True, true.
And like I wrote things are fine from an objective point of view. But my thoughs on the new alpha skills (the topic here…) are that the new limit may discourage new paying customers (a bit) and that should be taken into consideration. It does not matter much if that feeling is justified or not, the consequences are the same.
And no other newbie I asked in the last (my first) year trained at 2500 SP per hour. Because you can’t/shouldn’t remap to only two attributes yet and won’t have +4 or +5 implants. 2200 to 2300 SP per hour is more realistic for newbies. And it doesn’t matter if you reach 20m SP in 10 or 14 month, it is a long time either way.
An idea: “The welcome to EVE and thanks for paying from the start offer”: When an account that is three or less month old subscribes for 3/6/12 month it will get an indestructible learning implant for the time of the first subscription. Gives a small boost to all attributes but the real bonus is that you can PVP wherever and whenever you want without worrying about what clone you are in and losing your learning implants. +3 for the 3 month sub, +4 for the 6 month sub or +5 for the first full year sub. One time offer per new account. The implant goes into an extra slot so it won’t interfere with skill hardwiring or event boosters. (Does not stack with regular learning implants, higher value applies.) Would be enough to counter the fact that you need almost all attributes when new to the game and that you might die a lot when starting with PVP. Vets can just buy the regular implants with ISK and be careful not to lose them (to often).
This is some strange kind of logic. If someone played before and collected this amount of SP why “just for showing up again”?
You would not want to lose your stuff just because you make a pause do you? Then why you think it is good for others?
And if you insist on losing SP for returning players “to make it fair for newish ones” then why you don’t talk about stuff and ISK these players have collected. They get it too “just for showing up again” while “newish player” possibly will have no chance to obtain it for years.
Or you would propose to remove stuff and ISK too?
Then nobody will return (will you?).
let’s look at it from another side:
I think you want to make catch-up faster by increasing SP collection for newish players? They already in better position than we were couple years ago:
they have increased speed of training which we had no
they do not have learning skills
they have better rate of skill injecting than older players
overall skills were changed so they have less to train in many cases than we needed couple years ago
But if you still think they NEED IT then why don’t you ask for ISK? Don’t you think that me having 200+ billion ISK and being able to easily farm ISK in huge amounts is too far to catch-up and it is something which needs to be addressed too?
Like I said: Objectively I agree that 20 Mil SP for Vets that return but don’t pay for the game shouldn’t be a problem. But nevertheless I seem a bit unbalanced from the perspective of a new paying customer. That’s subjective. No logic at all. What MMOs people play is more an emotional than a logic decision. I guess you too noticed the disturbing lack of Vulcans around?
Of course not and I didn’t say that either. Just that coming back and playing for free should seem/feel balanced to being new and paying a sub.
Yes, I think when there are more 20 Mil. SP alphas around that play for free that should have a little influence on how fast a new and paying customer can reach that amount. And I didn’t train 5 Mil. SP for free. I subbed right away – that is the whole point. Paying vs. free play. That older players envy what seems to be an “easy button” for new players is not logical either, just saying. It is just as subjective as the feeling that it is hard to catch up in EVE. Because neither the new player loses anything by a boon for older players nor does it harm an older player when newbies catch up faster. Yet both points influence how much people like to play the game.
Good thing some of those terrible old game design were gone before they could harm the game in a serious way. But the older a game gets the harder is becomes to attract fresh paying customers.
I don’t think they NEED it, I think it would be wise to do it from a marking point of view. Good for the health of the game. Like I think the free 20 Mil. SP limit may be bad for the game on the long run. Vets occasionally log in for a BS roam, chat about the good old times on discord/TS and stopped spending money on the game a long time ago may not be an carrying business model.
And yes, your 200+ billions maybe a bit discouraging to newbies. Some of my friends didn’t join me in EVE because they don’t think it is worth trying. Can’t argue with logic there either, it’s just their feeling about the game. But that’s a thing all old MMOs have and a reason why some developers allow “mudflation” to happen.
in-game history, feel of progress, etc… (feel of achievement? I’m not sure about proper word here.)
Either it takes time (money) and effort to reach some point and then you feel that you achieved something. Or you just get there fast and feel nothing.
You cannot have it all.
For example take a look to old Counter-Strike game. You just login there and fight. No progress is saved and maintained between logins. Catch-up in full its power.
But then nothing keeps you playing too. Next game with better graphics takes you away. Forever.
Maybe EvE Online can be made to be playable this way. But it will be different game.
And dead for many.
Again I agree to some point. We are only talking about catching up A BIT faster and only up to the new free Alpha limit. Nothing that would tarnish 50+ Mil. SP or a couple of billion ISK. Yet alone the real skill to play EVE and the knowledge that is power here indeed.
The problem here is that we have constant influx of requests to “make catching up a little faster”. It always someone telling that it’s hard to catch up and requesting something.
There comes the point when even semi-reasonable requests will meet with blatant decline
Have you forgotten small injectors exist and go for 150 mil each? Also, a free player has all the time in the world to make isk, no worries if they’re “getting their monies worth” each 30 days.
If they are only buying small injectors then they are going to be doing a lot of grinding for minimal gain, i mean if thats what they want to do then sure but they aren’t going to be hitting that 20mil SP anytime soon
I was able to plex my alpha with isk in less than two months. Could’ve even managed in a month but i was also buying ships/fitting/skills. It’s doable, if you actually want to do it.
Easier than you might think. Doing L4 distribution for the likes of SoE or other high value LP stores pays out quite nicely a few times per month. Also a well fit Gnosis can clear 10-12 mil ISK per hour if you know what you are doing and are willing to take some leveraged risks.
Hell I’ve also gone about clearing 5/10s with a Thorax with some railgun kiting. You’ve got an easy 15+ mil in basic loot right there even if the loot fairy doesn’t drop something nicer. You pay for your ship in one run generally so even if somebody pops you it isn’t something to cry over just go load your template up and write that site off as camped.
Not to mention that you still can pull off 100MN Vexor fits for anom cheese for the truely lazy. So working up the entire cool couple billion for a full month of Omega via Plex might be time consuming, but it isn’t exactly hard.
FW is still a huge isk maker for alphas with a brain. A single offensive novice of 20 mins even at Tier 1 will make back their ships value with one site. At Tier 2 or higher your already isk green off one. Nevermind defensive plexing.
I’m more interested to see if Alpha’s will be able to use covert ops cloaking. Lots of newly trained Astero’s and Stratios could be trouble in WH space. Especially if they are organised.
