Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I agree with the OP. There are enough ISK sinks in game currently, and therefore clone prices should be capped. Maybe 20mil per clone max? Seems like a reasonable arbitrary number. I don't agree with the argument that you can take a lower clone to save money. Taking a small clone means you lose SP (obviously), and the right to earn skill points is IMO what we pay money for.

As a "getting older" pilot that likes to fly frigate & dessie hulls, I agree that the clone prices should be balanced. When I pay as much for my clone as my t2 ship, its a little annoying.

I don't know the best way to fix clone prices, but I think 20+ mil for a clone approaches unreasonableness, and I think 60m for a clone is ridiculous.

Realistically, the benefits of skillpoints already diminish exponentially (i.e. it takes exponentially more sp to get a small linear benefit). Why does the cost to keep those skillpoints have to rise exponentially too? Its a double whammy to the older players, and I don't understand why. What is a good reason to exponentially increase the cost of a clone?

Supported.

WTF is wrong with everyone, Christ, I am about the worst jew that I know, and yet I can still pay for my loss mail habit

When I see "older" characters whining that they struggle to pay for a 30 mil clone...that should be a red flag letting everyone know you are new here, you went to the character bazaar and bought yourself a brand new shiny, congratulations.

Because if you are sitting around 100mil sp's, and have no idea how to make 30 mil easily by now, and you are struggling keeping your pod in one piece...yeah...you are doing it wrong.

Right now a pilot must upgrade every time after they die. This is very annoying, especially for the casual players.

My suggestion is to make Clone Upgrading be for a character and not for a specific clone. This means that as long as your SP is below the SP limit you will be able to die over and over, without the need to upgrade.

If CCP did this I wouldn't even object to an increase the upgrade costs.

That's another solution that I am more than happy to support!

Back on topic:

Either way, I know 30mil isn't a lot of isk. But it's not just 30mil. Consider it this way, how much isk do you pay to protect a 30m isk ship? Let's assume that it'll cost you 30m after insurance. How much would you pay to protect that ship? Now add another 30m isk to that. Thinking of getting a bigger hull yet? I know I am.

It's really silly, because in all honesty, why should I have to train/buy an alt so that I can fly a ship that I've already trained for? I know I'm one of the few players that just plain refuses to get alts, but I don't think the whole "well get an alt to fly that ship" arguement holds any water.

I've grown attached to this character and having to use a different one would ruin my immersion. I made another character for safe forum posting, and I found that even that was ruining my immersion. Suffice to say, I don't post with that character anymore.

But yes, I am afraid to fly cheap ships, and part of that is the clone cost. I don't really see the point tbh. It's uneeded punishment for pvp'ers, and it acts like a deterrent. If this isk sink is really needed, then create a new isk sink that punishes carebears that never loose their pod. Don't punish players that are willing to take risks!

I agree, remove these unreal prices for clones, its ridiculous that I frequently have to pay more for the clone than for the ship I just lost.

I pay 20mil for my clones and while I think 20mil is fine, anything higher than that is getting into the realm of unreasonable.

I agree with the idea that the top few tiers of clone should cost less than they do (maybe 45mil for the top tier). Yes, older player can make money reasonably easily, but that's far from the point. If you've never gotten into industry, then being older doesn't actually make isk-whoring much faster. Minutes. That's the difference. And most older characters who have never touched industry are pvpers who are definitely not rich. Trust me. Once you've run your bajillionith mission or belt, you decide that having isk for the sake of it takes up far too much time.

Like I say, 20mil isn't THAT much. I definitely would never complain about how much my clones cost atm. Even double what I pay in a year or so's time is fine. But no more than that.

I 100 percent support this.

The fact is these days they just arent affective as isk sinks. And it just a penalty for going out and playing EVE.

Jump clones already make the idea of a per clone upgrade silly. However a character based clone upgrade could allow up to double the cost with effective results in actually helping the economy.

Without the fear of SP loss and its cost on top of the ship I fly if I paid for the upgrade would lead to more PVP. Also I suspect more than a few have unsubbed after accidentally forgetting to upgrade after a pod loss = a month of training or more lost.

What about those who don't do it out of not wanting to lose 20M that day? Also it forms a convenient excuse not to go do battle and to sit and farm the system while the others battle.

With Time Dilation there is no need to discourage people from joining the fight. You ought to pay 40M for your clone and that's that.

To keep it as an isk sink tho. I think if this idea is implemented the option to "buy ahead" ought to be removed and an upgrade being something you have to do every time your SP comes up. Not something to borrow 500M and never have to deal with again.

Thanks, I do try to view things on both sides when I design ideas to post. It helps when one understands proposed upcoming changes that can affect large sections of the game and make old systems useless.

Clone prices after podding served their purpose of discouraging big fights during the time before the major efforts to combat lag and desyncs. After the Winter Expansion there is few limits on how big fights can get before things get out of hand of dsync. So why discourage it any further?

Remove the option to buy ahead and of course double the price and I think this is an idea worth implementing!