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dareau
Member Posts: 2,390 Arc User
Dear Geko:
It is my understanding that the primary "holdback" of releasing the 9/9 space / ground trait split is the lack of space traits for many races, especially aliens.
And I get that. My KDF Orion Sci and Joined Trills both only have 7 "native" space traits. So in each case, they've been "forced" to run a ground trait or two in their selection for a while...
At least, until Crafting kicked in and they started collecting their level 15 trait rewards. And I do have one character (my main) with a "lockbox trait" on him. So now, these characters have more space traits than slots...
You had no problem releasing starship traits and leaving the boxes blank unless / until the player had the opportunity to collect traits via T6 ships and/or events like Delta Recruiting.
Meanwhile, their ground combat abilities are gimped, and get weaker over time, as the ground traits that had been occupying the remaining slots are replaced with space traits as I earn them.
Therefore, in the interests of both increasing the drive to earn traits via crafting (or outright buy them via lockboxes) and to "ungimpify" ground combat, may I recommend releasing the 9/9 trait split system ASAP with a note to the players on how to earn more traits to fill in the blank holes?
It is my understanding that the primary "holdback" of releasing the 9/9 space / ground trait split is the lack of space traits for many races, especially aliens.
And I get that. My KDF Orion Sci and Joined Trills both only have 7 "native" space traits. So in each case, they've been "forced" to run a ground trait or two in their selection for a while...
At least, until Crafting kicked in and they started collecting their level 15 trait rewards. And I do have one character (my main) with a "lockbox trait" on him. So now, these characters have more space traits than slots...
You had no problem releasing starship traits and leaving the boxes blank unless / until the player had the opportunity to collect traits via T6 ships and/or events like Delta Recruiting.
Meanwhile, their ground combat abilities are gimped, and get weaker over time, as the ground traits that had been occupying the remaining slots are replaced with space traits as I earn them.
Therefore, in the interests of both increasing the drive to earn traits via crafting (or outright buy them via lockboxes) and to "ungimpify" ground combat, may I recommend releasing the 9/9 trait split system ASAP with a note to the players on how to earn more traits to fill in the blank holes?
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
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The objection to the making the split now is a case of the "Perfect Making an Enemy of the Good". The condition describe already exists.
Meanwhile making the change now allows us to better use what we do have. I for example won't take the time to swap traits, it's just too painful. Thus I avoid ground content whenever possible, and don't enjoy it when I do have to engage in it (like during a FE).
To maintain that problem just to avoid some blanks on the character sheet is the height of foolishness.
regarding the space/ground trait split...
in order to prevent crazy over powering, you just have to pick the traits that will best suit you and have a mix for both ground and space. Then be glad that they don't freeze those selected traits like they do skills with the only way to change them is purchasing a respec token.
Sure... splitting them out would be nice... but watch out what you wish for here... They could take the existing 8 (?) trait slots and split them to 4 and 4... then laugh when the complaining starts that they didn't give us enough... or, more likely, they'll offer a zen store purchase of additional trait slots for some high amount of zen.
And... there is already a split of space/ground traits... from the Reputation tier completions.... so they've done what you asked :P
What's wrong with aliens... It's caitian and feresans who get the tail. We literally get 4 space traits and that's IT. Aliens still get stuff. So chill. It's fine as is stop being lazy lol
I mean the reputation trait slots are unlocked at some point, and we don't have any traits for those either until we unlock some!
Same with ship traits.
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It is a peculiar phenomenon that we can imagine events that defy the laws of the universe.
That used to be my thought.
Then, I've been seeing posts on the forum saying that Geko has "essentially already announced" this 9/9 trait split in the most recent podcast - with the disclaimer that "even though it's planned and in the works, the holdup is the lack of space traits for many races".
Said podcast also claims that upon the design / assignment of enough space traits to give everyone a "starting nine", the system "will" release.
I'd love to say whether or not I can "confirm" this, however, there's no transcript for me to read at my leisure, my schedule does not permit approx. 2 hours of "doing nothing but listening, uninterrupted" to the podcast, etc. etc. so I can only rely on what's being posted secondhand... That, and lack of transcript / official post to link to...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Species doesn't matter for Starship Traits nor Reputation Traits.
Species does matter for Personal Traits.
Simple as that...
There was balance before and a sense of compromise on what players wanted to specialize on (ground or space). I would still pick all ground traits and live with the fact that my character was not as good in space as he was in ground. It also was more or less of an incentive to create specialized alts.
But it's too late now, and I am pretty sure folks do not want the former system back.
It's a "reap what they sow" situation, almost a "third rail" one but not quite or just not as severe as the other third rails. Cryptic seems to be making a career out of that...
Back on Geko, I agree the reason is silly. There are plenty of lockbox and crafting traits to fill in the blanks. I sense either a nerf to the current traits, or new OP traits that will further aggravate the state of this game. Or they could just do it and move on, without releasing new stuff. Folks are asking for the trait split, not new traits.
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This. Because space is all about flying in circles and pressing the pew pew button. No real need for traits on that.
As for a more specialized character. The only real way see to do this is to put in a basic set of traits, ground and space. Say, 4 each. Then put the rest of them as unlockable through skills.
Which.. well... is already covered by the Specializations.
But with the system as it is. I've built a Klingon Tac officer that excels at ground combat, but is mediocre at best in space. This is not finished yet.
For this I set all my traits to ground traits. Skipping Increased Threat and Health, and yes there is a reason for not using the increased Health one.
Ground Skills are
Weapons Training: 9 ranks
Combat Specialist: 9 ranks
Special Operations: 9 ranks
Squad Commander: 6 ranks
Combat Armor: 9 ranks
Traits, right now I'm 3 points shy of finishing the full commando tree (teir 1 is all I have left). With all points in the Juggernaut System. Health and Shield Buff, plus ya know being able to just run over mobs.
The first tier under on the left, reduces the cooldown of both secondary weapons fire and non-weapon abilities. Total of 5 points.
Then for ground reputation triats, since I'm not at tier 5 in anything yet. Is set to all resistance, shield regen, shield power, and medical nanites.
Making my character a beast on the ground and well, maybe an epohh in space.
Off tanget there. So back on track.
Now as far as traits go. as they are right now is not bad. The reason to do the two load outs is A) for the min/maxers wanting the best of both worlds(which they have now) and
Now if they do add in the trait load out. I hope they do something constructive with this. Like tie trait unlocks to skills. You get a base 4 traits starting out, the reset you have to unlock via skills, or trait boxes(thats right spend that money on them). This way, other than the trait unlock via lockbox/ship, you don't have a trait unless you have to corresponding skill to go with it.
So, There's a base of 5 personal space traits already for every character.
Now, Personal Ground traits, there are some 25+ traits available. Of these, there appears to be five or six that are common to every race with the exception of one or two, but that could be changed.
What I see is a need for more space traits to equalize the options more.
First off, a quick glance at the page you linked shows 6 "basic" space traits, of which most races have the ability to pick 5 of the 6...
Back on topic, this line of thought echoes Geko's. Since we don't have enough "basic" and "class specific" free space traits to fill a 9 slot tray, we can't give you a 9/9 split.
Give us enough time to "create" 5 more "free" traits (so the Kitties and Pakleds can fill up) before we give you what you want... Since this split is "player driven feedback", after all...
Assuming that the page you linked is correct (it is a Wiki, after all, and there are lots of question marks for no icon), there are twenty "pay for" space traits scattered in the lockboxes, and 6 more that can be earned through the crafting system. Oh, I forgot, there is a space trait available from the mission "Surface Tension" listed there, too.
6 (basic) + 2 (class) + 1 (mission) + 20 (pay) + 6 (crafting) = 35 space traits. Actually more than this, but in every case of "class specific" traits, I only count the one(s) that would be available to a given class.
And you're going to tell me, with a straight face, that doing the split, now, and having players stare at empty box(es) because there isn't enough "free" space traits to fill that 9 (10) trait space tray - and then have a "note", even if it's in the tooltip, saying "more traits available through crafting and/or lockboxes - exchange" isn't going to "drive" use of the crafting / lockbox / exchange systems (and either directly or indirectly earning $$$ and/or metrics for Cryptic) to fill that tray, ASAP?
Or that players are going to fill their (after split) always-on 9 ground traits and never try them out in the plethoras of ground combat queues / areas - thereby increasing the ground combat metrics that mean something to someone and are currently "lacking" because of the "difficulties" involved in activating the 9 ground traits to make ground combat "fun & useful"?
Or that players aren't "effectively doing this already"? I mean, taking that aforementioned Caitian that only has 2 "racial" and the 2 "class" specific space traits - what are they doing with their current 9 slot tray while in space combat? Ground traits are of no help, therefore, by a slight bit of logical extension, those 5 "ground" traits are as effective in space combat as "empty boxes" - or the player has "ground via crafting" and "bought" enough traits to fill the entire tray...
Parting thought for our resident Geko:
Since you've "done announced this" as basically being "on the way to the players" - you've put yourself into quite the pickle. There's gonna be people requesting (and eventually clamoring / complaining why it's taking so long) to get this. Creating "free" traits does take time and resources that are hard to justify due to the lack of monetary return. "Shifting" some of those traits from the lockboxes and making them free will offend many players who have paid already. Doing as I've requested will lead to the clamoring and/or complaining about the grind and "blatant money grabs" necessary to fill the empty boxes.
It's practically no win, as usual on these here forums. However, my thought is that besides my request being the "simplest and least resource intensive", the amount of "happy or at least relatively happy" players this maneuver generates will "more than offset" the expected complaints / commentary that ensues from any move from Cryptic...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]