I am not talking about any possible balance issue with Cloak or the Scout itself. I am merely talking about the bonus and the incredible unfairness it has to people that want to try it out. Please do not devolve this thread into Scout balance discussion.

So Cloaks and Scout changes are out. Cloaks are obviously meant to be used by Scouts. The incredibly high CPU/PG requirements are offset by the 15% reduction in fitting per level of Scout. Per level of Scout you save:

Basic Cloak: 24 CPU, 5.25 PG
Advanced Cloak: 34.65, 6.9 PG
Prototype Cloak: 49.5 CPU, 10.5 PG

Going with my love of the Caldari:
Basic: 174 / 33
Advanced: 224 / 46
Prototype: 348 / 66

So a level 1 Caldari Scout with a Basic Cloak burns 147.9 / 28.05. This means that a base Caldari Scout only has 26.1 / 4.95 free space. That is hardly enough to fit a basic weapon, let alone anything else. At level 5 Caldari Scout, the basic suit would have 130.25 / 24.75 free. It becomes way too prohibitive to try out a Cloak with a fit to see if you actually want to throw points into it to do it well. No other suit basically states "you must be this tall to ride the roller-coaster." If I have a Commando at rank 1, it still works like a Commando at rank 5 just not as well as a rank 5 Commando. In the case of a Scout, it means that you can actually fit it with modules. Not higher level modules, mind you; just to not have stuff be utterly empty.

My suggestion is to change the blanket Scout bonus: "10%% reduction in Cloak CPU/PG fitting cost" but set a Role Bonus for Scouts and Light Frames to add 25% to that reduction. This means instead of 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 reduction it would be 35, 45, 55, 65, 75. This will let people test the waters far easier if they want to be a Scout before throwing in points.

At the moment, it costs 223,880 SP to get X Light Frame to 3 and then X Scout to 1. This is the lowest level to be able to test a Scout + Cloak combo. AUR doesn't help because the fitting requirements of the Cloak. If a 25% base was added to Light Frames and Scouts, you could at least try it before investing nearly a week's worth of SP. It also means that you can help the lower SP Scouts to be able to be a Scout without making the higher SP Scouts more powerful.

Comments and thoughts in regards to the suggestion? If you like the thread, leave a reply of some kind. If you disagree, leave a reply so I can try to see the flaw in my logic.

Edit - From the EVE Dev Blog:
"Currently drones are a very skill-intensive weapon system, thanks to the legacy of the original drone implementation years ago. The Drone Interfacing skill currently provides a 20% increase in drone damage per level, which makes it one of the most powerful skills in the game but also means that to be competitive with drones it is usually necessary to train this rank-5 skill all the way to level 5. The result is that drones have earned a reputation as a weapon system that is not suitable for new players.

We will be minimizing this problem by reducing the bonus from the Drone Interfacing skill to 10% per level, and building the extra damage into the base stats of the drones. That means that on average, all drones will be gaining about 33% more base damage and a character with Drone Interfacing trained to level 5 will see their damage remain constant (ignoring for a moment all the other drone changes being made in this release). We believe that 10% per level is still a very suitable bonus for a rank 5 skill, and the Drone Interfacing skill will remain very desirable. Level 5 Drone Interfacing should, however, cease to be the absolute necessity that it is today."

I am suggesting something similar for cloaks.