Jita Park Speakers Corner

I love this idea. My clone costs something like 15 million ISK - kind of takes the fun out of f'ing around in a rifter.

Although, a problem I can foresee would be the self-destruct clone jumping that is used to jump across the map to stations that you have an office in. If clones were free, it would basically be a free clone jump with no cooldown. There would need to be a mechanic to prevent it from being abused.

The current clone costs are a nice idea - it adds a "versatility in one character vs cheap clones and multiple specialized characters" trade-off that could in theory be meaningful.

"Do I just keep training on my main forever or do I rather start a new character?" that's a hard decision and hard decisions are fun (imo).

The problem is that in practice very few do seriously consider this a trade-off as continuing to train your main (who already has all the support skills you would have to train again on an alt) is just too good (and because high SP numbers give bragging rights).

So players are left with a choice that is none and a bitter feeling every time they get podded after flying some ship that is cheap relative to their clone cost.

(I don't agree with the "more pvp" arguments - "more pvp" and "consequences" are directly opposed goals and I would not sacrifice the latter for the former; in EVE I spend 2-3 hours roaming around to find some target and might still come home empty-handed because other people are afraid to lose their ship and I don't want to throw away mine; in WoW I can have pvp non-stop from 2 minutes after I logged in up to the point where I decide to call it a day; go figure)

I'm opposed to this. The cost of clones is relative to the amount of SP you have. If you have a bazillion SP then you should have the necessary ISK to cover the cost of the clone.

New Eden is a hard, nasty, unforgiving place. It's one of the main reasons I play. Everything I do, or forget to do, has consequences. The removal of the clone upgrade cost would continue the process of turning New Eden into a happy fluffy place filled with unicorns and ponies.

If you don't want to pay the upgrade cost there's an easy solution, fly better and don't get podded.

Disclaimer: I'm a bitter-vet that's spent most of my clone's life in various 0.0 corps and alliances. The clone cost has never discouraged me from engaging in PvP.

Upgrading the clone isn't hard core, the risk of SP loss is. Risking ships isn't hard core, its expected. Isn't the golden rule of EVE don't fly what you can't afford to lose? Dying should have consequences. This is one of them. Yes, I've lost SP due to it.

If you want to talk about butterfly effects then look at this from the thin-edge of the wedge point of view. If we get rid of clone costs what is next? Better insurance?

As for debate. I don't think you really want that. You really want to make everyone see things from your point of view. I can see your point of view fine, I just don't agree with it. I don't think that high SP players that aren't already involved in PvP are unlikely to be lured into it by the removal of the clone cost.

As an alternative proposal let player owned cloning facilities offer cheaper clones. Still keep the cost associated with them, but have the facility owning corporation pick up the tab. That would better fit the sandbox than just removing something because its annoying. I still don't like this though, there needs to be the potential of more than just ISK loss.