EVE Online has some… interesting news updates to share this week, starting off with Tuesday’s release of the Bastions of War update, which has applied a wide variety of ship adjustments including buffs to the Marauders’ Bastion module, the Vargur’s large projectile rate of fire, and the Kronos’ capacitor capacity; a reduced capacitor need for large turrets for the Paladin; and a number of nerfs to heavy assault cruisers.
Second, a bug allowing capital Dreadnought ships to cloak when using abyssal siege module that players have discovered is officially being called an exploit. CCP Games is asking players not to take advantage of this bug while a fix is in the works.
But the big news today is that the company has announced it plans to introduce Expert Systems, which are consumable items that let new players “taste the dream of a particular profession in EVE without having to commit to the skill training required by that path of progression and waiting for it to complete.” These items effectively grant fresh Capsuleers the necessary skills to perform certain tasks like at a high level for a limited amount of time – for a fee. Expert Systems are coming to the store soon, and will focus on exploration, mining, and the “magic 14” core skills required for operating ships in EVE.
The EVE community on Reddit is very much displeased with the announcement, arguing that while the game needs to improve new-player retention, expert systems is just an annoying monetization scheme that preys on noobs. “Instead of actually telling newer players the set of skills that are actually useful and worthwhile trains to get your character up to a somewhat functional point, they are going to make you pay plex to get the skills temporarily and make them available to be applied like a skillplan to your training queue,” the top Reddit thread on the topic says. “Nothing pisses me off more than trying to monetize new players via your shitty NPE because instead of again just explaining this, you are going to make them pay for it.” Players are likewise pointing to Pearl Abyss’ recent financial report and suggesting CCP Games is attempting to make up for a weak quarter.
