It may not solve all gripes, but it solves the biggest gripes and that's what was asked for, a solution to the obscene skill costs for dropsuits. The dropsuits themselves (coughCaldarilogisticscough) are a whole other matter.

Don't worry they are looking into it, I remember one CCP dev agreeing on IRC the logi was OP etc.

I'll complain about the sp changes required for dropsuits today. I thought we were at the sweet spot for acquiring proto gear.

The advanced racial suits are perfectly serviceable.

My feeling is good mercs should be humping it it that advanced suit for something like a year before they're in a position to go proto.

I am disappointed that the changes did not go far enough. Mainly:

• The role skills (logistic, scout, sentinel, assault) should be non-race specific so that a player may become a logistics specialist and bring in various suits and different times. Basically, the only thing keeping me from a Minnie logi suit to a Gallente logi suit would be Level V basic in both.
• I still cannot believe that there are skills that only unlock items. Even a 1-2% bonus is better than a simple unlocking of skill.
• Electronics and Engineering as a skill rank 5 suit is disheartening.
• I would have rather waited on a respec so that I can see what vision they truly had for various suits, but as in EVE, don't skill for the now, skill in what you are okay flying for the distant future.

I am disappointed that the changes did not go far enough. Mainly:

• The role skills (logistic, scout, sentinel, assault) should be non-race specific so that a player may become a logistics specialist and bring in various suits and different times. Basically, the only thing keeping me from a Minnie logi suit to a Gallente logi suit would be Level V basic in both.
• I still cannot believe that there are skills that only unlock items. Even a 1-2% bonus is better than a simple unlocking of skill.
• Electronics and Engineering as a skill rank 5 suit is disheartening.
• I would have rather waited on a respec so that I can see what vision they truly had for various suits, but as in EVE, don't skill for the now, skill in what you are okay flying for the distant future.

I agree the tree is not the end all fix but its a start of the fixes.

As for the roles needing their racial basics is that Dust 514 has simplified to be branching linear in progression. So no more 2 into 1s are possible anymore. This was done for the sake of FPS players that may or may not understand the entire Root-branching tree that Eve online enjoys where ships can has as many as 3 requirements and each of those have 3 apiece.

There's going to be a benefit to having a basic frame at level 5 for future racial variants right?

I agree the tree is not the end all fix but its a start of the fixes.

As for the roles needing their racial basics is that Dust 514 has simplified to be branching linear in progression. So no more 2 into 1s are possible anymore. This was done for the sake of FPS players that may or may not understand the entire Root-branching tree that Eve online enjoys where ships can has as many as 3 requirements and each of those have 3 apiece.

I agree the tree is not the end all fix but its a start of the fixes.

As for the roles needing their racial basics is that Dust 514 has simplified to be branching linear in progression. So no more 2 into 1s are possible anymore. This was done for the sake of FPS players that may or may not understand the entire Root-branching tree that Eve online enjoys where ships can has as many as 3 requirements and each of those have 3 apiece.

I believe it to be a misconception that FPS players that caught onto DUST find multiple prerequisites too complicated; I believe most of us play the game because we want something deeper, more meaningful, and more complex than the generic shooter of any particular year (we're definitely not here because of good shooter mechanics).
Linear progression for skills is a damn shame, because it requires so many "dead" skills; what we like to call SP sinks. For instance, there wasn't actually anything wrong with Weaponry giving a 10% damage bonus, in fact, it encouraged people to train for heavy weaponry because it was such a good skill, and once you had it to 5, heavy weapons was just around the corner. The "oh it's a mandatory skill, we should just give it to everyone" mindset is a huge mistake; it can be extrapolated to apply to any flavor of the month skill.

The issue is not any particular SP cost or level requirement for a skill; it's that many of the more SP intensive skills give no real benefit (e.g. all skills that just unlock things). There is no incentive to train Weaponry beyond 3 if you're not going Heavy. This is a mistake because the skill tree should be encouraging players to branch out into multiple roles over time; and having the specializations so far apart is both discouraging and counterproductive to this.

Something the EVE skill tree does well is make you realize how close you actually are to the next thing you might want; it keeps whispering in your ear that if you just deviate from your plan for a couple of days, you'll be able to do something else on the side: "Phew! I can finally fly Minmatar Bombers after 2 months of training what's next- oh hey, if I just put 9 days aside I can also fly Caldari Bombers! And they both use missiles! ... And then if I train another frigate specialization, I'll also be able to fly both of those! Awesome!". Bombers and Assault ships might not have much in common role wise, but having done 3/4 of the training for them beforehand is a huge incentive to branch into both.

i've got my own idea on this... and would make keeping even basic frames at L5.

give each of the suit grades a boost when they hit L5, that would boost that suit, and the next parts in the same frame set.

like medium Gallente frame could give... idunno, something like a slight negation to the speed loss that armor plates give.

something small, that can still play a big role in specializing, a reason to have all skills in a line maxed out too

I don't understand, there are things in Dust that require 3 skills in order to be able to use then, the dropsuits being a fine example. You need Dropsuit command, your chosen frame and the specialisation.