Skill Discussions

Well first of all I have a main alt that is 4-5 months old, which should (imo) be enough to learn the basics to a decent standard, but whatever the issue is, it's incredibly disheartening whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. Besides which I think it is incredibly naive and narrow-minded to suggest that SP has nothing to do with it. We all accept that the game has a learning curve, but when that curve can be measured in years, not months, it is extremely hard to convince people to invest the time and money necessary to win.

As this thread shows, there are plenty of people who do consider there to be a minimum skill barrier to PVP for new players. There is also a thriving marketplace for experienced characters, which suggests that even if you don't believe SP matters, others do. It's one thing to say that it isn't the be all and end all (I would agree) but another thing to say that SP has nothing to do with it, because it certainly does.

The combination of experience and SP is the big barrier, and expecting people to play through - or skill up a character without playing - for over a year just to be competitive is what cost 9 players who genuinely enjoyed the game for a few months. They didn't expect instant success, but they didn't expect the scales to be tipped so far against them after 3-4 months.

I think your definition of having fun is getting involved in null sec PvP wars only, because plenty of people have fun doing high agent missions/mining/simple trading tasks - which is what the game herds you towards int the beginning anyways - that's probably 80% of the game playing population on eve. You don't have to do this, the grind is there if you're too "scared" to do anything else.

Then there is the nullsec side that everyone gets excited about. You DO NOT NEED HIGH SP to be successful in this world. Just go ahead and apply for any nullsec PvP corp and say you're a noobie, plenty and plenty of corps would hire an extra gun after a background check.

I remember 5 years ago the Goonswarm v. BOB fights, when they would literally recruit hundreds of new pilots with almost zero skill point and no knowledge of how to play the game, throw them in a couple weeks into t1 frigates and thoraxes, and suicide them into massively upgraded tech2 cruisers and Battleships.

If your friends are obsessed with null sec PvP, you should've helped them get assimilated by lending them each some ISK and recruiting all of them together into a merc or PvP nullsec corp. They can all just grab a cheap frigate and within a month fly a pretty freaking solid tackling t1 frigate. in 3 months you're talking about an interceptor or assault frigate that kicks serious butt.

A well flown interceptor usually takes about the same amount of time to max out as a t1 cruiser, those are the two initial choices of new players: t2 frigates including assault ships and interceptors, or a specialized t1 cruiser. That's like half the freaking ships in the game.

And this is completely the game's fault - specifically owing to your lack of SP - and there's no way that perhaps you were simply doing it wrong, yes?

I am a new player. The key to overcoming the skill imbalance is to maximize what your contributions can be. It will take you a while to be the toon that brings the DPS. But PvP is more than just bringing the DPS. You can be the tackle, the bait, EWAR or even T1 logi.

I have not read the whole thread but, I would say anyone who feels inadequate because they are new just needs to find how they can contribute with what they have.

This.

Just because I can fly around in a perfectly skilled AF doesn't mean that some noob in a Vexor can't kick my ass in a fight.

Especially when were talking about turrets in pvp in terms of DPS, luck plays a huge factor in there as well so that 5% DPS you didn't get from training small projectiles 5 might just be completely ignored with a few lucky shots.

If CCP were to give away or sell SP other than to reimburse for downtime it would ruin the concept of the game.

This isn't WoW. If you want something for nothing or be at "level 90" in a week Eve isn't the game for you. Please cancel your subscription and give away your stuff. It's the best thing you can do for everyone.

Just dropping by to give my point of view: 3 months into the game, been having fun no huge brick walls blocking me from doing what i want. I started clueless, but set some goals, joined a corp and made some nice friends and enemies. My progress: killboard

I know I still have a long time until I have perfected my skills but there are so many milestones to look forward to, like getting assault ships skill that is now 4 days away. I wouldn't want the journey taken away from me just to get to the destination faster.

That's my two cents.

-Brick

Yep the guy is right.

A new player needs SP to dabble in things like mining or research or mission running or industry.

That in itself is a lot of SP needed, by the end of which they will discover. "mining is boring, industry is elitist and mission running really repetitive, ok ill try pvp"

Wait, all these pvp have what requirements / doctrines? 1 years worth of training????

Ok ill solo pvp...

Yeah that works for new players...


The current system keeps players out of the game which is a tragedy because eve does have a lot to offer.

20+ days for a lv5 research is rediculous made worse by the fact that a player cannot speed that up all the while unable to join in with corpmates doing fun things like stealth bombing or blackop dropping etc.

AND they also need to devote SP to ISK earning such as PVE.

So yeah, not a perfect system.

No level 5s that you absolutely HAVE to train are longer than 5 days.