In EVE, there are a lot of skills. You may think that we have a lot now in DUST, but it's really nothing compared to EVE. Nearly every single skill in EVE shares one trait - training a level in a skill will give a bonus, even if the equipment being used is exactly the same. While many skills in DUST share this trait, there are a sizable number of core skills that do not. The skills I'm referring to are the dropsuit and vehicle skills.

Here's an example of it in action. In EVE, you need skills to fly ships. A frigate, requires racial (Caldari,/Amarr/Minmatar/Gallente) frigate to a certain level. Training the racial frigate skill doesn't actually give a bonus on the skill. Instead, the frigates have a bonus on the hull that increases as the racial frigate skill increases. For example, the Atron (A Gallente Frigate) gets +5% to small hybrid turret damage and +10% to small hybrid turret falloff per level of Gallente Frigate.

So how would this apply to DUST? Simple. You put it on the dropsuits and the vehicle hulls. An example would be an Amarrian Heavy dropsuit that give 3% bonus to armour resistances per level of Amarr Heavy Dropsuit. Or -3% heat build up per level. Or whatever.

So why would we have these? Two reasons. The first is that it gives every skill a reason to be trained, even if you don't upgrade the gear. This is especially important with dropsuits and vehicles as it helps players to maintain ISK efficiency by using lower tier items, but still allows them to invest skillpoints to enhance their specialisations. This also doesn't obsolete the higher end items, as they still have added benefits (PG, CPU, Base Armour/Shields, more slots) that make them appealing.

Second is to help give suggested roles to certain items, and reinforce the specialist abilities of the individual suits/vehicles. heavy suits are built to be able to handle HMGs and Forge guns, yet we still see them with shotguns, assault rifles and sniper rifles. The logistics suit is meant to be the designated logistics platform, but generally, a scout or assault suit can use a remote rep, nanohive or drop uplink just as effectively. It isn't a bad thing that suits can do things outside of their designated roles. It's just that the suit that is designed to do that role should have a bit more of a leg up in that department.

Thoughts?

(Also, [STAR]CharginMoose helped with the idea, but I thought of it months ago. Just don't tell him I said that )

I think the bonus should go to anything but weapons, it a great idea I mentioned it in the previous build, on cell so not bothering to link post. Main reason I would stay away from weapons increase of any type is so that you can be that heavy with a sniper rifle if you want. That way you don't feel you have to play a certain weapons just to get the increase. But I wouldn't mind going yea I am caldari I should train in shield stuff to take advantage of the bonus a caldari dropsuit offers.

My 2 cents.

oh previous thread link here postabout the same topic