Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So, one complaint that I've heard a number of times from returning players over the last week is that they can't fly any of the ships they used to. By and large, they accept that they can't fly their battleships and T2/T3 ships on a free account, but it's much more frustrating to not be able to fly their old T1 frigates. This is especially annoying given that, for the entire history of Eve up until this past Tuesday, it has been true that the race you choose at character creation has no bearing on the ships you can fly or your progression otherwise. As a result, a fair number of people created, say, a Minmatar clone for aesthetic reasons and then trained exclusively Gallente ships/skills.

It seems to me that things could be made a lot more welcoming for returning players by keeping the list of TRAINABLE Alpha skills as they are right now, but making it so that the list of USABLE alpha skills was the combination of all the trainable alpha skills for all four races.

This might also have the positive outcome of convincing new players who might not sub otherwise to sub for a month or two in order to expand into other races' Alpha-compatible ships/skills.

Returning players can train any missing racial hull skills in a few hours - even at the reduced Alpha rate. They will also have assets they can sell and unused skills they can extract to re-inject and distribute where needed.

The Alpha State is not intended to diminish the value of a subscription. Eve is not an easy game - things aren't handed to you on a silver platter - you need to work for them. Returning players should already know that.

And so it begins: the alphas begging for free features.

Buy a subscription or a plex, pubbie.

If they aren't prepared to go and buy a ship or wait 30 minutes then they have forgotten the tenants of EVE, and wouldn't stay long anyway.

This is, frankly, a pretty idiotic 'analysis'.

As far as I can tell, the OP is just suggesting that if people train off-race alpha skills while in an omega state, then those alpha skills will still be accessible even if they subsequently drop to an alpha state later on. They would have to have subscribed at some point, and most alpha skills are common to all races anyway, it's only ships and weapons that differ really.

You said "all the perk (sic) a subscription has". Well let's see, I can fly:

Battlecruisers, battleships, carriers, dreads, faxes, supers, interceptors, assault frigates, covert ops, stealth bombers, logistics frigates, expedition frigates, electronic attack ships, tactical destroyers, command destroyers, interdictors, heavy interdictors, heavy assault ships, logistic ships, recon cruisers, strategic cruisers, command ships, marauders, black ops, transport ships, freighters, jump freighters, whatever the Noctis and Orca count as. Possibly others (missing: exhumers, titans).

On all four races (well, mostly).

Not to mention any mechanics alphas cannot utilise.

I think it would be a good idea, since tempting them into a 30-day subscription would quite possibly entice them to stay longer - they will max out all off-race alpha skills in days, and may then think: hey, I'd like to fly an Ishtar...

This would allow Alpha's to use pirate ships, correct?

If that's the case then - NO, pay the piper.

If a new player doesn't like the racial ships (playstyle, aesthetics, scoffed at by your friends), then the player can easily make a new toon of the appropriate race.... or sub to Omega and start cross training.

An old player coming back as an Alpha gets to use the forums for free, what ever else could a pilot really want??

--Gadget

I'm pretty sure this would require a technical revision to the entire mechanism.

There is no limitation actually placed on ships and items. The limitations on items are merely inherited through the usability of the skills.

And, suddenly things get messy, then. No pirate ships - but what about navy? They get those right now, but in a system that allows granular restrictions on specific items, should they? It would be easy to block them at that point. Now you have to determine, on an item-by-item (or item-type by item-type, at least) basis, whether Alphas get something or not.

I'm not sure I get you Gadget - all off-race training would have to be done with an omega account. You could never magic free SP from this.

As to Pirate ships and the game's mechanics, I don't know. All Pirate ships could be made to require a pretty ubiquitous skill to level 5, perhaps mechanics, capacitor, or navigation V?

I just feel a gang of alphas ought to be able to agree on a doctrine ship for a roam, for instance.

Where to start :)

First I half agree with S.L.,

While I agree about the door cracking for greed, I do rather disagree that innovative players won't make some practical use with the Alpha's that makes a positive (or at least memorable) mark in the game. This is the type of player that's attracted to EvE in the first place. Good.

Second to Cristl,

See S.L.'s response minus the part I just mentioned.

Also, ...even if you got your way, your answer to Pirate ships would be to make them out of bounds for all but the most SP bloated? C'mon.

And Alphas can still gang up. New players can always re-roll, and vets have other options: sub, reroll, or fly what you can and make do.

--Gadget

2-3 hipster "coffees"
or 7 coffee-flavored coffees.

--Gadget