Skill Discussions

So my cousin an avid MMO is sketchy about starting EVE because of Gap between older players and him starting fresh. Whats the best way to explain or some interesting points that might sway his decision.

No forced Roles, you do what you want with your avatar.

Always progressing, even when not playing, via skills and with the right profession skills with ISK.

EVE is not another frigging D&D clone.

If you play stuipd, you pay for it. *love this one*

Your one Avatar given time and focus can do everything.



Just a few.

Also, point out that Eve (for the most part) is not a solo game. The real fun is being part of a larger entity. There will be many instances where he is the last man standing, and the veteran pilot was the first primary to die.

Tell him that slow achievements are actually a plus in this game. It's nice to know that you have earned what you have, and the next newb cannot just grind his way past you.

Tell him that there are plenty of opportunities for "low level"-pilots to help more experienced pilots.

I don't fly missions currently, but when I do, I usually fly in a large slow ship, fitted with weapons optimized against large NPC targets, so I benefit hugely from having a "wingman", an assistant fleet member who flies a smaller and faster ship optimized against small NPC targets - shooting small targets may sound un-glamorous, but it's very useful because often there are many of them, and they can do dangerous things to me such as warp scramble me.

PVP probably has a similar dynamic, with plenty of niches for young low-skill pilots, to fly cheap ship in an expendable function. Back when I did a little PVP, 4 or 5 years ago, you flew as "tackler" in T1 frigates. I don't know if that's still current, or if tactics have changed drastically, but I presume there's still a niche in PVP for the noobs.

…also, point out the double case of diminishing returns, which means that those higher skill levels often aren't worth it and that someone with tons of SP who have put all of them into high-level skills will be severely restricted in what s/he can do.

Taking a skill from IV to V takes 5× more SP and time than it took to take the very same skill all the way to IV, and for that expenditure, your bonus increases by 25%, which in real terms mean an effective bonus on the related stat that is often somewhere around 4%… Hell, for the skills that give really massive bonuses, the effective change you get for training for a month rather than only a week is 11%.

In the same time as you got that final 4%, you could have trained five support skills to IV and probably gained various bonuses that combine to provide you with something in the region of a 140% better stats for the equipment you're using. So the whole notion of “optimal skills” is… not quite what you'd expect — optimal is not the same thing as ”max” around here.

Generally in EVE most PVP(which I assume is what your friend is interested in) is fought in the same ships a new player can be flying effectivly within the first few months. In fact an avid PVPer with sharp reflexes flying a frigate after only a few days training can easily take down a veteran player with 100 mil SP flying a similar ship.

In EVE player skill and good reflexes are more important than skill points if you are looking to have fun. True it can take months before you are ready to jump into a fleet of battleships for null sec fleet PVP. But you need to learn the mechanics of the game to survive in such a fleet first anyway. Learning the game mechanics to be an effective pilot takes longer than training the skills to fly the ship.

For example. Take two players who want to fly battleships in null sec fleets.

- The first player has about 30 mil SP and has all the relivent skills trained to fly and fully T2 fit a battleship for the fleet fights. However has no PVP experience. He has spent most of his time in EVE mining and doing indy activities, but now has decieded to get into PVP and trained all the skills before even attempting it.

- The second Player has only been playing a few weeks and has around 3 mil skill points but is focused on PVP, has the skills needed to fly and fit a battleship with a decent T2 tank and meta 4 weapons systems. This player has been PVPing in EVE sunce day one, started out in frigates and moved up slowly learning the ropes of PVP as he went.

Who do you think the better BS pilot would be? I would say the second, although he does not have the skill points he has the experience and will not make the stupid mistakes the inexperienced high SP pilot would make. Most good FC's would rather have experience than SP. And I can guarantee the lower skill point PVP player will have more fun when the fighting starts.

It is true that SP are required to get into most of the higher end game content in EVE, but this is no different in any other MMO. In WOW you have to grind up to level what 90? before you can get into raids. And even then nobody wants a noob dragging them down. In EVE it takes time to build up your skill points, but there is plenty of fun to have along the way. There is no endless boring grinding to get there. Although there is also no way of speeding up that time other than some expensive implants which only provide a marginal increase.

A buddy invite will give him 22 days I believe it is to decide if he likes the game. throw him a PLEX to sub his account and he has almost 2 months. plenty of time to get a good taste of EVE. I say send him a PLEX because it really does not cost you anything. If he uses the PLEX to activate his sub then you can get a PLEX as reward for the buddy invite resulting in a active subscription. It is a win win.

I started my third account this way with the intention of transferring the alt to my main account after the 2 months of training. But by the end of the two months I got used to the benefits of the extra character in game and decided to keep the account active. Did the same with the Power of two offer starting a fourth account which has also ended up staying active.