sp isnt everything, i have 70mil and i still need my friends to bail me out

For someone that doesn't mind the traditional MMORPG level grind, the skill training here is killing me. Not only do I not mind the normal MMO grind, I'm starting to miss it. It feels like everything I want to do is days and weeks away and I'm just really frustrated with it and am on the fence about continuing to sub and play this game.
I bought a Procurer with ISK earned solely from ore mining in my little venture. Can't fly it for at least another 10-14 days. Couldn't even move it from the station where I bought it to my home base. That was one of the more anti-climactic moments in my gaming life. Wanted to get into solo pvp...duels and such..can't do that for another 10-14 days after that or longer. I can't bring a knife to a gun fight. Not interested in flying a frigate as a tackler with corp. Can't afford to lose my Vexor, so can't fly it in PvP. Just feels like so many hoops to jump through in this game to do anything. Even to get free stuff! lol new Corp has a dozen steps to complete and a wiki page to get a free skill book. FFS.
Is this game too hardcore and old school for a filthy casual like me? Maybe I've been trained by other games to want/need the instant gratification? Anyway, not sure on the point of this post other than to vent and complain a little. Constructive feedback is appreciated.

why from an rp perspective have you placed restrictions on yourself?

just move out of highsec and join a nullsec corp as a scout or tackle :) a good corp and fc's will help you be a good pilot, no time like the present

ikr, how fun would eve be if you could complete the game and fly everything in 7 days

So more experienced PvPers can correct me if I am wrong but I don't think fleet tackle is a role for a noob. That role is far too important to put on someone with little experience. I think as a new player you are probably better off sitting back with the fleet playing F1 monkey or flying some type of support ship like logi or ewar.

think you mean damps.

The concept of having skills train while you are away is nice in theory. But the time it takes to get things to level 5 is really long. If they cut the time it takes to get most skills to level V in half in most cases it would still be too long for me. Modern games that have standard MMO style level progression will usually get you to level cap in a much faster pace. Or not even level cap necessarily but to a point where you can have some fun and get into the "meat" of it. I think of SWTOR where as a level 22 character (nowhere near cap) I was able to get kills in PvP and contribute to my team with their awesome Bolster system that put me on par with end game characters. Not exactly on par, but enough to make a difference if I played well.
I understand that as a sandbox, there is no level cap and no endgame and that is a double edged sword. I can be impulsive when it comes to gaming and making decisions based on my perceptions and the perception here is that this is a massive time commitment and one I'm not sure I can hang with. People have said, "1-2 weeks is nothing to get into X ship. I had to wait 30-45 days to get into x" or whatever, and I just can't wrap my head around waiting 1-2 months to do anything in a video game. Just having that knowledge over my head, the timer staring me in the face is daunting.

As others have suggested, maybe I don't even need to wait and fun is just right out there waiting for me to find it. Well as you can see my corp label has changed and I'm no longer with Brave. I attempted to join a PvP fleet of corpmates and was met with "You need to submit an application and API key to join us". I asked why I need to submit that again after already submitting it to join the corp in the first place. Then silence and I said **** it.
Asked in corp chat if anyone wanted to join me for casual pvp...again silence. Then someone suggested I did solo PvP in FW. So maybe Brave wasn't for me, maybe I didn't give them a chance but I have limited patience for red tape and all the applications and beuracracy BS. I've now applied to what looks like a smaller corp that I'm hoping is more personal and more active in PvP. We'll see.
As of now, I've cancelled my sub to EVE and with my remaining time, have until Oct 1st to make a decision on whether or not I'll be sticking around. I appreciate everyone's feedback and it is refreshing to not get flamed or trolled. If anyting, I hope the Devs read these threads and get ideas on how to make the game more accessible for new players like myself.

Don't be sucked into the mindset where you feel you need level 5 before you can play. Especially when starting out, don't bother with training anything to level 5 unless it's a prereq for something you want...

Basically this.

... and enjoy your journey, the endless journey, because this is EvE. There is no "endgame" or ultimate setup, you need to redefine your gameplay and leave your comfort zone regularly to not get bored or burn out.

I'm having some difficulties to understand the attitude of "can't do this, why playing then...", I never felt the lack of options or things to do during the first 6 months. Everything was new and so much to learn&try and so little time to play. Skillpoints never were a topic in the beginning (it's a bit different now as there are no low level skills left ...), I trained everything a bit and finally started specializing in certain ships I liked and exploration. What I have to admit is that I was "socialized" with the X-series and never played an MMO before EvE.

Wondering when if ever this will get through to you and others.
We like the skill training the way it is because it ELIMINATES the benefits of being able to spend countless hours grinding skills.

I play Planetside 2 as well since several of my friends like it (and hate EvE) and we enjoy gaming together. We all started PS 2 on the same day and at the exact same time they were all at my house for a game session. Because they are single and can and often do dedicate entire weekends to nothing but playing games their characters have more than triple the experience points and there for better in game items than mine does. You may say this is how it should be and if that is your opinion then you are not meant to play EvE.

Part of the reason CCP set up the skills training they way it is was to eliminate this grind based character skills advantage and it is for this very reason that many of us are resistant to changing it because we have lives away from computer games and we like the fac t that we are not disadvantaged in this game because we have those lives.

And yes CCP is fully aware that by not implementing a grind based skills system and several other things that are common to other games they are limiting their potential player base. And yes they have repeatedly stated over the years that they are comfortable with that situation. They have also stated repeatedly that they would rather stay true to their vision for EvE with a smaller player base than to compromise that vision simply to appeal to a larger player base.

So in the end it all comes back to the same thing.
A real time based skills training system is here to stay, if that does not suit your preferences or your playing style, or your idea of what a game should be then you are one of those players that CCP would rather do without.

Plex for SP let's go.

= death to eve

It's already there, and it's called "character bazaar". If you want to skip the time to skill and have a enough ISK you can just buy a 100M SP char, and start whelping your Marauder or Carrier right away.

You can with the resculpt feature, but the name and history is preserved, though professional sellers keep their chars as clean as possible.

because plex for sp would ruin the plex market, ruin the character bazaar, characters have history and an idea that you have an infinate amount of skills and every character is different, plex for sp will mean focussed characters that have been coined to serve a purpose within an hour of playing the game, plex for sp gives instant maxed characters and that is bad

Progression times were reduced, and more recently I've done the same 0-80 in Guild Wars 2 within three weeks - just with far, far less actual grinding.

I can't help but feel like this entire thread is a troll.

I'm late to MMOs, started EVE in 2012 for a month, resumed in Sep 2013 and in the time in between had also started playing WoW. I took my time, finding the journey interesting, but found the grind really started at level cap and the fun was only really there playing with guildies and chatting on mumble or vent.

I'm enjoying taking it slow(ish) in EVE, just looking forward to being able to get a new computer sometime so I don't get lagged out in fights.

What effort goes into the SP system though? Learning to fly a ship takes a while, true.

Getting the SP to fly a ship on the other hand is the matter of ~45 seconds and a dozen or so mouse clicks.

Proud of what? What did you do to get those skills?

You clicked on "I'd like to fly Battleships in a couple weeks, please." and then went to "work 4-5 days 11h shifts".

High sec is just there for you to get your feet wet it was never intended for people to live there indefinitely.

Name the level 5 prerequ that is keeping you from doing something or having fun in this game.

Check the number of systems that are not high sec and then let us know what is big and what is not.

when you get to a stage where you are complaining that there is not enough content and trying to pull activities from other space is an indication you have outlived highsec

i didnt mean you, it was a generalisation towards the amount of other people complain about those things

Again I will repeat post #115. In Eve you are supposed to have to make decisions that carry consequences and deal with the results of that.

If you are not happy with having making tough decisions and compromises then you won't be happy with this game.

The min/max, "must be level capped fully decked out in best in slot gear", can't play the game until my stats are perfect mentality has no place in this game. That mindset is from other MMOs that have different mechanics and different game designs and different intentions and they are not Eve.

You are not playing Eve. You are in Eve playing WoW or GW2 or FFXIV or any number of other MMOs that are all pretty much the same as each other but none of them resemble this game and none of their base concept translates over to this game.

If you try and play eve as if it were like those other games you are not going to have a good time here and don't blame Eve for that since you never really gave the game a shot. You are trying to play Eve as if it were those other games and when you find out it's not instead of learning the game and adapting to the mechanics you come to the forums to complain how it's different.

I don't understand this obsession with needing to be in a DPS ship to feel like you're PvPing.