Free Skillpoints due to Upgrade Woes

CCP have been upgrading their back end systems in February and we had a really good devblog from CCP DeNormalized, CCP Quant and CCP Gun Show. Even better we had CCP Seagull herself present a video that detailed the changes that happened and apologized for the unscheduled downtime which she then used to announce 200,000 free skillpoints would be given to all active and in-training characters.

The video can be viewed here. Two videos in six months from the Exective Producer. Wow, aren't we lucky :)

The devblog however was about ten times better than the video in terms of nerd information and I really enjoyed reading it and finding out more about how the back end systems of EVE Online are setup and work. The graphs were especially nice and I think at least one squeal of delight escaped my lips as I digested them.

The skillpoints were a nice present, I would have been happy just to know the problems were fixed but CCP do have great Customer Service these days. I've put mine to good use, Amarr Frieghter V on four characters is now that little bit closer. Fleet of Ark's is going to be a reality.

Seamless, Simple and Intuitive - Choose only two

Due to the issues following the deployment of FozzieSov on the 14th July all active accounts received a "gift" of 50,000 skill points. Excelent, I like free stuff and skill points are much wanted. The process should be simple, I've done it before so I just have to remember how. 

Simple? This is CCP and it isn't.

It took me about five minutes to realise that you don't do it in the skill queue but in the Character Information screen on the skill tab. You expand the skills, right click the skill you want to apply the points to and then enter the amount to apply (this is because you may want to spread it about over a few skills).

Just one small problem, you need to do a few extra steps if you're already training skills and more again if you happen to have the skill you want to apply the points to in your queue.

Ok, I'll pause my training queue whilst I apply the skill points to the skill I'm currently training.

BUZZZZZZZZ. No can't do that, I need to remove the skill from the queue, apply the changes and pause, again, the queue then apply the points.

I'm sure it was the way to do it when implemented in the "olden days" but the whole process is no longer intuitive and really needs changing. We should be able to apply skill points without having to pause the queue OR having to remove queued skills then adding them again.

Still, I've got 50,000 skill points that will give me about 20 hours off the currently training skill my characters are doing. That's reason to celebrate, just ignore the UI issues applying them :)

Drones are dead, long live Drones

Let me present this screenshot from EVEMon:

In just over 5 hours 30 minutes Advanced Drone Interfacing V will complete and that will mark the end of training Drone skills. Finished, Done, The End.

Unless they add new Drone skills and I really don't think they will. Actually I think they might want to cut the power of Drones further... but I digress. That is a post for later.

It's taken me nearly a whole year, at 2700 SP per hour, to complete the Drone skills and this skill, which is pretty much, no it is useless but it does round off the whole category and it makes the first that I've actually completed on this character to V:

Of course this achievement will occur during the early hours of Friday morning my time and, whilst something special, there is no way I will be awake.

So this post will mark it and I shall then move on to the depressing Navigation skill as they are woeful on this character.

The Climb

I've had rather a mixed week in real life and of course this has effect to influence my EVE Online game play but I have done some logging in as well as giving some serious consideration to where I am and what I'm doing.

Preparing for Travel

A rare business trip took me  to the city of Melbourne this week. It was a nice break and really helped sort out a number of work related issues but the biggest benefit I got was physically being unable to login to EVE for four and a half days.

This meant I needed to either organise help with my towers or leave them knowing that they'd be filled before I returned and I'd have a period where I'd have no reactions being made. Unfortunately I left it far too late for option 1 and had to go with option 2.

In the end it wasn't that much of an issue, a little production time lost but all has remained functioning.

The night I got back I sorted my towers and we're back to normality.

A Skill Queue Finishes

In 25 days my carrier pilot will finish Advanced Drone Interfacing V at which point (aside from a post on that) it will mark the end of Drone skills for him and I will need something new to train. To this end I've spent my week pondering what I could and what I should train.

I've decided to return to a Int/Mem attribute setup so that I can finish a multitude of support skills that are either at Level III or Level IV. The fact I never did them to Level V irks me and its time to clean house, so to speak.

EVEMon has been so useful for this planning as I can set filters to only show Int/Mem skills and then I just work through them adding them to Level V. Then I use the Priority attribute to make all the Level V skills appear at the end of the Plan and then its just a matter of changing the order I need skills to be done in.

Level V is Steep

The plan comes out at 12 hours shy of 700 days and that includes a remap to Int/Mem. I could remove the Navigation skills (~ 75 days) but its high time I finished them off and its only a drop of 120 SP/hour from the Int/Mem remap.

On closer examination I noticed that its the completion of the Level V skills that takes up the most time. I have a mix of Rank 3 through 10 skills that will be done and these range from 9 days up to 32 days each to get from Level IV to V.

If I removed all the Level V skills my queue would be a much nicer length of 118 days but its the Level V's I need to get. On the bright side at least I know what my carrier pilot will be training for the next two years...

Less Engaged

I was reading my usual daily list and a post by the EVE Hermit got me thinking about the change to the skill queues in Rhea. Previously you could have only 24 hours of skills queued at anyone time, longer skills would occupy the space but you could not add new skills until there was less than 24 hours left on the currently training skill.

This change was universally praised and one that players have requested frequently. Personally I've loved the ability to queue months of training and not have to worry about times when I'm away or holidays causing my skill queue to go empty.

If I Didn't See It

Overall I think the longer skill queue is a positive change – but it might have made us a little less engaged with our characters. - EVE Hermit 

I fully agree.

I used to monitor EVE Mon a few times throughout my working day so I knew how long it would take me to complete a skill, waiting for it to dip under 24 hours of training remaining so I could add the next skill. 

Now that I've got skills queued (based on each individual skill plan I've developed) unless they have 50 skills queued I don't do anything.

My 'PvP alt' finished Gallente Dreadnought V last weekend. This is a skill that I should have been celebrating completion of but instead I didn't notice until Monday, over 18 hours after it finished, when I saw the EVE Mon notification.

My 'main' had over 120 days of Drone training and I've watched a lot of that tick down and complete in EVE Mon but I haven't got as excited as I used to be about completing Level V skills. I haven't been logged in when they complete or have I needed to update my skills.

The only exception has been the tweaking of the skill queue on my 'wormhole alt' almost daily, adding or removing a skill because I missed or no longer need it. Aside from that I don't think any of my characters have had their skill queues opened since Rhea was released.

Skill Queue Evolves

Evolves is probably not quite accurate, certainly it is changing with the removal of the 24 hour limit on skills that has been in place since (I believe) it was introduced in 2009.

One of the biggest annoyances with skills was the 24 hour limit, having to remember to keep it stocked and running was a major inconvenience not just when you were playing but if you were away on holiday or had an unscheduled break in play.

The 24 hour shackle is being removed. 

Now that its being removed its fantastic news. I shall be able to load up characters skill queues with as many days training as I see fit (to a maximum of 50 skills). Finally my skill queue will be a closer representation to EVEMon Skill Planning than ever before.

Edit: I can indeed confirm that the maximum number of skills you can have in the queue is no limited by duration but the number of items. Fifty to be precise:

I won't go all OCD on them about the space missing before the opening bracket

I can train my alts safe in the knowledge they just need to be updated once and then can remain logged off for almost the entirety of their skill training. Then I can unleash them upon New Eden.

Huzzah!

CCP have obviously seen more positives in allowing this than negatives and it certainly is in most peoples Top 3 feature likes for Phoebe.

Maybe bittervets can update their skill queues and then leave, same in the knowledge that they are still training but saving the rest of us who do login from listening to their whining and "oh woe is me" posts on the Forums and elsewhere.