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Then how are they to experience new eden exactly, a pocket universe full of cruisers and lower ???

After 12 years of paying yearly subscription I don't think I'll be doing that any more, I don't think it would be a wise investment......

Last 3 patches/Updates are like sex for the first time very quick and disappointing

Time for a change in management?

CCP staff might be a good idea updating linkedin

CCP is afraid of calling it f2p because of the bad reputation in EVE community. Because whales, elitarism and fear of CCP pursuing a dream of cash grab, like in 2011 when Jita monument was destroyed. All fears materialized.

Everyone here probably at least tried some other f2p game. These can be very restrictive on what you can do when playing for free. Sometimes they start just like a glorified, extended into infinity trial with "BUY ME!!!" messages that constantly spam your screen. There are cases (AOC) when company started with this model, and even called it f2p because they thought it will make them more money. With time, company seeing how it doesnt make them any more money and subs are dropping constantly tried to extend freedom for f2p players. Didnt work either.

If you want money, work on core gameplay.

A frightening amount of persons came here and posted things which were easy to answer by just reading the devblog in itself, making it harder for unlisted concerns to be filtered and making it harder for the devs and moderators to do their job.


If one would only read the Dev blog like one was suggesting to others, one would know that the screaming you hear from people talking about alpha swarms is not entirely unfounded.

The current iteration of alphas do not have a restriction and because unlike the trial accounts one has access to them after the 61 days of the longest trial, any passive isk making ventures will be farmed by large numbers of nontraining alphas totally free accounts to support a main somewhere. Very much unlike trial accounts.

also ganking alts that have no expiration like trials do, who needs cloaked scouts when you can put a noobship character onto a gate, every gate, and one at a safe spot to record local?

it will take a max skilled alpha 17 minutes to fill a venture. i wonder how many extra those nullsec multi boxers will add to their fleets to work on the spud rocks that everyone seems to hate. its not fast for them but who cares when you have a thousand of them?

What will happen if your in a ship that you cant fly when the clone state reverts to Alpha?

See, while I disagree with you on many points, and while some of your concerns have been raised by others and counter-argumented as well, the good tone you set up allows me to welcome this discussion instead of groaning at glaring oversights spouted into the thread. This makes me want to comment a lot of your thought-laden post just by virtue of you taking your time posting behaved. So let's have a look:

The several people you pointed out who innately refuse F2P games since they believe they are pay2win based on hearsay is irrelevant. If they don't try it out for themselves to make an informed opinion, they're likely not cut for EvE in the first place.

The P2W debate is as old as Plex and still not convincing. As for how crippled an unpaid account is, I think you project too much requirements for what you think is mandatory to play the game, after all your years in EvE. The debate has come and gone time and again how skilled players in t1 fits have been a match and more for t2 pilots who can't think on their feet, even if you scale it up. Putting the tools you have to good use is better than just believing "purple is win".
You can have fun with t1 in pvp. Maybe it's just not your type of fun.
Highskill pilots using t1 ships to do high level missions is not new. Lowskill pilots doing high level missions in t1 ships isn't new either.

The skill list is much more inclusive than you think. Not so long ago, Trials were unable to even use industrials. Being able to skill to about 5 Million SP with all allowed Alpha skills is huge. It extends the time roughly to 3 months for testing quite a lot of parts of the game without investment before the limit is reached. The key is diversity and taking time to test the basics of careers.

EvE online is a very social game. The people you meet on average have a larger impact on you staying than other factors. Some unpaid characters will stick to the game simply to be around and chat. Creating potential microtransaction buyers. Creating potential encounters.

I believe you focus too much on gear and disregard the pilot. A pilot who is being taught how to put what they have to good use will be a better pilot when advancing to better ships.
It's like teaching your little brother a game and practice with him, telling him the tricks you learned so he can advance faster to be a better playing partner sooner. It's the quintessence of education to have your pupils surpass the peers. If you keep cheating on your little brother and withhold his progression, then you just want to feel superior. A one eyed king to the blind.
Grab the Newbies. Guide them. Make them forge content on their own which you can participate in too.

Your notion of starting races always been cosmetic is factually wrong. Back in the day, creating a new character prompted you a career / background choice. A Minmatar Engineer had different starting skills than any other racial engineer for example, and I don't talk about racial ship and weapon skills. Why else were Achura scientists the go-to research alt?
I see the race limit as an easy fix preventing Alphas from using faction ships without extra coding effort. To date, there is no other restriction than skill restriction. See the Gnosis entry earlier on.

Further I see no issue with different ships in different areas and so called resistance holes. Alphas still can field passive resistance modules, and tank against the opposite of their "natural enemies", whatever that is. Doesn't prevent you from making a Caldari and hunt Caldaris and Missiles can do all damages. But it's a moot point.

Additional paid clone levels between Alpha and Omega is something I can get behind and agree with. It would be a smart business model.

I can see merit to the idea of raising the skill cap but restricting to frigates only. But it reeks too much of "anti gank" and not enough player tease to get hooked. Without a sense of progression and meaning, players won't get hooked. A bigger ship hull has more psychological effect on this gratification than another level of a skill is. It also smells like too much pvp oriented thinking. Look at highsec. If we look at EvE by the numbers, it's not a straight PvP game. You have an awful lot of mission runners too. No matter what your idea of an MMO is or how to play EvE, some people like to log in and just do a mission or two all on their own as they chat with friends and are happy.

I keep reading Safety to green for Alphas and I ask why? Trials don't have this limit. What prevents a dedicated suicide ganker to create trial accounts every day and put in skills in the queue, so he has readily available characters after a few days forever who are more than enough to wipe out ships? Nothing. Let them explore stealing from wrecks and get their ships blown up. Let them explore what happens if you shoot another ship in highsec. Suicide gankers aren't the problem. Targets of opportunity are.
The only good middle ground I see is Safety to green AND yellow for trials and Alphas. Yellow still means you can engage in lowsec fights and you can steal stuff when nobody is around.

It's easy to say how people will run multiple alpha accounts despite the EULA. If you do not believe EvE is doing a good job there, will you dare and try the risk of getting all your main accounts linked to your computer permabanned because you've been caught running multiple Trials on VMs?

Let me close this post by saying I believe you have the heart at the right spot for the outlook of EvE. You seem to want to welcome the new players and be inclusive of them. Which I like. Your concerns and doubts are not unreasonable, and we all have to weigh the merits and the flaws of each idea for what they're worth.

So a 92 day free trial would be unacceptable to you?

Frightened of the competition...?

if this goes ahead jf/freighter runs will get expensive real fast.

imagine uedema to niarja full of alpha account gankers. no freighter/jf will get through

step 1 bump freighter/jf

step 2 gank webber

step 3 gank freighter jf

lol

i have multiple paid accounts as do many players. by doing what you suggest you would end up killing off all our paid alt accounts, years of training have gone into them.


no to this. just limit alpha accounts like they do trial accounts only 1 per computer.