CCP, developer of EVE Online, is considering make changes to newly created characters in the game in the pursuit of reducing the barrier of entry for new players, according to a developer’s post on EVE Online’s official forums.
After gauging and interpreting player feedback, an EVE Online developer that goes by the name of ‘Rise’ on the game’s official forums posted an update in regards to what CCP has been considering for the game in hopes that it will improve the “new player experience.” One of the most notable changes could cause big changes to way in which new players will spend their skill points.
“You guys seem fairly agreed that the small amount of starting skills, combined with a high amount of 'must have' support and requirement skills, leads to some really icky barriers to participation for new players,” Rise writes. “We are inclined to agree and we are in the process of laying out a plan to address the problem. Nothing is set in stone yet but it seems likely that we will try and move new players towards starting with significantly more SP. Maybe between 1 and 2 million. It also seems likely that we will probably avoid any major skill reworks or skill removals. As this plan solidifies you will hear more from us.”
In EVE Online, new players are commonly suggested to invest in what some players have dubbed as “core” skills, or skills that are highly suggested for every player to have. Thusly, new players work to max out those core skills before anything else, leading many to argue that the skills should be removed or automatically given to new players on the basis of the skills feeling redundant to spend points on. This argument is due in part to the fact that recommending so strongly that new players invest in these core skills goes against CCP’s design methodology of wanting players to build their characters however they wish to build them, i.e. spent your skill points in whatever way is most useful to what you would like to do in the game.
Changes such as these will result in divisiveness from any community as passionate as EVE Online’s. For now, the changes are not being implemented, only considered.
