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Tiercide as a general concept is cool to me, unfortunately most iterations of it are far less desirable than the general concept. I have not checked out the two linked threads yet, that's my next stop, but at this point I am not persuaded that this change is required or beneficial. For example some of the listed motives are, simply put, directly in conflict with my own testing. I have a zero SP character who runs starter fits, I test on this character regularly (usually at least one day a week) and have not encountered "an unreasonably massive disadvantage". Lets be clear here, I am a support logi, in part because my gun game is not the strongest out there, so I'm playing on a character with zero sp, in starter fits, in a role I'm mediocre at and tending to earn 500-1500 WP per game even in matches with organized corp squads running full proto.

Now I am not saying that gear and SP have no impact, but it is certainly not an impact that I feel can accurately be described as "massive". Furthermore the most painful burden placed on my zero SP character when contrasted with several of my other characters? It's not HP, or even eHP, it is mobility. That's right the speed with which I can sprint, run, drive, etc. has a drastically larger and more meaningful impact on game play than relative HP does. I understand why the free starter LAV was removed but it was also one of the harshest and most cutting nerfs to new players ability to compete that has happened since live launch. Stripping new players of that mobility creates a slower and more frustrating form of game play and even if they are buying basic LAVs to compensate those death buggies still explode if you sneeze on them wrong thus costing the new player time and ISK neither of which they can as readily afford.
Advanced players who have more SP can sprint longer, recover faster, and sprint faster than the standard players, they can also field better vehicles, possess better uplinks, and have enhanced hacking rates. There superior speed gives them superior adaptability and that has a much more significant effect on new players than does the relative HP of dropsuits.

Re: Your #2, I've had proto since the start of the live game due to open beta play and I do not run it most of the time, more than 80% of my pub matches (which are the majority of my game play) use fits that are a mix of Militia and Standard suits and mods. Even if money were no object and I could run proto all match every match I still wouldn't because using lower meta gear is better training to make my player skills more effective for those important moments where I do run proto. Simply put I'm an object lesson in how this point doesn't hold true, just because some players might "go proto or go home" doesn't mean everyone does it, I certainly don't.

Re: #3, see the first part of my post, the problem isn't HP, or eHP it is speed. Flattening TTK (time to kill) game wide would reduce diversity and would not address the core shortfall confronting low SP characters/new players.

Now I'm going to go give those links a look.

Cheers,
Cross

I for one would like to see us simply be able to upgrade our existing suits, adding slots, etc. I've been using my Raven so long, I can't imagine not using it.

I think it would be great for the marketplace if you could sell those suits. For instance, you buy a BPO Dragonfly assault. You level it up, add things to it, and sell it. The catch should be that the buyer must be a certain level to use it. Maybe not as high a level as you are to create it, but have the buyers level affect what he can do with it. Same with weapons. Even add a customization app, for colors, renaming, etc.

As for tiercide, I'm kind of in between. I see both sides, and I wish there was some happy medium there. But there's not, at least not that I can see.

I think the OP is confused with what tiericide in EVE means. In EVE there were multiple ships in each racial class that were "tiered." You could fly the first Battleship of your race at racial battleship 1, the next at a higher level and the last at level 5 (maybe it was 4). Anyways, these were all very different ships that filled different roles, and having them tiered didn't make sense. Tiericide was making all T1 battleships of the same race have roughly equal stats. You absolutely do have better versions of the same ship in EVE and there are no plans for that to go away. For example, you have the standard Omen cruiser, a "navy" version of it which is significantly better, and the T2 Heavy Assault Cruiser version called the Zealot which will kick the crap out of a T1 Omen, it's also like 100x more expensive. You also have T3 cruisers, and the Amarr leigion can be configured similarly to an Omen. It will also kick the **** out of it.

Tiericide in DUST would be more like making sure the assault and logistics versions of a suit were roughly competitive with each other stats-wise, or Sentinals and Commandos having similar overall power (even though they have different roles, one is not meant to be the better version of the other). There is no intention to make T2 or T3 ships on par with T1 ships in EVE.

I can wear proto Amarr assault, but I run STD suits with better mods and advanced weapons 7 times out of 10. The risk vs. ISK is the most compelling feature of DUST. It's fun and interesting to make choices like "should I go advanced to get revenge on that proto pubstomper? Is it worth the risk to me of loosing it?" No other FPS games have you make decisions like that, it's part of what makes DUST the most interesting FPS ever made (not saying it doesn't have plenty of problems).

I hope it happens when all suits get added.