Just never look at your SP for a month or to and play to have fun. Try out tons of fittings with what you already have. And most of all; play to have fun. Works wonders!

Ideally will should be entertain with game features and content, so we don't even think about the grind...But the only feature we have is the Pubstomping Conquest, which is not really a Feature ... just a different name for the normal game-play.

No one forces anyone to grind or to use the same fit for months on end

With skills there are plenty of possibilities for fits. Yes you may want a particular Proto suit but there is nothing stopping you taking a slight course deviation and trying out new weapons on your advanced suit in the mean time

Proto suit is not the be all and end all of the game i'm a 18mill sp and have 2 Proto suits and i use them 0 times in public matches

Your comparison to eve is also not quite right while yes u can get a alt technically into a tengu in 2 months you will have no ability to tank or cause damage and by solely speccing for it you will rule out the thousands of other fits you speak of as you wont have the skills to fit or use the other modules

Also Jump Drive Calibration in eve is like a 50 day skill and what do you get for it a tiny bit more jump range no equipment no gear

Vote for tiercide. Less grind to be competitive, less grind to try out new items, but still a grind for those who want to specialise.

Win-win.

Join the tiercide revolution today.

If we had PvE and more lore-based (instead x3 SP) events the grind wouldn't be so bad. Make a game with a story and tons of sidequests and you won't ever notice the grind.

-XOXO

How long to get a tier x tank in WOT ?
Level 60 prestige or level hundred colonel ?
how long to train for a titan in eve ?

Are you actually comparing a TITAN in EvE with a suit of armor in dust ?

Next thing you will compare a Captain of a warship with wearing a tuxedo

Look, if there's anyone who knows the struggle of the grind, it's dropship pilots haha, constantly having to do our absolute 100% best in an under-powered flying glass ship, with each proto-fitting costing 1.2 million ISK. That means every time you go down, whether it's an RDV, accidentally hitting the MCC, or simply having your million dollar ship be taken out with 2 shots from an Ishiukone Forge Gun, that's 1.2 mil down the drain instantly. And if you're like me, all your 6-7 mil of SP went towards skilling into all of those proto fittings for the dropship, so my infantry fits are rather... lacking. That being said, only thanks to donations can i not have to constantly grind to afford my expense, but only because I'm talented at what i can do with it. If i were you, i would just skill into dropships because, while they can be really weak, if you get a fast proto fit they can be fun as hell to fly and you can usually make them last for 3-5 games without losing 1.

You aren't going to get rid of grinding because it is in the game by design.

CCP know (from a variety of sources) that the more you "invest" in the game, the more likely you are to stick around for a long time. And it is those long term players that their business model is based on.

That business model sacrifices some new player retention (those not willing to make the investment) for increased "veteran" retention (those who are hooked on the game because of their investment in it).

You can shorten the grind, of course, if you are willing to invest something else instead: cold hard cash.