Without alphas we would be bored and have nothing to do.
Nearly all of the fun in high-sec is pesky little freetards creating drama for each other. My lowsec corp uses alphas for their resourcefulness, cunning and hardwork. They are our miners. Some of them have better PvP skills than the rest of us.
Null has always been the slave drivers of Eve.
I say give them what they want.
Here are some thoughts:
Ability to train all skills for six months only.
Ability to fly every ship up to dreadnought for six months. After six months they can only fly battlrcruisers or cruisers.
Setting up time gate will only push players to abuse the system (with injectors). Six months is a long time and i’m not sure about giving alphas ability to fly barges, cloak and cynos.
I agree that battleships and large weaponry should be restricted from alphas altogether (except Praxis, that doesnt require any skills to fly).
Truth be told the old free trial was a very good way to lure people in.You had a taste of the game then got kicked off two or three weeks later so ofcourse if you liked the game you went for a subscription
IMO the problem with the old trial was that it was calendar limited rather than play experience limited. Make an account and then get too busy to play for a while? Guess you’re deleting that character and starting over if you still aren’t sure about committing. Want to take a look at the game and see if you want to come back after a long break? Pay $15 or nothing. Etc. Alpha accounts should have been a nice improvement, replacing the awkward calendar limits with capability limits roughly equivalent to what you could accomplish in the old trial and allowing people to explore the game on their own schedule. The problem is that CCP took a good idea and ruined it by allowing alpha accounts to have access to more and more content, removing a lot of incentive to become paying customers.
As for the OP, **** NO. No more buffs to alpha accounts. Nerf them back to T1 frigates and cruisers from a single faction with T1 modules only and extremely restricted skills.
I agree with the others. Alphas get plenty for trying out the game, too much in fact.
I’d give them a little more sp to play with maybe, but so that they can train frig, dessie, cruiser and bc to 5 so that they can be more competitive in pvp, but take away battleships and pirate ships so they cannot farm pve so much.
Definitely no mining barges. Scales too well with multiple accounts.
Can’t do this. I can just keep remaking free alts.
Sure i have to start from scratch each time, but it’s free and six months is plenty time.
I’m playing alpha and my opinion is NO. What we have is just enough. You want to give them what they want? Give 'em 1.5 billion ISK each. It’s how slavery worked at the beginning of Middle Ages — slave can work or buy his way out. You could say that playing Alpha or Omega is part of the game like any other aspect. You give more, you lower stimulus to get those Omega trinkets.
It was much too difficult for someone to get enough ISK income to do anything except missions. Also, stupidly difficult SP planning because of the skills that helped you learn skills faster. That kind of thing doesn’t give a player any confidence in the game provider.
For my first trial(s), I had to chain two together, transferring assets between them, so be able to afford a cruiser late in the second one. And lost it, along with a large chunk of my ISK net worth, to a moderately annoying gank after a couple of days /lol. Goodbye EVE for a couple of years.
I think it’s easier now, and anyway I’m much better at generating low-end income, but the old trails weren’t much use to a new solo player. I suspect that, then as now, most players who stay are “boosted” via quick access to a good Corp, generally due to having RL friends in the game.
Why do you need a cruiser to find out if you want to subscribe? You can do PvE with frigates, you can do PvP with frigates. Once you talk about bigger ships you’ve moved beyond learning the basic game mechanics and getting a preview of the game and into getting to play the game without being a paying customer.
You’re implying that a new solo player to EVE has a practical way to learn PvP in two weeks.
This wasn’t practical then, and it still isn’t. It takes far too long to learn the basics and all the irrational “tricks” of combat PvP. And back then the income was pathetic (200K was a good payoff for beginner missions back then, mining about the same ISK/hour), so losing the 20 frigates people say it takes to learn EVE PvP (e.g. in FW) represented a lot of grinding time.
An example of why there’s an issue with the learning threshold: Back then most new players couldn’t figure out how to solo Dagan (SoE Arc final combat mission) in a Destroyer in two weeks. Yet the mission was clearly designed to teach new player how to fit a ship for high dps and some form of tanking.
BTW: this might be the same today for all I know.
Of course a boosted player (rich IRL friends in game, or very lucky) can learn much faster, and can “afford” the losses (because others pay for new ships).
But that just demonstrates the problem: the old trial was almost useless for solo players.
Blah blah blah…more freedom, and what next? Free ticket to Fanfest? Eve online is a business like any other. If alphas want more freedom, Pay to play - get Omega accounts.
This is EXACTLY why the Alpha Clone program exists as its current state.
You have unlimited amounts of time to practice with almost every single T1 hull in the game, even including T2 Small and Medium weapons and drones. What more do you need?
The Alpha program is an extra fancy trial for EVE Online. It’s not designed to be a free alternative for you to make enough ISK to PLEX yourself.
Yeah but that was when we had devs that just wanted to make a successful game that filled a niche not when they wanted to squeeze everything they could out of it.
What’s needed is a simple, natural way to learn the difference between PvE fits and techniques, and PvP combat fits and techniques.
There are many very large big holes in the startup process for new players, but that’s the most important.
It actually looks like the game is designed to make it hard to learn PvP combat, and hard to deal with PvP (avoid risky places and behavior, manage risks, escape when attacked).
I’ve always suspected that new players who are experienced combat PvP players are less likely to stay, and leave EVE faster, than experienced PvE players. (OFC this cannot me measured, let alone proved)
None of what you said is part of the Alpha program, nor should it be. EVE is a complicated game, and if players want to learn these things (difference between PvE and PvP fits) and “learn” PvP, they can do so by reaching out to the community, whether it be on Youtube, Reddit, the Forums, or in-game through the Rookie Help channel, player Corporations, or even Local chat.
None of what you have said necessitates a change in the Alpha program in order for such an outcome to be met.
You’re free to believe (or in this case, suspect) whatever you want, but unless you’ve got stats and evidence to back up your point, it’s meaningless rambling.
How did we survive without alphas in the 13 years before Alphas were introduced and when EVE grew and flourished more than it does now.