There is no problem. If you use Militia gear, you obviously have a lower chance of killing anyone above you, but your loses are minimal if you die. If you want to increase the odds of you killing your opponent/surviving longer and making more money, be prepared to pay the price if you die instead. It's just Risk vs Reward.

Don't risk anything you aren't prepared to lose.

And?

Why? Who decided running protogear at all times supposed to be long-term profitable?

Prototype gear exists as a high end tool for tanking extra damage, packing on extra modules, etc when you NEED the edge to win big important battles. Why should the END GAME gear be profitable in what basically amount to training battles for new players?

Then don't use proto-gear? I still don't see the problem here. Quite frankly you're starting to sound like someone who's butthurt he died to a RE he didn't see in his proto-suit.

I am glad someone gets what the OP is talking about. The OP is not stroking his own epeen nor is he trying to make things better for his own good. What he is saying is that the current reward system is not based off of performance. Just like sp, it was flatlined to help noobs (read as eve players with no gun game), isk is flatlined to help noobs....we should just all afk because that is the smartest way to earn isk and sp.

We agreed on no such thing. It's rarely profitable IN HIGH SEC INSTANT BATTLE TRAINING MATCHES.

And what is the 8 mil ISK number you are quoting me?

Because they are using significantly different gear.

The reward for "showing up" is "dwarfing" the reward for "doing well" because the reward itself is teeny tiny... Because we're beta testing in the new player starting area. In new player areas it's not uncommon for everyone to get a reward for participation, that's how you help new players get their feet under them. The only mistake being made, is taking gear worth as much as the battle rewards into the fight in the first place, and then expecting to make a profit.

If we get into faction warfare and the payouts aren't considerably higher, and the winners don't get the majority of the winnings... THEN I will agree that there's a problem. Assuming most winnings go to the team that WINS in FW, going AFK will put your team at a big disadvantage and make them much less likely to win, thus minimizing the sort of gains that can be made by AFKing in the first place. Heck, if a player loses enough in FW he might even have to slink back to instant battles with his tail between his legs for awhile, throw on some militia fits, and pull in some participation ISK until he has enough to head back out and take another shot at a real match again.

But instant battles are working precisely as intended as far as I can tell and need absolutely no changes made to them. You barely make enough in an instant battle to buy a set of protogear for a reason, the new player area isn't FOR protogear.

But again, you're judging the performance on the wrong metrics. The person who dies less, performs better. If you'd like to argue that this performance metric should be changed, then make your case, but so far the argument over which performance metrics to favor have been entirely arbitrary.