Also, what's stopping people from buying 40 of the best newbie boosters and using them for most of the year when they start out?

The difference isn't all that extreme anyway. I can survive just fine and I use militia gear pretty much exclusively.

First to the OP, sorry but this is just doomed to failure. With very little effort the community was able to offer several attacks on your methods and they seem plausible to me. Give them more time and real reasons (like your ideas actually being implemented) you would no doubt be horrified at their ingenuity.

Second, you do not see the mechanisms behind the game as CCP surely does. They have plans* and the plan in place if for several years of effort on the part of Both CCP/Shanghai and the Players to come to grips with the totality of this game.

The current calculation from CCP is that it will take seven years to fill out the Skill Tree. That is disregarding that New Skills are going to be released with the next build (early May). One can safely assume that each year will see several releases and some of them will have new Skills that will require new efforts from new and established players alike.


* Those plans already include a new Battle Finder that will enable better matching for Battles. Many things have been mentioned and we Players know little about the actual solution. Filters are a big possibility and can address the very issues you discuss without game breaking mechanics such as you propose.

I'm not having trouble in my newbie gear.

Materiel makes a difference, but learnin to work around the gear differences improves my skill.

I'm a Scout in a Standard (or Dragonfly) Dropsuit.

I have a Shotgun.

Enemy Standard Assault knows that a Scout is probably a deadly threat in CQC, and keeps distance.

Protosuit rushes straight in because "he can't kill me, I'm in a Protosuit".

My buffed Scan Profile means he can't see me coming. My bufed Scan Precision means I can see him coming.

I move around to the side as he's turning to face where I'm hiding, and because of my timing, he misses the faint trace of movement that could have given me away. I end up standing behind him with my Shotgun to the back of his head.

Protosuit dies, Standard Assault guy sees me coming out of cover and opens fire with his AR, almost killing me before I can sprint back into cover.

The guy in the Protosuit died specifically BECAUSE of his gear. He relied on his "gear advantage" to the detriment of intelligent play.

Good, smart, cautious players in Protogear are terrifying. Good, smart, cautious players in Militia and Standard gear are terrifying to average players in Protoype gear.

Militia Heavy.
Militia Forge Gun.
Total of 0 SP investment in skills directly related to either of those things.
Minimal risk of self-harm vs. one-shot potential against even Prototype Heavies.

Good grenadiers can - using Militia Locus Grenades - kill off most Protosuits with minimal risk to themselves.

And while a few SPs into Shotgun Ops will help, it isn't a necessity. It makes the weapon more consistent, but it isn't required for it to be functional. And eve if you did need some investment, you start with the better part of 500,000 SP unallocated and ready to be assigned where you want it.

Militia AR or Exile with sufficient SP investment is only about 50 dps short of the Proto version, you gain more from adding damage mods than from upgrading the weapon.

Even at Standard tier, a Flux Grenade/Mass Driver combo can put a world of hurt onto a Protosuit.

Laser/SMG combo can obliterate Protosuits even with Standard gear if you're good.

Skill > SP > gear.