Prospect and Endurance sans cloak for Alphas

I will start by saying that if you want cloaks, go Omega. Cloaking should remain exclusive to Omega players. However, I have noticed that all ships which Alphas can fly have several mastery tiers, with some of those tiers being Omega only level, this includes the rookie ships. That being said, I think that CCP should unlock both the Prospect and the Endurance for Alpha clone players. These vessels do not have the capacity of the mining barges, as they are mere frigates. However, they should be rebalanced so that cloaking (among other Omega class skills) becomes level three mastery item, thus putting them within level two mastery for Alpha players. Their ore holds are slightly larger than the Venture, but not as large as a barge (as stated previously). This would give Alphas who mine a vessel with a large ore hold, but that larger hold does have its risks. Larger holds, as my experience with the Procurer shows, take longer to fill, thus putting anyone who is mining at greater risk of being attacked by the NPC pirate factions, or the terrorist organization CODE. The Prospect and Endurance are not as expensive as any of the barges, but they do cost considerably more than a Venture. If an Alpha wishes to mine using one, it should be permitted, but the cost for the ship should remain high, thus keeping the risk of loss high if destroyed. I am not advocating giving Alphas any real advantage (like unlocking a barge), but given my experience that Omegas who mine seem to go directly to barges, it seems to make sense that Alphas should be given access to the more expensive mining frigates, if they feel they can justify the cost of losing one, as it seems like these ships are rarely used. I have only seen one Prospect in use once, and it was in high sec. Me? I’d happily take one of these other frigates to mine in low sec, just like I already do with the Venture. Serious, CCP just unlocked Battleships and Battlecruisers for Alphas, and those are also expensive, so why not the two more expensive mining frigates. Barges and cloaking can remain exclusive to Omegas, just give Alphas the frigates.

The entire point of an alpha account is to be able to play the game for free, while NOT making a huge impact on the economy, in game.
So you get acces to a ton of pew-pew ships, almost all sizes, to be able to participate in almost all activities in EVE.
The one things you dont really get acces to, is resource gathering, resource processing, manufacturing and market manipulation. For good reason.

CCP needs the income from subscribtions and eve needs to not have endless fleets of free characters, stripping belts and crashing the mineral market.
If you wanna be the industrial guy, you need omega.

A prospect, for example, can effectively be made “impossible” to scan down (without scanning implants), using ECCM to increase sensor strenght. So giving that to an alpha, seems like a very bad idea, as a cloak isnt really needed to stay “invisible”.
And giving alphas acces to the only ice mining vessel also seems like a huge kick in the balls to the omegas that are actually heavily invested in ice mining.

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I do not believe Alphas should have, or need access to T2 hulls - there needs to be an incentive to play as Omega.

That said, a “navy” variant of the Venture with a larger cargo hold and bonuses exclusive to moon mining might be workable. BPCs available through Ore LP store and loot drops to constrain supply. Maybe handout as a subscription bonus to create the initial seed.

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The venture it self is more the adequite for resource harvesting, theres no need to make another mining frigate, to fill a gap thats not there.
But since the new moon goo was introduced, the ventures bonuses already apply to it, since its just regular mining now.
How ever, they could allow ice harvesters on the venture, unbonuses, to allow alphas to try it out before investing in omega and Endurance skills.

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That’s not a bad idea, allowing unbonused ice mining. I’m in the camp that agrees, alpha players shouldn’t have access to T2 hulls until CCP gives up on omega clones entirely.

There is already mining progression for Alphas. A mining fitted Gnosis mines more than a Venture :blush:

Yet another alpha whining he’s not getting enough free stuff.

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Alpha accounts shouldn’t even exist, and here you are demanding more for free? You should be happy your allowed to login to the game at all. I had to go weeks waiting for paychecks to pay for the game and play again. Smart Alpha clones will make several hundred million a day. I’ve tested it.

Mining should be removed from Alpha’s all together.

Having played as both Alpha and Omega, I find this level of hatred and vitriol annoying. Am I demanding something for free? No. One way or the other, I will have to pay. Elitism is a problem with Eve already, as can be observed regularly in terms of what type of vessels are typically used by Omega class clones who mine, which is typically a barge. As for the recently expressed desire to ban Alphas from mining, what purpose would that serve? Outside of forcing an entire player group into either doing only non-mining agent missions or else driving off a group of players who might otherwise consider upgrading, if just for a month or two, to Omega. My suggestion is simply a way to encourage players to make use of a vessel which I have rarely seen in high sec and never in low sec or null. The other alternative would be to mine with a Miasmo, which is highly suicidal (no drone bay and only one turret mount, so you have no self-defense). As for the Gnosis suggestion, why should somebody be forced to mine with a vessel that can’t be insured and thus is a complete loss if destroyed? That would be counter-productive, just a proverbial money pit.

Note: I am planning to go Omega again shortly after the new year, however, it may not be worth it if elitist attitudes continue to prevail. It isn’t the game mechanics that necessarily ruin the game, often it is the players.

no hatred , just facts . of which you seem to overlook a few …
you state :

their ore holds are 3x larger , that’s not slightly larger …

venture and prospect ore hold are larger than 2 of the 3 barges …

that’s exactly what you’re doing … as for the elitism , you would continue to have cloaks and barges omega only , as long as you get your way and get the t2 mining frigates . that’s worse than elitism , that’s being selfish and self-centered .

you plan to go omega and use a mining barge , this shows ccp is accomplishing their aim of more paying customers by restricting some hulls from alphas .

fly safe , and try to think of others a bit more when you make suggestions .

Sorry you lost me at “i think CCP should unlock … Alpha”. No CCP should not make Alpha stronger.

If you like the game go Omega.

CCP should remove the Alpha buff right away or should let us ISmultibox. so Omega would be better than.

-1

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Exactly this.

weee, the big kids of eve show their face :smiley: are you jealous if somebody gets stuff for free? :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: funny

a t1 ice mining frigate, I would be okay with. An Ore faction ship line, I would be okay with (actually, I would really be okay with this).

i think multiboxing should be removed (by changing the way mining works so its not possible to afk (by attention mechanics), and then all the game should go free to play.

how does that remove multiboxing. More importantly, why should multiboxing be removed in the first place?

Why should the entire game go free to play? Is there a reason?

Lots of different reasons, but in short it destoys the games active state above all else (other things like economy, unnatural single player isk rates etc).

if you have to pay attention, or you will die or mine less (or both) you cant multi box…

that doesn’t remove multiboxing, that would (if anything) make it harder, but not impossible. Personally, I like mining the way it is as it gives a low action activity i can while socializing with friends. Some people like it beyond that reason of course. It also doesn’t give that much isk in return (well unless you rorq, but that is a different story…).

And now imagine whoms sooper dooper alts would like that very much?

You wont see them because they are cloaked, duh!!

The mastery system literally doesn’t do anything. It’s only there for guidance and replaced the former certificate system.

hull_tanking

If you die to these NPCs then you really deserve that loss and should also think about whether EVE is actually the right game for you.

“Terrorist organization” :joy:
CODE is completely irrelevant! I don’t get what all the fuzz is about…

Um, yes, you are. T2 ships are specializations over their T1 counterparts. You see way more barges than Prospects / Endurances because those fill an entirely different niche. Or are you one of those guys that use a sledgehammer when they actually need a screwdriver?

And that was a mistake. Alphas should get less stuff, not more.

And I think you should stop posting and invest that time into achieving a basic-level education. Maybe one day, if you work reeeeeeeeeally hard, you’ll then get to be a real game designer instead of just some kid writing trash post after trash post, while claiming to be something you’re clearly not.

Read a few of that guys’ threads. He likes to write about things he doesn’t understand in the least.

Here’s a taste:

The moment he gets to see my Prospect, it’s already too late for him. Cyno and Sin will be showing up a second later :joy:

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