Have they undone the ghost training nerf yet?

[Kitsune]

The title pretty much says it all; I bailed rather than pay them for four to six weeks of game time per point in a skill.  They were such great guys that they offered me one whole free day back, but I'm not putting a penny towards EvE again until either ghost training's returned or the skill training times are greatly reduced.  I heard that they actually got around to putting a skill queue in the game, just a few years too late, but that doesn't make up for the ungodly length of time it takes to train the higher skills.

[IainC]

No. The skill training queue is pretty nice if limited (once there are 24hrs worth of skills in it you can't add any more). Ghost training runs for 3 days after your account expires then stops until you resubscribe.

To be honest I don't see how ghost training would resolve your problem anyway. I mean, if you're not interested in being subscribed and playing then what would it matter if the internet spaceman you weren't using anyway was improving while your account was closed?

[Kitsune]

The problem is not inherent in the skill training system itself, but in the cock-blocking nature of skill requirements for things.  For example, going from Small Pulse Lasers 4 to 5 for the extra 2% damage output is not something to bother ghost training.  The benefit is fairly insignificant, and not having the skill rank doesn't impact anything, so you may as well fly around and shoot stuff.  But going from Battleship 4 to 5 because you can't fly the ship you wanted to be able to pilot and you're just going to be dicking around to kill time for two months until you can get your hands on the skill to play the game how you want to play, that's something best done while not paying a monthly fee.

[IainC]

I guess everyone has their own motivations for playing but if you absolutely cannot play until you're in a particular ship then that to me sounds like you're doing it wrong. It's not as if the time you'd spend in game while training for your cap ship would be wasted, you'd be earning money, getting some PvP, socialising and all the other stuff that is largely independent of what you're flying.

[Jayce]

Either way, I wouldn't hold your breath for ghost training.  There was a lot of nerdrage around it when they took it out, but I haven't heard a peep about it lately.  I don't see them ever putting it back in.

[MahrinSkel]

I still have to wonder at the logic of the choice.  Although there must have been people who set their alt accounts to training BS5 and then let them sit for a month without getting a GTC or paying the subscription (and would have without ghost training), I would think that would be made up for by people who quit the game, but then started wondering what it would be like to fly HAC's now that their fallow account has Cruiser V.

--Dave

[Jayce]

So do I, but those arguments and more were done to death at the time of the change.

CCP seems to have two models for the changes they make.  One has them proposing it, putting it on Sisi, taking feedback, adjusting, and making the change after they are sure it's reasonably well accepted.  The other is of the type "Hey guys, we are making this change tomorrow.  Good day."

The ghost training nerf was of the latter type.

[bhodi]

Either way, I wouldn't hold your breath for ghost training.  There was a lot of nerdrage around it when they took it out, but I haven't heard a peep about it lately.  I don't see them ever putting it back in.

I wonder if there ever a (published) impact in subscriptions of people not resubbing due to it?

In all honesty, I'm one of them - I was entertained, I got new stuff, but the ships I was flying began to get stale and so I started cruiser V and BS V on my two characters, solid in the knowledge that when I came back I'd be able to fly new ships (and be ultimately closer to a dread on one of them).

Then they stopped ghost training. I never came back. I accept that I might be in the minority, but it was kind of a big deal for me at the time.

[MahrinSkel]

Well, it happened in the middle of Iceland's banking crisis, when for a bit CCP was openly tossing around the idea of relocating their corporate HQ (because CCP was by far the biggest source of foreign currency for the country at a time when it was fleeing fast as their banks collapsed, and some people were apparently talking about nationalizing them).  They may simply have been desperate to raise short-term revenues and the long-term consequences weren't in the mix.

--Dave

[Gets]

Even though I was a big fan of ghost training it was evident that people were using that option to create characters for the sole purpose of selling them, thus getting more ISK out of the investment over a longer time period compared to normal timecode conversion from secure sales. Heck, I was one of them and I quite enjoyed training an alt as a hobby.

Of course at the time the decision seemed stupid as hell, with ghost training being friendlily mentioned in the game documentation and 30 and 90 day timecodes having been changed to a - significantly pricier - 60 day one a little bit earlier. The character I had to stop subscribing with thanks to these changes I ended up just giving to a friend, so it's all good now.

Looking for a cause in the economic situation is valid as well. I blame Iceland for thinking they had more financial worth from things other than fish and lava.

[Jayce]

Even though I was a big fan of ghost training it was evident that people were using that option to create characters for the sole purpose of selling them, thus getting more ISK out of the investment over a longer time period compared to normal timecode conversion from secure sales. Heck, I was one of them and I quite enjoyed training an alt as a hobby.

And IMO there isn't a damn thing wrong with doing that.  It added another dimension to buying timecodes which can only benefit CCP, the seller and the buyer, and it created another metagame for certain types to play.  For no discernible reason I can see, they took it out.  But again, 

[Amarr HM]

In the end it came down to needing more people to regularly pay for subscriptions I think it makes some sense, but the GTC inflation is what's gotten me they've more than doubled in value since then.

[gryeyes]

Kind of suprised it did not have the reverse effect and lower active subscriptions. Id always renew my sub when my 30-45 day skills finished training, play for a month then plug in another 30-45 day skill. Now i don't even bother. Im not sure what the psychological process is but when i have a long ass skill that offers a small benefit i enjoy EVE less.

[Furiously]

Kind of suprised it did not have the reverse effect and lower active subscriptions. Id always renew my sub when my 30-45 day skills finished training, play for a month then plug in another 30-45 day skill. Now i don't even bother. Im not sure what the psychological process is but when i have a long ass skill that offers a small benefit i enjoy EVE less.

I'm totally the same way.