Making good use of the training queue
19th March 2009 – 10.25 amHaving completed some significant steps in my skill training plan I find I am a little lost for what to do next. I certainly have some more skills I would like to train but they all require over a week to complete and as I have just finished a few long skills I would prefer some more immediate gains. Reading about DeafPlasma's drones cutting through frigates and cruisers made me realise that my own drone skills are rudimentary at best, with my only saving grace being that I can launch five at once, the maximum my Drake can carry actively. To remedy this a quick trip to the market lands me with five new skill books, all ready to increase the destructive capabilities of my small fleet of drones.
Before the changes to the skill training system brought the addition of the queue I would have been reluctant to buy a handful of skill books all of which I wanted to train quickly. Each skill would have required some level of micro-managing initially, as the early levels raced by, distracting me from combat or other tasks, whilst once the early levels had gone I would be lucky to get a single skill level gain in an evening. A three-hour training period could be managed, but I would have to keep track of the time or stay in New Eden for an extended session, and anything longer would either need to be split up over several evenings or delayed until a weekend. Learning five new skills could take a week or more to get any significant progress completed.
The skill queue changes everything. It lets you train skills sequentially, as long as each skill starts within the next twenty four hours, including sequential levels of the same skill. Even before that, the new 'inject skill' option is useful. When previously I bought skill books I generally started them all training immediately before switching back to my target skill, simply so that I would have the skill ready in my character sheet instead of having to carry a fragile skill book around or keeping it in a hangar where it couldn't be used when required. Now this option is available without having to change skill training. Buy a skill book, inject it and the skill can be learnt whenever you are ready.
With five new skill books bought I inject each of them in to my character sheet and then open my training queue. It only takes a couple of minutes to get thirteen skills queued up to be learnt. Three of the skills I am learning to level two, two to level three, and all will be learnt overnight without any further intervention from me. I complete the queue with a skill that will take a few days to finish just in case I am unable to get back to New Eden the next day, but if I do the queue is always mutable.
The skill training queue is an excellent and arguably much needed addition. Rather than having to fiddle about with lots of little changes and keep track of training times, having to log in at specific times just to change skills, a single session can now maintain continuous training whilst allowing for significant progess to be made in different areas. It is encouraging to know that the next time I pilot my Drake the accompanying drones will be faster, harder, stronger, and all without having to micro-manage my skills. Indeed, as I pilot my Drake in to a couple of missions my training queue continues, updating me with progress as the first couple of short skills complete, all without having to make any more manual changes or carry a second skill book in my cargo hold.
EVE Online used to be mistaken for a glorified skill training simulator, because of the needs of micro-managing which skills are learnt because of social priorities or, more disturbingly, vice-versa. But this perception must surely die out with the introduction of the training queue. The queue only needs to be maintained a maximum of once a day yet can still be left alone for over a week, depending on the skill being learnt. It was a long time coming but the training queue might make EVE Online more attractive to many more players.
2 Responses to “Making good use of the training queue”
Drone skills are indeed, very very useful - T2 drones in an Gallente IshKur assault frigate are truly fun to play with. T2 ships are also very very fun, but they have shown me what a difference having good skills makes!
When you upgrade to a battleship, Tech II medium drones are a MUST.