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I feel the biggest issue here is gonna be, as stated, new players encountering a paywall as soon as they try out PvP and realize they've been wrecked by modules they can't use unless they pay. They will scream P2W from every rooftop, and Eve's reputation will plummet. If they're gonna do free to play (they are, don't get your little head confused with terminology like "alpha", and see it for what it is), they have to do it right- and if they do, it could be a COLOSSAL boon for the game, surpassing anything we've seen before.


"But Aehren, you gorgeous minx, how would CCP go about this F2P utopia of which you speak?"


Simple, darling.


(Numbers below are PLACEHOLDERS and ELASTIC. And calm your inevitably tumultuous ****, and read all the below before quoting a single line with criticism- a lot of these rely on the entire framework to work.)



1. No multiple accounts for Alphas. At all. No Alpha + Alpha, no Alpha + Omega. None. Only permittable (active) multiple accounts are Omega + Omega. Introduce a returning player mechanic that grants a free week as an omega for returning accounts that have been unsubbed for more than X months.

2. Remove limitations on skill training. Alpha accounts train whatever the hell they want, just like we do now, with one exception.

3. Alpha Skillpoint acquisition speed exponentially decreases as total SP goes up. These numbers can be whatever, but let's say 80% speed at less than 5m, 60% from 5-10m, 40% at 10-20m (or 10m+). Alternatively, set it to a flat 50% training speed (but his might make training seem excessively long for new players, hence the above).

4. Alpha accounts have considerably increased jump clone timers.

5. Alpha accounts cannot train into or use capitals.

6. No skill extraction on Alpha accounts. Omega accounts can only use extractors after being subbed for a consecutive 3 (4? 10?) months.


******* BAM. Results?

- New players don't hit a paywall until they're considering training into capitals, by which point they're invested into the game enough to not see it as P2W as they understand the differences between cap and subcap combat.

- New players don't feel like it's P2W, as they can train into whatever that guy was using to kill them, without paying.

- New players have a real incentive to sub, as it doubles training speed. Older players have an incentive to stay subbed, as they can't use caps OR ALTS without (just like now).

- Older players can't abuse this at all. They want a cyno alt? PI alts? Skill farm alts? Sub it, like you do now. Nothing changes for us.

-Newer players wanting alts will have to sub. If you like the game enough to go to the effort of juggling multiple accounts for an edge, you can pay for it. No dramas.

There's one issue I can see with this (and doubtlessly a few I can't); vets with perfect skills who don't care for alts and only stick around for subcap combat. CCP would lose those subs, as they probably wouldn't find jump clone timers that important in general to pay for. If some of you have ideas for a limitation that would incentivize these people subbing (but not force it), that would be great. That being said, I'd think the amount of fresh blood and subs coming in would make up for the loss in that area.

(which no one that works can do running lvl 4s and would seriously cut into family time even running incursions )

There is nothing stopping this now, if I understand your suggestion. Such a system would be an inverse of the SRP programs many corporations/alliances already have.

Skill extracting and selling the sp easily makes enough in a month to buy a plex so Eve is F2P.

Why would anyone over 5,5 mil sp would settle to play free with alpha clone and reduced skills when he can play for free and without any ship or module restrictions just by selling his sp and buying a plex with it?
(you sell the skills what you get in a month so you don't lose any skills, it's just skill harvesting)

CCP have you really thought this through?

Have you, the alpha needs to be made an omega before any extraction is possible, the max amount per month is 3 plus a good head start for the next extraction but that is with +5's installed. So your looking @ 1bill plus and rising again for a plex then the cost of your 3 extractors 210m to 250m all coming out of a max profit of 1.95 bill a month and a toon that is relatively dead in the water as anything you train on it past its base 5 mill are being harvested every 500k. Its good as a side line but not much use unless its trained from an omega grade from the start or its skill set will be pre determinded.

Have you, the alpha needs to be made an omega before any extraction is possible, the max amount per month is 3 plus a good head start for the next extraction but that is with +5's installed. So your looking @ 1bill plus and rising again for a plex then the cost of your 3 extractors 210m to 250m all coming out of a max profit of 1.95 bill a month and a toon that is relatively dead in the water as anything you train on it past its base 5 mill are being harvested every 500k. Its good as a side line but not much use unless its trained from an omega grade from the start or its skill set will be pre determinded.

No, i was using your anyone with over "5.5m skillpoints" meaning that its never going to accrue anymore skillpoints than the bare minimum allowed for extraction purposes. Obviously if someone is happy at a certain level and feels they no longer need there monthly earned skillpoints they could freely harvest away playing free but being static in progression.

I can understand the argument that ship classes should not be locked being a paywall. Normal and in general what is considered "fair" free-to-play is when there is in essence no limit on free accounts in regards of combat effectiveness but instead there is grind and/or slower resource/experience accumulation for free guys. However, that notation has risen predominantly from free to play shooters with unlocks. EVE is far more complex entity and I'm afraid that taking such approach would be far too disruptive for the EVE economy. Various aspects in that regard have been quite heavily discussed in this thread and elsewhere already so I'm not gonna dig up them again in this post.

As it stands, though, it is immense change in EVE. Because everything is interconnected I really really believe that a reasonable approach would be being somewhat caoutious. Limiting industry availability quite significantly at first and rolling this thing out at first with only access to T1 frigates (but with access to T2 modules and no level caps on relevant skills for combat fits). Combined with slower skill training, slower resource accumulation and exclusion of specific modules like cloaks and cynos it would give time to monitor to impact of such a huge change and add further ship classes as deemed safe enough.

That 20mil sp character is free to play right now(no pve, no grinding, no need to make any isk)
Alpha clone is free to play but limited to 5mil sp and T1.

Think about it which is more fun to play.