Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Just to be clear on my view, your system is an improvement to the current one.
However I feel it is only a marginal improvement and doesn't actually solve the real issue. And straight removal of all implants that boost training is a better option. (Remaps can stay or go, I enjoy the choice they give but don't think they are essential game play either way)

Yes, because the choice of remapping and specializing overwhelmingly benefits the alts of existing players, not new players.

The option I was referring to was the option of using learning implants. I very emphatically said in the OP that stats (and therefore respecs and specialisation) should be put in a bag and drowned.

All bonuses to learning speed need to go in that same bag.

One of the fundamental differences between Eve and other games is that there is no grind. You cannot become a level 80 warrior by playing your heart out for two months.

Level the playing field between the wealthy and established player and the new player. All accounts pay the same subscription value. All should accrue SP at the same rate.

Learning implants benefit characters the most when they contribute the least to the game: when they stay docked. I've spent the last two years maxing out another Titan alt. Everything about that character is min-maxed down to the minute. She's had +5's in since she finished Cybernetics V. I can count on one hand the number of times she has undocked. Literally the fifth time she undocks will be her last (unless I lose her Titan). I can afford that luxury because I am established. A new player can never compete with that alt for sheer efficiency.

There have been months when I could not play Eve at all because I was deployed. I stayed subscribed because my characters spent those seven months sitting in high sec clones training skills I could look forward to when I returned. With the old skill queue, I had to have a family member keep them training, but we have finally fixed that poor game design. We finally have a skill queue that makes sense. We have a way to plan for the long term without making it the highest return cost benefit to stay safe or stay docked.

Now we just have to get rid of the attributes and learning implants, which overwhelmingly benefit wealthy older players and/or discourage those who are not yet hooked on Eve from participating in the most interesting and intoxicating aspects of the game. The fact that three or four players in this thread have indicated "I went out there and PVPed anyway" is statistically irrelevant. Players who never got hooked on the game are not posting here. Most people who join Eve do not get hooked. Possibly because the learning curve is hard, but equally important is the perception that you can never catch up, or can only succeed through months of planning and grinding missions to make ISK or pay even more money for a PLEX to buy implants to increase your rate of SP gain up to the same speed as the veteran who has a head start on the treadmill. Then you learn the hard way when you take that thrilling and terrifying first step out of "the safe area" and lose it all because someone else knows game mechanics better than you do. Do you grind out another set of +4's at 10m ISK/hour? If so, do you risk having to mine for another ten hours to fly a T1 frigate on a roam?

Older players can use jump clones effectively: they have 8.0 standings, friendly 0.0 stations, know about Estel Arador. New players don't. When I was new I remember training for jump clones so I would not have to risk my implants. It took me a few minutes to train the skill, but it literally took me months to be able to use a jump clone.

That first step should be as early as possible. It should not be perceived as risking months of future advantage - just what you have right now. Don't fly what you cannot afford to lose applies at all times. All the other tools are in place after two years of ship balancing to make Eve more fun from day one. We have effective T1 ships of all classes and races, we have tiericide for ships and modules, we cannot lose SP for forgetting to update a clone. Now just get rid of the learning implants. Once you do that, a newbie has no reason not to poke his nose in all over New Eden. Some still won't, but those who do are more likely to stick around.

They will still benefit my alt just as much if not more than a new player. Flat rate for all characters.

6 months is vastly too much.

If you actually look at those Boosters, they come from an account which is bought paid from day 1. With no trial period. So the Booster is actually only making up for the free training available during a trial period.
Not giving accelerated training beyond that.

So they are only intended to even out the SP gained for the same subscription length vs those that start with a trial and those that buy a prepaid account through a promotion. Which.... if you think about it is yet another argument AGAINST SP implants since it shows a precedent that the same subscription length should be the same SP.

It's not an unnecessary learning requirement, it's a major part of training your character. Planning your training and remaps is nice and has literally no drawbacks unless you are completely ********.

Or you don't know anything about the game.

Literally has no drawbacks unless... you're what? New to the game? Don't know what attributes do?

Clones weren't technically necessary, but that's a pretty big technicality when it comes down to the optimization of your gaming experience and doesn't constitute a real choice.

Except that it removes another advantage that those less risk averse can have. Note that I do not see a pilot with +5s satbin dock as having an advantage. If the pilot never undocks it is just burning isk/RL currency whilst doing absolutely noyhing at all. That's a pretty big price to pay for training a level 5 skill 2 day faster than if you used +3s.

When a new player comes to the game they often think that they can never catch up to older players, and this would be even more true if they had no control over their training speed.