From EVE Online:
Skill Trading is a new option for EVE Online players to use Skill Extractors to remove accrued skillpoints from one character in order to create an item called a Skill Injector. That Skill Injector can then be traded to another character – typically for in-game currency via the markets of EVE – and used to apply a pool of skillpoints to the second character, boosting whatever skill levels they want to apply the skill points to.
In essence, Skill Trading is trading character experience from one character to another, a particular bonus for any secondary (or “alt”) characters if a player’s main character has a surplus of skillpoints in areas he or she might not currently use. It’s also a way for any pilot to reassign skills and further craft their characters, accelerate supporting skills, quickly get into an Alliance’s fleet doctrine, or jump into a new ship class a bit quicker than waiting out the training time.
EVE Online players have long been able to sell whole characters to each other through a forum-based marketplace known as the Character Bazaar. With each sale comes the history of the character, its name, and possibly its assets--but also its reputation, good or bad. While there is still a place for characters to change hands in the bazaar, Skill Trading offers more granular control and flexibility over character progression.
Skillpoints can only enter the game by being trained over time, after which players can now choose to extract and trade them to other players. Player-driven economies are the hallmark of EVE Online and Skill Trading follows the same principles that have been active in New Eden for over a decade.
Skill Extractors are available in the New Eden Store for Aurum, a secondary in-game currency, and via account management directly. They can also be placed on the markets as well, so purchase via in-game currency ISK will be possible.
Extractors always require a fixed amount of skillpoints to fill up—500,000. Depending on the skillpoint total of a character, Skill Injectors may provide diminishing returns. It is designed this way to favor skill transfers to younger characters while protecting the prestige associated with long commitment to a single character.
EVE Online has always been a universe of innovation, built upon the player-driven economies inside the game. Like the introduction of PLEX (Pilot’s License Extensions) years ago, which allow pre-purchase of a month’s subscription time to be sold and bought on in-game markets for in-game currency, Skill Trading offers a level of flexibility to EVE players who wish to trade valuable commodities between themselves.
The EVE Online Flight Academy has two new videos about Skill Trading and Skill Injectors.
For more information on Skill Trading, check out this page and read the latest dev blog.
Today’s update brings a host of other improvements to EVE, including:
- The ability to inject skills at any time regardless of requirements
- The ability to add untrained skills to a skill queue as long as they come after prerequisites
- Combat music for engagements
- Wreck hitpoint rebalancing
- Newly seeded skills for the upcoming and massive EVE Online: Citadel expansion’s Force Auxiliary capital ships and new fighters
- New Camera controls are updated and now opt-out. View the camera options in this YouTube walkthrough.
- More changes listed in the February release patch notes.
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