The second major segment of the free, three-part Incursion expansion for Eve Online will go live tomorrow. The update will give all players the new Echelon ship and remove all learning skills from the game. Read on for more details.
In Eve Online, skills aren't earned through experience, they're trained over a period of time. Learning skills would let players gradually increase their character's attributes, allowing them to train other skills faster. As of tomorrow they will be gone. CCP decided that the long term return for learning skills wasn't good enough, and that they ultimately added unnecessary complication to player advancement. As well as reimbursing skillpoints, CCP will be giving all players extra attribute points to ensure that nobody trains slower as a result of the changes
There's a full FAQ on the Eve website explaining the ins and outs of the decision to scrap learning skills. Like many things in Eve Online, it involves graphs. Check out the patch notes for an overview of the changes tomorrow's update will bring, and the Eve Online blog post for more information on the new ship. The update was due to go live today, but technical issues have delayed the patch for 24 hours.
