[Tritian]

Currently we have set levels where we get access to certain ships and equipment only when we are rank enough. This is bad in several ways:

1) It forces people to rank thru ships they wont ever use. If I want to mine or run cargo, why must I suffer through getting Light Fighters, Scouts, Etc...
2) It's terribly static and there is no player interaction as far as what they want.

I suggest reworking this system so that when you level, you get certificate points that you can spend towards ships and equipment, similar to PlanetSide.

Every time you level, you get a couple of cert points. In addition, there are packages available you can save up for and buy. Some packages require prerequisites of other packages. So for example, you'd need to purchase Scouting and Light Fighter before you purchase Medium Fighter. Or you'd need Shuttle and Fast Transport before purchasing Medium Transport.

There would also be packages for weapons, such as 'Level 2 Lasers' package would give you access to all the level 2 lasers such as Thorns, Injustices, Etc.

Using this system, someone who's only interested in PvP/mining/hauling could put himself on the fast-track to being a useful PvP'er/miner/hauler. This would go a LONG way towards making the earlier levels more bareable, and retain newbs since they wont be forced to do things they dont want to do.

In addition, you could add the ability to forget things you're certified in, for a price, so that you can use those cert points towards other things you might be more interested in now. This would make it so that people can try a variety of things, if they decide they dont want to be what they originally spent their certification points on.

[Radi]

The biggest problem is freedom that we now have in Jumpgate Classic. Once you hit the right level, you can anything. You can swap ships from PvPing to mining accordingly.

I still like it. I also think that you could master only one "skill" (mining, hauling etc).

[Duodecimal]

Levels are rather arbitrary. I think something along the line of skill stars could probably sit in its place.

Progressing along the rewards system, certain levels of medals open up the ability to pilot a wider variety of ships. Once you've done some set of basic abilities X times in a light miner, you've reached the skill level of piloting a standard miner.

Set it up so that there are several ways to unlock a ship - for example, I wouldn't want the ability to fly a heavy fighter be dependent on just X conflux kills, but some combination of flux, enemy bots, or enemy players counting towards X kills total. Along with secondary requirements such as successful landings or missions completed or gates traveled.

Experience Points can be entirely eliminated, and the only issue with removing the leveling system is freshly minted players pulling out of Solrain Core in a Heavy Bomber. This way there's still a playtime curve tied directly to real player experience.

[Tritian]

while i'm open to other ideas, i dont think thats the best way to go. just seems like it'd be overly complex, and I can forsee difficulties/exploits w/ the pvp aspects. Also i'm not a fan of having to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to get something done w/ my character.

For those reasons, I feel the planetside'esque certification solution is a more eloquent solution, and the pre-requisites for certain higher end things such as fighters would accomplish a lot of the same positive things your solution addressed.

[GrimGriz]

If they do it right there won't be higher end things, just more choices.

[daslog]

I agree completely with Tritian's idea.. In the end you get access to all the ships, but how you get there is up to you.

We would need a respec (reset) option though, just like in Planetside.

[Wild_Bill]

Never played Planetside so I can't argue either side of that.

I like Duo's idea simply because it gives meaning to skill stars and medal sets. Perhaps MT tours could count towards fighter qualification (I'm lousy at combat, but far to midding at killing fluxies. I LOVE what a HF does to fluxies!). Mission Ribbons to count for the non-combat qualifications.

Then again, the ability to just BUY what you can afford is nice too. I hated leveling when I started because I didn't know the tricks that are involved in getting quick experience points and the use of the skill/glory star system. By the times I learned, I no longer needed quick experience.