The Sloth
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Posted - 2004.06.24 07:12:00 -
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As stated before this is the stupidest idea ever.
Allow me to speak about myself for a moment. I am a relatively 'new' character with only 5 million skill points therefore I am not a veteran. One of the main reasons I was attracted to this game was the ability to pursue any and all career paths I wanted - this is dispite a 'jack of all trades' character not being as good as a specialised character in thier respective feilds. Freelancing is where the challenge of this game lies for me and it is also from where a majority of my love of this game stems from.
This 'skill cap' issue is most distressing, even though it is not implemented yet or even finalised, the very idea - the fact that they might do this in the future, makes me see no point in continuing in playing the game any further if, at some point in future, when my character has the ability to be a somewhat successful and competitive freelancer this ability will be removed.
That being said, there are other aspects in this game which would ensure that people would become reliant upon others, for example corporations. These entities benifit their members in many ways such as the pooling of resources, advice and guidance, defence whilst mining, help in missions (a necessity for the soon to be released level 4 agents) and countless other ways. I do not see the problem with the player base not being interactive enough, nor do i ever see when this will be a problem, as the advantages being a member of a corporation far outweigh the advantages of being a very highly skilled solo player.
As for the need for such a 'skill cap' there is no such thing. The way I look at it is that the skill point advantage that a Veteran player has over a n00bish player is not as severe as some people make out. This is due to the fact that despite the Veteran having more skill points than the 'n00b', the Veteran player usually has many skills trained to level 5. This skill training from level 4 to level 5 takes over 5 times as long to train the skill from nothing to level 4. So yes the Veteran player has more skill points, however the advantage these extra skills points give become less significant (ie. just another few % bonus for a significant investment in training time).
What is needed to solve the 'gap' between veterans and new players is something that does not restrict older players, but gives new players a boost - ie. Advanced Learning Skills.
The reason why these advanced learning skills will help newer players comes from the fact that almost from creation these players will be able to learn most skills to level 4 at a faster rate than the veterans ever could. This would enable these newer players to become competitive in areas like research, manufacturing and even combat in a shorter period of time.
These advanced learning skills whilst 'diminishing' the value of a Veteran players skill points, will also reward the veterans by enabling them to train highly specialised skills with a big rank mulitplier to a higher level much quicker.
This will keep the veterans happy, as well as the new players. As mentioned above training a level 4 skill to level 5 only gives a few percent advantage, however the advantage having done this is the level 5 requirements of some skills, for example, to be able to use special ops frigates, interceptors, battlecruisers etc. This ability combined with the ability to use Tech II modules that require a higher skill proficiency is where the veteran's advantage of training skills to level 5 is - not the few bonus percent. Older players will also continue to benefit from generally having more ISK, more experience and what is more they will continue to have more skill points.
Will all that being said, Advanced Learning Skills will benifit both New Players and Veterans and there is/will be a need for them as - new players at some point will have to spend months and months training to get even a basic proficiency anywhere near the skilled veterans; and the veterans need them for the possible onslaught of higher ranked specialised skills. To be effective however, these advanced learning skills must be cheap and readily available to all citizens of Eve. Adding these skills may also serve to encourage more PVP amongst the traditionally 'carebear n00bs' as they would sooner have a greater ability to compete with the veterans.
As more time goes by, I agree, there is a more pressing need to do something to close the gap between veterans and new players and it is these advanced learning skills that will do just that. CCP please note that a 'skill cap' on older players will not stop the fact that newer players will still have to spend months and months training to even access certain aspects of the game, however these advanced learning skills will.
In the future further advanced learning skills could also be added if the need was felt.
The Sloth.
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