I don't understand the system by which my mercenary's knowledge of firearms increases the maximum range the firearm can reach and would prefer for this to be handled by purchasable gear. I believe that sharpshooter will no longer increase range but have the same issue with it reducing dispersion, unless explicitly told that skilling into sharpshooter actually increases my accuracy, given the perfectly reasonable alternative of making upgrades for the gear with the same effect.

Moving into the second angle from which I disagree with the current system: shifting responsibility for the direct increase of weapon effectiveness into gear rather than into skills better fits the risk/reward philosophy in my opinion.

I can skill into making my militia AR faster, better, stronger. It still costs the same as the militia AR of Joe Newberry so when I am in a battle with Joe, our opportunity for reward is equal (actually, the situation favours me because my identical gun does more damage) but his risk is greater. This doesn't sit well with me. Similarly, I can skill into being "better at shields" or "better at armour" and from an RP perspective, I don't know what the kitten that even means, while from a gameplay balance perspective we've got the same issue that both Mr Newberry and I paid the same amount for our gear... but mine is better.

I would greatly prefer that my mercenary's personal capabilities governed things like base speed (modified by gear weight), reload speed (modified by reload complexity), accuracy (ability to point weapon at the reticle, rather than dispersion of bullets around the reticle)... while gear and modifications to gear (all putting a dent in my wallet and so increasing my risk) governed things like clip size, weapon range, weapon damage, shield/armour effectiveness.

Discuss. We're running out of time to change it if we're not going the right way at present.

It's still the EVE universe so there has to be a degree of semblance. Also, what you're suggesting almost eliminates the purpose of learning new skills in the first place. The game rewards us for specializing into a specific role that's most comfortable with personal play style. If you take that away, it's nothing but another generic FPS.

^^ I don't understand why everyone wants yet another generic shooter.

While I agree that many things twitch shooters have done are better than what CCP is doing, retaining the SP reward base is really the only link to EVE you should maintain.

a) If I know how better to wield a weapon, i'll know where to shoot to make that weapon more effective... how to compensate for bullet drop for range, or other things (yes I know there's no bullet drop in the game atm..) but taking examples of how SKILLs with usage of a weapon can affect the things that currently plague it.

What I don't get, is that knowledge of the weapon makes it require less CPU to fit? or Powergrid? If you want familiarity SP skill removed, start with the fitting ones, since they make even less sense. Knowing a weapon, doesn't mean it suddenly uses less resources.

Give an AR to a navy seal and then the same gun to a new recruit and you tell me the difference. Put a new pilot in a plane and then an air forced trained top gun and show me the difference. Put me in a f1 race car and then Lewis Hamilton and tell me the difference. The only difference is experience and skill, all other things equal means skill wins.