Dual Character Training. I Thought We Had That Already!

By now everyone has seen the post! http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/dual-character-training/  By now if you are like me you already don't care about it. I mean the title alone made many a capsuleer prematurely excrete some pod  juice but once I read  the explanation, it left a lack luster feeling.

"Case 1: You have an alt and you just need a few days or weeks of training but you can't be bothered with logging into your main, pausing the skill training, logging out and then back in again to resume training on your alt. That or you simply don't want your +5 implanted, carefully EVEMon-planned main character to stop training.

Case 2: You need an alt, you create a new account, pay a signup fee, a month, two or three, then train the alt. After all requirements are met for the alt to do it's new job efficiently, you transfer it to your main account, i.e. consolidate, and pay a transfer fee. Sooner or later you're facing Case 1 because after all, your industry alt will need to invent new things, your market alt will need higher order capacity and your cyno alt could be turned into a covert cyno alt. Then later a covert recon cyno alt... then later, well you know where this is going.

A simple solution to this is to offer users to enable secondary training slots on their accounts using PLEX."

These 2 case points, to me, feel like an attempt to make us think they are doing us a service. But in reality they aren't giving us anything we didn't already have in just a different form! For instance case 1. How many people really, on a regular basis, train in this fashion? I can pretty much say very little and be correct without even checking. The only reason to train like this is if you are on a budget or just need a quick little ship to do something specific. My opinion of case 1 is that they just needed another point because it holds no true point for the majority of eve players. Now to be far about case 1, it is convenient indeed for those that want to do a easy 30 day train here and there. Buying a plex in this manor 2-3 times out of the year just to get a character into something more useful to you is great. Training 2 characters on 1 account is what we have asked for, right? Well yes, we did, but I'm pretty sure we had a more permanent thought in mind. The only reason I see to stop a main from training is because you have reached a point where you are fine with what he can do.

Now to point 2. Its a much better point than 1 that's for sure, but it has its flaws. First lets look at what people do with their alts. Scout, cyno, freighter, booster, and industrial/pvp depending on what your main is. Pretty standard imho but how many of these are you going to have on the same account? On average everyone has at least 2 account and 3 accounts being a close second. I would assume that the characters that will need the most amount of training up keep would not be on the same account. Surely a cyno/scout alt wouldn't be on the same account as the cap and/or jump freighter pilot. Surely a booster alt won't be on the same account as the pvp pilot. Point I'm trying to make is that they are saying save your plex that you would use to transfer accounts to buy a plex to  train 2 characters for 1 month even though in most cases you aren't going to transfer those characters anyways. By doing this we will avoid a new account start up fee and save 1 billion isk. WHAT A DEAL! Not. Most players no matter what are going to get a second account or already have multiple accounts and this doesn't affect them any. The players already have a system in play that is sufficient and honestly, more beneficial to us.

Most of my corp mates and myself have alts which are on separate accounts. Those accounts are paid for with plex that we buy with isk. Some pay for all accounts with plex but I only pay for one with plex. Either way, if we want to train multiple toons on those accounts the isk we spend is doubled which in turns mean we must make double isk to compensate. Living in a wh isk isn't an issue but its not as easy to make isk in other places. It would seem the best way to deal with this is to consolidate characters. Well that would imply we needed to buy more plex to make the transfers so more isk spent there, or the other route and buy the plex with real money which opens up another argument as well!

Are CCP after our money? Simply put yes. They have to make money if we wont to continue to play space pirates. They have to turn a profit to pay employees and maintain the servers. That's the simple truth. The hard truth is that, like any other company, they aren't satisfied with enough. And that's not a completely bad thing. If they make more money than they could grow, hire more devs and get more shinnies out for us to play with (or fix all the area's that need fixing). Instead we still have things that need to be done and nothing is happening. To say they are implementing this training for plex just to rake in the cash is a bit over board. To say its a big factor in the release hits the nail on the head. You have a lot players that don't make enough isk to use for a plex but will want to dual train, players that make enough isk for one plex to pay for accounts but not 2 to do the dual training, and then you have the players that use real money to buy plex to sell for isk. These players will have to, in some way, spend more real money to compensate for this change. (This is an obvious assumption that they want to dual train.) But to assume that CCP didn't take this into account is just ignorance. TBH to implement this now just screams "show me the money."

The way it should be done is simple. Give us a permanent dual training system with stipulations. You choose which toon is main and which toon is alt. The main gets everything like it is now. The alt has all training times doubled. If they still want their money then allow a plex to shorten the alts training times but not enough to train at the normal speed. Would this be the ideal method for everyone? No, but it would be so much closer to what the players have asked for over the last 10 years. But instead what we get is a fresh paint job over a system the players have been using for years. The only true difference is CCP's way costs more.

In this case id suggest to everyone to stick with our methods of alt training and don't buy into CCP.

Faded Paint

Just an update from the Hooligans.

We opened recruitment in march.  Its been a slow process to say the least but we have gotten a few decent hits as well as the occasional troll. Been trying to fill in a bit of EU slots to have more people on at different times but it seems Bill will have to talk to himself a bit longer. All and all its a slow climb but our hole is perfect for our size so we are good for the long haul.

Pvp, up until last month, was going well. We had some good fights in low, helped destroy a few PoS' in wormholes, and rolled some holes for a bit of pew. They are learning but still have a ways to go. Silly and avoidable loses seem to be our weakness. But as a whole our k/d ratio and damage done/rec ratio are positive which is a nice thing to have for a PvE corporation. It will at least make any aggressors think a bit and shows like most we wont just roll over or run. Home Defense I believe is solid. Being in a c2 makes things so much easier the main thing we lack is numbers but for the most part we are capable of holding our own. It also helps that we have caps and the aggressors wont. Not that that is a win button but its sure a plus for our side.

Isk as usual is being made. Solid PI planets provide most of our fuel. Industrial PoS' for some extra isk and sites, sites, and more sites. Although members have been less active this last month due to RL, the corp is still doing great. We have isk saved for our downtimes and still plenty for any extended period. Says a lot when members can pay for accounts with isk they made in the months prior. Just incase you cant hear what it says, it is saying we make a lot of isk!

All in all we are doing great! Slowly growing, learning, and improving. (mmm maybe Rixx will join up) Our baggage has definitely gotten lighter over the months as our wallets have gotten heavier and our hangers are filling up. Now all we need is Odyssey.

New Year, New Beginnings

Like most people, I always get a sense of renewal around the new year. That feeling of change that may or may not occur. Usually its a quick feeling as the same old baggage comes to slap you in the face and remind you that the only real change you'll be getting this year is heavier baggage.

Kadavr Conglomorate, another of Nashh Kadavr's  built corporations, has been through a lot in its few years living in wormholes. Gone from c4 to c5 and down to c2 wormholes, dealt with ups and downs of inactivity, evacuated a c5 wormhole, and even survived the incompetence of a so called "leader." The corp made it through a lot but not without scars. No direction or vision for the future, a kill board that was all but inviting, and members with limited or no experience in pvp. Change was both wanted and needed.

Enter Dead Space Hooligans. On the outside it looks like a corp made up of the same members that were in Kadavr Conglomorate, and it is. There is one major difference between them though. Morale! While we were in Kadavr it always seems like we were held down by the corps past. Not matter what we did we couldn't fix those mistakes. So instead of grinding through with all of the baggage that was Kadavr Conglomorate we decided to start fresh.

Again, on the outside it looks like an old rifter with a new paint job, but this rifter is purring like a kitten. We have worked out security measure that will keep our corp and members safer from corp thieves which means an easier time recruiting, which we will be opening up soon. Revamped our loot payout systems and increased incentives for those that go above and beyond on loot collections. Increased pvp activities, we are currently roaming in low sec for some basic training, and basic pos defense training. Our kill board, while not the best looking stats around, at least looks like it has a chance. New leadership that actually makes decisions and cares about the corp and its members. And a lot of other stuff that doesn't mean much to anyone outside the corp.

Change can be tough sometimes, but if its embraced it can renew the fighting spirit! We chose to change and are 10x better off now because of it!