Grenn Putubi
The SWAG Lab
SWAG Co
11
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Posted - 2012.11.13 01:57:00 -
[1] - Quote
What skill tree looks like currently:
racial frigates x2 lvl4 - racial cruisers x5 lvl4 - racial battleships x8 lvl5 - racial captial ships x12+
____lvl3\ destroyers x2____lvl3\ battlecruisers x6
What the skill tree CCP is proposing looks like:
racial frigates x2 lvl4 - racial destroyers x2 lvl4 - racial cruisers x5 lvl4 - racial battlecruisers x6 lvl4 - racial battleships x8 lvl4 - racial cap ships x12+
By making Destroyer and Battlecruiser skills a requirement for the next size of ship you're increasing the total training time necessary to get to any hull past a Destroyer. It may not be by much if you really specialize, but it's still an increase. Also, by not changing the training time modifier you're effectively giving older players millions of free skill points while forcing new players to pigeon whole themselves into a specific race of ships with very little room to make adjustments in their skill plans if they happen to not like the race they've initially chosen. Given how difficult it is to bring a new player into EVE in the first place with how steep the learning curve is, do you really want to make things even more confining to a new player? I'd think you'd be looking for ways to make new players able to experience a wider variety of ships and game play instead of making them feel force to abandon a large portion of their already paid for skill points just to try another race's ships. More options faster should be your goal, not more options slower.
Besides that you're changing the whole idea behind Destroyers and Battlecruisers from being an extremely combat oriented variant of a Frigate or Cruiser class ship into them being some sort of stepping stone between the Frigate and Cruiser classes. Destroyers use Frigate class modules. Battlecruisers use Cruiser class. There's very little rationalization for having to learn to pilot a specialized Frigate before being able to learn to use a basic Cruiser. We don't need to learn to pilot Interceptors or Assault Ships before we can learn Cruisers, why should we need to learn Destroyers? The extremely combat oriented ships should branch off each other with basic class skills as secondary skills required since they don't get any benefit from actually having the associated class skill. Even the T2 variants of Destroyers and Battlecruisers, Interdictors and Command Ships, don't get a bonus for having the associated racial basic skill even though they require lvl5 in the skill to pilot. With the intended changes to the skill trees I'm guessing that Interdictors and Command Ships won't require the basic class skills but will instead only require the racial Destroyers or Battlecruisers skills at lvl5 to pilot, while still requiring the current secondary skills required such as Heavy Assault, Logistics, or Interceptors at lvl4.
With all of that in mind I'd like to propose the following skill progression for consideration:
racial frigates x2 lvl4 - racial cruisers x5 lvl4 - racial battleships x8 lvl4 - racial captial ships x12+
____lvl4\ racial destroyers x2 lvl4 - racial battlecruisers x5 (req lvl3 racial cruiser as 2ndary)
By lowering the training time modifier on Battlecruisers you'll be reducing both the amount of free skill points that older players will be getting and the time necessary for new players to experience combat in the ship class that is widely considered the backbone of any pvp fleet. Being given a frigate and told to be a scout or just follow along by a more experienced player may be fun the first few times, but getting on a killmail without being used as fodder by the older players is what most new players are really interested in. |