Tippia
Sunshine and Lollipops
10256
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Posted - 2012.11.06 06:17:00 -
[1] - Quote
I can only reiterate what people have already said. What you can actually do matters a whole lot more than the SP you have, and while there is a connection between the two, it's not nearly as strong as one might except. At any one time, our 100M+ SP characters might only GÇ£useGÇ¥ a total of 20M or 10M of those skillpoints, and they may be as misapplied as with anyone else.
Likewise, a good way to get tons of SP but little ability is to go for all-V skills GÇö with the exception of maybe the first two levels (I don't have the numbers in my head), each new skill level takes over 5+ù longer than all the previous levels combined. This means that, instead of training one skill to V, you can train five similar skills to lvl IV in the same time. Now combine this with how skill bonuses work and the fact that the improvement you see from additional level decreases, and you get a really interesting situation. Instead of taking that one skill to V and get a 25% bonus instead of GÇ£onlyGÇ¥ 20% (an actual increase on the whole of only 4% rather), you could train five support skills to IV and get their combined 20% bonuses. If they're the right skills, you're now looking at ~150% worth of combined bonuses (we'll skip the details about how they might not interact exactly in that way for now  ) rather than a measly 4%.
Yes, occasionally, you'll want that fifth skill level because it's such a fundamental skill that works with every ship you'll ever going to fly (this are often referred to as the GǣcoreGǥ skills since they are required for the Gǣcore competenceGǥ certification, and they're cheap enough that lvl V doesn't hurt that much anyway), because they opens up new equipment (notably T2 versions of weapons and ships), or on very few occasions because the bonus is just that goodGǪ but overall, those are the exeptions.
The two SP-related matters you will run into at some point or another are corp requirements and GÇ£catching upGÇ¥. The first one is rather easy: every now and then, corps will set minimum-SP requirements to join them. What they're measuring there is not your skills but rather the time you've spent in the game, because that is almost the only thing total SP will tell you GÇö how long have you been playing (the only other thing is that it tells you how expensive it is to lose a podGǪ). If they're looking for someone with 15M SP, what they're saying is that they're after people who've been in the game for almost a year and who presumably know enough to earn their own ISK and know how to fit a ship and so on. In these cases, you can often join anyway if you demonstrate enough knowledge about the game. GǪand if that doesn't sway them, chances are they're a bit clueless themselves and you might want to stay clear of them anyway.
The other matter is the notion of GÇ£catching upGÇ¥. The answer for this is also easy, but the reasoning behind is a bit harder. In short: GÇ£catching upGÇ¥ is not an applicable concept in EVE. There is exactly one thing you can't easily catch up with, and that is total SP (note the word GÇ£easilyGÇ¥ GÇö it's still possible, but it requires mistakes on their part), and as already noted, total SP is a meaningless stat. In every other respect, catching up is not only possible, but inevitable. Should you go for that fifth skill level, you have GÇ£caught upGÇ¥ with everyone in the game, forever, and even surpassed many of them. Older players may have a bit more versatility, but there will always be gaps in their training GÇö something they can't do with full efficiency GÇö hell, even the character with the most SP in the game only has half the total available SP. And even without talking about gaps, we come back to that thing about only using 10GÇô20M SP at any one timeGǪ if those turn out to be the wrong SP for the occasion (e.g. they're using their SP in flying industrials and you turn up in a battleship), it doesn't matter what else they can do. Last but not least, there is the ultimate equaliser: numbers. Even if that older character is in the exact right ship and can squeeze the absolute maximum out of his skills, there is only one of him and his perfect skills will only carry him that far. 10 people with 1M SP can make mince-meat out of 1 person with 20M SP.
In my signature, I've linked an old guide to how to get a surprising amount of utility out of your first month or so of training by not falling into the classic trap of focusing on skill levels rather than actual usefulness. Beyond what's written there, everything else is much the same only on a different scale.
GÇ£If you're not willing to fight for what you have in GëívGëí you don't deserve it, and you will lose it.GÇ¥
Get a good start: newbie skill plan. |