Would be funny but you'd need to hand them the extractor that's likely worth hundreds of millions of ISK first ...

Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? Well the problem is that trading, etc just generates more demand, which generates more supply as people plex an alt, train, rip, sell, repeat. Provided the skillpacket price stays well above the cost of training skills (1 plex per month plus the extractor things) people can keep doing more alts and supplying more and more SPs. Supply is effectively infinite, I can always make more alts if they can pay for their own PLEX so easily.

But the demand for PLEX will keep going up and up, pushing the price of it higher and higher until it costs nearly as much to PLEX for a month and rip as you can make selling the SP. And I bet the ceiling price on a skillpacket will be pretty high. The only thing that will push PLEX back down is more supply of PLEX coming from people putting more RL money into the game, perhaps to buy more SPs.

But will there be enough new RL money from this to compensate for the ones who used to pay multiple subs but can now run their alt accounts for free if they don't want them to gain SPs? I'll be paying *less* RL money a month not more after this change because I don't need to train on all my accounts, I just use them for convenience.

But no doubt some people will get very rich on this at the beginning ...

Apparently, CCP have devoted most of their interaction to, and got the feedback they wanted to hear from Reddit, or whatever it is called.

That CCP do not use their own forums or pay heed to the feedback therein much, is just sad really.

Ideas I have seen in this thread and plan on bringing up with CCP include . . .

Edit Filter to remove 0 pt skills from showing (Yes I know you know they are there but it will look cleaner just the same)

Banned (or those with a 'record')characters are limited in their ability to use this, taking out or putting in.

Skills do not instantly appear but speed training ala Blood Raider devices. Even if it took a few hours for the full 500k that still keeps from insta-flavour of the month nonsense.

SP changes (poditive or negative) should show on the character sheet or at least on an API pull. This IS part of who and what you are.

512k points rather than 500. I understand that one but I am afraid they will keep to the 500 to make you want o buy more as someone pointed out.

Take MORE than 4 hours for the process to remove the points. Yes this is focused directly at the 'hours for plex' crew from being able to strip an account without actually paying for a month usage. Alternative is ONLY subbed accts can use the skill extracation devices.

I am gonna keep reading what you gloriously angry but thoughtful people put here. Just letting you know the parts and suggestions I like of an idea that I do not like.

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I should also point to the discussion we had up-thread about the impact on PLEX prices. According to it, I believe a low price for the extractors would mean a net drop in PLEX prices, whereas a higher price for the extractors would men a net rise. Basically it's a balance between more people needing PLEX as intermediary from ISK to AUR to buy extractors., and more people cashing in real money through PLEX for buying injectors. I wish I knew where the balance point is exactly, but I would bet that 2000 AUR would further drive PLEX price inflation. And that really is unhealthy for the game...

Well, I guess that makes sense if you actually want to play those currently unsubbed accounts. Then "break even" means to you that a toon that used to be inaccessible now has become accessible, and the price you pay for this is merely the ado with the SP extractors. Notably though, this now active toon would never make any progress, i.e., this would only work if you are happy with playing the toon as it is, forever.

However, this is not proper "SP farming". It's more "toon access paid by SP". A proper "SP farm" must make net ISK from selling SP, and furthermore, the ISK/effort ration must be competitive with other ways of making ISk.

In a sense, you are actually a SP farmer's nightmare. You and people like you might indeed destroy the market - because you would be happy to sell the "product" at cost, or possibly even somewhat below cost.

If the SP injector price stays around or below 0.25*PLEX+extractor_price, then we know that the main thing happening is that people are using this to keep "finished alts" active in the game. I think that probably would be a good thing...?

The "low-effort, self-funding" bit is key though, and will keep prices close to 0.25*PLEX+extractor_price - even if counterintuitively from below rather than from above.

The price would have to fall below 0.25*PLEX, not 0.25*PLEX+extractor_price, since a skill packet is worth about a quarter month of training. This is (unfortunately) an argument for a higher price of the extractor...

If I had to take a guess, then I would say that the average EVE player is both older and more affluent than the average gamer. I'm thinking more tech professional than freshman here... And even if that were not true now, then it is still entirely thinkable that CCP has decided to pitch this niche game at this niche audience in the long run. It's not a bad niche to go for. The first few "computer game" generations are still in the market, and they are approaching the "wealthy" stage of life (a decade or two in employment, but before retirement).

Stating the injector cost as 0.25*PLEX+extractor is misleading. In fact because players can use in-game assets to purchase items, even game time, then the use of ISK or PLEX in any calculation automatically makes it wrong.

No. There is still the opportunity cost of not getting the better/new skills.

Just because something does not involved some sort of currency does not mean there is no cost.

the things is, it already happens (in the character bazaar)

of course you have to factor in your time as well and the cost of the character transfer, but you can already make ISK from character sales if you create a desirable and focused character and attain a good price

I don't think people will sell SP for less than they can sell it for already

The result would be that the game doesn't get unbalanced by it. Nobody who isn't super rich is going to be willing to buy enough injectors to "win". Maybe get a few weeks ahead without waiting.


But it's not a situation where, if you don't pay, you lose. Not even a situation where refusing to pay puts you at a significant disadvantage.

If the price were like $50.00 for a 80 m SP character, then you'd have to pay or you might as well not bother to play. But at $1890.00 I think it's a safe bet you won't get gank swarmed by an bunch of 80m SP pay players who started last week.

Not unless a Harvard Fraternity gets into Eve, or something.

Not really much of a side effect considering it was already paid in training time prior.

That would make sense to argue if market SP were the only source. It's not. Regular training still works, and was what I was referring to as opposed to filling injectors, allowing you to move into new content for no more than the price of your sub as before. There is no additional side effect here since being able to bank unallocated SP is both a player choice and the direct intended effect of skill injectors.

So the cost to play new content is an additional $0, how terribly greedy indeed. You can make it more if you want, but that's the players choice, not a CCP mandate.