The tyranny of skill training
by James Egan 
Jul 17th 2008 at 3:30PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Opinion
One of the nicest features of EVE Online is the fact that skill progression doesn't go hand-in-hand with a monotonous grind. Rather, the game uses a time-based system of advancement. But this seemingly casual aspect of the game is a double-edged sword; in the earlier stages of skill training, a newer player needs to log in very frequently to switch up low level skills. Some EVE players set their alarms and drag themselves out of bed in the early morning hours to switch their skill training, so as not to lose hours of time where progression halts. PC gaming blog 'Life is a Mind Bending Puzzle' has a post about how EVE's system "creates significant pressure to log on and pop a new skill on every time one finishes." Logically, a new player would assume that it's possible to queue skill training in advance. That assumption, however, would be wrong. Thus the early career of an EVE pilot is one of setting alarms, calendar reminders, and sticky notes... all to avoid that guilt over losing hours of advancement because of something trivial like sleep or a job. But as time goes on, skill training intervals lengthen at higher levels and thus require far less maintenance. Implementing a skill queue was one of the issues brought to CCP Games by the player-elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM), as it's one of the complaints most players have when getting to know the game. How do you feel about skill queues? Is it a necessary feature that CCP should implement, or should the developers be focusing on more pressing matters?
[Via]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
W. Graves said on 5:31PM 7-17-2008
I would agree that skill queues are a good thing but the you could just set a years worth of skills and simply produce a certain character without any of the interaction that occurs when you make that skill choice on a one by one basis. When you choose every step you chooses more carefully.this also keeps the number of alts dowm if you have to track all of em.
Not to mention there's always a super long skill you have available to train, for the first few months just train long skills at night or plan your skill training to end at lunch/ after work/ before bed etc.
not really broken, so i vote for no fixing.
Reply
The Claw said on 6:38PM 7-17-2008
To be honest, they could just make one tiny little change that would remove much of the tyranny, especially for newer players, without making anything too easy: just change it so, once you set a skill training, it doesn't stop when it hits the next level, it just keeps ticking until it hits level 5.
i.e. you set your Small Projectile Turrets going from level 1 to 2.. it takes, what, an hour? If you don't then change it, it keeps ticking until it hits level 3, five hours later. Then level 4, a day later. Then level 5, a week later.
So if continuing with that skill isn't what you want, you log on and change it. But if you can't log on.. at least you're learning something!
Reply
James Egan said on 7:43PM 7-17-2008
Ok, so that would be autopilot for skill training. Not a bad idea, but I tend to change my skill training plans frequently. Restless I suppose. So the queue isn't really such a benefit to my attention-deficit playstyle.
When I began EVE I lamented the fact that there is no queue, but at this point... kind of a non-issue for me; I have plenty of higher ranked skills to train. I'm not against a queue, but honestly I'd rather see more effort going into improving other aspects of the game.
Part of me also suspects that veteran players who are still crying out for CCP to implement this are farming legions of specialized alts to be sold on the Character Bazaar. Am I wrong?
WCanyon said on 6:41PM 7-18-2008
I agree, this is something very simple for the devs to introduce.
Erbo Evans said on 1:13PM 7-21-2008
You know, this could be easily handled if CCP would just add a procedure call for switching skill training to the EVE API. Then the developers of EVEmon (which already has something like skill queues in the form of its training plans) could add an "auto switch" option, and that'd solve the problem without any more tedious mucking about in hyperspace.
Failing that, I've tried to organize my training so that I'm able to switch skills more frequently during the times when I'm actually online, and train longer-duration skills during the week so I don't have to worry about interrupting work. And I don't fret if I "lose" a few minutes, or even a couple of hours, here and there.
Reply