You do get skill points over time. About 1 every 5 seconds or so? Not sure off the top of my head.

And yes, as you get the most sp for your first match of the day it does suck when that match does not go well. Especially if you spawn in to the last 30 seconds, the game crashes, etc.

Still, as in game skill points are awarded for what you accomplish, I think the system makes sense as it stands. You get some for a lot of different things you do in game, and what you get sp for might need tweaking.

But It doesn't seem unfair to not get sp if you went an entire full match without doing any of the many things you can do to earn sp.

So you killed no one, wounded no one, presumably captured no points, resurrected no one, destroyed nor damaged no vehicles or installations, repaired nothing, provided no one with a spawn point or resupply...

But you want to be rewarded with experience in addition to the normal 24 hours-a-day passive SP? You didn't do or accomplish anything. There was no experience gained. It would be equivalent to my going out for a walk and hoping to have a better understanding of art history when I returned.

That being said, as you may not know you are always gaining SP. You probably gained between 200 and 500 SP while in that match.

And you undoubtedly received an ISK reward, did you not?

you do get skill points for nothing though, even when you're not logged in you generate skill points. and no kills, no assists in 10 minutes? how does that even happen? my first game was with a sniper rifle and I got three kills while desperately fighting the sway. never touched a sniper again after that, though. and they do give you skill points for participation, that whole 3 kills thing i told you about, we lost and i got 4000 ish if i remember correctly(my memory is terrible though)

Hit Start, then go to your skill sheet. You'll see your SP tick up point by point, just sitting in your Merc Quarters.

Those passive gains are not displayed as rewards for missions because they are not. They are just passive SP.

Ah, well then...

Gaining SP is pretty much dependent upon doing things.

You can be an infantryman and get war points (WP - which somehow translates into SP when the battle is over) for..

Combat
Killing someone
Wounding someone who is killed shortly thereafter
Damaging an installation
Damaging a vehicle
Destroying an installation
Destroying a vehicle

Logistics/support
Repairing a teammate (Using Repair Tool)
Reviving a teammate (Nanite Injector)
Providing a spawn point (Drop Uplink)
Providing an ammo resupply (Nano Hive)
Repairing an installation (Repair Tool)
Repairing a vehicle (Repair Tool)

Tactical
Capturing a point/installation
Converting a point/installation

I'm probably leaving a few things out...but you can see that you can earn SP a number of ways. For instance...

A player may join a battle and kill or wound no enemies, but heal his allies, provide strategic spawn points, offer ammo resupplies, and end the battle with a good amount of SP.

A player may join a battle and kill or would many enemies, including vehicles, and end the battle with a good amount of SP.

A player may join a battle and kill or wound no enemies, but run quickly and stealthily from tactical point to tactical point, converting them as needed to friendly status and end the battle with a good amount of SP.

Of course, you can mix and match as needed. Be a 'killer' who also drops ammo resupplies. Be a 'stealthy tactician' who also drops spawns. Be a 'support' with a mass driver (a.k.a. grenade launcher) or AV grenades.

You can see how there are many of ways to play, and lots of different specialties.

The passive sp gain does not show up on the end of match award dial.

But if you open your character sheet you will see your sp total tick up. If you leave the game or a character for a week you earn a nice amount and can train up a skill level or two.

It would be good if there was a list of what you can do to earn sp in game. There are a lot of options to earn SP no matter what your play style.

You can earn a ton of SP as squad commander even if you are not the best gunner if you have a good sense of the battle field and can tag objectives quickly and support your squad members. A squad leader with a drop uplink, rep tool and nanite injector can do well without even firing a shot.