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Dev blog: The great ship skill change of summer 2013

First post First post
Author
Chi'Nane T'Kal
Interminatus
#781 - 2013-02-13 08:57:03 UTC
Jeanne-Luise Argenau wrote:
Tyberius Franklin wrote:
Jeanne-Luise Argenau wrote:
if so when and where havent seen it, thx for the help

You don't need the new prerequisites if you can fly it now.


sorry but that doesnt answer my question because i only trained warfare link specialist to 4 and the new cs will need armor, skirmish and so on at 5 (http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/64158/1/SkillCommandShip.jpg).

So what will happen in that case?


Try reading instead of interpreting.
Chi'Nane T'Kal
Interminatus
#782 - 2013-02-13 09:09:49 UTC
Savira Terrant wrote:

I would like to draw a clear line between skilltime and playtime. Yes, maybe someone had the chance to use the Orca for two years already, but that is because he started playing the game earlier and nothing else. That does not give him neither an advantage nor a disatvantage to a player starting the game today [...]


Of course being older does give him an advantage. The only distinction you could make is with Alts that have been passively skilled and never used, but in that case the player would still have tons of advantages over a newbie (from his main/other alts).

EVE is the MMO with the LEAST catch up mechanisms out there.

I thought about considering this skill patch an attempt at a minor catch up mechanism by CCP for a while, until i realized that with the immense changes to cross skilling capitals now, most veterans will profit at least as much as a newer player.

Savira Terrant
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#783 - 2013-02-13 10:47:02 UTC  |  Edited by: Savira Terrant
Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
Savira Terrant wrote:

I would like to draw a clear line between skilltime and playtime. Yes, maybe someone had the chance to use the Orca for two years already, but that is because he started playing the game earlier and nothing else. That does not give him neither an advantage nor a disatvantage to a player starting the game today [...]


Of course being older does give him an advantage. The only distinction you could make is with Alts that have been passively skilled and never used, but in that case the player would still have tons of advantages over a newbie (from his main/other alts).

EVE is the MMO with the LEAST catch up mechanisms out there.

I thought about considering this skill patch an attempt at a minor catch up mechanism by CCP for a while, until i realized that with the immense changes to cross skilling capitals now, most veterans will profit at least as much as a newer player.



I would like you to quote the whole relevant passage in the future. You missed: ...since both of them train in the same pace within game mechanical fluctuations a player can manipulate.

That means if the accumulation is at the "same" pace, they can reach a given skill within the same timeframe. Now if is a bit more complecated and we need multiple skills do do any given thing. And the old player had to train additional skills vs a player after the patch. So it is the old players disadvantage.

The old player has an advantage of playing the game longer, you are right. But that is an advantage he should have! Given the skill mechanics of EVE, this is the thing to discern a vet from a newb and was always intended as part of the hardcore factor or whatever. If CCP wants to change that, they should go ahead and say it. Instead they say: A newb needs to be smart and specialise to beat the vet. Then please implement it that way.

The capital changes give the old players no advantage, they would not already have from playing the game longer than the new player. About that, see above.

.

Savira Terrant
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#784 - 2013-02-13 10:52:56 UTC  |  Edited by: Savira Terrant
Jeanne-Luise Argenau wrote:
Tyberius Franklin wrote:
Jeanne-Luise Argenau wrote:
if so when and where havent seen it, thx for the help

You don't need the new prerequisites if you can fly it now.


sorry but that doesnt answer my question because i only trained warfare link specialist to 4 and the new cs will need armor, skirmish and so on at 5 (http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/64158/1/SkillCommandShip.jpg).

So what will happen in that case?



If you can fly all command ships means you have the skill already injected. Since you already injected that skill, you will not need the new requirements to further train command ship levels by the time the patch hits.

Also the new requirement are not the specialist skills, but the normal ones.

Again, you will not need to train those if you have the command ship skill already injected.

.

Chi'Nane T'Kal
Interminatus
#785 - 2013-02-13 11:47:32 UTC
Savira Terrant wrote:

That means if the accumulation is at the "same" pace, they can reach a given skill within the same timeframe. Now if is a bit more complecated and we need multiple skills do do any given thing. And the old player had to train additional skills vs a player after the patch. So it is the old players disadvantage.


A disadvantage balanced by the advantage of being older.

Quote:

The old player has an advantage of playing the game longer, you are right. But that is an advantage he should have!


Who says to what extend older players should have an advantage? If what everyone says is true and people play the game for FUN, he has already had all the advantage he needs by gaining the fun from playing the game longer.

Quote:

Instead they say: A newb needs to be smart and specialise to beat the vet.


And we all know that to be a blatant lie. Try playing a specialized char to beat that PvP pilot with his off-grid booster alt.

A relevant argument would be, that a group of newbs can actually gang up on a veteran here with a marginal chance of success. However, please keep in mind that the time period where you're considered newb skill-wise is lightyears removed from other MMOs, so that the power difference is really a non factor in those other games.

Quote:

The capital changes give the old players no advantage, they would not already have from playing the game longer than the new player. About that, see above.


The capital changes give older players an advantage, because cross skilling into another race's carrier or dreadnaught or even titan is a valid option for them with the changed requirements of which they already fulfil most, being already a captal pilot in the first place.

It is not a valid option for the new guy, as he will still be busy skilling fitting skills for his first carrier when the veteran has rounded out all 4 races' carriers.
Lexmana
#786 - 2013-02-13 12:21:48 UTC  |  Edited by: Lexmana
Savira Terrant wrote:
Lexmana wrote:
Grath Telkin wrote:
Rommiee wrote:
If you dumb the game down any more you will have a bunch of 3 month old characters flying around in Carriers. Like we need that.


Why wouldn't that be good for the game? More young pilots in caps means more isk leaving the game as they explode, theres too much money in the game now, it has almost not point. Anything that sucks it out thats not related to stupid clone costs is a good thing.

I don't have much problems with young characters exploding in carriers. But, exploding carriers are not an ISK sink. It is a faucet that injects ISK into the game through insurance payouts.



Are insurance payouts for carriers that high?

Sitting in a Basilisk: Price 130 mil, payout 54 mil, insurance cost 16 mil.

So an insured Basilisk costs 146 mil, I get 54 mil. 146 - 54 = 92

Do you think the salvage is worth 92 mil? Is the payout ratio for carriers so much higher?

Also loot is not insured, so we have a 50% ISK sink there. (Only 50% drops last I heard at least)


Funny you should ask that but exploding carriers are indeed a mineral sink but it is also an ISK faucet.

If you go and explode your Basilisk there will be a net of 54-16=38M ISK injected into the game that didn't exist before.
Icke Himal
IHU Holding
#787 - 2013-02-13 12:23:06 UTC  |  Edited by: Icke Himal
Jungleland Roy wrote:
Never mentioned my teacher.

What I said was that If I was told 2 years ago that the skill requirements were changing and I could have waited for the reduced skill requirements (and thus not fly the orca for 2 years) I still would have trained it back then because I wanted to fly the ship.


me too.

Jungleland Roy wrote:

I have had 2 years use of it and given the choice again even with the knowledge we have now - I still would have trained the ship then and as a result I have had 2 years enjoyment (?) of flying the ship.


that´s right.

Jungleland Roy wrote:

The redundant skill is going to sit in my total - but the payoff is that I have had 2 years of use of the ship and that was worth the SP investment I made.


Should be. But even if this skill´s aren´t redundant/obsolete/useless to me, that wouldn´t bring me to the conclusion that this should be the case for every one else. Even if all you sayd makes sense, there isn´t imo no argument why a reimbursement should´t be considered. I imagin the Pilot/Alt who finished that taining 3 months ago and now faces this changes. That doesn´t mean that he wouldnt have trained it, but that also doesn´t mean that a reimbursement would´t be the right thing to do.
Icke Himal
IHU Holding
#788 - 2013-02-13 12:30:06 UTC
Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
Savira Terrant wrote:

That means if the accumulation is at the "same" pace, they can reach a given skill within the same timeframe. Now if is a bit more complecated and we need multiple skills do do any given thing. And the old player had to train additional skills vs a player after the patch. So it is the old players disadvantage.


A disadvantage balanced by the advantage of being older.

Quote:

The old player has an advantage of playing the game longer, you are right. But that is an advantage he should have!


Who says to what extend older players should have an advantage? If what everyone says is true and people play the game for FUN, he has already had all the advantage he needs by gaining the fun from playing the game longer.

Quote:

Instead they say: A newb needs to be smart and specialise to beat the vet.


And we all know that to be a blatant lie. Try playing a specialized char to beat that PvP pilot with his off-grid booster alt.

A relevant argument would be, that a group of newbs can actually gang up on a veteran here with a marginal chance of success. However, please keep in mind that the time period where you're considered newb skill-wise is lightyears removed from other MMOs, so that the power difference is really a non factor in those other games.

Quote:

The capital changes give the old players no advantage, they would not already have from playing the game longer than the new player. About that, see above.


The capital changes give older players an advantage, because cross skilling into another race's carrier or dreadnaught or even titan is a valid option for them with the changed requirements of which they already fulfil most, being already a captal pilot in the first place.

It is not a valid option for the new guy, as he will still be busy skilling fitting skills for his first carrier when the veteran has rounded out all 4 races' carriers.


I have to ask if i understand this right, are you arguing pro some sort of "level cap"?
Savira Terrant
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#789 - 2013-02-13 12:38:42 UTC  |  Edited by: Savira Terrant
Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
A disadvantage balanced by the advantage of being older.

As I said being an older char is what skilling in EVE is all about and thus a wanted advantage.

Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
And we all know that to be a blatant lie. Try playing a specialized char to beat that PvP pilot with his off-grid booster alt.

A relevant argument would be, that a group of newbs can actually gang up on a veteran here with a marginal chance of success. However, please keep in mind that the time period where you're considered newb skill-wise is lightyears removed from other MMOs, so that the power difference is really a non factor in those other games.

Lightyears is wrong if used as a metric for time (is what we do here) and the issue is already tackled by the planned ability of the newb to be smart and enable him to specialise in a much more reasonable timeframe than before the changes to the skilltree. I did not mean that he has this ability right now. In my eyes having multiple accounts is not a metric to be measured, when comparing training times of post- vs pre-patch characters.

Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
The capital changes give older players an advantage, because cross skilling into another race's carrier or dreadnaught or even titan is a valid option for them with the changed requirements of which they already fulfil most, being already a captal pilot in the first place.
It is not a valid option for the new guy, as he will still be busy skilling fitting skills for his first carrier when the veteran has rounded out all 4 races' carriers.

That is also the natural advantage of a character being in the game longer. And thus has nothing to do with the discussion, because once the new character reaches the - now easier to reach - usefulness of one carrier, it will have the same "advantage" of the character already having the skills trained. But the second character had to spend much more time to reach the same usefulness for one carrier, than the post-patch character


It seems like we disagree on some of the very basic concepts of what EVE is. I do not only consider the PVP part itself fun. But also the skilltraining mechac itself by getting the most - SP wise - out of my subscription time. I know for a fact that other players think the same way I do. Hence having had fun with a given ship is not the only playstyle to consider. I like the fact I will have a SP amount put into the usefulness of one ship, that a 2nd player will need the same amount of SP (thus real-time) to reach the level I achieved. This is distinctive to other games where only game-time matters. And it should always stay that way.

In other words, while I am okay with making real-time to reach something more reasonable for new players, I want the opportunity to decide if the additional time - I spent on that same something - has the same value given the new circumstances.

.

Chi'Nane T'Kal
Interminatus
#790 - 2013-02-13 13:23:40 UTC  |  Edited by: Chi'Nane T'Kal
Icke Himal wrote:


I have to ask if i understand this right, are you arguing pro some sort of "level cap"?


No. I'm arguing against "oh noes, newbies will have it easier" in the light of the immense advantages older players have.

- It is impossible to catch up completely
- it IS possible to catch up in specialized areas, but by the time the catching up is done, personally I would consider the newer player a mid-age veteran already

Savira Terrant wrote:

Lightyears is wrong if used as a metric for time (is what we do here)


I used it as a metric of distance. Having studied physics, I'm somewhat familar with the concept :).

Quote:

and the issue is already tackled by the planned ability of the newb to be smart and enable him to specialise in a much more reasonable timeframe than before the changes to the skilltree.


Is it? By removing a few minutes from ship command skills?

If I want to be anything but the tackle monkey in PvP i need fitting and weapon skills worth at least 100 days for cruiser sized ships. How relevant is it in that context if I invest 50 or 45 days into ship command skills?


The ONLY players with a SUBSTANTIAL decrease in skilling time are dedicated Orca pilots (fitting requirements being mostly optional for those) and pilots cross skilling into other races BS or capitals. Both strike me as rather odd newbie careers.

Quote:

That is also the natural advantage of a character being in the game longer.


You seem to be confusing something here. We're talking about a game DESIGNED by a company. So these advantages are in no way natural, they are by design - intended ot not.


Also, our approaches towards the game don't seem THAT different. I too have a lot of fun (possibly the most) optimizing skill plans and am not a fan of PvP (I used that mainly as a prime example of one character competing with and thus comparing to another - directly).

The main difference seems to be that I don't mind if out of my control influences force my carefully optimized chars into a less optimal state. I'm content with working with the information i have at any given time and making the best out of it. And when circumstances change, I will ADAPT, knowing full well, that the result may be less optimal now than if I had to do the same thing again with better information. It will still be the best I could come up with at that time.
Savira Terrant
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#791 - 2013-02-13 14:02:50 UTC  |  Edited by: Savira Terrant
Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
I used it as a metric of distance. Having studied physics, I'm somewhat familar with the concept :).

Sorry, I could not stop me from teasing you a bit. :P

Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
Is it? By removing a few minutes from ship command skills?

If I want to be anything but the tackle monkey in PvP i need fitting and weapon skills worth at least 100 days for cruiser sized ships. How relevant is it in that context if I invest 50 or 45 days into ship command skills?

It is relevant because while the time it takes to sit down in a ship may be near the same, it now already incorporates usefull/needed skills that needed additional skilltime in the past. (Especially looking at command ships.)

Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
The ONLY players with a SUBSTANTIAL decrease in skilling time are dedicated Orca pilots (fitting requirements being mostly optional for those) and pilots cross skilling into other races BS or capitals. Both strike me as rather odd newbie careers.
You seem to be confusing something here. We're talking about a game DESIGNED by a company. So these advantages are in no way natural, they are by design - intended ot not.

Orca and the first capital, not only crosstraining capitals. Especially if you add in what I said above.

You are right, naturally was the wrong word. But adding in by design instead does not change what I meant to say I believe.


Chi'Nane T'Kal wrote:
Also, our approaches towards the game don't seem THAT different. I too have a lot of fun (possibly the most) optimizing skill plans and am not a fan of PvP (I used that mainly as a prime example of one character competing with and thus comparing to another - directly).

The main difference seems to be that I don't mind if out of my control influences force my carefully optimized chars into a less optimal state. I'm content with working with the information i have at any given time and making the best out of it. And when circumstances change, I will ADAPT, knowing full well, that the result may be less optimal now than if I had to do the same thing again with better information. It will still be the best I could come up with at that time.


That's nice to know. Well, I am not so flexible with that, if I have the feeling of a lack of fairness to my optimized system. For example, if I optimized my Tengu-fitting for missions in-game and heavy missiles "suddenly" are getting a nerf, I know that all those guys who decided on using Tengus for their missions have to deal with the same influence out of mine and their control. So it's either adapt the fitting or to another ship for all of us. At the utmost I give off an annoyed sight and start up my EFT-warrior mode. No complaints.
I do not see that fairness in how skilltree changes are handled. Pre-patch characters will be stuck with e.g racial Battleship 5, even if they never intended to use it other than as a prereq. I mean why does it hurt to reimburse the old prereqs? If you reimburse them and later a person decides he wants to use a battleship effectively, they would still have to retrain it, just like a post-patch character would need to train it up, even if it is already able to fly four different carriers by then.

Additionally I cannot believe it would be that hard to just reimburse the old requirements - only if the player does not have another skill that required the the first – and force the player to put those skillpoints into the direction of the new requirements. Personally, I believe if these skillpoints are not enough for the new requirements to be bad luck – so start training them – but even without that it has more fairness to it than forced to be stuck on the old – now unrelated – skills.

.

Two step
Aperture Harmonics
#792 - 2013-02-13 14:34:11 UTC
Savira Terrant wrote:

I do not see that fairness in how skilltree changes are handled. Pre-patch characters will be stuck with e.g racial Battleship 5, even if they never intended to use it other than as a prereq. I mean why does it hurt to reimburse the old prereqs? If you reimburse them and later a person decides he wants to use a battleship effectively, they would still have to retrain it, just like a post-patch character would need to train it up, even if it is already able to fly four different carriers by then.

Additionally I cannot believe it would be that hard to just reimburse the old requirements - only if the player does not have another skill that required the the first – and force the player to put those skillpoints into the direction of the new requirements. Personally, I believe if these skillpoints are not enough for the new requirements to be bad luck – so start training them – but even without that it has more fairness to it than forced to be stuck on the old – now unrelated – skills.


It hurts because having Free SP is a very powerful thing. It means that if CCP adds some new ship skills you can instantly specialize in them. It hurts because if your current FOTM ship gets nerfed, you can instantly cross-train into a new race.

*Especially* when you are talking about BS 5, which is up to 6 million SP that would go into free SP.

CSM 7 Secretary CSM 6 Alternate Delegate @two_step_eve on Twitter My Blog

Jeanne-Luise Argenau
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#793 - 2013-02-13 14:46:04 UTC
Savira Terrant wrote:
Jeanne-Luise Argenau wrote:
Tyberius Franklin wrote:
Jeanne-Luise Argenau wrote:
if so when and where havent seen it, thx for the help

You don't need the new prerequisites if you can fly it now.


sorry but that doesnt answer my question because i only trained warfare link specialist to 4 and the new cs will need armor, skirmish and so on at 5 (http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/64158/1/SkillCommandShip.jpg).

So what will happen in that case?



If you can fly all command ships means you have the skill already injected. Since you already injected that skill, you will not need the new requirements to further train command ship levels by the time the patch hits.

Also the new requirement are not the specialist skills, but the normal ones.

Again, you will not need to train those if you have the command ship skill already injected.



Sorry sometimes i have trouble understanding something.

Now i get what u meant, just thought all skills listed in the ship prereqs are required to fly it. But the secondary skills
are only there to get to the primary skills.

Thanks for getting that through my pighead.
Savira Terrant
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#794 - 2013-02-13 14:52:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Savira Terrant
Two step wrote:
It hurts because having Free SP is a very powerful thing. It means that if CCP adds some new ship skills you can instantly specialize in them. It hurts because if your current FOTM ship gets nerfed, you can instantly cross-train into a new race.

*Especially* when you are talking about BS 5, which is up to 6 million SP that would go into free SP.


Thank you for your input.

I disagree that this hurts because a player under the new rules, will have the same thing with less overall skillpoints. So by reimbursing this difference we only allow pre-patch characters to catch up to the new player.

Let's say before the patch, it took 7 month to train a jump-capable carrier. I have this char now. I decide not to train further.

Let's say it takes 6 month after the patch. I now have an additional month to train e.g. Jump Fuel Compensation to 5, because I can.

The pre-patch character would need additional skillpoints - hence time - to reach the same -specialised, yes - goal from that point on.

Edit: This example was just to make it easier. Even a char not specialised, had had a month of additional training time, if he just did not want BS to 5 and under the new rules he would have had the freedom to not train it and something else instead.

.

Savira Terrant
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#795 - 2013-02-13 14:57:01 UTC  |  Edited by: Savira Terrant
Jeanne-Luise Argenau wrote:
Sorry sometimes i have trouble understanding something.

Now i get what u meant, just thought all skills listed in the ship prereqs are required to fly it. But the secondary skills
are only there to get to the primary skills.

Thanks for getting that through my pighead.



Well, not quite. You still have to think of two different skilltrees and you need to to reach the top of both to sit down in the ship.

But because of how the transition for existing players is going to be handled, you do not need to skill anything other than BC 5 and the old prereqs, which you already have. So you are golden.

Edit: And all cruiser to 3 but you should have those to already, since you said you can fly all if I recall correctly.

You won't be reimbursed the old secondary skills, but I am fighting hard to change that. Straight

.

Icke Himal
IHU Holding
#796 - 2013-02-13 15:16:22 UTC  |  Edited by: Icke Himal
Two step wrote:
It hurts because having Free SP is a very powerful thing. It means that if CCP adds some new ship skills you can instantly specialize in them. It hurts because if your current FOTM ship gets nerfed, you can instantly cross-train into a new race.

*Especially* when you are talking about BS 5, which is up to 6 million SP that would go into free SP.


The fact, that so much SP were trained in Skills, wich are not necceserly needed, would be the exact argument why the SP should be reimbursed. This also holds true for a nerv of a Shiptype, since one would have trained these skills exactly, because to fly that ship, with exactly that stats.
Freighdee Katt
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#797 - 2013-02-13 15:26:43 UTC
Of all the threadnaughts that have ever been. This is one.

EvE is supposed to suck.  Wait . . . what was the question?

Savira Terrant
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#798 - 2013-02-13 15:30:34 UTC
Icke Himal wrote:
The fact, that so much SP were trained in Skills, wich are not necceserly needed, would be the exact argument why the SP should be reimbursed. This also holds true for a nerv of a Shiptype, since one would have trained these skills exactly, because to fly that ship, with exactly that stats.


Woah, I really do not want to take it that far. I am only vouching for reimbursements because the skilltree itself is changed.

.

Icke Himal
IHU Holding
#799 - 2013-02-13 15:37:29 UTC
Savira Terrant wrote:
Icke Himal wrote:
The fact, that so much SP were trained in Skills, wich are not necceserly needed, would be the exact argument why the SP should be reimbursed. This also holds true for a nerv of a Shiptype, since one would have trained these skills exactly, because to fly that ship, with exactly that stats.


Woah, I really do not want to take it that far. I am only vouching for reimbursements because the skilltree itself is changed.


I like to add, that i´d also would say, that in case of an reimbursement, there should also be the necessarity to bring the corresponding skills to the lvl that is needed for the new prereq´s.
Savira Terrant
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#800 - 2013-02-13 15:40:39 UTC
Icke Himal wrote:
I like to add, that i´d also would say, that in case of an reimbursement, there should also be the necessarity to bring the corresponding skills to the lvl that is needed for the new prereq´s.


With that I would be very happy. Much better than the mess we are in now.

.