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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Confirmation request on Alpha chars, implants, and jump clones.
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Mira Virage
Doomheim
#1 - 2016-12-28 15:10:48 UTC
So I'm back in EVE after a good four years away, I'm having a lot of fun by forcing myself straight into PvP instead of sitting around and running missions to PLEX, but I want to set myself up to be a bit more agile.

From the stuff that I've read, if I switch to Omega, train up Cybernetics and Jump Clone skills, set up some jump clones, set up some +4's, stuff like that, I can still use those when I drop back down to Alpha, right? The big deal is the jump clones. If I train up to get myself a bunch of jump clones and a 20-hour delay, I'll still have access to those clones and 4 fewer hours to wait when I revert to Alpha, right?

It sounds like it, but I want to be absolutely sure, because I don't play quite enough to make the Omega worth it, but I'd still like to be able to hop around when and where I want.

My plan would be to switch to Omega for 30 days and train:

Cybernetics IV
Infomorph Psychology V
Advanced Infomorph Psychology IV
Infomorph Synchronizing IV


That would only take about 19 days on my current remap and without implants. I could probably drop Cybernetics entirely since I won't be able to plug in the implants once I'm back down to Alpha, and the +4's won't really do a huge amount due to the limited Alpha training, but it might also be a nice "just in case" clone to keep if I should ever switch over completely to Omega and want to do a quick train into another race's ships and guns.

Are there any other skills that "hold over" once trained, like Diplomacy (I plan on being a bad little girl in lowsec this time around) or skills like that? Or is it just the implants and jump clones?
Tatanka Startamer
Rio Nova
#2 - 2016-12-28 15:46:52 UTC
As far as I know, NO skills hold over. That's been my experience, as a former alpha from a few years back.

I will share one exception, and one I-don't-think-so.

Exception: Jump clones. The skill limits how many you can >install<. Once installed, they are still yours to use if you move down to alpha. But the timer will be the 24 base timer for jumps.

I-Don't-think-so: Implants. I had 4 +4s and one +3 from before. From looking at the text that pops up, I don't think the +4s were active. I never measured my pace of skill gain to see for sure. With the half-paced skill time, I couldn't really be bothered to care.

Curiously, for the hard-wires, fourth level implants ARE allowed (4%-ers), but for attributes, only to +3s. And even more curious, for pirate implants (or whatever they call the sets) are ALL allowed for alphas, even the ones that have +5 for the attributes!

And in the CCP-had-one-job-and-they-did-it department, last night I went Omega again, after a 2.5 year absence and 6 weeks of Alpha play!
Memphis Baas
#3 - 2016-12-28 17:53:13 UTC
What happens when you switch from Omega to Alpha is you keep your skills but they don't give effects beyond what's allowed for Alphas. You can read the list of skills and limits in the dev blog.

So, specifically to your questions:

1. +4 implants require Cybernetics 4, and the Alphas are limited to Cybernetics 3, so basically your implants won't work. You'll want to set up +3 implants in your clones, those require Cybernetics 1 and will work.

2. Infomorph Psychology is limited to 1, meaning an Alpha can only install 1 clone. You can keep your 9 clones, and jump between them, but if you somehow destroy a clone you won't be able to re-install it and will be down to 8... 7... etc. Alphas don't get the Infomorph Synchronization skill, so you'll be back to 24hrs between jumps.

3. Otherwise, ships, standings, trading taxes, etc., are limited by the skill limits imposed on Alphas. For example, you lose the ability to fly covert-ops cloaks, your taxes increase, your standings may drop due to lower Diplomacy, etc.

4. Finally, there are extra limits: PI, specifically, in addition to the skill limits, you also can't import or export anything from the planets you have. Character transfers are blocked. And you can't log in any other account simultaneously with an Alpha account, even on different computers.
Mira Virage
Doomheim
#4 - 2016-12-28 17:57:14 UTC
Tatanka Startamer wrote:
As far as I know, NO skills hold over. That's been my experience, as a former alpha from a few years back.

I will share one exception, and one I-don't-think-so.

Exception: Jump clones. The skill limits how many you can >install<. Once installed, they are still yours to use if you move down to alpha. But the timer will be the 24 base timer for jumps.

I-Don't-think-so: Implants. I had 4 +4s and one +3 from before. From looking at the text that pops up, I don't think the +4s were active. I never measured my pace of skill gain to see for sure. With the half-paced skill time, I couldn't really be bothered to care.

Curiously, for the hard-wires, fourth level implants ARE allowed (4%-ers), but for attributes, only to +3s. And even more curious, for pirate implants (or whatever they call the sets) are ALL allowed for alphas, even the ones that have +5 for the attributes!

And in the CCP-had-one-job-and-they-did-it department, last night I went Omega again, after a 2.5 year absence and 6 weeks of Alpha play!

Hey, thanks! That's great to hear. It's the jump clones that are really in the big part for me. That's what I want to have access to the most. Really, the implants are just "someday" type of thing, you know? I doubt I'll be bothering with much more than the 3%'s since I don't want to have to grind out the money for anything bigger, anyway. I'll just buy a PLEX from time to time to infuse myself with the ISK for my frigates, destroyers, and cruisers.

Thanks so much for the info!

Memphis Baas wrote:
What happens when you switch from Omega to Alpha is you keep your skills but they don't give effects beyond what's allowed for Alphas. You can read the list of skills and limits in the dev blog.

So, specifically to your questions:

1. +4 implants require Cybernetics 4, and the Alphas are limited to Cybernetics 3, so basically your implants won't work. You'll want to set up +3 implants in your clones, those require Cybernetics 1 and will work.

2. Infomorph Psychology is limited to 1, meaning an Alpha can only install 1 clone. You can keep your 9 clones, and jump between them, but if you somehow destroy a clone you won't be able to re-install it and will be down to 8... 7... etc. Alphas don't get the Infomorph Synchronization skill, so you'll be back to 24hrs between jumps.

3. Otherwise, ships, standings, trading taxes, etc., are limited by the skill limits imposed on Alphas. For example, you lose the ability to fly covert-ops cloaks, your taxes increase, your standings may drop due to lower Diplomacy, etc.

4. Finally, there are extra limits: PI, specifically, in addition to the skill limits, you also can't import or export anything from the planets you have. Character transfers are blocked. And you can't log in any other account simultaneously with an Alpha account, even on different computers.

I figured that was the case about other skills, but I could have sworn I had read that implants would still work. Still, my big hope was for jump clones. I'd love to stick a cache of ships in half a dozen places and run around to different places when the fancy strikes me. I wish that the Info Synch would still work, but I guess that's being a bit too greedy, ya know?

Thanks for the info, though! I'm glad to hear that I can still set up and use jump clones, so I might have to do just that: pay for a month, set up my jump clones, and train a bit faster I guess, then let it lapse. I'll probably sub for good eventually, but life right now is a real doozy and there might be times that I can't log in for a week or three straight. No sense in paying good money for nothing, right?

Thanks again for the info!
Memphis Baas
#5 - 2016-12-28 22:16:39 UTC
Shrug, I usually pay for 1 year at a time because there are significant savings, and I just train skills if I can't log in to play. You have to realize that getting "decent" support skills (armor, shields, navigation, engineering, targeting, etc.) will take 20 mil points = 1 year. Getting T2 weapons (requirement for PVP) and some T2 ships will take another 20 mil points / another year. Prerequisites for a capital ship, 1 year. Actual capital skills, 1 more year.

There's no penalty at all to having skills trained. And it's very nice to be able to come back to a character that has ships already unlocked, so you can just jump in and have the fun.

The deal they're currently offering new Alpha accounts, $100 for a full year ($8.33 / month) is extremely good, considering that the typical MMO charges $15 minimum.

But, anyway, good luck to you.