How about they finish the verisimilitude of the game FIRST before adding in new stuff like that. And changing suits to be accessible like that would ruin the whole basis for trying to have a feeling of progression in the game. You work hard to get the SP's needed to finally unlock that proto-suit. It gives a feeling of accomplishment that is part of the core of this game.

Honestly this is ONLY needed once they add in Tech Level II items. And right now there aren't any. Once there are, then I can see this being a more useful thing. But they still haven't finished the verisimilitude!

And you are forgetting the REAL reason for doing tiercide! It was to make the unused ships useable again. If we changed it so you only needed level 1 logi suit skill to use the proto-level suits, then no one would EVER use the advanced or basic ones again (maybe militia for gaining ISK as they would be nearly free if not free). So this would change it from people using all the various suits to people all using the same exact suits. You would loose a huge variety in the game as the game would then truly be based upon the FOTM as everyone would use the same damned suits.

Now if you could just readjust the ROLE BONUES to NOT be based on the skill, but instead be based upon the SUIT, then you could fix this by saying a militia suit has no role bonus, the basic suit has one role bonus, the advanced suit has a different bonus, and the prototype has a different one too. The Racial Bonuses could similarly change as well...

So for an example to illustrate I'll use the Minmatar Assault:

• Militia Minmatar Assault Suit : no bonues (but also free)
• Basic Minmatar Assault Suit: +0.5 to dropsuit movement base speed per level; +5% to sidearm weaponry clip size per level
• Advanced Minmatar Assault Suit: +5% to dropsuit shield recharge rate per level; +2% to projectile weapon reload speed per level
• Prototype Minmatar Assault Suit: +3% to combat rifle effective range per level; +2% to combat rifle damage per level

The specific bonuses I used above don't matter. The idea is that if you get rid of the skill level requirements on the different TIERS of suits, then you need to have some other incentive for players to want to use the "lesser" tier suits. This is done by giving each one a different role bonus like they did for the various frigates in EVE. Then they all have a use and players can pick and choose which one they like better.

Yes, if this was a subscription based game.

As it stands...

No chance,

It completely destroys CCPs p[ayment model for dust 514, the whole point of tiers is to allow players to pay-up tiers for faster advancement. Therefore making CCP money so they can continue to develop the game.