Funesta
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Posted - 2010.10.14 19:07:00 -
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It seems to me that one of the bigger problems with the learning skills is that the very highest rank is of dubious use to a new player (rank 5 of eidetic memory, for example). It takes roughly two weeks to train EACH of these top-rank learning skills. They only "pay themselves back" after more than a year, I'm told. So as a newbie, I need to look at this game and decide whether I'm going to spend a year on this game and "waste" two weeks on this learning skill. Then I need to make that decision another 4 times. Maybe I sit there and say I won't necessarily play that long, so I put off training the high ranks of learning skills - then I'm truly screwed if I actually do stick around a long time.
Three potential changes would make learning skills much more palatable to me as a relative newbie (I've been around a bit more than month at this point).
(1) Change the modifier on the advanced learning books - 2x training time modifier instead of a 3x modifier. Maybe, dare I suggest it, even a 1x modifier. There would be a lot less whining about learning books if the advanced books were more of a clear win. It would also fit in better with the whole rest of the game, where you get an equal benefit from each skill rank (5% more gun damage! 5% faster ship! 5% more cap!) rather than the diminishing return from the existing advanced skill books. You could accomplish a similar effect by giving a +2 bonus for the final rank of the advanced books, but that seems out of keeping with the rest of the game in a different way.
(2) Make the advanced books more accessible to newbies - cheaper! I know 4.5M isk per book is pocket change to most players, but it's brutal on a newbie who is also trying to dutifully focus on learning skills instead of a career in shooting, mining, or whatever. Since they're a giant time sink, it seems odd that they're also a giant money sink, and it makes an unpleasant experience doubly so. High level implants are already a skill bonus granted to the players that are better at obtaining money (and should remain so).
(3) Mention learning skills in the tutorial. Give out a free book of "learning" somewhere in there, or make it a base skill you start out with on all characters at level 0. It needs to be something that pops up on a new player's radar much faster. You don't have to give out free skill ranks, but you should mention it SOMEWHERE. Right now it's something you blunder into on accident, or you hope some older player enlightens you about. Maybe give out one advanced skill book as a reward for the very end of each tutorial? Maybe give them out in the course of the Sisters of Eve epic line?
At any rate, you don't have to eliminate learning. I can see the value of separating the invested players from the players who don't bother with learning skills at all. However, that doesn't mean learning couldn't do with a bit of a clean up.
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