Before I begin, I want to say that I love your candor and activity on the forums. While I may not always agree with your changes, your presence and responses to the community are deeply appreciated, and I give you a salute good sir.

o7

That said, you are missing one of the biggest assets you have to balance the game. the answer is SKILLBOOKS. So many skillbooks do nothing more than unlock the different tiers. By comparison, I can count the skills that only unlock things in eve on my fingers. Every skill, with very few and very notable exceptions, should give a player a bonus to something, be it a weapon, a suit, a module, whatever.

I'll focus on vehicles since I mainly run vehicles. Let's take large railguns. Combined with damage mods, a no skills railgun can kill any tank in 4 shots or less, and only armor stacked maddies can take that 4th shot. Vehicle TTK is low because of this.

So why not nerf large railgun damage by a flat 15% across the board, and then give the LArge Railgun Operation skill a 3% bonus to large railgun damage per level, returning original damage at level 5? now a no skills character is at a disadvantage, while those of us who invested into it can continue on as we were, without worrying about no skills characters downing our skill and isk invested tanks.

Damage mods are too powerful? Nerf them by a flat 50%, and give 10% efficiency per level of Vehicle Turret Upgrades.

Active Scanners too powerful? Nerf their precision by 10% and give 2% per level of Active Scanner Operation.

Use whatever numbers you feel are best, these are just examples to demonstrate the point. Give those of us who invest the SP gain an advantage over those who do not, beyond unlocking better gear that can be bypassed rather easily with AUR/LP. This also solves some of your railgun issues by nerfing the real problem (people with no skills in vehicles are getting the same benefit as someone with level 5 in everything) while keeping the ones who have invested where they are at.

So vehicle Engineering and Electronics return with fitting bonuses... cool...

Going to Spitball some Ideas
Dropsuit Command +1% to Dropsuit Total HP
-Amarr Heavy -1% to heat build up per level
-Amarr Medium +2% Armor Resistance To Explosive and Projectile Damage per level
-Amarr Light -4% per level for Biotic Module (All Types) costs
-Caldari Heavy -2% to Charge Times Per Level
-Cadari Medium +3% Shield Recharge Rate per Level
-Caldari Light +2% bonus to Hybrid/Rail Optimal Range per Level
-Gallente Heavy +5% to Clip Size
-Gallente Medium +4% to Armor Repair Module Bonus
-Gallente Light +5% to Active Scanner Recharge
-Minmatar Heavy +2% ROF per Level
-Minmatar Medium +2% Shield Resistance to Lasers
-Minmatar Light +2% to Walk Speed
Dropsuit Upgrades -1% to Module Fitting Costs
-Active Scanner +2% to Active Scanner Range
-Cloak Field +1% to Cooldown Reovery
-Nanocircutry +3 Nanite Clusters per level
-Repair Tool Operation +3 HP/s to reps per Level
-Drop Uplinks +2 Spawns Per Link per Level
Weaponry +1% to Weapon Damage
-Grenadier +10% to Grenade throw range
-Demolitions +2% Remote Explosive/Proximity Explosive Damage
Vehicle Operation +1% to Vehicle HP Per Level
-LAV Operation +2% LAV Acceleration per Level
-DS Operation +2% to Dropship Maneuverability per level
-HAV Operation +2% Fitting Reuction to Heavy Plates, Shield Extenders, Large Armor Reps and Large Shield Boosts
Vehicle Updgrades +1% reduction to Module Fitting Requirements
-Armor/Shield Upgrades +5% Armor/shield per Level
-Core upgrades +1% to PG and CPU Per Level
-Engeineering/Electronics +5% to PG/CPU
-Turret Modifiers +1% to Efficacy
Turret Operation +1% to turret Damage per level
-Small/Large Turret -3% CPU needs
-Small/Large Blaster +5% reduction to heat build up
-Small/Large Missle Turret +10% to Missle Speed
-Small/Large Rail -4% to Spool up time per level
Corporations
Make all Corp Skills Equal to in EVE...

There's something, social skills. Increase risk/lp payouts per level, or increase standings gained per level.