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Skill Point Update
pwgroverclvlnd
Member Posts: 11 Cryptic Developer
While developing the Delta Rising expansion for Star Trek Online, there was a lot of work that went into creating the reward schema for skill points and the requirements of skill points needed to advance up through level 60. Throughout the creation and testing of these additional levels, much of the teams attention was focused on whether or not the rewards and the progression felt correct. Unfortunately, since the release of Delta Rising, we have discovered some issues with our initial math that have caused some anomalous player facing numbers that we are now addressing in our upcoming update.
The major issue we discovered is that we built our rewards off of how much of a level we wanted a player to earn by completing a given piece of content, but did not take into account what the actual number that showed up in the rewards would be. The end result is that if you completed a mission or duty officer assignment at level 49 and then completed the same mission or duty officer assignment at level 51, you would see a smaller reward of skill points for the mission completed at a higher level. While this may sound like players were getting fewer rewards than they should, that has not been the case as the required amount of skill points needed to achieve each level was set with these values in mind.
The fix for this is that we will be updating the skill point rewards throughout the game so that they will at least maintain the values seen at earlier levels, or in the case of critter kills increase in skill point rewards as you increase in player level. In order to maintain the desired rate of progression we spent a lot of time fine tuning while developing Delta Rising the required amount of skill points for each player level will also go up.
While there are a lot of numbers changing, we have taken extra care to make sure that the speed at which players level up will remain the same as it is now. This means that if a player chooses to level up from level 51 to 52 using exclusively missions and it currently requires that they play 3 missions to do so, then after the update it will still take 3 missions to level up from 51 to 52 if you use them as your sole source of skill points. This is true for whatever method a player might choose for leveling up whether it is missions, duty officer assignments or critter kills.
We will furthermore ensure that every players current progression is maintained while these numbers are updated. If you are halfway between levels 52 and 53 now, you will remain halfway between levels 52 and 53 after the update even though the total amount of skill points to achieve level 52 has gone up and the required skill points youll need to earn in order to become level 53 has also gone up.
We are sorry to be making such drastic changes so far after launch. Unlike the other changes we are making to tune balance, this should be a one-time change.
Charles Gray
Lead Content Designer
Star Trek Online
The major issue we discovered is that we built our rewards off of how much of a level we wanted a player to earn by completing a given piece of content, but did not take into account what the actual number that showed up in the rewards would be. The end result is that if you completed a mission or duty officer assignment at level 49 and then completed the same mission or duty officer assignment at level 51, you would see a smaller reward of skill points for the mission completed at a higher level. While this may sound like players were getting fewer rewards than they should, that has not been the case as the required amount of skill points needed to achieve each level was set with these values in mind.
The fix for this is that we will be updating the skill point rewards throughout the game so that they will at least maintain the values seen at earlier levels, or in the case of critter kills increase in skill point rewards as you increase in player level. In order to maintain the desired rate of progression we spent a lot of time fine tuning while developing Delta Rising the required amount of skill points for each player level will also go up.
While there are a lot of numbers changing, we have taken extra care to make sure that the speed at which players level up will remain the same as it is now. This means that if a player chooses to level up from level 51 to 52 using exclusively missions and it currently requires that they play 3 missions to do so, then after the update it will still take 3 missions to level up from 51 to 52 if you use them as your sole source of skill points. This is true for whatever method a player might choose for leveling up whether it is missions, duty officer assignments or critter kills.
We will furthermore ensure that every players current progression is maintained while these numbers are updated. If you are halfway between levels 52 and 53 now, you will remain halfway between levels 52 and 53 after the update even though the total amount of skill points to achieve level 52 has gone up and the required skill points youll need to earn in order to become level 53 has also gone up.
We are sorry to be making such drastic changes so far after launch. Unlike the other changes we are making to tune balance, this should be a one-time change.
Charles Gray
Lead Content Designer
Star Trek Online
Cryptic Studios Team Member
Post edited by pwgroverclvlnd on
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thx posting! won't read it all, that line was ngh for me. cause it really not is the first time of, or only example for drastic changes. and a lot of em seem worth a revisit imo...
So... what exactly is changing?!
You change numbers but make sure that won't have an impact???!!!
No, I am serious. I don't have the slightest idea what this post means.
(Edit:So we will see a Nerf of the DOFF Mission Rewards?)
Skill point rewards are increasing, but so are the amount of skill points you need to level up (net change: nothing). This is a player-facing issue to correct some anomalous issues where completing a mission at a higher level would seem like it results in less skill points then when completed earlier, as rewards were scaled purely according to time-to-level and not percentage-of-level.
[SIGPIC]Also, this poster rambles.[/SIGPIC]
The question that I have is this: after this "patch" going from lvl 50 to 60 is still going to be the same pain and horrible grind that is now or this is going to be fixed and alters are going to be saved from the doom?
Division Hispana
www.divisionhispana.com
'The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh' :rolleyes:
You said that the progression is working as intended:
1) You are going to standardize rewards for Doff missions and regular missions so that they maintain the same amount regardless of level.
2) As you level up critter kills will reward more skill points not less as is the case now.
3) Because of 1 and 2 and you want the current progression experience to stay the same as it is now, you will be increasing the skill point requirements to level up to offset the increased skill point rewards on 1 and 2.
Sounds to me nothing is changing on our end just a shuffling of numbers for appearance of giving us more skill points when in fact the goal post is being moved further away.
Like 2+7=9 and now it's 5+4=9. The end result is the same to the player. If I'm misunderstanding could you please clarify.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
And what the hell is that meant to accomplish?!
Am I supposed to cheer because bigger XP numbers are flying through my screen, while I just need more XP to level up, so NOTHING AT ALL really changes?
So.. the amount of points needed for leveling up is increasing... but at the same time, the rate at which these points are acquired is also increasing so that we still gain levels at the same speed...
So tell me what the point of this is?
And was there some sort of mention of a UI update in that post somewhere to address the UI not displaying the proper rewards? I really don't get what any of this means but it sounds like somewhere along the lines we're going to get hosed somehow...
Further, will this correct the ongoing issue of required skillpoints to trigger a promotion NOT matching the required skillpoints to fill up the skill bar at the top of the screen? (i.e. you will be hailed by Quinn for promotion at levels 54 and 59 when the skill bar is not actually filled up to level 55 or 60, and this may bork up your spent skills.)
Joined January 2009
Basically, they're giving a buff and simultaneously nerfing the buff.
:eek:
STO Resources: <Ship Comparison - All Tiers + Small Craft + Hangar Pets> <Damage Resistance>
<R&D + Upgrade Costs> <Duty Officer Finder> <Suliban Doff Reqs> <Fleet Costs> <Rep Costs>
<Keybind Tour the Galaxy> <Fleet / Armada Management> <Currency Exchange> <Other STO Links>
So it's bullcrap, really. Smoke and mirrors.
Why do they even waste time with this?
Mislead the players.
Ppl feel that they gain nothing after doing a mission or killing an NPC. Now they are going to see a big number, but is just a msilead, beacose now you even need more skills. But some naif players are going to feel better seeing thouse "fake" new numbers.
Division Hispana
www.divisionhispana.com
Nothing changes, but at least they're telling you in advance so that when you see bigger numbers and you aren't gaining levels faster, you're not TOO surprised. It's purely a perception-targeted, player-facing issue. I guess to alleviate potential concerns that there's a Skill Point penalty for doing missions outside of the finite level range they're designed for, maybe?
I have no idea.
[SIGPIC]Also, this poster rambles.[/SIGPIC]
I call you a liar I played 3 missions which I skipped in base story line and even the DR TRIBBLE missions and it barely touched the mars maybe a bar and a half not even equating to "THREE MISSIONS TO LEVEL" again my friends trtying to get me back the more the DUMBVS TRIBBLE the game up the more I will stay away not even going to log in and see what they are talking about. As they say this in post but release worse stuff in game.
Maybe beacose they know that they are lossing players and they want to change that by just mislead players with big numbers instead of fixing the real issue.
Division Hispana
www.divisionhispana.com
Genius
You do know what an example is, he said If it takes 3 then it will still take 3, not that it really takes 3....I'm confused as well but no need to be hostile.
Aren't people freaking out all over the place for the last weeks because the new level curve is TRIBBLE?
Their solution is to leave it as it is and change numbers without any impact?
How can you defend this without imploding 'cause of all the contradictions? Even if you are happy with the level curve as it is, there is no need to change numbers and "suggest" people are earning more then before while they are not doing so.
Nothing worse than getting hooked on the story and then having to go run the same mindless patrols for the umpteenth time to continue it.
(On a side note, I leveled my alts to 60 off mainly doffing alone in under a month.)
It did say that critter xp is going up, though, so maybe our net xp is going to be more? I certainly hope so...
Edit: Upon thought, it would be clearer for me to say that perhaps due to more critter xp, we may get a slightly faster net level progression...
but somehow I cannot bring myself to be that hopeful about that actually being the case