EVE New Citizens Q&A

So, returning as an alpha has been interesting. I still fall asleep on autopilot to only to wake up and see a pod in the hanger and figure out what happened by reviewing kill reports. That hasn't changed. I have been mostly trying to find a niche that works for me with my limited play time available. I think I am going to focus on battling NPCs and salvage for a bit and see.

Scanning seems to have gotten easier but as an Alpha, I can't really do much with what I find. I would like to see maybe something in between the Alpha and Omega clones. Maybe, a whole bunch of options based on a specific "career" something like

Mu for mining that would unlock the use of mining related skills, ships, and related equipment like mining drones.

Sigma for salvagers, Iota for industrialists

Price wise these would also be somewhere in between free alpha and the 10 USD/month offer I just got for Omega (limited to 90 days). Maybe even as low as 2 USD/month and maybe price discounts for combining them. This kind of low cost pay as you go model that apps use would appeal to me and others who love this game but are really limited in what they can afford to spend in time or money on it.

On an unrelated note, I think that returning Alphas would get a skill reset since in my case a lot of my skill points are locked in Omega only skills.

Thanks for reading this.

CCP may adjust these in any number of ways in future, but that time is not now.

There is a slight arguable flaw in that high SP characters on Alphas cannot train the skills (at Alpha rates) usually accessible to an Alpha, cos of the SP cap.

But this is because Alphas are primarily intended as a replacement for trials, for new players/accounts, not 60mil old toons.

Im sure you will agree it would be silly and unfair that a 60mil Caldari toon that crosstrained into say Amarr ships/skills instead of Caldari, would be able to then train the basic Caldari ships they initially ignored, on Alpha, for free, essentially increasing their 60mil SP for nothing (and at worst, to extract for profit).

Do you see what I mean?

As to "MU/Delta" etc profession specific account options as ypu suggest, who knows. Up to CCP.

The existing profession specific content packs got a huge devaluing due to the previous trial time, as added to "Recruit a Friend" subbing of such content packs, being removed. Sure, most new players didnt know that back then, but nonetheless, content packs now have much less equity, which is only left in frankly very cheap skill books, cheap ships and too little Aurum to do anything with.

I think the content packs where very popular, and I wouldnt be surprised if somewhere down the line CCP issues similar profession content packs that accord to the new Alpha/Omega situation as is now.

I think many new players are prepared fto pay for a profession specific content pack when they enter EVE.
Many have a specific (albeit uninformed) idea of what they want to do in EVE,
In their minds, they think, do I want to be a PvP fighter? An Industrialist?
Helps them define and target what they want to do in the overwhelming variety of options in this sandbox, not so much from real benefits from the pack, as from simply the feeling that "I want to be this", and thus buying a content pack to help themselves define themself as such, rather than feeling lost in all the options of EVE.

Good lord, could you be more negative and patronising?

You do realise that most MMOs that have a free option have microtransactions that allow you to unlock 'premium' services?

Would it really be a bad thing to have reduced priced subs or one off fees to allow Alphas to unlock a higher tier of ship such as a BC or mining barge? At the end of the day its money in CCP's pocket however it comes in.

Dont be a sub-snob

could we have something better than omegas too? then something in between the better than omega and the omega?

I've quit games because of microtransaction bullshit. That's the last thing I want here.

Better question would be WHY are you being negative and patronising?

The answer is, because almost every game that embraces micro transactions becomes a rubbish game almost instantly. The fact you think micro transactions are just money in the pocket same as subs means you have no idea what you're on about and deserve to be patronised. Subs are predictable and regular, a company can attract investment based on this long term income. Micro transactions are what a company does when it cannot attract enough subs to survive and want to rinse the last drops of income from a well flogged horse.

EvE is a great game BECAUSE it doesn't follow the crowd of **** pay to win rubbish. Please stop trying to make EvE just another kiddy fest hand holding transparency.

Is that patronising enough for you? Meaningless forum alt.

EDIT : Well said Irea.

Not every game that have microtransaction have failed, i can name several that you can play, as for me i would say that alphas are not working for me atm, skills restrictions are awefull to enjoy the game atm, i would say that if ccp remove the skils limitations and mantain the flying limit to cruiser would be great, more than that then you sub, at least that way you can make missions and gather some isk to buy a plex.

when i started to play this game like 8 years ago there were like 60k players online, this days i only see 30 or 35k, so something is not working either in that business model

8 years ago it wasn't 60k players. It was 60k accounts. The great majority were alt accounts because the old meta basicaly required alt accounts.

The meta has been changing so alt-accounts are no longer required. With dual, and triple, account training and skill injection the trend for multi-boxing accounts has been in a steady decline. Now the number of active accounts more closely reflects the number of active players.

Eve profitability has been on the increase according to the CCP financial reports, so you should'nt make judgements on the efficacy of a corporate business model from a single metric. Since 8 years ago, CCP has introduced a number of new income streams.

The current alpha model is intended to
1. Allow new players to play longer and thus be more likely to sub.
2. Allow established players to maintain their social ties (because the social content is what ultimately keeps players around) and allow them enough skills to be able to make a meaningful contribution to corp and alliance battles, but ultimately the set is meant to be restrictive enough to be somewhat dissatisfying and encourage a subscription for a fuller experience.

The alpha set was determined based on player input and many of the limitations are also because the PLAYERS wanted those limitations (such as no cyno or cloaking, many argue that safety should be locked on...). It is a set that Alliances and corps desire players to have, that is why many corps and alliances recruit alpha players. BECAUSE the alpha set is a USEFULset.

If you do not find it useful enough, please go omega. But don't say that alpha isn't good enough. Because if it were not useful then corps and alliance wouldn't want alpha players.

If you want to fly a non-minmatar cruiser, why not simply reroll as a non-Minmatar alpha?

Not more for free if you read again, you will see that 10$ a month is still a bit high for something that I will only spend a few hours a week on. My idea was just a way to bring the price point down but also still limit the features available at a lower price.