Do you even have an idea how long it will take to get into a proper Logi suit?! Sure Basic and Assault suits seem to be mostly identical. But Basics are vastly different from Logi suits and making people sink so damn many SP into suit skills just so they can be a Logi feels a bit... unreasonable.

A constructive discussion is always good.

Skytt (I think it was) did some math and it will take more than 13 years to max the current skill tree (well the one in Uprising that is) with the current SP system/cap without any booster. The skill tree will be expanded heavily in the future with a lot more skills, like the remaining racial suits/vehicles and new suits/vehicles among other things. It will also take 14 weeks just to get a specialised Prototype suit without any booster. 14 weeks for just the suit and no other skills.


14 weeks is only three months. you should look into capital skills in eve...

Tbh I think that's too much. Fully specialising in just one role will probably take about 6 months without any boosters. In that case I think it will be way too long for a new player to be even somewhat competitive.

that's what they told us in eve, and we were killing people on week 6

Even after the first 6 months where the new player would be fully specialised, would he then be competitive with a veteran player? I don't think so. The veteran player will be fully specialised in several roles, like Assault, AV and Scout for example. Who would pick the new player for a battle over the veteran when you in size limited matches need to have all or almost all of the players in a match to be able to switch roles in the middle of the battle?

after the first 18 months or so, it comes down to player skill, and not who's got the tougher ship. (in eve) i would agree with you that it will take 6 months to build a character you would like, but i disagree that this is too long.

Edit: I also recall a while back someone from CCP in IRC saying about 3 weeks to get a Prototype suit would be great.

that would be a nightmare. that would be like getting your strategic cruiser with all the base skills to sit in it and all the base skills to work on your subsystems... in three weeks. terrible.

The SP sink on core skills is just stupid and needs to go.

There's a lot of arguments about what audience they are targeting, but I haven't heard the most obvious one. It's the one that has actually been mentioned by the Sr. Producer, David I think his name was. Some interview like 4 months ago.

The target audience is those who love everything EVE is: the drama, the lore, the sandbox, the human element, (read: cesspool) etc. but hate actually playing EVE. The casual slant is to try to draw in your typical console FPS'er and hopefully trap them in the whirlwind of drama that makes up New Eden.

Whether or not this is a good strategy... well. EVE just celebrated it's 10 year anni. They might be doing something right.

All the time sinks are a simple business move. Give the player a choice, spend his time on grinding out SP for that new shiny or spend his five bucks on getting it sooner. My opinion of the SP layout is that it's A-OK. We were jumping into sets of the top tier stuff in 3-4 months, now it might be an extra month on top. That's as a free player. I don't see an issue with this at all.

Could not disagree more.

This is an FPS. FPS skill should rule not how much time you have been here or how well you manage your dropsuit configuration.

this isn't the game for you. this is a team-based strategy fps.

How long it takes you to get the best gear should be based on how well you do in the game. People who win get the money to buy the gear people who do not do not....to be honest they should nerf the hell out of high end gear (or buff the hell out of low end gear) anyway to avoid crappy players beating better players simply because the crappy player has been here longer.

this isn't the game for you. this is more of a thinking man's shooter.

Skill points and leveling should also be eliminated....perhaps only being used for customization (suit paint, gun sites, etc) rather then giving buffs.

this isn't the game for you. this isn't warhawk.

Just because Dust is an MMO does not mean they have to make it into a leveling RPG.

because dust is an mmo within eve online, it absolutely must be.

Yes i know all this stuff came from Eve...but in EvE that IS the game....with dust we have real time first person combat as the game...why pile on this crappy RPG layer on top of what is supposed to be a AAA fps experience?

this is not the game for you. Eve is the best thing that ever happened to gaming.

Edit: I would like to add that i think this is the direction CCP will head. With the elimination of sharpshooter, making everyone equal in ragards to range, CCP has leveled the playing field so that FPS skill rules not how much SP one has. Lets hope this trend continues with shield/armor sp buffs and damage SP buffs.

i'm afraid that when they introduce electronic warfare you're going to be irate.

Note: i am not advocating the elimination of classes here. Heavies should have lots of health and scouts should be fast...i am saying a fresh noob should have the same health as a heavy and the same speed as a scout as someone who has played here for 9 months.

* Dropsuit Command skills first unlock basic non-role frames before unlocking role-specific skills

Does that mean that you may not be required to skill the frame all the way to proto before unlocking the desired specialized suit or does that mean you will have to eg. unlock DC Lv5 plus Light Frame Lv5 to begin skilling Scout