That's an excellent question Marston. A deep question. I'm gonna try and give you a comprehensive answer and I hope I can make some sense into this hot topic. But before I go there I'd like to address this whole notion of something people call "SP sink". What the hell is that? I mean, isn't everything an SP sink? I might be a little bit stupid here or something but I can't make the difference between an SP sink skill and a normal skill! I'm gonna be blunt here and answer my own question for you guys out there around the world: "SP sink" is a BS buzzword created by people who are pissed off cause their skill points got devalued!

hurts new players the most, therefore is bad.


free to play game, people wont stick around if it feels like a grind

I'd like to try and adress that by providing a working definition of the term "SP sink"

I'd call an "SP sink" any skill that provides no specialization and that, when not skilled, puts one in an inherent disadvantage over someone that invested in that particular skill in many/most situations.

Looking at the current SS and Weaponry bonuses, no footsoldier can afford not to put SP in those particular skills, in order to be competitive, as there is no situation in wich doing more damage or having higher range is a bad thing. So these two, i think, are indeed "SP sinks" and their removal/redesign is a good thing.

Suitskills are for specilization primarily and provide very specific advantages that by themselves are often situational, so using them is a decision, not a necessity. Therefore i'd object to calling them "SP sinks" . Wether or not their cost will be too high once Uprising hits is somewhat subjective and i haven't played the game enough to provide meaningfull analysis in that regard.

Fitting skills are somewhat of a middle ground since they don't necessarily specialize but also don't guarantee a significant disadvantage if left out. A cheaper fitting is not bound to be weaker than a more tightly fitted one and it is only a matter of time before ****fit threads show up to demonstrate that.

Ive read it all and basically almost every skill is getting upped by a multiplier or two. Dropsuits are going from a x8 skill to a x10, this means from level 1 to level 5 your going to spend about another 600k sp. (2.5million to 3.1 million). The core electronics/engineering skill is getting bumped up from a x1 skill to a x6 skill...... (another 1.2 million). Weapons are staying the same I believe, but weapon upgrade skills seemed to be bumped up too...... (considering there isn't an "overarching" sharpshooter anymore, each weapon has its own specific sharpshooter/other upgrades).

I have about 10,500,000 SP because I missed two weeks of this beta, so I don't have as much as I could, but 10 mill is still a lot. After reading the dev blogs and everything..... it feels like a lot less. It forces specialization for sure, but many view it as a pointless SP sink due to a lack of new content. Personally I feel the SP increases (while annoying) are fine, it slows down progression but increases player specialization.

what do you guys think? I think its fair.

nobody wants those players to stick around. this is more of a 'i'm here for the challenge' type of title.