We are mercenaries, yet acquiring skill points is vastly more important than acquiring money. SP is vital in this game because almost every item requires SP to use, and it accrues so slowly that it makes the game into a grindfest; this is why people AFK farm. The current SP system encourages us to play as a form of work when we should be playing because we enjoy the game, or because of the metagame. The SP system also creates massive gear differences between the new players and veterans which leads to them getting stomped as soon as they graduate from the instant battle academy, and this is a serious issue for Dust's retention of new players.

The solution is not to go to a fully passive SP system like EVE because although it would end the SP grind, it will also create an insurmountable gap between the newbs and veterans.
The solution is not just simply give players more SP from battles because the game would lead to players quickly unlocking everything like a CoD game, which would be bad for longevity.
The solution is not to remove the SP system, because it adds depth to the game and character building.

What is the solution? I found this thread in the feedback/requests section by Vyzion Eyri that suggests this:

Items should no longer have skill requirements to use them.

Since skills would no longer unlock items, they should instead ALL provide bonuses for items to improve efficacy. No more useless skills.

All skills start out with a 2x multiplier, but the more SP you spend, the more SP cost multiplier increases. After spending 5 million SP the multipliers become 3x, and after 10 million it becomes 4x.

large cost increases from one tier to the next, making using prototype gear extremely expensive and risky to use in a public battles.

If you're going to say that this deviates too far from EVE, then you should know that Dust wasn't even suppose to have EVE's skill system. In 2009 the plan was to use an achievement matrix where in-game achievements gives you the ability to use items. Click here and read and here.

Dust is largely about risk, each time you spawn in battle with a fitting, you're risking losing it. Skill requirements for items essentially prevents us from being able to risk an item, and only holds back the true risk vs rewards nature of the game; if someone wants to risk losing an insanely expensive dropsuit fitting or tank, then they should be allowed to without needless restrictions.

Some of you (and CCP) may be thinking that the lack of skill requirements for items would make many no-requirements AUR items obsolete, and end up providing CCP with less money. A solution would be to sell standard BPOs instead for almost every single items. Also sell guns with all sorts of colors and skins.

I'm posting this here because I believe this system is best for the game, and it will help with retention of new players. The grindfest aspect of the game is one of the flaws that led to so many bad reviews. This system does not eliminate progression; SP will still be very important to augment one's character and provide advantages, but it just won't be necessary for the use of items. This makes the SP grind very optional so players don't feel forced to grind just to get an item they want.

This thread is not itself request, but a means of getting a request the attention i feel it deserves, and to have a discussion about; general discussion gets more attention.

to be clear...you want to release a bpo for every item in the game allowing players to pay a small amount of money to never require to spend isk again for any fit in the game completely eliminating the idea of risk in the game.

since that's never going to happen they would need to turn to PAY to win to get players to invest into the game

CCP already has stanard BPOs for dropsuits, and its far less pay-to-win then the lowered skill requirement advanced and prototype gear. It would only be standards, so risk would exist in advanced and proto. It isn't exactly ideal, but CCP needs to make money somehow if the SP system is reformed in this manner.

I've been playing for about 3 weeks now and I will never catch up with closed beta players. At just over 1.5M SP even going against 5M SP players is pretty comical. Doods with 10M+? lol
I don't see how any new players will ever join the ranks and stay, because of this imbalance. I have no problem going 2-20 and being top 3 on the board because I run logi and kdr is meaningless to me. That's not the case with most gamers that I come across. Players come out of academy and get their faces stomped on. No, really, it's enjoyable.
QQ.
I know you "vets" should be 10x's more powerful than the noobs with no chance of there ever being a level playing field. Afterall, you've been here for longer.

sorry i'm missing your point then. most players stop using the standard suits around the time they get access to advanced suits.

is your whole plan for them to make a tiny bit of money off each players first month or two playing?

7 Mil? Is that all?
So when I get to 7, things will even out a little?

That sounds great!

So.....around Christmas or so?

I've been playing for about 3 weeks now and I will never catch up with closed beta players. At just over 1.5M SP even going against 5M SP players is pretty comical. Doods with 10M+? lol
I don't see how any new players will ever join the ranks and stay, because of this imbalance. I have no problem going 2-20 and being top 3 on the board because I run logi and kdr is meaningless to me. That's not the case with most gamers that I come across. Players come out of academy and get their faces stomped on. No, really, it's enjoyable.
QQ.
I know you "vets" should be 10x's more powerful than the noobs with no chance of there ever being a level playing field. Afterall, you've been here for longer.

I can understand your sentiments here. I jumped on KZ3 multiplayer yesterday during the DT. I used to play it a lot on my old PSN account when it came out but haven't played since. Me and my mates got ROFLSTOMPED. It was clear that most of these guys had been playing for ages and would have stopped unlocking crap a LONG time a go. It was literally spawn/die/rinse/repeat.

However, for all of their experience and time and unlocks, they were only ever able to bring one maxed out character at a time.

It's kind of like that with DUST 514...to a degree. If you are new, it's important to pick your play style and work on maxing it to satisfaction. Even if one of those KZ guys has 7 maxed chars, when he faces me it was just one of his best vs my noob. If I leveled up that noob then it would be a more even match up.

I think another tier after academy would be a good idea to help remedy this problem and ease the entry into hardcoreville.

Remove skill requirements

lol everyone in proto at the start and all other items are left to rot and are never used

No bad idea and you should feel bad

Best and only way is full passive like EVE and you play because you want to and for ISK etc, as for the counter argument that noobs will always be behind in the majority of game they always are anyway

I take it you have bad reading comprehension skills. Go reread the part about the ISK costs, and read it again for a 3rd time.
EDIT: There is a TL;DR version, may be useful for you.

No i read it and i stand by it

Bad idea go biomass yourself

So you read the part about protogear being completely unprofitable in public battles, yet you stand by your statement that everyone would use it...

Dust is about "Don't use what you can't afford to lose", and protogear would be even more expensive, 200x the price of standard (the original poster of the idea wants to double the price of standard, 10x the price of standard for advanced, and 10x the price of advanced for proto).

If everyone wants to drive themselves into poverty, then I say let them.

Course they would still use it

Espc vehicle users if we ever get proto vehicles rolling around like a god on the battlefield in a pub match, i can do this in a madrugar now give me another armor tank with 8low and 5 high and lets see what happens

Ask the same question to EVE players, then you'll know the answer. Heck, you could even download the EVE trial and try it yourself so you wouldn't be spouting out flows of mindless, ignorant, stupid and unproductive comments about EVE Online.

anyway if you want to fix the sp system, it's quite simple.

add high tier and low tier space conflicts limiting the gear that's alloiwed to be brought to the battle field. if you want to use better gear you need to move into higher tiered play. increase the reward for battles done in higher tiered space and their you go.

CCP (and others) discovered that if players need to "invest" in their characters they tend to stick around for longer. Grinding SP is one form of investment, as is spending real cash (Aurum in this case). Removing the grind won't necessarily make players happier in the long run. Of course, they need to find the right balance: too much grind drives them away before they feel invested.

The solution is not to remove the SP system, because it adds depth to the game and character building.