Skill Discussions

for those watching fanfest, or AT fanfest,

Would you agree with me they are insane in planning to make it easier to specialize?
I mean every person who put all the time and efoort into getting the skills for for instance command ships (as the example was giving), did so not out of the kidness of there hearts for their fleet mates, but to become invaluable to their teams.
Which considering the giagantic amount of time you put in it to do so decently, would be unfair to them to make it so that a one month old guy can equal or even surpass your 6 months of non stop training all those skills to L5.
The whole certificates thing i also love because it gives newer players a skillplan and overview, making that more detailed and deeper would help them a lot, but changing skill requirements is step too far.


Also the whole skill overhaul might have the effect that things become much easier to wrap your head around, but eve is so well balanced now, and messing with that balance is dangerous to say the least, unless you put loads and loads of time to debate each possible skillschange, which would take years to do properly.
Moreover most of the eve veterans spent years getting everything together, and loved doing that, and I for one love teaching newblets how the things in eve work.

Anyway i like change when it's well thought through and doesn't mess up the balance, but the impression i'm getting is that the current proposed changes are vast to say to least.

I love the concept of ship lines, and how it might grant a larger oversight to all the ships in the game, and i would love to see it implemented, but without starting to change up slot layouts, or skill bonuses.
(i'm all for improving the game, but not chaging the game on a profound level)

Also glad you guys (ccp) saw my post that some Ship manufacturing descriptions don't match at all.

Anyway peace love, and some burnt clones to roast march mellows

Eve is built on a principle that makes it awesome but also hinders it. The skill system. Where in most mmo's it can take only a month of truly intense play to become the best, in eve it literally takes years. This builds a very strong foundation base of players which only get more attached as they become better with time.

But to new players, what's the attraction? They go into it knowing they won't get to fly the "cool awesome ships" for nigh on half a year to a year.

I agree that the way to do it is not simply making the times shorter, but rather doing this:

Give players a way to actively train a skill faster, through maybe a mini-game, achievements, a test (based on in-game stuff?) that gives you SP towards a certain skill. The games and tests (hypothetically speaking) would cost Isk to do, making it so you can't just do this from the start until you have the best skills in the game, but still participate.

That has always been the heart of the only problem with Eve, you cannot actively get better at a remotely noticeable rate. Say i have a skill that takes 30 days to get to V. I want a way i can make that go faster through an active process. Not only does this cater to the existing player base (you play more, you'll still be better), but it encourages newer players knowing that they could get better fast if they really wanted to.