I'm sorry that some of us have foresight and would actually like to see the already terrible player retention increase, as opposed to decrease.

Just because something is a design choice doesn't mean it's automatically right

You didn't, but what you're saying is don't use your SP because CCP is unpredictable and doesn't communicate decisions like this with us. So instead of playing the game and using your SP to enhance your experience, you sit on it, in the hopes that CCP gets something right SOONtm.

AKA, AFKing with your SP

If the only road to success was to compromise your vision and start doing things in a more traditional way, I would rather it die than turn into a shadow of what it started to be. It will succeed or it will fail, more important imo is seeing those that have faith in the vision and not catering to people who are not ready or willing to be apart of it.

So they wanted Roadkill Rampage and Pot Shot Safari

Shouldve put that in a Devblog

Point taken but my whole philosophy of the no respec (which I agree with) is that if you want things to be meaningful and you want a player to chart a course then give them the necessary tools. I shouldnt have to wait, then come on forums to find out that skilling up in certain things are trash and weapons that should act a certain way dont.

Take the MD, I loved it because I am not the most accurate and I could at least aid my team in controlling an area and if lucky I could get to an elevated spot and just damage the opponent. Now players dont even blink at you. Also profile dampening and precision and range amplification. Sounds decent in the description but after playing and listening to other vets I found out its a total waste to use them at this point in time.

How long is a person expected to wait for these things to be iterated out, especially when Devs arent really saying what is working as expected, it has to be pulled out of them by constant posting on subjects. If you are just a normal player you will just say this is sh!t and be done with it. And for the EVE-its that say "has your stuff" and go back to (insert better FPS product) that only ensures the game stays will a small player base which only suits them, not developer or new people who would love to enjoy the EVE vision.

So you're actively pushing for detailed tutorials, full weapon and suit information, and ways to test suits and playstyles extensively before actually investing in them?

You know, even car dealerships let you test drive the car, and they don't make you drive a terrible beaten up car in order to judge if you like the new one or not.

This might be the EVE universe, but it's not EVE; it's an FPS. In EVE you have a ton of stuff to do. You can be a trader, you can be an industrialist, you can explore the galaxy, you can ruin peoples day, you can protect miners, you can be a miner, you can troll around low / null alone or in packs, you can constantly have something to work towards, you can enjoy stunning visuals, you can scam and provide contracts, you can go ratting, you can fight for the empires in meaningful ways, etc etc.

You know what you do in DUST?

Shoot people.

The community here would rather see people leave Dust then get a respec and be a potential threat with new skills.

I don't exactly call buying a candy bar, router, coffee cup, or even a lawn mower to be much of an investment

Putting months and months of your time into a single build in order to remain competitive; that's an investment, like buying a car is an investment.

I used my brain, I went for ARs and Heavies so that way I can be repped by my squad, have access to lolmilitia forge guns, and actually take a hit (also in anticipation of Commando's, which already look horrible....2 highs and 1 low at proto...HAHAHAHAHA)

Fact is you can't expect to retain a healthy number of FPS players if you don't tell them anything about the skill system or progression and then go LOL should have stuck your head on google for a month and figured it out yourself. Oh, and it's your fault that CCP nerfed the crap out of that suit you thought you liked.

Too bad bro, adapt or die

I really am stupid though. If I was smart, I would have sat on my SP from my respec for the next 3 months, maybe by then we'd have some form of stability in this game and my decisions might actually be worth a damn.

Don't tell me to diversify, I did that for almost 8 months; noobs and people who can't decide what they want to play diversify. This game doesn't reward you for diversifying unless you're waaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead in SP, and even then.

So perhaps investment was too strong of a word, but all in all, the point remains; you dump your SP in the hopes that your choices don't get ripped apart / were well educated, or you pretend like SP doesn't exist and further push the fact that this is a lobby shooter with little to no variation, despite what would appear like plenty of variation in suits and equipment.

It's been over a year, and you know what 90% of players still put in their high slots?

Complex damage mods or shield mods

I need to just stop this discussion, because every day I try to like this game lately I just end up hating it that much more.

It's not how much you spend on the car but how and why a person uses an automobile for that makes it an investment. Ranchers invest in tough trucks, traveling employees invest in comfort and miles per gallon. Wealthy people invest in high class automobiles to announce their high status while blue collar people may invest in muscle cars to display their masculinity. Gamers invest time in games for future enjoyment. If the game isn't fun, we won't invest time or money into it. The complaints of experienced players and unknown complaints of new players will help them decide to invest in other games that will be more fun and much less like work.