If you check that pic, you can see the attribute points section, and the knowledge/acquirement points section. The bad graphic quality is due to the graphic card (onboard) being used when I took the pic.
Another difference between these 2 types of stats, is that knowledge points are earned on every level up, and as your lvl increases, you are given additional points. At lvl 20 you only get a couple of points, but at lvl 50 you get more than 10. On the other hand, attrib points arent lvl dependent, but "time" dependent. You will never "receive" attrib points. When you want to increase one of your attribs, just click on the + symbol next to it, and you will see a small timer. That timer indicates the amount of time needed for the attribute to increase. Theoretically speaking, a lvl 1 player could, with enough time, have all his attribs reach 45, just by creating his/her char and never deleting it. This is because attribs also train while you are offline, though at a decreased speed.
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How to apply attrib points:
For new players, attrib points increase automatically. As soon as your attrib finishes training, the next one will start training on its own. Which isn't quite effective if you level up fast. The best way to increase attribs, is to stop the automatic training by clicking on the X next to the attrib currently training, and doing it "manually". Each race uses 2 specific attribs, and 2 shared attribs. The specific ones are for equipping weapons, the other 2 are for equipping armor. Don't bother with the other races' attribs: while you could equip their weapons by training the required attribs and knowledge points, and even use the enhancers, you still wont be able to use their skills, so your own race weapons would still be stronger. When applying attribs, bring your 2 weapon attribs to 35, then your 2 armor attribs to 35. This will allow you to apply points into categories with Advanced type requirements. After that, bring the weapons attribs to 45, then armor attribs to 45. And so on. Attribs to 45 will let you use anything pretty much made for your race (as long as you meet the knowledge points required).
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NOTE: ALWAYS try to start your attribs while in Recruit Base server, since they will start with much lower time requirements. Starting them in Ice Planet seems to take almost twice as long, while in Armor Battle they take almost 3 times as long (thanks to Darkon for clarifying this info).
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How to apply knowledge points:
This is a bit more complex, since you have a limited amount of knowledge points, and there are many different type of categories with different types of requirements. Basically, pretty much all armor parts will eventually require 3 different "levels" of knowledge before they can be equipped. These levels are Primary, Medium and Advanced. For example, Arms can ask for pri/med/adv Mechanics, legs for pri/med/adv Thrust, etc. These different types of knowledge lvls also require different amount of knowledge points. Primary type requires 1 knowledge point to make the stat increase by 1, Medium type requires 2 knowledge points to increase the stat by 1, and Advanced type requires 3 knowledge points to increase by 1. So if a part asked you for, say, Advanced 1 & Medium 1, you would need a total of 5 knowledge points in order to fill those categories.
Some categories may share the requirements of med and adv types without specifically saying they are so, so its always useful to have a few points spare just in case (this is normal in bodies, which require the most points, and some of its categories use 2 and 3 points without saying med or adv).
Taking this into account, the best way of distributing your points is to give higher priority to some armor parts over the others. The ideal order is Body > Engine > Weapon > Cabin/Arm > Head/Legs > Core. The reason for this distribution is simple. Your damage depends on your weapon. In order to have a strong weapon, you need a high rank engine to provide power to it, and that engine will need of a high rank body to fit in. The arm is in most cases the part that adds the most damage, and that's why it comes right after the weapon. The cabin is also very important, since its function is similar to that of the engine, but cant be upgraded. Then legs and head come behind. and finally the core. The core is the least important part always, since what it does is not "vital" whatsoever. You can basically play the game with a rank 15 armor and a rank 1 core. In fact, for a long time most players used to equip rank 10 cores maximum (before the introduction of the purple r17+ purple cores into the game).
So basically, when you have to decide what to do with your knowledge points, remember that rule. Body, then engine, then weapon, arm/cabin, head/legs, core.
Another important thing is, when you have free knowledge points, save them, don't waste them. You should only apply them whenever your armor parts/weapons require you to do so (they will show in red which knowledge fields you need to increase). Knowledge points have no use other than letting you equip your armor, with the exception of research fields.
Research fields are passive buffs, that you can enable by investing knowledge points in them. They will enhance the performance of your armor in different aspects, some more useful than the others. Research fields are located under the Requirement fields (the ones that enable you to equip parts), and they also have their own pri/med/adv types. These types affect the related part by a % based amount most of the times. For each point that you complete, primary type research gives +3% bonus, medium type gives +5%, and advanced type gives +8%. Each type has 5 bars max, so the max bonus you can get is +80% (15% from primary + 25% from medium + 40% from advanced). For example, if you had "full research" (80%) for laser weapons, and you equip a 1000 damage laser, then the bonus would activate and it would add +800 to your total damage. Research can also improve your armor/energy shield/shield durability, engine power, cabin's CI, etc. Lately, for pvp purposes, many players are choosing CI research, in order to be able to equip their main weapons and 2 missile launchers at the same time (this is not required for all builds, though).
Research fields are very useful, but you should probably leave them for later on, when you are about level 50, since you wont see much of a difference before that point in game.
Note: missiles and shields shouldn't be your priority right away:
- Shields by themselves wont do much unless you have an actual shield build (and an endgame shield) , and 1 handed weapons have the lowest dps & dph. If you want extra "protection" during lower levels, you are better off using parts that add extra armor or energy shield durability.
- Missiles are very weak until you start using combined armors & rank 6 or higher missile enhancers (endgame), so they are not worth the effort at low lvls. For PvE purposes, only neos and enhanceds may want to use them for their AoE damage during trips to the instance map Exotic Planet, but with the inclusion of Gold mines, this is seldom done anymore. Additionally, missiles use the most expensive of all ammo types, so its easier & cheaper to make a natural human alt to farm Exotic Planet if that's all you need your missiles for. At PvP however, they are quite useful against evasion builds.
Regarding knowledge points for weapons, I ll explain a bit more about it on the weapons section, but basically, use the lowest amount of points possible for pri and med weapons, and switch to adv weapons asap. Ideally, this means putting no more than 1 point into the primary category, and not more than 3 into medium category. If you check the pic I posted above, you can see that higher lvl weapons do not need points into primary categories. For new players wanting to improve their damage a lot at lower lvls, some bosses in Recruit Base drop rank 8 arms with +240 flat damage.
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