I prefer the slow, inevitable, glacial crawl of 1 EP / min permanently.

OK, Tell me if I am missing something here...

1. Arkhes are not really even your property, as you did not buy them, but the syndicate lets you use them to improve yourself so you can later be powerful enough to further the grand plan.

2. It is not in the syndicates best interest to allow you to take their trainer bots to the beta islands.

Seeing as that is the case, I think arkhes should not be able to travel to beta islands at all, and if you need an arkhe respawn when you are on a beta island it should transport your spark to your mega-corps home terminal for said respawn.

You would still be able to do whatever you wanted with your MK2, but I think you only get one of those, right?

This would also get rid of the problem of people TK'ing their own teams arkhes to raise their stats.

(Just my 2 cents...)

But if I can't buy nic then what will happen to my plans for a fleet of gold plated suicide sequers filled with nuclear frickin' bombs?

that only applies to named items.  prototype standard items are just standard items.

EDIT: to see the difference look in the market for prototype named items and compare the info tabs.   The biggest differences are usually in weight and RP

I think what you are missing is that it is kind of hard determining what play style you want to pursue if you spend no EP what so ever, not even on extra assignment slots.

Let me put this another way...

If you do not have an understanding of the game far beyond what you can be expected to gain from reading about it, a level that can only be gained through playing it, to make a character even REMOTELY viable, then you have to play the game before you can make a character that is viable.

Duh.

Now, for all of the non beta players they are trying to attract, they are charging them MONEY, real world, up front, and then not allowing them to learn the system EVEN THOUGH WE PAID, instead saying "Oh well, you should have read the patch notes with perfect understanding even though you have never played, which is impossible, and since you didn't, after you figure it out, you can pay us CASH again to create a workable account."

That is one hell of a way to alienate a new player base.  An please save your self the trouble and don't call me a "wow baby", that isn't even close.

I even have the collectors edition box of mortal online sitting on my wall.

I have NEVER seen such an absurd system as permanently and severely handicapping new paying players from day one for not understanding perfectly a system they have never used before, and therefore, even if read about, can not be expected to intimately know.

Seriously.