The main problem isn't the gear itself, but how the system decides to pit players with no skills whatsoever against players with a lot of Skill points. There is no need to make militia only matches. What needs to be done is this academy (which should also bring a hefty tutorial, explaining the systems in the game), and limit players win WPs. Higher SK should be fighting their likes, not curb stomping low SK players.

We don't need to reimagine the wheel, just add these two things, and everything will go along more smoothly, with population increase. Warn the newbies that EVE is much more complex then just shooting, let them get shot a few times if they don't pay attention to fittings and stuff, and you'll see a better game.

I would suggest having matches for only Basic suits and matches for adv and proto suits. One can decide which match to join.
This way newbies can play against each other and veterans are forced to use lower tier suits if they want to fight along and make some isk.

Organize into squads yourself then. That goes for all of you crybabies who ***** about getting dominated by people who play in squads.

If you join a public match but refuse to use the squad finder or "lfs" then getting stomped by a squad or two squads of organized players is well deserved.

There's a reason why there are so many warpoint bonuses for activities that help other members of your team (healing, repairing, using scanners, dropping uplinks etc.) it's because you're SUPPOSED to play AS A TEAM and not run solo.

So stop bitching about getting owned by players who play the way the game is meant to be played because they aren't doing anything wrong, YOU ARE!

This nails the primary pain point. We understand it's hard to pick 32 equivalent players for a match. Just try and balance the good and bad players across the two teams, for heck's sake.

The thing is that new players in eve pretty much has to stay away from PvP entierly because if you venture to any PvP area there's always a possibility of running into not only more experienced players but also running into experienced players in groups ganging up on you.

The only other activtirs you can do in eve without risking that as much is PvE, but let's face it carebear PvE is boring as hell in the long run. And the only way to make it equal to eve would be to bring in PvE elements in dust as well (which seem to be in the plans in regards to the "rogue drone hunting" occuring in the intro video).

But I don't want to see any "player level apartheid" in the PvP elements of dust at all. There's gotta be a risk of running into more experienced players in squads. It makes the game more exciting and forces people to get better.

If everyone could just "choose" which people they have to go up against then the game will get really lame really fast.

And as I said before: there's always gonna be new players. New players come and go to every game. The hardcore atmosphere will appeal to enough people to make the game survive (while alienating others). So there's no reason to worry.

Ccp shouldn't focus any efforts at all in trying to keep whiny noobs around. It would be a waste of resources and it would prevent them from adding new content that rewards players who show commitment.

Make a militia only mode.

Make militia items no longer register player skills.

This will create an militia game mode that will work for new players for the time and a new mode for veteran players to enjoy with having no special advantage.


The Battle Academy needs a ground up rework. From taking a new player by the hand and teaching them basic lessons like aiming in DUST, to advanced lessons where they teach how scanning works(dB etc..)

Either that or we have to start working on the real EVE connection and make pub's just some meaningless ISK grind that has little focus on. Where as now its all everyone plays and is the source of a majority of the conversations.

Organize into squads yourself then. That goes for all of you crybabies who ***** about getting dominated by people who play in squads.

If you join a public match but refuse to use the squad finder or "lfs" then getting stomped by a squad or two squads of organized players is well deserved.

There's a reason why there are so many warpoint bonuses for activities that help other members of your team (healing, repairing, using scanners, dropping uplinks etc.) it's because you're SUPPOSED to play AS A TEAM and not run solo.

So stop bitching about getting owned by players who play the way the game is meant to be played because they aren't doing anything wrong, YOU ARE!

To OP: Thanks for attempting to bring this to light as many others have. There are many players in the game who happily help newbies as we try to make New Eden a better place on our own. Feel free to drop me a line in game and hopefully I will be around to at least bring you along with a good squad who will try to help you out as well as offer different perspectives on where you should put your SP based on what you enjoy about the game.

Make a militia only mode.

Make militia items no longer register player skills.

This will create an militia game mode that will work for new players for the time and a new mode for veteran players to enjoy with having no special advantage.


The Battle Academy needs a ground up rework. From taking a new player by the hand and teaching them basic lessons like aiming in DUST, to advanced lessons where they teach how scanning works(dB etc..)

Either that or we have to start working on the real EVE connection and make pub's just some meaningless ISK grind that has little focus on. Where as now its all everyone plays and is the source of a majority of the conversations.

I personally do not mind fighting against proto players with my Standard gear. I could use Proto gear as well, but I choose not to.

If we ever get kill mails I can not wait to see how ISK efficient I am. I love seeing good proto players go down to my Standard Combat Rifle.

Neither do I, I love taking out proto's with my Toxin and BPO"S, with core skills maxed out. The new players do not have that luxury. Even starter fits with core skills proper are fun, but players with 1mil sp don't have that option. They are nothing more than K/D padding for these pricks that run proto 24/7-365.

I mean, I've played for a few hours only and I already see all the crap that Dust is (and why people aren't staying for long in it). I mean, really, am I supposed to face advanced and prototype players, with millions of isks under their belts, with teams actually facing PCs and expect us to stay? Not counting being blown to bits by every single weapon in hand.

Jeez, is it so hard to actually stop the stomping and actually concentrating on the fun? I will never defeat another player unless my team is stomping them mostly because I, in milita fit, the free one, where I won't spend money, will get raped by literally everything. I mean, are new players expected to be cannon fodder and like it? WTF? I though CCP had a god damn design team, and playing a few hours already brings up this mess.

Fix the god damn matchmaking, either you fight people with your gear level, or equal SP. You want to play against another team? Wait in line for a match with the same ammount of players on another team.

This stomping isn't fun, and it sucked all the magic out of Dust 514 for me. I don't want stomping, I want a decent fight.

do you go into an mmo and expect to beat an end game player? no of course not - theyve spent more time playing and have invested a heap into the game

Well, if we consider a true MMO, then this would apply, as we have progression and all (and most players won't be forced to face their high leveled opponents soon). But in a shooter, the initial gameplay must be geared towards low level players as well. In a FPS, gear must be different, not necessarily better. If the gear is better, you start make a gap. That wouldn't much of a problem if the get didn't grow exponentially per tier.

A full advanced medium armour is going to murder a militia, or even full standard armour, because there are big differences between them. If there were levels, then it would just be a matter of attaining that level. But since this is based on gear, and it takes a lot of time and patience to get it, you need something to adress the new player experience, or they'll simply leave, shrinking the player base.

Well, if we consider a true MMO, then this would apply, as we have progression and all (and most players won't be forced to face their high leveled opponents soon). But in a shooter, the initial gameplay must be geared towards low level players as well. In a FPS, gear must be different, not necessarily better. If the gear is better, you start make a gap. That wouldn't much of a problem if the get didn't grow exponentially per tier.

A full advanced medium armour is going to murder a militia, or even full standard armour, because there are big differences between them. If there were levels, then it would just be a matter of attaining that level. But since this is based on gear, and it takes a lot of time and patience to get it, you need something to adress the new player experience, or they'll simply leave, shrinking the player base.

Please match players with the amount of SP SPENT, not TOTAL.

i unlocked proto hives yesterday, was so ******* happy, so being the great logi i am i threw my factional 100% injector, wyka nanos and ishukone hives on a suit with my uplinks, this is the ONLY time i have ever run full proto for a match, at the end of the match i made 500k!!!!! and lost 800k in suits, dust needs a better way to make money, i can afk in eve making hundreds of millions of isk from mining, but in this game the only way to make money is to que sync 2 proto squads and hope the other team isnt better than you, or lock your districts *cough cough*

Force squads to fight other squads, and just use individuals to fill in the last few spots. I don't know why thats so difficult to program into your matchmaking system.

Typically if you take the time to form a squad you have the patience to get matched up for a challenging game.

Matchmaking is a genuine pain point for us right now and is something we'd love to get sorted. I don't have any specific updates other than to let you guys know that we're aware of the issues and want to rectify them.