DUST Search - What is the purpose of the SP Cap?

TheAmazing FlyingPig wrote:

I think I can see where the disconnect is between what the GM is saying and what the community says.

The GM (and I'm not speaking for him - correct me if I'm wrong) is saying that the active booster tacks on +50% to whatever you would normally gain, but this in no way affects your SP cap. With or without the booster, you cap at 190k a week. If you go over your cap, at most, you'll only gain one extra SP per two WP's you get in a fight, capping at 1k, totalling 1.5k per fight, which isn't really pushing boosters since it's such a meager amount.

The community (again, not speaking for everyone - correct me if I'm wrong) is saying that with the booster, your effective SP cap becomes 270k SP (provided you manage to cap that week). If you want to train up faster, boosters are pretty much a requirement, otherwise you put yourself behind the guys that do decide to spend money, meaning that if you pay, you get more SP than the guy that doesn't.

Both sides make valid points, but I'm going to side with the community, but not go as far as saying this game is strictly pay-to-win. While everyone's cap is indeed 190k SP per week, with a booster that cap effectively becomes 270k a week (even though we know the SP cap is 190k), catapulting you past those that don't pay (for whatever reason).

Boosters do not raise the SP cap. They do, however, allow you to gain much more SP per week over the guy that doesn't use a booster. They may not give you more SP per week, but the bonus SP they allow you to collect does give you an advantage over those without the boost.

I will also add that I have never seen SP in the killfeed, so there's that to.


Author	Thread Statistics \| Show CCP posts - 6 post(s)
hgghyujh Expert Intervention Caldari State 38	Posted - 2013.06.19 06:49:00 - [1] - Quote GM Vegas wrote: Shadow heat wrote: - Is way to make people buy SP boosters ...That does not make sense. CCP Cmdr Wang wrote: * Active skill boosters do not increase skill point cap - this is by design. The aim of the skill cap is to ensure players progress through the skill tree at a steady pace, to dis-incentivize 24/7 grinding and to maintain a manageable gap between casual and hardcore players. As it stands yes, but there was a time when ccp took a vote on it and there was a capless option, it was voted against for the reasons stated by the GM. That said the capless option would have actually made this game even more grindy as this game is designed to have a maximum pace of progression and therefore a capless system would of yielded less per match to make sure that no matter how much you played it would not of exceeded that progression pace(of course making some dangerous assumptions about sleep, food, and leaving your house). So no thank you I like having a life and feeling like my playing is actually making a difference in my SP progression, the cap is just fine with me. I typically don't cap out any more but thanks to the cap the matches I do play actually contribute something meaningful to my sp pool. Frankly even when I do cap out I have an alt that needs play time and I happly play with out SP(tho after, what is it like, 32+ hours of play time in a week I don't typicly want to play too much more, thats nearing on full time job level).
hgghyujh Expert Intervention Caldari State 38	Posted - 2013.06.19 06:59:00 - [2] - Quote As to the crys of new players can't catch up with old yes this is true, how ever past about 15mSP(give or take depending on your play style) a new player is as good in any one role as any older player. The way the skill tree is designed is to allow six month to a year long players to play with even ten year players on an even playing field while still rewarding those ten year vets by allowing them to far more versatility instead of power. the skill cap is irrelevant in all of this tho due to the fact that with or with out the skill cap there would still be a maximum pace of progression that would prevent you from ever catching up to a long term dedicated vet no matter how bad he was. SP are basically rewards for long time active players, you are not meant to easily catch up to an older active play not without a lot of hard work and dedication, but nor are you punished for that.
hgghyujh Expert Intervention Caldari State 38	Posted - 2013.06.19 07:13:00 - [3] - Quote TheAmazing FlyingPig wrote: I think I can see where the disconnect is between what the GM is saying and what the community says. The GM (and I'm not speaking for him - correct me if I'm wrong) is saying that the active booster tacks on +50% to whatever you would normally gain, but this in no way affects your SP cap. With or without the booster, you cap at 190k a week. If you go over your cap, at most, you'll only gain one extra SP per two WP's you get in a fight, capping at 1k, totalling 1.5k per fight, which isn't really pushing boosters since it's such a meager amount. The community (again, not speaking for everyone - correct me if I'm wrong) is saying that with the booster, your effective SP cap becomes 270k SP (provided you manage to cap that week). If you want to train up faster, boosters are pretty much a requirement, otherwise you put yourself behind the guys that do decide to spend money, meaning that if you pay, you get more SP than the guy that doesn't. Both sides make valid points, but I'm going to side with the community, but not go as far as saying this game is strictly pay-to-win. While everyone's cap is indeed 190k SP per week, with a booster that cap effectively becomes 270k a week (even though we know the SP cap is 190k), catapulting you past those that don't pay (for whatever reason). Boosters do not raise the SP cap. They do, however, allow you to gain much more SP per week over the guy that doesn't use a booster. They may not give you more SP per week, but the bonus SP they allow you to collect does give you an advantage over those without the boost. I will also add that I have never seen SP in the killfeed, so there's that to. yea thats about accurate, although if it is P2W, it really only matters for the first 15m SP give or take, after that falling behind is rather meaningless and at that point its no longer P2W and just about a players desire to progress faster. frankly while it does feel like P2W, when you look at the big picture It's really not, for every new guy they will already be so far behind the curve that booster or not it makes little difference except that they can run proto a little faster and can start getting into some of the higher stake matches a little more easily. The only place boosters could really be considered P2W is for us vets, and even then it matters less and less with each passing week.