In another one shard game, EvE online, people sometimes are concerned if they can ever catch up with the vets that started 2003. As an EU player i can only laugh on that : 

in EU,  players who start with the new skill system (stamina: 1 chars, in contrast with the stamina 7 or 9 vet chars) will NEVER catch up with the older ones no matter how hard they train or how much they invest, because of a change in skillgain mechanics. If they spend the same ammount of cash and spend the same time in hunting like the vets, they won't even get close to the vet's skills with that new system.

And that's the most frustrating thing i see with this game. In order to hunt efficient, you need to have high skills, so you can use weapons with high dmg/cost.

You can use them at highest effeciency if you are level ~100 in hit and damage profession. But you can't get there anymore, only the old characters were able to get there, before the change.

You see that vets with agility of 137, while you stuck at somewhere around 50 and spend thousands of peds in ammo (1000 ped = 100$) without climbing one level up.

Same goes for the evader profession, i chipped in till evader 22 - and since then i hunted dozens of hours med level mobs (argonaut-atrox etc.), spent several vivos t10 (L) for healing, and didn't even get half a level in evade  ... then i scan some vets and see a nice 68 or even 84 evader.

So one might ask - why do you bother about others, are you jealous ?

The point is that we new players have to compete with the vets. I'm not talking of pvp and oilrigs, where they easy kill any newb. I'm talking about indirect competition: if they hunt the same mobs with their ueber weapons (in terms of eco aka dmg/ped)  at an eco level we will never be able to get, sell the same loot - new player will always be on the loser side.  Because  the loot system is designed with taking them into account. You can't let newbs or mediums hunt close to break-even, as then those vets (which can hunt the same mobs more economical) will hunt profitable and generate loss for the company. But if you make the vets hunt at break-even, the newbs will make a solid loss on the long run (with their bad-eco guns due bad skills)  etc.

That's quite frustrating, i really can't see why the devs made that change in skillgain-system.

Won't deposit a cent anymore or spend much ped ingame, maybe will continue to pay when spaceships or new planets are introduced, and all players have equal chances to get skills.

It definitely is a money sink. People can get money from sweat but its going to take a really long time to catch up and be competitive with the older players. I'm talking a really long time. Even if you do catch up you will need to pump a hefty amount of money once your skill start going up to use stronger weapons.

And it doesn't matter if you are sniper level 10 or 30  you will not be getting any better loot. Other professions such as crafting and beauty are really expensive to start and coloring is really  really expensive. Plus older players have established themselves in the community and have leveled up back when it was easier and cheaper.