Skill Discussions

Would you care to explain why this is a good idea? I can only see downsides, especially the one where newer players would have to wait even longer for the SP to compete with the choices of veteran players. I'm hardly opposed to long waits -- 160mil SP does that to you -- but why extend it even further at this juncture?

It makes sense really. You're already required to be have the base version of the hull at level 5 to be able to fly the T2 one. IE, the assault frigate package modifies existing hulls in such a manner that one skill can cover all four races, provided you have the base models trained to 5.

It's fine as it is. Look at future T3 hulls for split racial skills.

What I'm saying is:

I have Interdictors trained. I can fly a Sabre, but not a Heretic. If I want to fly the Heretic, I'd need to train Amarr Destroyers to 5. The T2 skills are already racially segregated by the virtue of their prerequisites.

Yes, but for it to affect four different ships you need to have four different cruiser skills trained to level 5 already.

That's not logically sound. Why would you train a different cruiser to level 5 if you already have one?

Sure, cross-training is beneficial, but there's a lot of people who can't afford the luxury to do it just yet. Splitting the T2 skills would be counter-productive towards that, not to mention that they're following a reversed attribute pattern of the T1 skills.

Support skills are already split for shield vs armor and guns vs missiles vs drones.

Surely you aren't proposing splitting skills like CPU Management and Navigation? As I do not see what doing so would really add to the game. Multi racial cross training already takes quite a while. Making it take even longer would just help keep older players ahead of newer ones in terms of ship choices.

I'm ok with high slot hull repairers

all other factors being the same, with med clone grades removed, the idea of accumulating more SP became less bad.

basically, the list of reasons for having common T2 skills just dropped by 1.

and. now that there is no ceiling on SP except for time, after ten years, players will be left queuing multiracial jump freighters and rorquals just to make use of sub time. 10 years is a very coincidental figure for the new unlimited skillqueue, because it happens to be about how long it would take to train everything useful in the game. as it is right now. just ask digitalwanderer.

what I'm saying is EVE? how it's supposedly never-ending and a behemoth of a game... it's really not, when you can train yourself to everything in ten years.

what would be a really practical way to reinstate EVE's incomprehensibility (that's 8 syllables, 550 points. your move).

I happen to be at 99.9 million SP and should hit 100 by monday night. I also started five years ago. The unconventional part of this scenario is the longevity of EVE. Assuming CCP doesn't run a new IP into the ground every year, EVE will be around for a while, and EVE is unlike any other game in the way it grows with you.

I can't tell if EVE has assimilated me into its culture or if I've assimilated EVE into mine.

So you're accusing me of posing this skill thing out of self-interest, but the reality is I don' t have all ships in my grasp like you suggest. I don't have all the T2 skills trained, nor do I even have multiracial frigates or battleships finished. Right now it's just Caldari and Gallente V. I don't even have many T2 skills. I do have all I want, however, which is Recons and Logistics.

My point is no, this isn't about me. It's not even about us.

It's about rookies who, like us, will eventually find out that EVE isn't galaxy big, it's more like city big. You live there for 5 years or so, and become comfortable travelling from one end to the other. For me, those five years and 100 million SP came pretty fast.

Rookies will literally see the end of their practical skill training in their queued skills. Which, by the way, I don't think is a great idea, to let people look at the end of the story like that. You could do it before in Evemon, but Evemon is not the same as TQ. It was removed enough from the game that you were forced to use your imagination.

When rookies queue their skills, I hope with the guidance of a vet, what are two things the vet will say..

"most of your supports can be done to V, along with a couple thoughtful specializations, within 50... 75 million SP." which leads the newbie to ask if that's all they'll ever need, and then wonder why. and what are they supposed to do during the rest of the years they can only hope to spend in this game with their new friends.

and

"You don't have to wait forever for skills. You can buy characters with game credits."

Even more than it was for you or me, it's a decision point where a rookie unknowingly discovers whether they have a preference for RP. Because that's all that remains when, even though you don't have SP, you can get a character that does.

So the rookie's character, who they basically ported from Fallout, and Mass Effect before that, and Diablo before that, down to the gender, name, and hairstyle... how long before they feel they've achieved all perks, or reached maximum renegade and paragon, or level 50... basically all the XP the game designers imagined they would ever have.

True, EVE's gameplay is regenerative through change, but that feeling of having trained everything... the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to look like an end.

honestly, that's why I brought up this possibility. I swear, I'm not one of those types who wants to max all the things and institute a pecking order.