Thanks everyone... I am hanging in there for now. Yes, it was most likely that I hit the skill cap. I did / will continue to get the core skills up; most are at 3 or above right now and I am seeing them pay off; I am looking forward to the day when they are all at 5.
I am wondering, of the core skills which will give the best performance boost quickest?

As far as play styles are concerned, I do switch up often but I sometimes go down to starter suits just because I hate wasting good suits on being "spawn camped". I mostly like running & hacking, but sniping is good as well (at 5 on rifle operation).

CCP & DEV Staff,

I appreciate all of the hard work and thought that went into Dust 514. You almost had me for a long term player / payer. I was even going to finally activate/use my copy of the Special Edition EVE Online box edition from Atari that I had picked up years ago. Before I go into how you lost me, allow me to tell you what I liked about the game.

I like the concept of a "thinking man's shooter", although the learning curve was hard for me (very low K/D ratio - partly because I just jumped in without thinking about it or what I actually wanted to be able to accomplish; I wanted to get the feel of it first) I eventually started to get to the point where I was actually helping my team (without buying the farm too many times).

I like the depth of this FPS. Developing your characters like in Dust 514 is not something you see in any other FPS. I could see character development expanding (like in EVE) and would have looked forward to it. I also like the fact of being able to pair up with events / factions / other players in one universe creating real results / impacts in the history of New Eden (real virtual history). I also like the nearly endless combinations of the types of fittings you could use. Dust 514 also addressed the "spreadsheets in space" issues of EVE ONLINE.

This FPS is hard - that is not where you lost me, but where I know you have lost others. I've talked with friends and associates about the game (old pros at other first person shooters) who give up shortly after they come to the realization that they have to think about what they are doing - fine with me; weeds out the non-thinkers. But, there are other clones / fittings out there that there is no way you can compete with... they have learned and you are still learning! I could go into spawn camping and game balance, but I know these are issues that are being worked on. One note on balance, I believe some non-balance is intentional and necessary. If you jump in with a starter fitting and no skill, all you end up being is fodder (to a certain degree that is as it should be). It is most likely impossible and too bad we couldn't have an area where starter fittings only could be used - it would help when you are first starting out. If you think about it; would you really go up against a "tank" with a p-shooter or try to stand up to a World Champion Boxer if you have absolutely no skills or training? No matter how tough you are, you won't stand any chance against an opponent that really knows what he or she is doing, and who is well trained to do it! So, why would you jump into a battle area not knowing what you a capable of? You only learn what you are good at by doing it, and that takes real time.

Now for where you have lost me...

Gaining Skill Points is hard and at current levels not worth it. Without buying a booster with real money, you are stuck. Without depleting my team's clone reserves, I'm stuck with maybe gaining 150-250 SP per battle. I could gain about 1000 SP per battle, but the clone cost would alienate me. If the beginning bonus booster was never ending (like say you could get anywhere from 1500 to 6000 SP per battle - as long as you did something) my clones might have a chance to learn something and become effective team members in a universe filled with deadly adversaries on all sides. The only thing that gives a clone any hope, is the thought that you will get better; "death for skill" I call it, and once trained up you might be able to have a positive impact on the universe (positive from your perspective, I might add). There is not enough time in reality to spend this much time in virtual reality, with a non-realistic expectation of gaining skills and abilities fast enough so that they will help you to survive and become a productive member of New Eden's society (again productive from your perspective). If you could make the AUR boosters do anything from 10K to 20K increase per battle, I think they would still sell.

It would also be nice to get rid of the long term kill / death ratio (on your character's screen) in favor of some other stats for helping your teams. Yes, killing the other team off is important, at least at the moment of battle, but in the long run helping your team to win multiple battles is more important and more difficult to prove to perspective recruiters who only have a K/D ratio to go by. This stat masks your overall effectiveness, and winning battles not individual victories is more effective.

Thanks

CLOX