Assembly Hall

I plugged in +4s as soon as the LP store was introduced and the price fell to 20M. Kept right on PvPing and living in nullsec the whole 4 years.

Yeah I've lost a few sets, but the overhead was more than acceptable for the reward. If the horrible prospect of losing 36M ISK worth or implants is keeping you from PvPing now, then removing implants won't stop you being a huge risk-averse baby. You'll just find some other reason.

Attack the argument, not the person.

You're entitled to your opinion but I think it's a good game mechanic. You pay isk to train skills faster and risk losing that bonus if you engage in risky activities. What is so wrong with that?

They're a relic. It's basically the same thing as learning skills. Oblivious, new players screw themselves over by not getting them as soon as possible. It's yet another mechanic that alienates them.

Yes, learning implants suck.
We need more combat, more pirate implants. Perhaps some T3 implants.

Here's an idea to kick around. Lets say that CCP decides not to remove learning implants from the game (a very good probability.) How about charging a base ISK amount to set the jump-clone timer to 0? It could be modified by the total levels of implants (learning and combat) implanted in your clone, and perhaps additionally modified by the number of hours left before you could normally jump-clone again?

This way, if you had x number of hours left before you could jump-clone, and something came up, you would have the option to jump-clone immediately.

This does not solve the problem of the ISK strapped pilots, but it would promote flexibility and fun (PVP) in the game.

Near as can tell, the jump clone timer is helpful for keeping folk from bouncing from one end of space to the other at will and with no consequences. Sort of like the old jump bridges, come to think of it; at least, that was the argument made for nerfing them. But anyways.

Essentially, the current system encourages players, especially nullsec and lowsec residents, to develop a "home base," because it prevents a nullsec resident from bouncing to high-sec at will to grind ISK, then instantly jumping back to null for a fleet op, or jump cloning for a fleet op in Stain and then jumping back to Geminate to run sanctums. So currently, jump cloning has moderate drawbacks, and forces a player to weigh whether jump cloning is worth it, or whether he should wait or find an alternate route for accomplishing what he wants. Removing the timer might lead more players to live in high-sec and only jump clone up for major fleets, reducing null population. Or it might not, for those players who already have high-sec alts grinding missions or incursions. I do know that it'd be nice to be able to hop down to high-sec once in a while for PvE without worrying about missing a fleet op.

Also not sure whether removing the learning implants is good or bad, if only because they probably serve as a useful ISK and LP sink. The big issue with learning skills was that they (1) were functionally mandatory and (2) kept players from getting into ships and doing fun stuff early on because they felt compelled to train learning skills. Learning implants aren't considered mandatory, because their effects are relatively small, to the point where players who actively PvP won't bother to inject implants into the game, the training time for them is fairly short, and the +1 to +3 implants are cheap enough that even active PvPers can afford to replace one or two of them, while new players can probably save up enough to buy them without it significantly affecting their gameplay, if at all. At least, I had no issue affording a full set of +3 implants when I started, and a set of +4 implants was a nice goal once I got into a battleship.

Those at risk of losing implants through PvP have to make a choice between faster training time or losing ISK when podded. But that's fairly similar to the effect learning implants had on new players, even if older players should be able to balance cost and benefit better, so I wouldn't consider it a terrible loss for the game if learning implants were removed. If attributes are boosted as well, then it would definitely be a minor benefit for those who actively PvP, though doubt it would really affect newer players all that much.

Removing attributes themselves sounds kind of messy, and I'm not sure who it would really benefit, if anyone. New players already start off with a generic attribute distribution, and so aren't locked into anything. Nor does the game force a player to remap attributes. This character spent two years with an even attribute distribution, because I had no real idea what I would train even two months down the road and didn't want to be locked into a training plan; even though others were training faster than this character, I don't think attributes or remap timers really hurt me in any way, or stopped me from having fun, but maybe I'm just an oddball. In general, I like meaningful choice, and it seems as though attributes and remaps provide that -- a player who knows what he wants can remap and train for it quickly, while a player who doesn't can stick with an even attribute distribution and train slightly slower, but with the option of training for something else at any time.

Why do you cling on arbitrary entitlement of +5 while having fun? Or arbitrary zero loss when podded? Action and consequence, where's yours?

Train without +5, problem solved. What? You're entitled to +5?

I wholeheartedly support this proposal. It would be a hard decision if stats actually affected the game beyond skill training, but they don't.

Relegate the learning implants to the darkest pits of oblivion and add more boosting implants in their place.



Yeah, kids these days and their entitlement to play EVE.

I think the real damn problem is that it would take 37.5 years to train all skills to 5. Which is ridiculously stupid. Skill training has been seriously flawed from the beginning. It is horrendously slow, and takes entirely too long. EVE isn't going to be around forever people, or atleast not this incarnation of it. It is almost nine years old. I think at max training time of say 4-6 years is more in line with reality.