Khoda Khan
Tolerancia Nihilum
CODE.
60
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Posted - 2013.08.13 21:26:00 -
[1] - Quote
Sweeet wrote:
I'd love to see all the naysayers here relinquish their accounts for a couple of months for new ones whilst forgoing all their contacts within game at the same time, so they can see how bad it has gotten for new players. That would soon change their tunes.
nt,
I do this ALL the time. This character is around the 120 million SP mark, flies all T1 subcaps at 5, all T2 weapon specializations at 5 (minus cruise missiles, which only recently became worth spending time training), and most T2 subcaps at level 4. For all that, I rarely log in this character aside from switching skills. I have several other characters that prefer to use instead, all with considerably fewer SP, ranging from 60 something million all the way down to my current favorites, a 5 million SP Minmatar FW character and a 3.8 million SP Gallente FW character.
I haven't read through the entire thread but it seems that you automatically assume that anyone disagreeing with your desire to be given more skills to new players is a veteran with too much "pride" or a veteran who wants to maintain the status quo of power (albeit an entirely imaginary status quo) over new players. While this may be the case for some, I don't believe that represents the majority of "veterans". I also don't believe that more SP for new pilots (and I've got several of those myself) is a good direction for EVE to go.
You haven't been around that long, it sounds like, and you may not believe this, but starting a new character today is far, far, FAR easier than it was at any time in the past. There are no longer any learning skills that simply HAVE to be trained for a month or more in order to not "gimp" all your future skill training. Attributes are no longer set in stone. You can now maximize your SP/hour for your preferred skill plan, and new players start with either two or three remaps right out of character creation to help them maximize their early skill training. Cerebral Accelerators can vastly improve your skill progression for your first month. There are numerous tools now to make your skill plan as efficient as possible. There's a skill queue that allows you to make sure that you always have a skill training without having to set your alarm for 4 am to switch out a skill as I used to routinely do.
EVE is a game that requires an infinite amount of patience when it comes to it's method of "leveling up", compared to the mechanics found in other games. This is not something I'd never like to see changed, even though it would benefit me immensely with my next new character. Just as I'd like to see the skill queue removed, not expanded, though it's presence does benefit me, and I'd like to see attribute remaps removed as well, despite the fact that I've benefited immensely from the ability to maximize my SP/hour over the years.
You can claim that not being able to fly a T2 fit battleship right out of character creation "gimps" a new player. You could claim that not even being able to fly a T2 fit frigate right out of character creation "gimps" a new player. Yet, every one of us "veterans" started at that point at some time, and most started at that point at a time when the skill progression was much slower than what is possible today. You can also claim that SP is a barrier to entry when it comes to competing with other players, but the truth of the matter is is that skill points don't matter as much as most people believe they do. I distinctly recall tackling a Tempest with another corpmate within a couple months of starting to play, us both in Rifters. A new player could do the same today, simply by concentrating on exploiting the target's weaknesses (something that no amount of SP will teach you to do).
Unlike most games where a Level 60 character can absolutely trash a low level character, new pilots in EVE routinely find ways of removing shiny ships from characters with far greater SP, simply because they rely on personal skill and knowledge rather than the mirage that SP is truly important. There's very few things that a new player cannot be competitive at within a very reasonable amount of time by specializing. The difference between my nearly 40 million SP in gunnery skills and a player with 5 million SP in gunnery are rather VERY small, in practice. Yes, there is a difference -- a few percentage points worth of damage here and there -- but nothing that can not be overcome with a good fitting, and solid player skills.
The idea that veterans have some magical unbeatable advantage over lower-SP characters is a fallacy. My own PVP experience in the early days of this character (wardec'd my first corp within a week of creating this character, lose a fight -- but just barely -- to a 2004 character in a T2 ship simply because I fit a tracking disruptor) undermines your argument in my opinion. The success I have with my two current low-skilled pilots undermines the argument that the barrier to play today is different than it was when I started THIS character.
Perhaps it's not that "veterans" who disagree with you are prideful or afraid of losing their (imaginary) power advantage, but that they've been around long enough to see the "big picture" and know that their age really doesn't give them all that great of an advantage over younger players, aside from personal experience and knowledge. Maybe they feel that instead of arguing for a dramatic change to the skill training system you should do what we've all done -- develop your personal skills while your SP accumulates.
Ultimately, the only barrier to entry in EVE is the barrier of entry you set for yourself by believing that you're unable to compete with others. |