DUST Search - raising weekly skill point cap

Lonegnr wrote:

Scalesdini wrote:

....no - there is only so much SP that can effect one fitting. The vets will get more options, no question, but the limit of effectiveness for a single fitting vs a single fitting will remain unchanged. The only difference will be newbro ability to grind up to a useful fitting of their choice to actually be able to contribute in a timely fashion, which at the moment takes months, even with boosters, which is a big part of the reason this game has such an atrocious retention rate. Remove the cap, vets can branch out and try new playstyles to reduce boredom with the game, and new players can become legitimate factors on the battlefield much faster - everyone wins..

This argument is used in Eve where it is actually balanced out by meta and logistics. Neither of those factors applies to Dust, and this "only difference" you're shrugging off is actually of massive benefit to those who have it.

I haven't been around long, but I'm sure there's a dev blog somewhere relating the skill cap to balance in some way. Fitting potential is something they probably worry about too.


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Scalesdini BlackWater Liquidations INTERGALACTIC WARPIGS 251	Posted - 2014.01.19 21:13:00 - [1] - Quote The cap should be removed. All it does is stop new players from being able to compete with vets for months, during which time they are likely to leave and never return. It's a dirty trick by CCP designed to sell more SP boosters and amusingly it probably costs them SP booster sales, because why buy a 30 day booster when you're only getting a grand total of maybe 7 days of real use out of it? So on and so forth for the others, as well as the jaded folks like myself who refuse to buy them out of spite for the arbitrary progression limitation imposed on players for no reason than to try and grab cash out of our wallets (that we would spend anyway, see: every f2p MMO ever that sells XP boosters) and so they can say HURRDURR 7 YEARS FOR ALL SKILLS. And before someone says "HURRDURR BUT IF YOU REMOVE THE CAP THE VETS WILL STAY JUST AS FAR AHEAD", no - there is only so much SP that can effect one fitting. The vets will get more options, no question, but the limit of effectiveness for a single fitting vs a single fitting will remain unchanged. The only difference will be newbro ability to grind up to a useful fitting of their choice to actually be able to contribute in a timely fashion, which at the moment takes months, even with boosters, which is a big part of the reason this game has such an atrocious retention rate. Remove the cap, vets can branch out and try new playstyles to reduce boredom with the game, and new players can become legitimate factors on the battlefield much faster - everyone wins. tl;dr - remove the stupid, arbitrary cap. it helps no one.
Scalesdini BlackWater Liquidations INTERGALACTIC WARPIGS 266	Posted - 2014.01.20 02:42:00 - [2] - Quote Lonegnr wrote: Scalesdini wrote: ....no - there is only so much SP that can effect one fitting. The vets will get more options, no question, but the limit of effectiveness for a single fitting vs a single fitting will remain unchanged. The only difference will be newbro ability to grind up to a useful fitting of their choice to actually be able to contribute in a timely fashion, which at the moment takes months, even with boosters, which is a big part of the reason this game has such an atrocious retention rate. Remove the cap, vets can branch out and try new playstyles to reduce boredom with the game, and new players can become legitimate factors on the battlefield much faster - everyone wins.. This argument is used in Eve where it is actually balanced out by meta and logistics. Neither of those factors applies to Dust, and this "only difference" you're shrugging off is actually of massive benefit to those who have it. I haven't been around long, but I'm sure there's a dev blog somewhere relating the skill cap to balance in some way. Fitting potential is something they probably worry about too. Uh, I believe you've misinterpreted what I was getting at. The point was that new players get screwed by the SP cap because it will take them months to field suits that some of us have had for close to a year already. Newbros in MLT suits are not competitive with even my STD suit because of my core upgrades, now imagine how it feels for them to go up against protobears with the same core upgrades I have using all proto everything almost every single match. Does that sound like a good way to retain new players to you? No? Me either. Comparing this game to EVE is silly, at best, because EVE does not force new players to fight in null sec against death stars (or wtfever EVE has) the same day they start playing in a mining ship. The games may be in the same universe, but they could not be any less comparable to one another in terms of gameplay. Fitting potential is the same whether there's a weekly SP cap or not, there is an absolute, inarguable limit to the amount of SP that can contribute to any one single fitting. The difference removing the SP cap would make for vets with 20+ million SP would be their ability to use different setups, which has the effect of reducing boredom/burnout. "I don't feel like doing X anymore, I'll grind some SP and do Y for a while" vs "I'm bored of X, guess I'll just log in to cap out/get daily bonus" (side effect: reduces the population of the game, and further leading to protobears fighting newbros with no chance). Again, it's not like their ability to get more SP is going to contribute to them being any better in any single situation, it just gives them more variety and adaptability. While it's an advantage to be able to do many things well, it still doesn't change the fact that there is only so much advantage SP can give you in one single encounter - SP doesn't give you more weapon slots or the ability to carry heavy weapons on a medium frame or to instantly transform your dropsuit into a tank etc etc etc. CCP doesn't talk about the skill point cap except for a long time ago to say "hurrdurr it will take 7 years to get every skill in the game!" like anyone cares. The only reason they keep it is to try and force people to pay money for boosters, because they don't understand that people would buy boosters anyway. See: Every f2p MMO that sells XP boosters while not limiting player progression arbitrarily to do so. Cut SP gains by about half, remove weekly SP cap. Watch people play more and pay more. It's not rocket surgery.