our word … at least every now and then.”
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But it does… The big battles, when they happen, are what draw new players to the alpha accounts. Those battles wouldnt happen without power creep. And in a game this old, with this loyal a fan base, you can not expect to have no power creep. It is part of the inherent game mechanics.
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Nah you won’t be flamed for that suggestion, many of us agree that the NPE could do more to point new players to the information they need in order to survive in the shark infested custard that is Eve.
The problem with that is twofold.
More often than not, the people who produce the OoG resources know more about the game than the Devs. Official information about the game mechanics and activities is spotty at best.
CCP pointing to player driven information resources is a political nightmare because CCP can’t be seen to be endorsing one group over another by directing people to their resources.
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