SOE has said again and again that they want to improve the new player experience. Now they have taken away passive cert gain for non members. So consider this speculative breakdown of new players: - The vast majority of new players are likely non members - As players increase in BR, passive cert gain importance diminishes in importance. The passive cert gain was 12 certs max for non members, which has vastly diminishing returns as a player becomes seasoned and increases in BR (as cert costs beyond tier 1 upgrades greatly exceed the passive cert gain) - New players are cert-starved, and small expenditures significantly enhance their experience. For small expendatures, you can replace iron sights with optics, get infantry shields, fire suppression / IR smoke, etc. This all adds up to the loss of passive cert gain having a significant impact on the new player experience. New players decide to become members when they are convinced they want to become regular players and invest in their future game experience. My solution: Reinstate passive cert gain for non-members at or below BR 15. There you go. SOE can still encourage membership by taking away free stuff for non members that aren't new players, while giving undecided new players an easier time certing out the lower tier improvements. What do you think?
I think a rested XP system would be better. Double XP for the first 3000 XP you earn (max after 1 day offline; not from ribbons/medals/etc) This would give the same 12 certs, but tied to gameplay. I don't think it needs to be BR locked either. It'd still be minor encouragement for higher BR players to put in at least a little time more often. By tying it to XP value instead of first hour or w/e it has same gains for new and experienced players alike... experienced players will just earn it faster generally.
I agree with this a lot. New players have been the best argument I've seen against the removal of passive certs. This way, new players don't get shafted, and SOE still gets their incentives for membership. Although, honestly, I'd say go BR 20 instead of BR 15. Because the mentor leadership service ribbons cutoff at BR 20, it would make sense to just have that be the kind of "graduating" BR to being a serious player/non-new player.
