The role bonuses on several pirate craft available to Alphas post-change go a long way to offset the Alpha SP/skill limitations.
Eye cannont weight fore mi knew apple skills. Eye wunder howe menny apples eye will halve.
Postponing the inevitable. Battleships are attainable. No T2 turrets and possibly corresponding skills. I havenāt looked at all the skills. Just like how current Joseph Stalin Clones can fly up to Cruisers. But not even T2 small turrets/bays usable. 
Fast forward one year. T2 small and medium turrets/bays are usable. Fast forward more than likely another year. T2 large turrets/bays usable.
I dub this: The logic feature delay.
They were never meant to be equivalentā¦ The whole idea was to give them basically an endless trial so they can experience eve. Thatās why at the very beginning I was arguing for cross faction. But this whole idea of giving them pirate hulls is beyond stupid.
In a game we all lovingly call Cruisers Online, what sense does it make to give them access to nearly everything related to the hulls that are actually in popular use? So what if they canāt use T2 defensive modules, faction are at times cheaper and offer identical or better stats/fitting. Even when it comes to BB, faction weapons are better than T2 until you get spec 3+, and most T2 ammo is commonly avoided due to tracking penalties vs increased range/damage reward. Simply put, certain lockouts should have been implemented alongside this to leave the strongest aspects of each tier of hulls locked behind Omega to give people a reason to upgrade, but CCP didnāt. Only time will tell how many subs we gain vs lose over this move again. But weāve already heard whispers from a few who plan to drop to alpha after the change because their current playstyle requires nothing that omega has to offer.
So I have to ask myself how many plan the same and just havenāt said anything? And how many new players will be driven to stick past their first few weeks in game than have in the past simply because if they do they can fly a battleship eventually? Remember the learning curve and all the bulk of the negative aspects of eve that drove people away in the past still remain. So I have my doubts that these changes will have any noticeable positive impact.
2 Likes
Thanks for this post, it kind of pulled things together a bit for me. I used to sub 3 accounts; now all 3 are Alpha. I may re-sub one or two of them but Iāll wait until the new features are in place before I decide.
Although pitched as a gracious boon from the hand of CCP, this does, to me, have more than a whiff of desperation about it. If the numbers add up, in that Alphas moving to Omega ends up being greater than the other way around (inc Omegas leaving the game entirely), then I suppose they think itāll work.
It seems to be a case of ātake care of the psychology and the economics will take care of itselfā.
Letās hope they get it right.
I only started playing last year when Alpha accounts were launched, and would never have tried Eve without them, so I guess Iām the kind of person they were hoping to attract with Alpha accounts. That being said, I only sub by the month and I do not stay subbed consistently. I canāt always afford $15 per month and knowing that if I canāt pay that Iām not completely locked out of the game and can theoretically grind to full status, is a major reason I do play Eve over other MMOās. I would estimate Iāve probably subbed for 5 out of the past 12 months so I bring in some money to CCP but obviously not a lot.
I am quite surprised by the new changes as I think theyāre very generous, maybe a little too generous to be honest. Iām a casual enough player I donāt see myself ever sitting in a dreadnought or blops even if I could afford $15 every single month. On the other hand I can see myself getting skilled into a battleship and then never subbing again. I doubt I would because I know devs need to eat occasionally but Iām certain there are others who would.
My only complaint with the original Alpha system was the racial limitations. Unless you choose Gallente at the beginning youāre gimped with no way to fix it short of creating a new char. I would consider having the same skill and ship limits Alphas started with but being able to also train skills from other races to be incredibly fair for a āfreeā MMO.
This being said, they may be looking at not just subscription numbers but content generation as well. I know that even when Iām not subbed that Iām still indirectly bringing in revenue to CCP by flying around a target ship for those that do sub to shoot at encouraging them to stay subbed. I would guess that theyāve run the numbers and decided that there will be enough new/returning players in battleships with this change to generate content and keep the attention of those that do sub and keep the game going for everyone.
2 Likes
If CCP wants to bill Null sec playstyle as āend gameā content then they need to be able to live and breath a null sec lifestyle and participate in all such fleets and activities, albeit at a lower rate or stats. Without such a capability they cannot actually be useful to null sec cartels or leadership as precious F1 monkeys and are ultimately useless to null sec in the long term seeing as their industrial capabilities are severely hampered due to lack of skills in these areas.
The other factor for the changes are microtransaction income on CCPs part. Might as well get something and its better to attract flies with honey than vinegar, aka āsub full price or else you get cut off!!ā And seeing as this idea has been growing in all gaming due to Facebooks āgamingā popularity in the last few decades its not a bad move in that regard. Remember CCP is a business and they want to make money off their product.
1 Like
Iām still unsure where this 20 SP is supposed to fitā¦ if you still cannot use anything, and if you can still be out-gunned, out-shipped, and out-skilled, and out-played by a 3 mill SP Omega account character.
I really donāt see the point of it other than it was just some kind of sales pitch in a development meeting. Just seems like a waste of time to be alphaā¦
Just as an example; this Alpha character hereā¦ Its got like 3.4 somethingā¦ donāt use it at allā¦ because it cannot use anything. Everything in the game is T2 or T3. If you cannot use any equipment, or especially ships that are at least T2 your just wasting time, money and effort.
Its really no different that what we have right nowā¦ to be honest. Other than you will probably have people trying to spend lots of money, only to find out they still cannot do anything, or use anything. Then get mad and rage quit.
Who knows, will have to wait and seeā¦ I donāt see the point. You currently cannot even make a half way decent alt with an Alpha account as anything useful you cant use. You cannot even make a good haulerā¦currently with One Pip on the SP.
Maybe that will change but it looks like a bunch of wasted time and effort on CCPās part to me. As you really cannot play the game without an Omega account, and the Omega accounts are (insert colorful remark her) expensive and are pricing people OUT of the game that would normally play.
Not sure.
Starting to wonder if I should just jump on the āfreeā bandwagon also, and let someone else offset my cost of the gameā¦ Sometimes I really wonder what is happening to our hobby with all this F2P crap.
1 Like
Seriously, wtf are you even on about? The vast majority of ships used in fleets are T1 BB or pirate. Very few T2 doctrines are used due to their cost vs effectiveness in larger numbers. Yes T2 are used, command ships, dictors, ceptors, but those are not part of the mainline dps which will now be covered by everything alphas are getting. Take that down to small gang and you typically only have a handful of dictors/ceptors everyone else flies dps, specifically pirate hulls like the cynabal for example, or even T1 hulls like the osprey navy issue or scyth fleet issue. Two of which you currently have access to as an alpha (if youāre the proper faction which as I said I wanted you guys to have cross faction day 1). So seriously, wtf are you on about being a waste of time? Unless your entire idea of not being a waste of your time is to have the ability to fly a specialized hull which pirate overshadow in many cases. To which my answer is just go Omega and stop being a leech.
Keep in mind, T2 is nice for overheating and a slight edge at higher skill levels, but faction is just as good and better in most cases which alphas have access to even now. You guys are not at as much of a disadvantage as some would have you believe. More so once you are given cross faction hulls.
2 Likes
Utter rubbishā¦
The prices for a sub havenāt changed in years, players used to never start this game unless they could afford the sub in the first place. So how exactly are they being priced out of the game?
2 Likes
OMG Today I got my belovĆØd Machariel(s) back!
Bumps all 'round, miners. Bet you missed me!
2 Likes
Without giving alphaās significant better ways to make ISK right from the start, the experience will still be too frustrating to them and alpha clone state will still fail its purpose.
You do realize there are considerable ways to make isk as alphas from the get go right? Now it is true that isk needs for ships and modules and skill books quickly outstrips a new players ability to make it early on but then the skill training time does hamper that advancement as well to much a degree. But yet I disagree that there arent ways for alphas to make isk for āstuffā early on.
Best way to make iskā¦ make friends who know how.
The fact that the cost hasnāt changed, means that they have changed. There is a form of inflation in MMO games. $15 was the original standard, nowadays there are a million games that are free to play.
So only hardcore players will stay subbed to a specific game over any long course of time. Free to play allows people to actually try the game and to come back. This game still charges the same amount, and the free to play model, up until now really didnāt allow people to play for free. Even now the entire game isnāt actually free, like in the better free to play games like Star Trek Online and Elder Scrolls Online.
Iāve been making ISK on 7 accounts as an alpha for a year and I think Iām entitled to say it generally sucks. Mining is a no-go, industry is a no-go, mission running is lousy below lvl 4, ratting is only viable with a nullsec corp (which most alphas never get into), same goes for salvaging, FW is either boring or you get whelped as an alpha, exploration in inconsistent at best (but it can be good and at least itās somewhat engaging), PI is no-go.
The only, relevatively consistent ISK-making way I found viable as an alpha is station trading. Well guess what? Thatās way too limited to. I had to juggle between at least 4 accounts to overcome the ridiculous 17 trade order cap and being limited in remote trade is just infuriating. Not to mention you canāt compete in margin trading.
ISK making is just a frustrating experience for new alphas that donāt know what theyāre doing and undoubtedly one of the biggest reasons why the alpha program did little to make people stay with this game (besides the still retarded NPE of course).
I ran an Alpha for a few weeks when they first came out, in that time I ran a handful of combat anomalies in a frigate. From one anomaly I got a faction drop worth 100M isk. So yeah, its possible to make a decent amount with an Alpha.
On another Alpha, I joined a corp that was Alpha friendly with an ore buyback system. I managed to make a decent amount of isk mining and doing project discovery to aid in the boredom.
2 Likes
I didnāt say its impossible. I say its either lousy or otherwise inconsistent at best if you donāt know what youāre doing. Well, guess what, most alphas donāt know what theyāre doing. They might get that occasional lottery drop, only to hunt for hours and not finding anything good. Even trading was bad in the beginning without any knowledge of the market.
One of the best parts of Eve when I started was the challenge at making progress. You had skills churning away as you attempted to make the ISK to buy that next ship. I knew there were better ships out there and I had to work to get them.
With Alphas it should be a lot more inviting than when I started, they wont be daunted by the lvl 5 skills, because they dont get many, they start out with more free SP, especially with a buddy invite, and they can make way more ISK than I ever could. Hell, you now make more ISK in the Career Agents than I did in my whole first month of playing.
4 Likes
i look at alphaās one way can make fairly good isk doing faction warfare flying a meta 4 gun fed navy comet or a venture, completely destroying the word warfare, when its over run with alphaās
but also same time too. CCP needs to ban more bots, cause i think theres alot that Do FW as alphas
alphas should be limited to highsec only 
But whatās to say that Alpha chars arent the new RMTārs of eve, when if they get banned they swap their IP and do it again.