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Player Features and Ideas Discussion

 
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character training overhaul + some basic ideas how to
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Kyralien
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#1 - 2011-10-10 14:00:03 UTC
The main reason for thinking about the current character training system was just the point that I accidently logged into an alternate toon Ive once created but then stopped playing it as I was focusing on my main character again. I just noticed I had a lot of skillpoints on that account that are more or less only stored there but would benefit my main character quite a lot. So I thought about a couple of basic ideas about an overhaul of the current skillpoint system.

Idea 1: Well it´s not really an idea but more a personal request. I would like to get these skillpoints from the not used toon back to the main character. Now let me just delete the alternate toon. I will loose the implants and skillbooks worth a few hundred millions. I don’t care too much about it. I do however care for the 7 million skillpoints stored there. Please note I`m talking about just 1 account with a main character and the alternative toon. No harm would be done to CCP but yes CCP can´t get anything out if it either, maybe beside one happy customer. The idea behind this is more or less to free the used skillpoints and make them usable again on the alternative toon much like the way it was back when the learning skills have been removed.

Idea 2: Now if that isn’t an option please consider this. We have 3 possible slots per 1 account while only 1 character actually can be trained at any given time. Why is that ? This situation is forcing people to have various accounts active at the same time which of course is decent for CCP because of the subscriber numbers. Now let´s me put up the idea. Why not limiting a maximum of training capacity per account of 175% while character 1 can`t exceed a limit of 100% training speed character 2 can`t exceed a training time of like 70% and character 3 can`t exceed well let`s say 35%. Now variants are able of all sorts of like 100/70/5 or maybe 80/60/35 and so on. This will ensure players can at least use the alternative slots per account though have to face a drastically reduced training time on these characters. Still it is not possible to log in 2 characters of the same account. It might be that a few subscribers will choose to only go on with just one account which will probably cause a few subscribers less. But as people typically want to have more then just 1 character online I doubt it will have much effect to the subscribing numbers but it will add a lot more versability to my account.

* to be continued
Kyralien
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#2 - 2011-10-10 14:00:42 UTC
Idea 3: If that is not going to happen as well please think about adding skillpoint packages to the game. Huh what´s that again then ? Well short and simple answer. A player can get approximately 2.2 million skillpoints a month with maximized attributes and +5 implants. 1 month gametime is about 14.95 Euro or 1 PLEX.
Idea 3 variant a. Add a skillpoint package of like 2 million skillpoints to the noble exchange. In variant a. these are not tradable so players are forced to use a PLEX to gain such an item. I would even more limit the usage to a time limit of maximum consumption. Character 1 can use a skillpoint package each 60 days, character 2 each 150 days and character 3 each 360 days. This would add an additional income for CCP as people will buy more PLEX. It will be a counter to the ongoing ISK inflation as people will use ingame currency to buy a PLEX. Furthermore ( though the effect will be tiny ) more skillpoints means more clone cost. Still newer players can get up the skillpoints a bit faster to catch up to veteran players, even veteran players might have a gap somewhere that can be filled. Even if not no one is forced to buy/use a package.
Idea 3 variant b. Now there might be people who needs to fill a gap but that can`t afford unlimited amounts of real life cash or ingame currency. Make the skillpoint packages tradable objects and let an open market with these items be established. This might give players a chance to look for a cheap skillpoint package while those with unlimited real life cash can buy their package and sell it for ingame currency if they are in need of it. No harm would be done to those that are not in need of either skillpoints or ingame currency as they don´t have to buy a package.
Idea 3 variant c. Now if your afraid this will do a lot of harm to the game balance think about a skillbook that will add an equal amount of skillpoints compared to the bounty of the target. Lets say rank 1 is adding a 1% skillpoint bonus from the total bounty up to 5% for having it trained to lvl5. I would suggest rewarding this skillbook right in the first tutorial missions from Aura as it will be a major increase of skillpoints for newer players that can catch up to veterans a bit faster. This will also benefit those players more that are actually online more then those only logging in here or there but even they get some minor rewards out of it. Training time multiplier shouldn’t be too long for it though a max of *5 would do it in my opinion.

* to be continued
Kyralien
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#3 - 2011-10-10 14:01:07 UTC
Idea 3 variant d. Let npc ships have a certain drop rate of small skillppoint package. Lets say frigates can drop packages with a maximum of 2500 points, cruisers and elite frigates of 5000 points, battlecruisers and elite cruisers up to 10000 points and BS up to 25000 points. Please note not any single rat should drop such an item but there should be at least a noticeable amount. Make these things tradable and again let a market be established, ISK gaining opportunity for newer players as well as veterans same goes for filling gaps in the skill layout for new players as well as veterans. Please no limitations of how many/how often these things can be used as the amounts are really tiny and the drop rate itself will prevent an unlimited use by itself.

Idea 4: Well not really an idea but a suggestion. Please remove the hilarious counter on the attribute changing. I simply can´t see any point in waiting 12 months till I can readjust my attributes. If I today notice right I need cloaking to lvl 5 which needs intelligence and memory as attributes I still have to wait several days/weeks till I have finished this training. Why am I then still restricted to not switching to like Mimatar battleship training with perception/willpower usage and train that with full attribute power ? Skills still need a long time to be trained, this 12 months counter is just extremely limiting my player experience. A removal wouldn’t cause any harm to the game balance in my opinion.

Idea 5: Yesterday I needed an alpha fitted ship for an offensive CTA. Today we need to defend what we gained yesterday with an armor fitted fleet. Tomorrow I need mining skills as we have to replace the losses. Again in pretty much any other MMO it is possible to reset skills to adept to a certain situation. Now EVE has it´s unique gameplay but still a full or partially reset should be implemented. It could be set up like a jump clone change. A player needs to be in his pod to prevent people sitting in a ship then unlearning skills. Once that is done a player can choose of a full respect or just partially removing certain skills and put the skillpoints to other skills. While advanced skills that needs lower ranking skills to be trained to a certain level will be “grayed out” if the lower rank is not filled. This will add more personal freedom to each and every player because the training still continues but especially newer players can change their skill setup to the needed situation. I wouldn’t add a counter on that as a counter once again will be limiting the game experience.


Right these are some very basic ideas of how to get EVE a bit more comfortable to veteran players, adds some new abilities for players and will for sure be of very good use especially to new players which are often enough got distracted as there is the problem of veteran players having skillpoint advantages over newer players. Id like to see an open minded discussion of the points I made, feel free to add own ideas as well but please stick to fair comments even if you dislike the whole idea.
Kyralien
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#4 - 2011-10-10 14:08:41 UTC
The above posts only reflect my own opinion, neither my corporation nor my alliance is involved in any ways.

If you find a typo or bad using of the english language at all feel free to correct me.
Sajuukkar
Blackbody Holdings
#5 - 2011-10-15 04:33:43 UTC
Nice analysis and nice ideas. I agree though that the alt-dual-boxing is a revenue multiplier for CCP (you make this point in Idea 2). Would be nice though.

Idea 3 would be nice, BUT I can see massive abuse. You could literally start an account and a day later have a nice titan pilot (with enough real money). I like the limits that you state in your Idea 3a. As for Ideas 3b and 3c, CCP has explicitly stated that they are not going to trade real money over real time spent in game in allowing players to develop advantages. Since skillpoints are literally a timer for how long the account has been paying, Idea 3 would go against CCP's "sworn" ideals.

Idea 3d is really interesting. Like what if skillpoint package drops were localized (and were not very large in quantity)? It would attract newer players to those areas, and even if there was a massive market that developed around these packages, it would not be game-breaking because someone would be investing real time into collecting these packets, and it would add a level of geography based on veterancy to the game, were areas rich in these skill-packet drops would be frequented by newer players.

Interesting ideas.