I'm gonna point to this post by reefer and quote it, and address it's points. Because these sound rational. But I'm going to explain how in a multiplayer game they can be cancerous to long term sustainability of a profession within a competitive space.
I recognize it can be frustrating to not be able to compete with someone who has invested the majority of their UE in an archetype but isn't that the whole point?
It's not actually frustrating to not be able to compete, it provides a target to meet, the issue is when that target is years and years and years away. And thus you lack the ability to plan for the occasion where you can compete. Think about it this way. And the typical response to this is to just kill them. But... Let's get into why this is a silly thing from a psychological perspective. And why it's not just frustrating to compete with it, it's impossible.
1. Why should Solo's Incorporated pick anyone but the best to set up their security devices?
2. Why should Solo's Incorporated not protect the security tech that knows their network and is the only one who can take it down from them?
So you therefore have an occasion where, once you have reached the pinnacle you can be guaranteed two things, protection, and support from other high end agents, and so long as you maintain a veneer of neutrality, you also have a guarantee of lots and lots of profit, lots and lots of profit. And with salesmanship, even more protection. Because you can market yourself as the only one who CAN maintain these networks. This will persist until inevitably, the character retires or perms themselves from the top of this profession.
This is the core flaw of any system where one person can climb to the top of the pile.
If it takes too long to be able to compete with that one person, it's futile to compete. Because you legitimately can't compete until you supplant said person in skill level.
To literally, lower the ceiling so their expensive UE expenditure means nothing at those higher tiers seems to go against the design itself.
The design of any system within a PVP game should motivate movement within that system, and reduce stagnation.
The tools in the game allow PC's to broach those great heights if they put forth a comparative effort to the opposition. There are also huge logistical flaws in having one mythical person being the keystone to your operation - exploit them. The problem with this, is that there doesn't need to be comparative effort. There just needs to be enough effort to maintain connections. If no one will employ the scrappy midbie tech, because the oldbie with 2 years UE invested in skills and stats in this technical field is in some way better than them, and they don't want to risk the ire or loss of business from said oldbie? Then guess what, that scrappy midbie tech has no real motivation or desire to keep plucking along. There's no profit in it. And comparatively you just risk pissing off people around you by testing your technical skills. And the moment you get close to supplanting said tech, there's very little reason for the current top tech to not put out hit after hit, using his network, and favors accrued over the years of being top tech, to eliminate the potential competition.
The deck is too far stacked in a system like this.
So then the question becomes, what's an adequate way to solve this...
Well every other technical skill, doesn't function like secure tech, and if secure tech functioned more like AutoTech or AeroTech, then you would see a lot more ability to compete using effort. Hell if it functioned a lot more like I've heard grid decking and cracking works, you'd see a lot more capacity to compete. Because in those fields midbies can compete with oldbies, VERY successfully, by putting in more effort/pulling the right favors.
But as it is right now, for secure tech, unless you are king of the hill UE wise, there's no reason for anyone else to enter the field. Because you're probably gonna be about as good as just grabbing a gold securitech skillsoft, and installing the device themself to a client.
