Ehmm, every1 else got those extra EP as well. GAP was intact... New players still can't shrink the GAP. Again. What bad can come from something like this?

Edit. What do you guys have against new peeps gaining some EP on ya, if it leads to them staying with the game? I could care less personally. So why do you guys feel so threatened by this?

I am a new player and I accept that there will always be a gap. EVE is the same way. As long as the Devs make sure a player starts with enough EP to play around with, it should be ok, I don't remember exactly what my account had when I started, but it was enough to get me into a better bot in the same day, some nice vets really helped me out with the bots and modules. If someone is interested and wants to play the gap won't stop them. Making sure that a new player can upgrade and downgrade extensions a few times without penalty is probably a really good idea.

I have mantioned something similiar seems like the DEVS dont listen about this.

3 month is enough for new player to be competitive
this game hardcore
this game is teamplay

but still have a big gap, still not motivates/incentives you to log in 2 things maybe would change

Devs we already live that way of game, 3 year old 100-200 player played the game on the globe that not much for such a good game (minecraft O.o ). If they dont change the player retetniton and influx wont change, even this new method of virtual training island.

I would like the BEST for Perpetuum and the DEVS and the change is needed imo.

AMEN Inda. I love you... This is EXACTLY what I want. It's not some ego trip for me. I just think this would be good for the GAME. And don't we all want what's good for the game!?!? Don't we all want the game to thrive!?!?

If the game is too easy, and you accomplish something in it, will you feel like you've really done something?

If you kill a vet in PvP, someone who has twice the EP but was arrogant fighting you and wasn't prepared for whatever tactic helped you to surprise and kill him, will you feel like you accomplished something?

If you are in a light bot on a trial account and you kite and kill a level 4 ewar npc and walk back to the station with a t3 lwf worth 500 k nic, and exactly ONE unit of armour left on your smoking bot, will you feel like you have done something?

If you take a 1 day old character and fit him in a light bot and a lwf and manage to sneak in and steal sap loot while being chased by vets, and live to enjoy it, will you feel like you've done something?

Because people starting in the game today are playing with people who started when the game was launched there is a reason why they can't do everything right out of the hop. Every type of player needs content. not just the new or the old players ... you cant do everything a vet player can, but if you stick with the game, and invest time into your character, you will accomplish far more than what you can do now.

That is the appeal of this game. Its not meant to be a WoW "level up to lvl 80 in a week" game.

Some LvL 9 skills cost 30000 ep. Translation, a noob can level from 1-7 in roughly the same time a vet levels from 8-9
so there is catch up on that level.

Playing with an established corp is a double-edged sword for new players ... you see the shiny and abilites established players have, and use their facilities, but at the same time you are acutely reminded that you cannot do the same tasks equally. But those abilites, and facilities were not built or aquired overnight, it took many many hours of gameplay to aquire and learn.  One more simple example is that there are players in our corp who have half the EP I have and are twice as effective (and good) at this game than I am. And I am talking 400k-500k less EP. Translation, once you have a certain amount of EP you are effective.  I played without joining a corp for the first 8 months, I did fine solo, but that was (and still is) my playstyle.

You just need patience for the reward of a great gaming experience.

Would be nice to have some statistical data about player retention as it relates to EP gap.

If there was a provable correlation between EP gap and new player retention I would support some type of reset that included at least marginal EP transfer for Vets. My quazillion in assets I can rebuild with pleasure.

But my research points ...oh my, the pain of grinding NPCs again.

But I think the problems driving new players away are more mission and pve related. EP gap will always be there year after year as zero EP players start out. The gap is ugly right now with the hard-core fringe sticking around, but with true population increase it will average out quickly.

But who really knows?

Well I know first hand from friends I've played with in other MMOs that I've tried to come with me and try both Perp and EVE, and they don't wanna do it cause they hate that they are years behind the once who have played from the get go. Some don't care about it, and actually enjoys what this game has to offer. And that's alot. But as Inda said, here we are, 3 years down the road, and the population ain't flourishing. Sure the reason to this is more then the GAP issue. No doubt bout that. But to say that NOONE cares about it is just stupid. Sandbox games in particular are competative. And if you feel that you can't compete close to others, you will easily give up, and look for something else. I'm afraid MANY peeps have done this off and on with Perp. But that's a pure guess from me. But why even have this as a issue? Why not implement something of all these gr8 suggestion that for instance Gunner has provided, or that I did here, to erase this from happening. To give new players another carrot to stick around. I just can't see anything bad about it. What's the worst that could happen? Well, the worst that could happen is that even though a change like this were made, peeps still don't play the game. Then were back to where we are now. But IF it would bring more people to the game, if more would stick around. Well, all of the sudden we have a population, that will lead to the market kicking in and then the snowball is rolling. So why not take the "chance" with option 2? Why on earth not do it!?!? To me it's just stupid NOT to do SOMETHING about it.

All this got me thinking about a video I saw about this debate about global warming issue. Here, I link it to you. But the same diagram that he paints in this video, could be painted from this GAP issue, with the things I've brought up. Sure, Zoom and company would have to kick in a few hours, and it will cost them some to make these changes etc. If they do it, and noone comes and stays. Well then fine. At least they tried. And they are back to their solid base of 100-200 peeps playing. But if it on the other hand brings in several hundreds of new players, well, then not even the most EP-hugging vet can complain. At least I hope they won't. I find it hard to argue against something like this.

Either way, here's the vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ

There are between 100-200 active players in this game, If every vet who had put 6 months or more into this game there'd be  I don't know, maybe 1200 player ish ...   This game hasn't even taken off yet.

Eve has 600 000 active subs, with players who are 10 years old. How would you feel if you were in the top 1000, hell even the top 100 000 players of that game? I joined that game 5 years after it started, of course I couldn't own a POS or kill a skilled player, but I had plenty to do, and plenty of things to work towards while I learned the ropes.

If this game had a larger population you would get all levels of PvP. The game does need better PvE content... its supposed to be coming.

Line is right I think, its the content that keeps a player in this game in the beginning, or lack of, that will drive him away. I personally think while having low EP means you are not building a gamma by yourself on day 15, theres enough other activites to do for a new player. Although they should be harder.

There are a million small things you could do to keep a few extra players around. But the fact of the matter is a little bonus ep for new players isn't the magic fix you seem to think it is. Sure it might help, but its not the real solution or reason for the current state of the game. Having the game ready for steam, and steam itself is still the biggest and best thing the devs can do for the game atm.

Here's the kink in a GAP arguement, time doesn't stop.

Assuming the devs expect the game to continue into the future, a gap reduction between 2 year players and Newbs would still create a gap between NOW players and players joining 1 or 2 years from now.

Addressing the issue of GAP means redoing the whole concept of Perp, which is players earn EP based on elapsed time into a fixed maximum level system; because that is the only way to create a rolling EP leveler.

The only response is simply that isn't the way Perp is designed.

Eve is continually getting new players and they stay despite the GAP, while some do not.

The difference in Perp is that because the population is so low, and so few new people are trying the game, even losing 2 or 3 people that don't like the EP Delta, results in a 5 or 10% retention rate; which makes it FEEL significant.

Taking a different perspective, the largest current Corporation probably has 10 to 15 players on their most active night.

If an outside guild of 200 active players joined Perp, they would have a significant impact within a few weeks and would dominate the server within 90 days if there were no other corps formed, after which they would quickly get bored and quit, but that's not an EP GAP issue.

If after greenlight, Perp gets 20-30 players per day, after 90 days the impact of the GAP would be very small GLOBALLY. Sure, individual players or solo players that encounter vets will be sent to the nearest outpost in flames, but from an overall viability of a corp to prosper, they will not be greatly hindered by EP.

Ideally, a large % of those new players joining will go into existing Corps. In this case we end up with 4 or 5 active Vets supported by large numbers of new players, which is fantastic.

tl-dr; If losing a few players to 'GAP' is a significant number of new players, then the game simply isn't viable, because the GAP is how the game is designed.

What I'm trying to say as well is that the time based leveling system is flawed. It's just as bad with EVE as it is with Perp. CCP on the other hand sit on a solid playerbase of 600k subs to not do something about it. Zoom and Co. don't have that luxury. Here on the other hand they can do something about it. They can be the bigger man and admit the problem it brings and act upon it. Sure the GAP will always be there even with my fix. But what I and others want is to make it so that this wont be a issue when new players join. I still don't see anything bad with fixing a flawed system. In a perfect world where every1 are happy no matter what. I would have redone the whole system, wiped the server, and relaunched the game. But that will never happen. But it would have been nice to see, if Zoom and Co openend up a new server, how many would join that instead of the one we have. But instead of doing so, alittle fix to the broke time based leveling system could maybe solve all this. Can they rly afford not to do something about it?