Avatar progression

[Doer]

The active participant poll recently completed indicated that the third greatest concern of players is "avatar progression":

Avatar progression: A total of 42 % either "Strongly Agree" or "Agree" with the statement about "not enough opportunities for avatar progression" as a reason to reduce playing or depositing.

The discussion of this poll brought up comments that suggest that some people believe that the #2 concern (not looting good unlimited items) is part of this 3rd concern. My question is, what do you consider to be "avatar progression", and in what ways do you feel it's limited? What would you most like to see that would alleviate this, and do you believe it's inseparably connected with #2?

Please leave loot tt return out of this. It was concern #1 and is not the issue in question here.




For my part, I associate avatar progression with both the mechanistic portion of the game (skills) and the social/role-playing portion of the game (storyline, fame, personal expression within universe, etc.).

The first part is all about increasing efficiency and power. It's becoming uber, one step at a time. I'm not one of the people who made looting nice unlimited gear the #2 concern on the poll, because I recognize that a static population can't be flooded with increasing amounts of gear if the economy is to survive (that's another thread), and therefore expected to pay for my good gear (and did).
Missions I feel that the iron challenge missions give reasonable incentives in the form of skills and attributes, and represent a good addition to the game. They provide a mechanism for concrete, short- and long-term goals. Unfortunately, the announcement that the mission rewards would be adjusted in August, and the complete failure to provide an outline of what that will involve, has been a significant source of frustration for me. I had saved almost all the mission to such a time as I had naturally acquired attributes to a level that they don't progress, and as a result of this change, I have rushed through several missions to avoid losing forever the bonuses.
Perks Of particular interest to me are the attribute perks, the small advantages that can be gained by increasing attributes. These are not chippable and therefore are only available through "blood, sweat and tears" within the universe. I'd really like to see Stamina become the regen modifying Attribute, as well as see Intelligence and Psyche given their own perks. These provide players with direct rewards for their skilling and allow them to become more efficient without investing in uber equipment.

The second aspect is the chance to participate in the storyline, to play a role in events that will be remembered. The robot invasions are extremely mindless as events, and provide no progression in story or chances for individuals to play a role. It's actually become worse with shared loot mobs, because it doesn't require an uber (or a team of them) to defeat the big baddies in events. I have no delusions that a mid-level player is going to be decisive in an event, but to be able to say "remember during the first battle of Cimi when we held that landing site for an hour against the robot hordes"? To have memorable events that move the story forward and provide new settings and immediate goals besides "loot an exceptional part" would be great. I do appreciate the new mission chains with tokens because they at least have a progression, an ongoing (if usually pointless, incongruous or sparse) narrative, and a reason to go new places and do new things. That we can be asked to poach mobs and help people of widely varying characters, ethics, and goals without it leading to distinct outcomes (reputation, etc.) is not good.

Well I think that's more than enough from me. I'm one of the ones whose poll made concern #3 a top concern, because i'd like to see my avatar become more able and efficient through my efforts, and not just because of skills and professions, and like to participate in a story with events, not events with a story tacked on.

 

[Ludvig|MindArk]

For me, progression is to unlock new skills and to gain attributes.

However, the problem as a MindForce user is that Psyche has no known use... and MF Harmony and Force Merge really doesn't do anything (afaik) except make you level faster (not even faster health increase)



Adding a use to it would be awesome and add to my enthusiasm

 

[MartinXVI]

I like the regen idea, but it shouldn't be stamina based. MA turned off (and probably they gonna continue in this trend) a lot of missions where you could gain some stamina. This would be unfair for players who weren't lucky to be around. Also don't forget some avatars started with way more stamina.
It should be HP based, as it was before 1/20 every 20secs. It would force people to use melee or other professions like mining, it would be good for economy as well in my opinion. Yes it would be still a little bit unfair for newbies, but you can get to 120 hp no problem.

 

[mastermesh]

Yes, yes... I know you don't want to mix the loot concern with the skilling concern, but they really are sort of tied together... and the unlimited gear issue is tied to 'avatar progression' too even if you don't want it to be. The 'ladder' of sib has improved a bit in the last couple of years, but it's still very lopsided and there's a lot of holes in the ladder's rungs...

Puny mobs are boring hunting, but they have become my prime focus at the moment. It's a great way to get whip skills.

It is fantastic that there is now an iron man misson on thise little guys.

However, with this little viper whip, that does the same rough amount of damage as a kiwio, there's still a need of doing several hits on this mob because the puny have 10 health and the whip does 1.5-5.5 points of damage where 5.5 is a critical. If there's going to be weapons in game that do this little amount of damage there needs to be mobs in game that can be one or two hit kills without crits to balance that out...so bring on the itty bitty mobs below this level that have 5 points health - i.e. the puny sabakumba, etc.

Then, take that sort of mindset and do it for every mob in the game at every level... there should be at least one SIB weapon that gets you 100%, i.e. 10/10 ha for EVERY SINGLE LEVEL IN THE GAME from level 1 through level 100, and/or even beyond that to higher levels if they ever change it to add more higher levels later on... Right now there's big holes in the ladder in a lot of area, especially on the melee side of things. That is starting to change with stuff like the archon swords, etc. but there's still so much more that can be done. The fact that the number of whips in game can be counted on one hand is rather sad. The fact that whip is not considered enough of a profession to be counted as a profession in mayem is rather sad. The fac that taming's been gone for over 1k days is rather sad... Lots and lots and lots of potential to fill in the holes and fix all of that, not just with melee and whips in particular, but with every thing in game... Make there be a weapon in every profession that maxes at 10/10 in every professional level all the way up... Do the same with mining, crafting, etc. Add hundreds more pages to the blueprint books to make this possible. Start adding more blueprint recipies that require dung, sweat, fruit, etc. Give every level in game, and every avatar in game on those levels a real reason to exist... Give us a 'real' avatar progession possibility, not just a low level, mid-level and uber level, but thousands of levels and real reasons to be happy about being on any of those levels at any point in time.

Iron man missions were good move (although they ought to rename them for female avatars, lol)... but the fact that they are not 'repeatable' is sad... It is nice that there is one for so many mobs, but some people just like hunting certain mobs, etc. Why not let them do that mob over and over and over. It won't lead to 'gold farming' really since there is a set cost basically in how much time and decay it takes to do a mission... instead of just one puny iron mission there should be a seperate mission for each type of puny... same for every other type of mob and maturity... so as to give the folks that want to grind one thing forever (maybe the like the sound of that mob or the animation or whatever) the chance to progress without getting shut out once they do the one iron mission and then have to move on to another mob's iron mission, etc.

Blueprint and item drops in loot are pretty random it seems. Maybe if there is a 10/10 HA item for every single level in game, something like that could become part of this sort of thing... and integrated in to it somehow... repeatable iron man mission that gives you an item ideal for your level, or for the level that the mission you just completed would be nice. The token system has potential to make that a reality, but right now, it's not there yet.

Also, I really, really, really hate to admit this, or say it since I really, really really love the no loot box option, but the no loot option may have caused a lot of folks to spend less. I know it has me... Why, simple... what I'm hunting, or crafting, or whatever, I know how many peds per click I'm spending. With the no loot box option turned on total number of peds returned in the loot is right there in a text format that's easy to see as it scrolls by. That is good since it makes the 'gambling' part of EU (i.e. the no personal loot thing from dev note 2) more apparent... if I see that my returns are always way less than what I'm pumping in to the system, that makes me not want to keep on going. That transparency is good, but it shows you that 'real' progression is never gonna happen without a 'real' increase in deposits, etc.

 

[|| Sachi ||]

I'd think it's a combination of how hard it to skill to a high level, and also the cost/availability of high level items. With 200% on high level L armor, 200ped markup per XT, it's not much of a reward for skilling up, you'll become poor very quickly using them.

 

[Calin]

I'd think it's a combination of how hard it to skill to a high level, and also the cost/availability of high level items. With 200% on high level L armor, 200ped markup per XT, it's not much of a reward for skilling up, you'll become poor very quickly using them.

Exactly. Once you get into the level 30 - 40 range+ you get a huge slowdown in skill gains, and even if you manage to go up a bit it doesn't help a lot because the equipment you'd move up to is so expensive that most people can't even begin to think about it. Unless you have a lot of money to put in, mid-level is the end.

 

[Magix]

Imho, it's not skilling that's the problem. If people were happy with the items at level 10, they would use them forever.

The only reason for someone to skill past level 50 is to use the UL items.

Yes, it's hard to do and it's a real accomplishment. But, how many people would quit first? There should be a balance between the number of people who manage it and the number of people who quit because of it.

 

[valentin]

Imho, it's not skilling that's the problem. If people were happy with the items at level 10, they would use them forever.

The only reason for someone to skill past level 50 is to use the UL items.

Yes, it's hard to do and it's a real accomplishment. But, how many people would quit first? There should be a balance between the number of people who manage it and the number of people who quit because of it.

It took me 6 years to get to lvl 100, now i can start to use UL-weapons to max.
It was a hard work but it was 1 of my goals to get, now i only have a last goal and it is to get the skill Inution.

 

[Spawn]

When I started in 2004 I used the axe 1x0 to hunt young argo's . I was happy.

Then the axe got nerfed and stats were invented, showing players that their old school weapon wasn't "maxed" before that stats didn't show hit ability. the invention of hit ability made people want to skill harder, because they didn't do so good on their old school ep-40's and karma killers and their justifiers.
I moved from the nerfed axe 1x0 to the new tt opalo which did 10/10 and could be amped with an a10x amp or a20x amp, as did a lot of people. I was happy.
then Mindark decided to nerf the amps making the nicer amps impossible to mount on smaller weapons. So the medium eco gun that cost 5 pec per swing or shot didn't exist anymore.
But then [L] weapons were invented and aside from the reload which was crap, a breer m2a with an a102 was almost an opalo with an a104. So I stated using that.. but I wasn't happy anymore somehow this wasn't the same. When the gun broke you had to buy another one, and with that paying markup and again and again. You didn't actually own a gun.. you borrowed it and after a time you had to give it back (when it broke)
And while more [L] stuff came out which was bigger and better. I longed for my old axe 1x0 and the simplicity of the old days.
For me owning a useable unlimited weapon with acceptable reload and damage was the equivalent of happyness as a hunter in the universe. It still is.

Avatar progression for me means having the skill to be able to use an affordable unlimited weapon which is (nearly) maxed out.
I was using p5a's and korss to be able to get my pistol skill up to a level where I could shoot an old school pistol.
An impossible task nowadays at least when you have a normal life as well. Im currently level 51

Luckily for me, someone from next island screwed up big time and created unlimited blueprints to craft unlimited sib swords. These swords are affordable, do decent damage for the mobs I hunt, have nice reload and on top of that they are really eco. I bought me some philosopher swords and hero swords. I am happy
May be one day Katsuichi swords are available for me to use.. but until that day, I will be swinging these swords.

It's not really about avatar progression, It's about owning things that you like (to use). The avatar progression was forced on us. In the old days we didnt really know about hit ability and critical hit ability did not exist.

 

[Magix]

Another thought: Does it have to take that long? Also, does it have to be that high?

In Diablo 2 LOD, for example, the max level was 99. However, the difference between 80-92 meant only that you couldn't use a handful of items, usually +2 skill crafted amulets. After 92, there weren't any new items. In terms of damage, defense, effectiveness, skills etc. the difference was maybe 12 skill points and 60 stats between 80-92 and 7/35 between 92 and 99. It was great to be 99, but lots of people were happy at 92 or 80.

Once you got some starter equipment and/or some friends, you could blast through to 92 in a few days. I used to level to 80 in about 24 hours solo. However, 92-99 still took a lot of effort and time, maybe 6 months.

The points are:
1. There's a lower level before max that people are satisfied to be at, and it's not hard to obtain.
2. There's a higher level people can achieve and feel a sense of accomplishment, and it still takes a relatively long time to achieve, but not 5+ years and/or 10's of thousands of dollars. Imho, $10k US is the maximum amount of money it should take reach the max level in any game, but you should still have a relatively highly skilled character for even $1k, and a character who is decent in at least one profession for $100.
3. There's good items at all levels. Imho, there's severe gaps between 0-10 for laser rifle, 30-50 for laser/blp pistol, 50-70 for blp rifle, 30-35 for mining finders, 17-30 impact protection, and of course the well-known wep amp situation.

 

[das]

hmm let's see..
Better armor set would cost me 6* what I currently have
Better fap, 4 * my current fapvalue
Gun, 3* current gun value..
you tell me how to PROGRESS there..

 

[MartinXVI]

hmm let's see..
Better armor set would cost me 6* what I currently have
Better fap, 4 * my current fapvalue
Gun, 3* current gun value..
you tell me how to PROGRESS there..

Haha exactly

 

[valentin]

The active participant poll recently completed indicated that the third greatest concern of players is "avatar progression":


The discussion of this poll brought up comments that suggest that some people believe that the #2 concern (not looting good unlimited items) is part of this 3rd concern. My question is, what do you consider to be "avatar progression", and in what ways do you feel it's limited? What would you most like to see that would alleviate this, and do you believe it's inseparably connected with #2?

Please leave loot tt return out of this. It was concern #1 and is not the issue in question here.




For my part, I associate avatar progression with both the mechanistic portion of the game (skills) and the social/role-playing portion of the game (storyline, fame, personal expression within universe, etc.).

The first part is all about increasing efficiency and power. It's becoming uber, one step at a time. I'm not one of the people who made looting nice unlimited gear the #2 concern on the poll, because I recognize that a static population can't be flooded with increasing amounts of gear if the economy is to survive (that's another thread), and therefore expected to pay for my good gear (and did).
Missions I feel that the iron challenge missions give reasonable incentives in the form of skills and attributes, and represent a good addition to the game. They provide a mechanism for concrete, short- and long-term goals. Unfortunately, the announcement that the mission rewards would be adjusted in August, and the complete failure to provide an outline of what that will involve, has been a significant source of frustration for me. I had saved almost all the mission to such a time as I had naturally acquired attributes to a level that they don't progress, and as a result of this change, I have rushed through several missions to avoid losing forever the bonuses.
Perks Of particular interest to me are the attribute perks, the small advantages that can be gained by increasing attributes. These are not chippable and therefore are only available through "blood, sweat and tears" within the universe. I'd really like to see Stamina become the regen modifying Attribute, as well as see Intelligence and Psyche given their own perks. These provide players with direct rewards for their skilling and allow them to become more efficient without investing in uber equipment.

The second aspect is the chance to participate in the storyline, to play a role in events that will be remembered. The robot invasions are extremely mindless as events, and provide no progression in story or chances for individuals to play a role. It's actually become worse with shared loot mobs, because it doesn't require an uber (or a team of them) to defeat the big baddies in events. I have no delusions that a mid-level player is going to be decisive in an event, but to be able to say "remember during the first battle of Cimi when we held that landing site for an hour against the robot hordes"? To have memorable events that move the story forward and provide new settings and immediate goals besides "loot an exceptional part" would be great. I do appreciate the new mission chains with tokens because they at least have a progression, an ongoing (if usually pointless, incongruous or sparse) narrative, and a reason to go new places and do new things. That we can be asked to poach mobs and help people of widely varying characters, ethics, and goals without it leading to distinct outcomes (reputation, etc.) is not good.

Well I think that's more than enough from me. I'm one of the ones whose poll made concern #3 a top concern, because i'd like to see my avatar become more able and efficient through my efforts, and not just because of skills and professions, and like to participate in a story with events, not events with a story tacked on.

The problem is that we players do the missions because of the attribute and MA is the only 1 who thinks we doing that because of the skills like they said so its whay they do this "rebalance".

So no more missions for me after August 21.

 

[danimal01]

The problem is that we players do the missions because of the attribute and MA is the only 1 who thinks we doing that because of the skills like they said so its whay they do this "rebalance".

Indeed... After August 21st, I'll be onto better mobs that actually give me Markup in my loots

~Danimal

 

[valentin]

Indeed... After August 21st, I'll be onto better mobs that actually give me Markup in my loots

~Danimal

MA has only said skills as a reward and less attributes, nothing about better markup in the loot.

 

[RedThothCrowley]

MA has only said skills as a reward and less attributes, nothing about better markup in the loot.

He said he will be changing to mobs with better MU on the loot, not that MA will be changing the mobs loot tables.

 

[Deleted member 26456]

The problem is that we players do the missions because of the attribute and MA is the only 1 who thinks we doing that because of the skills like they said so its whay they do this "rebalance".

So no more missions for me after August 21.

well i'm a mid level player like alot others, i do the missions just because of the skill gain, attribute gain is a nice side affect.
if it was just attribute's i would not even touch most of these mission mobs anyway. i would be going after MU mobs.
so those who don't need the skills anymore are not the majority MA is talking about.

 

[Mulga]

Not a day goes by without regretting I didn't play this game earlier

But, progression is in the eye of the beholder. No way I can get to the level of those early players.

You can achive Commando and beyond with P5A and Gremlin. UR 125 are relatively cheap.

Sure, you won't be able to hunt Dasp and Osseo, but we can't all have Ferraris and holidays abroad : without paying for it.

Sometimes you just have to be content with what you have, play within your abilities and depo level.

Advertising and marketing (in general, and similarly in this game) is about telling you that you need to get something that you don't have.

Resist and be satisfied.

 

[SpikeBlack]

For me it's always meant skills and equipment as they go hand in hand.

As your skill increases you can use and usually get better equipment but when the equipment stops dropping (i.e. self supplied via loot) or when they become too expensive or too hard to find then you often end up doing the same stuff day in day out - i.e. your progression stops.

You can grind your way up the skills but if you don't have the equipment to make full use of them then it was pointless gaining them other than to brag.

Missions are to distract you from realising it.

Also don't forget that they nerfed skilling twice to stop us progressing and then brought in L SIB, so we could skill at a massively increased rate but also at a massively increased cost just to speed us to the point where we couldn't progress any further without more cost.

 

[|| Sachi ||]

Sure, you won't be able to hunt Dasp and Osseo, but we can't all have Ferraris and holidays abroad : without paying for it.

Sometimes you just have to be content with what you have, play within your abilities and depo level.

Resist and be satisfied.

I agree that's a wise approach in the real world; whether that type of philosophy/strategy from MA has/will entice new players and propel Entropia Universe to widespread appeal is debatable.

 

[Doer]

I agree that's a wise approach in the real world; whether that type of philosophy/strategy from MA has/will entice new players and propel Entropia Universe to widespread appeal is debatable.

Indeed. It's also debatable whether any other approach would be stable in the long term in a RCE. I think a lot of players forget that there are (almost always) people with much, much less than them economically and for whom the time value of money is orders of magnitude less. I suspect that a RCE "game" must provide a financial barrier to achieving substantially better chances of profit (i.e. uber items) or the gold farmers in e.g. China will suck the game dry with hundreds of "sweatshop players".

Considering where many of the "uber hunters" over the years have come from, I also suspect this is a real problem in EU even in the (past and) present state of things. The upshot of this is that most people should expect being successful in EU (in the sense of "beating the game" and getting, say, better outcomes than the majority) to be harder than doing the same in the market of their own country. You must either pay more or play smarter than the majority to be successful, or the game simply wouldn't work.

Anyway, this is why I didn't want concern #2 to be part of this discussion. The politics and economics of dropping lots of good unlimited items is a different discussion than what people consider to be "avatar progression" and what is good/bad right now for that. Stating that you feel that better gear is the main thing to progress your avatar and that the cost of upgrading to the next step is too high is reasonable. Nevertheless, i'm surprised that many seem to equate #2 with #3 and feel that in a (worse than) zero sum RCE, time investment (grinding) should be a guaranteed path to uberness (in the sense of skills AND gear). That obviously could only be the case for the first few to walk that path and an occasional, rare lucky one along the way.

 

[StarGlider]

Personaly dont think skills mean diddly these days.

On a maxed weapon, fap etc, the difference between each shot/heal is ridiculous.
Got a Mod LR53, thats well and truly maxed 3 times over, and my shots range from extreme low damage, to sometimes near full hits, dont get me started on the missed shots

My adj SK50, heals from 40 odd to 60 odd, if it's maxed, it should heal full all the time, instead it heals roughly 50 odd a heal. My 2600 always healed full heal every click.

To be perfectly frank, I have no idea why i'm doing mission mobs all the time, for skills that wont help me use my items more efficiently.
The only good skill to have, is health.

 

[Jimmy B]

My question is, what do you consider to be "avatar progression", and in what ways do you feel it's limited? What would you most like to see that would alleviate this, and do you believe it's inseparably connected with #2?

I think avatar progression entails everything that enables you to move your activities up a notch in your main profession. For me that's hunting, and I guess the main factors are defence skills, HP and equipment (gun, armour and fap) since I've basically given up any hope of ever reaching naturally (Hit) and (Dmg) profession levels that would enable me to use non-SIB weapons maxed. Skilling in general for me is painfully slow these days, particularly Evader & Dodger. I will shortly be unlocking Commando, so I'll have a nice HP boost soon. But I don't like the way the skill progression in the game encourages ridiculous hours of play in order to reach high levels. I quite like the Eve Online model where skill-progression is not linked at all to hours of gameplay. I think a balance between the two would appeal to me the most. Some sort of system where skill gains are higher than the current rate for the first few hours you play (or doing a particular activity) per day, slowing down to the current rate after around three or four hours, and slowing down even further beyond that. I don't know how popular it'd be but personally I'd like it.

I do think drop rate of uber unlimited stuff is also related to avatar progression. I appreciate we can't have dozens of imk2s, shadow sets, mod mercs and mod faps dropping every year but I don't understand why we can't have a small stream of them dropping, even if it's just one or two a year. Back when I started playing, looting some stuff like that, stuff that could totally change your game, was the dream. It felt possible. Now it doesn't, and that affects my desire to go out shooting. Even more frustrating is the way a bunch of uber armour sets are dumped into game every Christmas in a competition that lasts 5 days. What is the motivation to go on a regular hunt, when all the good items drop in events?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the robot event recently; it was the first time for ages that I felt I had a chance of looting something good, and I was more active than usual as a result. I just think it's disappointing these items can be dropped in events but for some reason can't be dropped from regular hunting.

On a maxed weapon, fap etc, the difference between each shot/heal is ridiculous.
Got a Mod LR53, thats well and truly maxed 3 times over, and my shots range from extreme low damage, to sometimes near full hits, dont get me started on the missed shots

Past tests suggested that a maxed weapon does uniformly random damage between the min and the max. Getting more skills doesn't change that; that's why we call it 'maxed'.

To be perfectly frank, I have no idea why i'm doing mission mobs all the time, for skills that wont help me use my items more efficiently.
The only good skill to have, is health.

HP, and the Evader/Dodger related skills. That's what I do the missions for.

 

[remontoire]

Avatar progress is the ability to do new things in the (avatar's) world, to experience the world in new ways, to be able to do things that were previously not possible.

While you can have quite a bit of this without having to use any equipment other than what you get from TT, you will eventually run into troubles, where you cannot progress any more in the above stated sense (leaving aside that you would continue to increase skills) without using better equipment. Which is why equipment is intrisicly linked to avatar progression. And this appears to be so by design, given regen mobs and ores/enmatters that are not findable with low depth finders.

Sure, this does not necessarily entail that powerful ul items should drop - it is enough that avatars have ready access to (L) equipment that would allow them to make use of their skill progress. But this would mean decoupling exceptionality of items from "requires high level of use", and thus dropping enough of these to retain similar eco to lower level items. This is not how EU is set up right now, though.

 

[Doer]

I think a balance between the two would appeal to me the most. Some sort of system where skill gains are higher than the current rate for the first few hours you play (or doing a particular activity) per day, slowing down to the current rate after around three or four hours, and slowing down even further beyond that. I don't know how popular it'd be but personally I'd like it.

I think that would be an improvement, and make sense given that MA's preferred demographic is probably people with jobs.

Even more frustrating is the way a bunch of uber armour sets are dumped into game every Christmas in a competition that lasts 5 days. What is the motivation to go on a regular hunt, when all the good items drop in events?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the robot event recently; it was the first time for ages that I felt I had a chance of looting something good, and I was more active than usual as a result. I just think it's disappointing these items can be dropped in events but for some reason can't be dropped from regular hunting.

The difference is that one is sure to be made public and thus get the most "benefit", while uberloots are not always reported. I do agree that it does suck some of the excitement out of hunting "out of season".

Avatar progress is the ability to do new things in the (avatar's) world, to experience the world in new ways, to be able to do things that were previously not possible.

While you can have quite a bit of this without having to use any equipment other than what you get from TT, you will eventually run into troubles, where you cannot progress any more in the above stated sense (leaving aside that you would continue to increase skills) without using better equipment. Which is why equipment is intrisicly linked to avatar progression. And this appears to be so by design, given regen mobs and ores/enmatters that are not findable with low depth finders.

Sure, this does not necessarily entail that powerful ul items should drop - it is enough that avatars have ready access to (L) equipment that would allow them to make use of their skill progress. But this would mean decoupling exceptionality of items from "requires high level of use", and thus dropping enough of these to retain similar eco to lower level items. This is not how EU is set up right now, though.

I agree with this, but what I see is that it IS becoming increasingly that way. The markup premium on higher-level weapons has been falling for years, making it possible to hunt at a similar eco for most of the range of DPS. The really high-level FAPs have always been cheaper than those that mid-level players can use because of their exclusivity. There's built-in advantage to being more skilled in terms of saving markup.

 

[Jimmy B]

The difference is that one is sure to be made public and thus get the most "benefit", while uberloots are not always reported.

True, but it wouldn't be hard to have looted high-end items trigger a global/hof type message of some sort.