The problem is, people aren't doing datacore farming for datacores, but as a source of free money.

3x Datacore Farming Alts that are also PI Alts at the same time = enough money for a PLEX or Two a Month, as I understand it. The fact it took them this long to fix such a horrific isk faucet is kinda sad.

Emphasis on "problem" ??? Why is this a problem? I never have trouble selling my datacores, so somebody needs them. Seems like a valid business enterprise to me, and I am helping to supply needed materials to satisfy a hungry public.

Also, and I think others have mentioned this, we had to grind standings to have access to the R&D agents as well as train a lenghty skills pathway. Therefore, we have made fairly large investments to build a passive income stream - "free ISK" it is not.

So is the real motivation for this change because Research as a business is costing CCP profits, as in training up my two alts to do R&D and buying PLEX with the profits? Well, I don't do that.

But if this is CCP's thinking, then simply restrict access to R&D agents (or the Research skills tree) to one toon per account. In my mind this is similar to skills restrictions on trial accounts. I'd be fine with that. But to make radical changes to the datacore market is uncalled for.

P.S. I'm selling the last of my datacores tomorrow because the foreshadowing on the Ten Ton Hammer vid is has the feel of a steam roller ...

So, it sounds like we won't be able to aquire datacores without FW LP....

We're not removing research agents or the ability to farm datacores from them. What we're going to do is slow down the rate of datacores you accumulate and put a small pricetag on them.

Additionally to that, they're being added to the Faction Warfare LP store, with a dynamic price.

We should have a devblog out later this month with the exact details.

Then CCP comes along and says, " Sorry you wasted all that time and training., but you need to shoot stuff for datacores now and become a war target while you do it."

We're not removing research agents or the ability to farm datacores from them. What we're going to do is slow down the rate of datacores you accumulate and put a small pricetag on them.

Additionally to that, they're being added to the Faction Warfare LP store, with a dynamic price.

We should have a devblog out later this month with the exact details.

The point trying to be made was that it's no longer worth running R&D agents for return on investment. A 50 % reduction in RP rates effectively kills the incentive to train or build standings with the R&D corp.

Not very amusing at all when you have made that kind of commitment to a career path.

As another poster pointed out, it takes years of accumulation to make up for the time invested. Now it would have been better spent just running lv4 missions.

Some People don't wont to PVP is that so HARD to understand CCP....???

What are you looking for exactly? If I was still a CSM my response would be something like this:

"You mean they're giving FW a reason to exist AND nerfing passive highsec income? Awesome."

Are you looking for that? I can give you that if you'd like.

You are painfully stupid.

I think we are making this more complex than it needs to be.

Some years ago they homogenized Agent groups and in so doing all the R&D corps got a fist full of Security agents they never had before. I just took Duvolle Laboratories from 0 standing to 2.00 standing with 4 Lv. 3 Sec missions and Connections 4. I will have it to 3.00 and be able to run level 4 R&D in an afternoon.

Anyone remember the nursery rhyme, She swallowed the goat to catch the dog, to catch the cat, to catch the bird to catch the fly?

EVE swallowed a fly.

The fact alone that there is a growing group of the playerbase is suspecting the same as I suspect does make the thing sound more and more probable.

Agreed. That stood out as one of the dumber and more mentally unhinged comments on here, and that's pretty significant considering the competition.