Did you really enjoy the investment in ISK and SP or just the huge advantage that gave you over everyone else on the battlefield? Do you enjoy piloting vehicles or just having a big advantage over infantry?

The process of balancing vehicles inevitably derails due to 2 complaints from pilots:
1. I have invested a ton of extra SP into vehicles, I should be more effective than infantry
2. I have invested a ton of extra ISK into vehicles, I should be more effective than infantry

To be honest, these are both legitimate complaints, but they can be addressed.

They are legitimate complains, let's see how you want to address it.

Why not treat vehicle hulls like dropsuits and turrets like infantry weapons?

I figured you'd address it like that, make them cheap throwaways, rather than the best way to get rid of other vehicle threats, and being armored transportation.

Let core skills apply for both vehicles and infantry, eliminating an unnecessary SP sink.

I have enough SP that I don't need to bother with infantry. I don't want to be skilled into infantry, but I am because running a vehicle 10 times out of 10 just isn't worth it, in terms of vehicle power vs AV.

This leaves 2 additional skill trees for pilot skills
1. Vehicle Command
2. Turret Operation

We used to get a ton of passive bonuses for turret operation, like infantry does for their skills.

Fill these trees out for all of the variations of vehicles and vehicle mounted weapons with SP values similar to infantry skills, balancing the SP investment between these roles.

I don't care if being a full pilot into all vehicles for both races will cost 55-60mil SP. I have that. I already have 5 PRO suits and 4 PRO weapons, including all 3 large turrets to 5, and level 5 core skills for vehicles. I likely have enough to get Marauders, Enforcers, logi LAVs and logi ships to 5.

QQ #1 for pilots is now moot, your SP investment is no greater than anyone else's for a dropsuit.

lolwut

Now on to costs, or QQ #2.

Reduce the costs of vehicles and turrets to be more comparable to dropsuit and infantry weapon costs. The current disparity creates a balancing hurdle that will never be overcome.

That just makes them cheap throwaway POS. I don't want my vehicles to be cheap throwaways, I want them to be worth the ISK and SP investment.

Now we can go about the process of balancing vehicles and turrets against infantry dropsuits and weapons properly. The 2 biggest complaints no longer exist and we can create a balance where 1 player = 1 player regardless of their weapons platform.

Properly, which means a PRO blaster only dealing a total of 500 damage over 10 seconds.

Oh and one last thought, any vehicle update that doesn't involve bringing back all of the old modules is a waste of time, fitting variation is one of the biggest features that makes this game interesting.

As if you care. Do you even pilot?