Del Narveux
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Posted - 2006.02.16 00:13:00 -
[1]
Changing the character creation options to actually mean something would make a huge difference in the newbs vs vets issue, as well as actually giving some meaning to what race/breed/etc you pick. New characters should start off with about 1-2mil SP and a few million isk worth of specialized skills to lessen the gap in a more meaningful way. More specifically, what they should do is give everyone frig 5 in whatever race they pick and possibly l5 in whatever small gun their race uses, plus one of the following specialization options(in addition to the current skill selections, which dont really amount to much):
Higher education: a couple of the advanced learning skills and all prerequisites, maybe int/mem to facilitate getting the rest of the skills faster
Combat: inty/af skills and all prerequisites
Scouting: covops/inty skills and all prerequisites
Mining: mining 5, and skills to use barges
Industrial operations: industry and refine 5, and some of the advanced skills for those
and maybe one or two more that go along the same lines
What this will do is let new players do something useful right off the bat, so people will treat them as more than just cannon fodder. CCP likes to say eve is not like other mmogs, but the current starting skill situation basically creates a 'grind to endgame' system just like other games where you cant really do useful stuff until youve played for a few months. Also, as long as the aggregate SP amounts of the various options are kept mostly equal it will get away from the current problem of there being one 'right' selection of skills to get the most benefit.
Additionally we need a moratorium on all new skills that affect general stats. Diminishing returns is a good idea in theory, but the problem with it in eve is every so often new stuff is added which has very high prerequisites but affect stats on the same order as 'lower' skills. For example, consider the learning skills. The basic version to go from 4 to 5 takes a week and raises the stat in question by one point, this follows the pattern of dim. return but then you can go get the advanced version and train it to 3 or 4 very quickly, adding another 3-4 points in the space of a couple days. I think CCP meant them as a catch-up tool for newer players but forgot that the ~1.5 months to train the prerequisite negates much of the effect (not only will someone who trains them initially be 1.5 months behind someone that doesnt, but older characters will have additional skills and implants etc which allow them to train them faster, move on to other stuff and so on).
Note that I said general stats, by that I mean stuff that affects more than just one (not new or t2) module. For example, lets say CCP adds a Widget item and a Widget operation skill with somewhat high prereqs, i.e. several level 5 skills. Its okay if Widget ops makes the Widget 5% more effective per level, but its not okay if it, say, adds 5% to shield recharge or 5% more cloaking speed in addition to any effects it has on the Widget. T2 is also exempted here because making a mod thats better if you meet the prereq skills is really no different than a skill that beefs effectiveness of a stat or mod. To be fair, CCP is usually not bad about doing this but it does tend to happen around major patches and it borks the system (eventually this would mean people would max out on skills but this is not a problem either, as eve should be about more than just getting the most SP).
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[SAK] Alumnus--And Proud Of It! -- aka Cpt Bogus
Is that my torped sig cloaking your base?
 Originally by: Wrangler
Well, at least we have forum PvP..
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