EVE Information Portal

Q: Won’t suicide ganking using free characters be a major problem?

A: We don’t think clone states will have much impact on suicide ganking or other harassment in high-sec. But, we will be paying very close attention and if this becomes an issue we can pursue options to improve the situation such as turning safety’s on for Alphas in high sec or making changes to the allowed skills list.


Dear CCP staff,
None of us truly believe that you are actually this naive. There will, with 100% certainty, be individuals that take advantage of this opportunity to create massive multiboxing fleets constructed of mostly alpha state accounts. We all know it, and we know that you know it. We also know that your "paying close attention" won't amount to much. You are willfully ignoring this issue because you *want* this to happen. If you don't design an automated mechanism (IE max 1 alpha per IP, no red safety on alpha, etc.) for preventing abuse then it will be abused. By not automating this you accept, condone and approve of the abuse. Just admit it.

i have a great concern about account hack

if login in is opened freely, those accounts with weak password, account leaks from outside, etc those will become 'hackable'
it makes a great pressure of customer services to dual with it.

You didnt read the dev blog did you? Most of your points were covered or otherwise made pointless by the dev blog.

So basically, you don't want them able to do anything?

There's been some absolutely horrible posts so far, mainly due to ignorance (people clearly not reading for devblog) or just some extremely convulated explanations of how this will kill eve (one particular favourite was how it was going to harm the skill injector market).


Overall I think only three valid concerns have been raised throughout this almost 50 page shitfest ( honestly I thought the eve forum community was smarter than what has been demonstrated here):

1. Simultaneous account logging.

2. Safety settings.

3. Chat limitations.

I'm not going to debunk or explain to any of you that might think you have other valid concerns (spoiler: you don't) as it's already been done multiple times.

This is not 'F2P', this is an update to the current trial system to encourage more subscriptions and also retain current subscriptions.

Most people who actually play this game and make active contributions to it shouldn't have a problem with more players entering the arena.

And to all the people crying about how f2p "killed" other games, you couldn't be further from the truth. F2p is likely what kept some games profitable after various factors caused them to be unsustainable if still on a subscription model.

I like it. Ship it.

Making that the F2P part would probably backfire, especially if you could only be podded a limited number of times.

Having a "Civilian" license however, that might be interesting. A one-time payment, perhaps, that allows for a "Civilian" account, allowing use of all non-T2 subcap ships (and all mods). You start with a maxed-out Alpha clone and can train normally from there, but if you get podded, you lose all skills down to a maxed-out Alpha clone. You're still a "Civilian" account so you can keep training up again, but pod loss is very detrimental. Of course, since they're technically not Capsuleers, they wouldn't be able to use Extractors or Injectors, either, to prevent abuse in that way.

Of course, it would be a big issue for professions that don't really need to put themselves at risk. P4 chains in highsec, research / manufacturing alts, and similar, all have very little risk if they're not being foolish. Having no restrictions would be a bit problematic in that part.

If you skill up those skills and go no further you can let your sub lapse and keep playing as an Alpha.

If you go beyond those skills and then let your sub lapse, then any skills not on the Alpha list are "blocked"--i.e. you do not get the benefit of them. So if for example you trained up to a battlecruiser, once you went Alpha you would not get the benefit of that skill and would not be able to fly a battlecruiser.

and this is pretty much what recently pisses me off in gaming press nowadays - these people seems to ceased giving any crap about proper use of terminology - and this is not first game that introduced time limit-less trial accounts that has been called "f2p" by these

also using word "free" in a video blog does not mean EvE turning "f2p" game - because you know, the main thing about trial accesses to a software is that these trials are accessed FOR FREE

[if gaming press was even remotely as decent nowaday as it used to in the past, the titles would be "EvE Online removes time limit from trial accounts"]

It's a limited form of F2P, yes. Calling it F2P is the easiest way to get it out to the general masses, as well, with as few miscommunication issues as possible. Calling it "unlimited trial accounts" or "infinite trial accounts" or something similar has the risk of making people think you can create as many limited-time trial accounts as you want. it is an update to the trial account system, and it is F2P in that regard.

As for failing to attract other people, I'm honestly not so sure that this is the ultimate goal of it. I have long believed, and still maintain, that the short trial times just aren't enough time for new players to really get invested into the game, especially considering how different it is from every MMO out there. Having unending trial accounts allows a person to learn at a more leisurely pace, instead of trying to learn everything they can and attempting to socialize and get to know people in two or three weeks. Being asked to pony up $15 while you're still clueless is not an easy sell.

While saying "F2P" will most certainly bring folks in to try it out, even if most don't stick around, those who do decide to stick around will have more time to learn and grow before making the plunge. It's not so very different from being able to make multiple trial accounts while still learning the basics, except now, if a person begins to get invested in their character, they know they won't lose them in two weeks while they're still on the fence about joining.

In fewer words, it takes the pressure off new players from having to join while they're still learning. For many, many people (I would hazard to say most), having to make a pressured decision about whether or not to money on a luxury will almost always result in them not spending the money. This takes that pressure away while increasing exposure. Even if it doesn't increase the number of incoming newbies, I strongly believe that it will increase the conversion rates of those who do come.