This ^

You can't create additional modes or the playerbase will fracture too much.

We would be better off remaking the existing matchmaking options.

Something Like:

[Academy] - Open to all players regardless of SP, militia gear only
Queue Options: None - randomly selects match. (i.e. functions exactly like it does now)

[Instant Battle] - High Security Contracts, CONCORD bans the use of experimental prototype gear in High Security space.
Queue Options: Ambush, Ambush OMS, Skirmish, Domination.

[Faction Warfare] - Low Security Space - no restrictions.
Queue Options: Caldari, Gallente, Amarr, Minmatar. (this suggestion gets rid of the merc tab interface, which doesn't work very well imho. However, allowing team queue for this would be sweet!!

[Planetary Conquest] - Low Security/No Security Space - player driven content - no restrictions.
Queue Options: player driven content... no queue options.

Or we can stop blaming gear for being bad. I am not a phenomenal fps player by any means but I can kill a proto with standard level gear on a regular basis. I don't get all of them but I rarely feel flat out outclassed.

After playing Ambush almost exclusively for the past couple of weeks I am firmly convinced that a large segment of the player base needs to l2p. I would have maybe 1 game in 20 where someone other than myself would try outflanking. Every game is just two sides taking up positions and going head on at each other. It's sad really.

CCP, if you care about retaining new players, you must implement something like this.

I made that post back when this game had a future.

When I said standard gear I meant BPO fits with no skills invested. Killing proto isn't all that tough with no skills.

What I'm talking about is players lining up in a gunline and going toe-to-toe with better geared players. Go into an ambush and this is what you will see most of the time. I mean yesterday I ran around the red gunline and killed 3 in the back with a BPO fit before anyone even turned on me. I unloaded a magazine and reloaded on one proto suit before he even realized what was going on because he was so focused in trying to kill blueberries standing in a line across the street.

Having gear based match tiers won't change any of that. I will still kill the same people I do now and I will still get killed by the same people. And new players will still get owned by vets. Good players are good players in any type of gear.

I made that post back when this game had a future.

Pretty soon FW and PC will be removed and IB will be down to Skirmish and Ambush.

They won't be able to separate the game modes by gear... because there wont be any!