One thing I found rather frustrating, and stops me from recommending this game is - with being a sniper using a designated sniper rifle is that there is a LOT of lead on it and the bullets take quite a bit of time to get where they are supposed to go. The problem with this class and the attributes - at least in a beginner's POV, is you need to get in close to hit the targets consistently - which means that I was dying quite consistently too. It is quite frustrating dying so often. It seems that SMG's and other weapons have the same distance, and accuracy and yet more power. This is one area that needs to be fixed, as a real sniper is suppose to be stealthier, and the rifle should be more accurate than other weapons at a distance and more deadly at a distance. Even though one should have to work through (like other types) to get skills up, there is a very distinct disadvantage for someone to become a sniper - as it seems in my fighting with the different classes - that snipers die easier, and need to to shoot more often (and they have less bullets) than other classes. The way it is now, it makes no sense to try be a sniper when you have to get directly into the fray with everyone else, and you get one shot at a time, with what seems like the same (or minimally more), power per bullet! There might as well not be any type of sniper class, IMHO!

Now a complaint that I have is dealing with the SP Cap (skill point cap) especially when it is dealing with a newbie. I have not played FPS games before, but when I saw this as a beta and it was free to play, so I decided to give it a try. Well I started getting into it, and during playing I ran out of something (?clone factor? as my character was completely red) and my character could not do anything, so I went to the Dropsuit console at the merc quarter and saw that I needed AUR to "replenish," so I went to the marketplace, and purchased a quantity of AUR - I had used up all that was initially given to me (buying things without knowing that I did need to buy some of the stuff.)

Anyway, I really was getting into the game, and again ran out of AUR. I decided to buy one of your sale items that included AUR. Only a couple of hours later, I was not getting the points that I had been getting (of course I was puzzled and some what POed, but figured that it was in beta, so I thought it was a mixup/bug.) This is when I went online to see if I could find out anything about why this was happening.

I found out that there is a weekly skill point cap of 190.400 SP (without boosters) from fighting in battles. I figured ok, but still think that it is a ripoff when you buy Booster's that are timed in "Real Time" and not "Game Time" (it lasts only so many hours during the time you are on the system, rather than buying it and then have to use it right away - before the time runs out.) Some players may only be able to be online for a few hours during the week and cannot play unending hours to use this "Bonus" feature.

Be it as it may, what really bugs me is now, I have this "booster time" and I am put into a game that is already going, and I no more get put into a game, die (because the game brought me right into a battle fray) and then the games ends. I haven't even had time to take one shot, or look around to get my bearings. This has happened several times. So now I have to spend AUR to replenish what was lost from getting shot at a cost that is greater than the ISK AND the AUR to replenish.

This does not make for good arithmetic, and especially game recommendation. Even with allowing that it is only beta and will have things worked out.

Sorry for the rant, but wanted to let you know where someone that is over the hill, and never played a FPS game before.

PS: It would be real nice to have some type of "Invoice / Statement" system for the Merc, in their Quarters, so they can see when they bought something, what they bought, and how much they paid. Being an Ex military guy, that could have become a real merc, there is no way I would not keep my receipts/records.