Assembly Hall

So, you want to completely break one of the core features of Eve which sets it apart from other MMOs (in a great way). HA!

You don't need to 'catch up' with another player's SP completely. First off, the 5-level skill system makes it so that you can be completely even with another player that has twice your SP in certain areas. SP doesn't make you any better, it just gives you more options.

Your understanding of the skill system is fundamentally flawed, which has led you to post an idea which is, quite frankly, stupid. The skill system already works extremely well as-is.

How much better can a 100M SP "veteran" character fly a Rifter than a 20M SP character? Tactical Logistics Reconfiguration provides no benefit to rifter-flying. Electronic Warfare provides some benefit to unusual fit outs, Jump Drive Calibration has no impact, nor do Multitasking, Energy Emission Systems, Production Efficiency, Scrapmetal Processing, Starbase Defence Operation, or Ethnic Relations.

You'll find that you max out the skills required for flying a Rifter when you can fit T2 modules & rigs of every kind and use 5 percent implants related to flying that ship. Heck, with enough ISK you don't even need to use T2 modules. Officer-fit that Rifter for a huge advantage over the competition!



Why are they still logging in? Are they waiting for their characters to get "enough skills" to compete with someone? Or are these other players logging in various market alts to update the training queue and market orders?



The existing system allows people who don't have 12 hours a day to play the game, to play on a relatively level playing field. No longer do the high school dropouts gain an advantage simply because they can grind for XP and legendary items 12 hours a day compared to my 12 hours a month!



Fixed that for you.

This is a classic example of players making very bad game designers. You have reached a point where there are a series of long skill training sessions ahead of you (perhaps 7 days to get from frigate to battleship?) and it occurs to you that the game would be more entertaining for you if you could short-circuit that training time somehow. It doesn't occur to you that the real time training means you have to make compromises. You can't train a character to fly a Titan this year if you also want to run a corporation of a few hundred people. You have to choose: Battleship 5, or Ethnic Relations?

It is the sacrifices and compromises you have to make on the journey that make the game fun and challenging.

If you were able to shortcut the training by staying logged in, so would everyone else. Then you'd find that some people would manage to stay logged in from downtime to downtime, far in excess of your ability to stay logged in for a few hours a night.

Before suggesting changes to game mechanics that you perceive would be to your benefit, just remember that there is always someone out there who has more time and money to spend on the game than you do. Imagine how much fun your game would be if the "veterans" were able to shortcut their own training the same way you can, except the "veterans" also have twice as much time to spend on their hobby as you do.

So you might suggest a limit of X hours a day of skill-training-while-logged-in, which would eventually have to be wound back to fewer hours than you play, because there's always someone out there who doesn't have as much time and money to throw at the game as you do. Why should you have an advantage over them? After all, you want to be fair, don't you? So ultimately the "skill training for being logged in" time gets reduced to the minimum amount of time that anyone spends logged in: for the sake of the exercise, let's say it's about 30 seconds per day. Now everyone has to log in for at least 30 seconds a day in order to remain competitive, since the skill training speed is so damned fast that not logging in for 30 seconds means you fall a day behind everyone else.

Sure, that's an exercise in reductio ad absurdium, but can you see that all these game features have to be evaluated from many perspectives? You are not the only person who plays the game.

Having skills train in real time is the most fair method of character development short of not having skills at all.

About 4 seconds after this went live, some people would be macrobotting skills, and "powerlevelling" services would sprout up like mushrooms. "veteran" players are at least as capable of doing this as new players - in fact they're probably more capable, since they're more likely to have multiple accounts and they'll be able to leave whichever ones they're not using right now macroskilling away. A classic demonstration of Malcanis' Law in action.

So yeah no, I'm not enthusiastic.

One of the biggest attractions of EVE is that you can spend your game time achieving your goals, rather than having to grind skills. You're still stuck in the skinner box of thinking that "leveling" your character as the goal, rather than increasing skills to use as a tool to attain those goals. It's understandable, since in almost all other MMO, you can only 'win' by maximising numbers on your character sheet, because no-one gives a crap that you're the 13,896,514th guy to kill Naxia or whatever. Try and jettison that thinking.

It's incredible to me that you've finally found a game which frees you from the grindmill of "levelling" and yet you actually want to climb right back on it.

Sounds like a wonderful way to turn EVE into space-wow.

You know what happens to wow clones, right?

So are you saying that pre-nge SWG was a WoW clone? No it was a sandbox and one fondly remembered by those vets that played it; skill based and no out of game skill increases.

So you are basically saying that all the effort and years of game play that I had to do should be thrown out so someone new to the game can compete with me? Sure, I'll agree as long as my 5 years of subscriptions and SP are refunded to me so we can all start with a clean sheet. Seems fair, don't you think?

Seeing as you like real world examples of why this is a stupid idea, how about comparing this to the 16 year old just out of school (the noob) joins a company for his first job. The company has been around for many years and the guy that's hiring him (the veteran) has been there since day one. Now going with your idea the noob should have the veterans job so he can 'compete' in the job market. He shouldn't need to learn anything, or have to grind his way to making money. No, it should be just handed to him because it's 'fair'.

That's what you are asking for.

Never gonna happen.

Look Ma...its a bitter-bought-toon ####ing about skills!

PS: My thougths echo every-one-else that says nay for this foolish obscenely stupid proposal.

Yes, let's reward those who are able to jog their mouse every 55 minutes by giving them lots of skill points, while the rest of us can only train for a few hours a day at best.

ugh ... whatever happened to that proposal that NPC-corp toons were banned from posting ideas?

OP is mad because specialising is too hard to figure out.