The 24 hour grace period avoids most of the issues a respec causes, it needs a cost connected so people don't just use it every day to never lock there points.

Maybe a cooldown of few days before another the reset is usable again. This would mean they could either not spend any sp for days to keep it free, or they would have to lock some of the sp. This would let somebody try out a new weapon and reset it if they didn't like it, but prevent people abusing the system for flavor of the month builds.

The skill spikes and clusters should also help this, planned booster that raises the level of a trained skill or gives a set of skills in an area for a limited time.

There is no level cap like most mmo, so less need for respecs. You want to see fireworks post about a respec on the eve fourm, it will be filled with text walls of opposition quickly. The grace period idea bypass most of the reasons they normally give though.

For acadamey, a free graduation respec might be better then locking out spending the sp. Lets them try more then locking it out, and lets them make mistake when it is still fixable. Make them wait to spend sp then give it all at once is asking for mistakes to be made with new player thinking they have so much sp.

Personally, I don't think there should be a respec even though I'll admit I took one when it was offered.

The real problem is proper education on how things will be going forward. If new players had a better understanding of everything the game has to offer, and a way to choose without feeling that they got screwed for making an uneducated choice --which rarely yields exactly what someone wants-- I think it would be easier for new players to get into the game, and stay in the game.

As it is now, I can see how someone can go through academy, get murdered each match, only to find out that they F'd up in SP placement when through, would decide not to stick with the game. This is the real issue that needs to be addressed.

I still don't want to see any respec system because this has three negative side effects which are a big deal to the inhabitants of New Eden.

1. It cheapens the SP to the point where it becomes pointless to have more SP. Most of specialists need only about 10-11 million SP to go proto on the gear they need for that specialty. In my case, nova knives. If respecs were to be allowed, why should I bother training up to 200 million SP in ten years like the Eve players if I only need 10 million SP in a half a year?

2. It defeats the whole purpose of having a meaningful choice. To have your choices mean something, you need permanent consequences. Without consequences, your choices mean nothing.

3. Respecs devalue your accomplishments. I felt really accomplished when I finally specced into the nova knives to their full potential after grinding many months of matches. If respecs were to be allowed, then my accomplishment will mean nothing because then anyone can just swap SP around at will.

Knowing how CCP personally wants every player to have a meaningful choice and live in a harsh universe, I don't see a respec happening in the foreseeable future.

There are militia versions of most things in the game - use them to 'try before you buy'.

Even if your 24 grace period idea was implemented, you say you want to be able to try out advanced gear - that means you'd have to put around 100k SP into lvls 1 and 2 already so if you decide upon trying it, the advanced stuff isn't what you want, you might be able to get 200k of your SP back but you've still wasted 100k you can't get back. So your solution doesn't really solve the problem anyway.

Edit - additionally, what you're really complaining about is the lack of information available ingame; if this gets fixed, you'll be less likely to make choices you later regret.

It's true. The lack of information is one reason I want something like a 24 hour to be implemented. but I would like to point out, that there is no militia logi LAV or DS, the is no militia assault DS either. The advanced gear has stuff that militia stuff simply doesn't. And there is also a lot of equipment that there are no militia versions of.

Information about an item or vehicle is fine, but you still won't know for sure until you actually get hands on with them.

I would be more than willing to retract my suggestion if they would provide us with a sort of VR sim room where we can test out fits and equipment of ANY level with our friends. Of course there would be no ISK or SP reward for sim play. That would be more than enough for me. Even better. let us use a sim room to artificially adjust our skills so we can really get an idea how things will be. eg; a tank with advanced plating with and without skills in PG/cpu so we can tell how we can fit modules into vehicles and suits as well. a sort of EFT (eve fitting tool) for Dust with a testing range.