Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Lets start off with this.

So I was toying around the idea of skill markers and organization in antother thread, which led me to think about the "fun" elements of skill managing. How the whole system worked, how to make it less of a hassle and how to make it more fun...

DISCLAIMER: I am new to the game, this idea is crazy! If you feel: anger, anxiousness, rage, anguish, concern, worry and anything of the likes, please watch that 5 seconds video again. I am posting this cause I can not comprehend the repercussions of such a thing.

Idea: Remove skillbooks from Market, totally, forever, gone etc. You still pay for the skills, just don't have to run around to get them.

==== Why? ====

What is fun in the mechanic of having NPCs selling physical books (more on Lore later). Right now, if I want a skill, I buy the damned book, hop into a ship, have to drive a few jumps, dock, train to level 1, drive back to wherever...

==== What this affects ====

Some people do seem to buy books from afar, and sell them to a profit. I have tried myself, and was relatively succesfull. Question is, how many players do this? Is it an interesting emergent mechanic? Is it profitable enough to deem the hassle of getting books good? If you do this, and make good money, please say so!

I really would appreciate your feedback on this since I have absolutely no way of knowing.

==== Is this dumbing down? ====

I don't know what your opinion is, but to me, there isn't anything complexe about buying a book from an NPC and driving to him to train it. Worst comes to worst, there aren't many available, so you open up eve-central and drive a longer time to get a book...

==== Mockup, cause I like doing those ====

I couldn't resist ^_^ brainstorm

==== Lore ====

Don't you think people with clones and freaking Cynos would have some kind of internet? Injecting PDFs in there brains like in the Matrix? I don't know, but it makes sense. Plus where does all the paper come from??? You can't even harvest trees on planets, pfff! :D


Finally, just please be polite when calling me names. This is just an idea, probing at Eve's very fundamental mechanics. CCP is great at adding stuff, but I do personally believe cleaning up is also needed. Removing skillbooks entirely from the market would be such a thing, if not drastic and quite a huge

[presses POST very slowly, shaking and scared]

Hmmm, I think I wasn't clear. The idea isn't to have *free* skills. You pay for them, they aren't objects anymore. You can check out the mockup for a little test of how that would look like. I will edit the post.

Skipped 2 cause you didn't take the time to look at the mockup :P



The why is 2 fold. At first it just feels so weird and unusual to look for skills on the market. You get used to this quite quickly. Second and most important part, jumping around to train skills is super boring and tedious. I may offer reasons why the route of "virtual" books may be nice to have. But it boils down to removing something that is not so useful. Also note on the reimplementation, that is pretty much a non issue. In the background, not much changes, as the game representation of the book is still an object you train.

Thank you for the great points and reply! When I started thinking about this, my main focus wasn't "dev time stuff", but how and why.

Also skillbooks drop as loot, which has a value which is hard to change.

also i run a new pkayer corp and i have noticed that going off to get a skill book can not only takes a player to his first trip into low but can also lead to his first death.


and it can teach them quite a bit about pvp security status and checking the system b4 you by an item in it

Just an FYI, skillbooks are a massive ISK sink according to CCP.

BPO + Skill books were steady at about 10 Trillion a month a year or so ago. I can't see that changing too much. About 33% of all Isk Sinks. Though what the break down between BPO & Books is who knows, but I'd assume moderately even since they put them together. (Whoops, read keys correctly)

Skill box are fine, they create content.

How often i was searching for a fast WH route to higsec just to buy some skill.
We need something to annoy our JF pilots :
" * Can you buy me small beam laser specialization ?
# Create a contract!
* Cmon this is only one skilll
# C R E A T E a contract!
* pls "

Don't take this from us :D

Anything that removes the need for goods to be transported, or have ships in space is bad in my opinion.

OK, you only need one skillbook, but it will give you access to something you have been training for a while, so you head off to get it, all of a sudden, people, in a spaceship game, are flying their spaceship.

You are in the risky universe that is Eve.

If you are having to transport some expensive skillbooks, you need to watch out to make sure you don't get ganked, or on the other side, and are a ganker, you would be looking for these people.

Content is created, and opportunities and Risk.

Remember it is a sandbox, if you don't like flying to get skillbooks, stock a market with them where you are and try and get people to come to you. You have the added benefit that you then could make one big trip, or have it all couriered and not have to travel anywhere for your own.

Why waist time building a ship or getting the material to do it

why waist time looking for a fight

So can hunting someone through null with expensive cargo they don't want to lose, like capital skillbooks.