And this, man-friend, is why the new system is most certainly not 'easier' for new players. For frak's sake, just look at it! It's completely unintelligible! It's like staring at the Matrix, raw. :P
And this, man-friend, is why the new system is most certainly not 'easier' for new players. For frak's sake, just look at it! It's completely unintelligible! It's like staring at the Matrix, raw. :P
Really, its like many many many game trees, you mouse over the icon you see what the skill is, the linked ones open up in sequence and they unlock for use at the ranks indicated..
FYI - How to make it easier. Copy your toon to Tribble a bunch of times and test different specs. Now, if you want to wait until it comes to Holodeck, pick skills and then have to pay for a respec, then go right ahead. I'll use Tribble.
don't even need to do that, free respect tokens will be on tribble.
I'll reiterate and rephrase my earlier question. Are you going to make the Sci, Eng and Tac careers all worth investing with this new system? Are you implementing trees for each career or boosting each career's traits to emphasize that character's 'training and experience'. For example, Tac's apparently causing more damage with Sci abilities that Sci characters can. This is a prime opportunity to redress the balance here! The current traits provide very little value as consoles way outweigh current trait benefits.
Well as what is there clearly has jumps in the "trees" and all 3 trees there and several active... presumably spend where you want with unlock/level limits
A quick note for folks wanting to experiment with the new System:
When it arrives on Tribble, we'll have a test vendor available that sells free Respec Tokens, as well as bundles of 10,000 Experience Points. So please try it out when it gets patched to Tribble, and send us your feedback!
Jeremy,
I didn't really see anything that addresses the items we have? What about set items?
Ya I now have these engines that add +20 to driver coil, yet driver coil doesn't work that way anymore.
And what will happen to the +30 Attack Patterns of my Romulan Advanced Prototype Impulse Engines?! Or the Flow Caps on my recently upgraded Terran set?!
Some of these boosts may (behind the scenes) still apply somehow. But what about boosts to skills that are now part of a consolidated set of skills? Will a thing that now boosts, say, partgens, later suddenly boost the entire consolidated skill?! Or what about boosts to skills that are not unlocked yet?
Yes, questions.
This is not a simple skill change to the game. It is a major overhaul and re-write of the whole game! D&D tried to go simple and easy and it didn't work, it was a grand failure. This is a big computer MMO, not a simple little ap game so it is suppose to be complex and take time to learn.
I'm an old beta tester and this needs a long beta test not your simple couple of months on tribble then to live like you do. I work so I dont' have time to do a serious test on tribble. The reason the wiki's have no information is because you keep changing the game mechanics every year, and they just cannot keep up with the changes.
I can only hope that you really do address the forum issues people post.
^^ All so very true! No offense, but they can't even fix a single ability, like KLW, without immediately breaking it again in the process. The changes they propose are so incredibly huge, and so far-reaching, perhaps I should rephrase the old adagio to: "Don't break it if it's fixed!" Pretty please?!
I'd like to know a bit more about Coordination Protocols
Is this strictly for hangar pets, or will this also grant bonuses to pets that we can "summon"? I'm thinking separated saucers and the Aquarius (and its kdf counterpart) mostly.
Just hangar pets.
More buffs for the Scimitar! Odysseys and Bortasqus are for suckers!
A quick note for folks wanting to experiment with the new System:
When it arrives on Tribble, we'll have a test vendor available that sells free Respec Tokens, as well as bundles of 10,000 Experience Points. So please try it out when it gets patched to Tribble, and send us your feedback!
Jeremy,
I didn't really see anything that addresses the items we have? What about set items?
Ya I now have these engines that add +20 to driver coil, yet driver coil doesn't work that way anymore.
And what will happen to the +30 Attack Patterns of my Romulan Advanced Prototype Impulse Engines?! Or the Flow Caps on my recently upgraded Terran set?!
Some of these boosts may (behind the scenes) still apply somehow. But what about boosts to skills that are now part of a consolidated set of skills? Will a thing that now boosts, say, partgens, later suddenly boost the entire consolidated skill?! Or what about boosts to skills that are not unlocked yet?
Yes, questions.
This is not a simple skill change to the game. It is a major overhaul and re-write of the whole game! D&D tried to go simple and easy and it didn't work, it was a grand failure. This is a big computer MMO, not a simple little ap game so it is suppose to be complex and take time to learn.
I'm an old beta tester and this needs a long beta test not your simple couple of months on tribble then to live like you do. I work so I dont' have time to do a serious test on tribble. The reason the wiki's have no information is because you keep changing the game mechanics every year, and they just cannot keep up with the changes.
I can only hope that you really do address the forum issues people post.
^^ All so very true! No offense, but they can't even fix a single ability, like KLW, without immediately breaking it again in the process. The changes they propose are so incredibly huge, and so far-reaching, perhaps I should rephrase the old adagio to: "Don't break it if it's fixed!" Pretty please?!
If you're so interested in how the changes are supposed to interact with the current items we have, it might be a beneficial idea for you to head onto tribble when they patch it up with the skill revamp so you can test out all these item effects yourself.
Sorry that I have to admit it but given past experience with the administration of this product I also have a lack of confidence that this change will be made without major problems.
Depending on how exactly the transition of gear will take place this change has the easy potential to devalue months if not years of in game progression from the player base.
Let’s take flow caps! A single embassy console ads up to +37.5 Skill Points to our flow caps skill. That roughly translates to basically 1/3 (a bit more) of our current max in skill in tree.
If under the new system this policy is maintained and the console will still ad 1/3 to the joined flow-caps-insulator-mix all seems cool. If it does not however we look at a massive nerf and that’s what I’m afraid of the most at the moment.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
And this, man-friend, is why the new system is most certainly not 'easier' for new players. For frak's sake, just look at it! It's completely unintelligible! It's like staring at the Matrix, raw. :P
At launch, the skill system was fine in my opinion ... it required thinking and planning to optimize a build ... they just needed to explain the tool tips way better ... but then they caved in for something easier to use with a loss of customization ...
6 months down the road, this new updated system will still confuse brand spanking new players (even with upgraded tool tips) and then we are right back to where we are today, but with even less customization ...
I know the system needs an overhaul, but this is going to impact far more than making skill selection easier for players ... STO used to be unique in build customizations, but that seems to be going towards cookie cutter builds ... and that is not a good thing ... idk ... maybe I need more coffee or something ...
So, they way i take it, If my Engie wants threat generation, well, too bad it gets removed and him becoming the tank is no longer an option. My Tactical flying an escort with maxed tactical tree get threat generation whether I want it or not. No thanks. I built my characters the way I intended them.
It should have been simpler to make equal ground and space skill points, but I guess the devs want everyone to be DPS, no matter if they want to tank or heal.
I will just wait till it hits tribble, and if it blows chunks, I'll just stop playing.
"Eliminate Sub-Optimal Choices – Where possible, prevent players from making bad choices, and raise the performance “floor.”"
And their idea of preventing players from making bad choices? If there was bad choices why was it added to the game in the first damn place? Only bad choice is telling the players that they are doing it wrong. That's the beauty of choice. Different people play differently.
"Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations" Remember that quote from somewhere? Oh, wait, the devs must have forgotten that.
Sounds like the devs are forcing DPS Online instead of Star Trek Online.
Sorry, I have to add this in:
Threat Control (Ground):
We recognize that Threat Control has been a poorly understood skill option for some time, and "most players did not invest in it." While cutting skills was something we tried to avoid in this revamp, "we felt that removing this particular option could make room for more potent options" that can have a more understandable impact on gameplay.
Those sentences in quotes are one of the main reasons why Tanks and Healers are non existent in the game. The devs have force fed DPS down our throats so far, that is all most these players build for anymore. And removing options is not ADDING options. It just removes more customization.
Sorry that I have to admit it but given past experience with the administration of this product I also have a lack of confidence that this change will be made without major problems.
Depending on how exactly the transition of gear will take place this change has the easy potential to devalue months if not years of in game progression from the player base.
Let’s take flow caps! A single embassy console ads up to +37.5 Skill Points to our flow caps skill. That roughly translates to basically 1/3 (a bit more) of our current max in skill in tree.
If under the new system this policy is maintained and the console will still ad 1/3 to the joined flow-caps-insulator-mix all seems cool. If it does not however we look at a massive nerf and that’s what I’m afraid of the most at the moment.
Hi,
i would like to ask:
Can i a play with exotic dmg with a tactical character on a tactical ship? Can i have 400 part gen like now? Or an skill what will buff my exotic dmg? and can i hit big one with isocannon, isocharge and can i use the feedback pulse? my setup will be playable in the future?
i very liked my playstyle, iam not a big fan of beams or cannons. I only like the exotic big bumm dmg and some cool torpedo.
I hope i will can play my setup.
The change is always good. (maybe not for everyone:D)
I am grateful for the work you. I love this game and iam glad to the developments the new sector space and specializations are cool. and so on.
Thank you for your answer and iam sorry for my weak English.
And this, man-friend, is why the new system is most certainly not 'easier' for new players. For frak's sake, just look at it! It's completely unintelligible! It's like staring at the Matrix, raw. :P
At launch, the skill system was fine in my opinion ... it required thinking and planning to optimize a build ... they just needed to explain the tool tips way better ... but then they caved in for something easier to use with a loss of customization ...
6 months down the road, this new updated system will still confuse brand spanking new players (even with upgraded tool tips) and then we are right back to where we are today, but with even less customization ...
I know the system needs an overhaul, but this is going to impact far more than making skill selection easier for players ... STO used to be unique in build customizations, but that seems to be going towards cookie cutter builds ... and that is not a good thing ... idk ... maybe I need more coffee or something ...
On the cookie-cutter thingy, I read somewhere here, that falloff for both cannons and beams is going to be the same: great if cannons get a falloff buff, but not so great if both are brought to some sort of median (at which point we're looking at a major nerf again).
If you see @lucho80's post which I quoted later on, we know that the difference is the first point of a three node skill gives 55, the second 35, and the last 15 - which means they've effectively cut the options to spec into a skill by a third. Which means we do have enough information to make a generalised comparison - obviously specifics aren't available yet, but it is enough to be an indicator, and apart from the reduced flexibility that comes from taking 9 options down to 3, the revamp is slightly in a typical player's favour, although pure ground characters are getting nerfed.
It quite probably isn't even a nerf for them, since the 5 class-specific skills for each class are all being folded into one. They could probably spec their way back to, or reasonably close to, their old ground skills, with points to spare for the new stuff that will be filling those vacancies.
It will, however, make a character specifically made for ground combat somewhat redundant now.
Yes; I'm looking at it from a pure amount of stuff available to invest since we don't really know enough to speculate more than that at this stage, but you are quite right that it could be more bang for less buck to get the same result. We'll find out for sure soon enough.
Well isn't that great. I finally decided to respec my sci since I messed up, spent 500 zen on respec token and the next day they announce skill revamp, ffs
And this, man-friend, is why the new system is most certainly not 'easier' for new players. For frak's sake, just look at it! It's completely unintelligible! It's like staring at the Matrix, raw. :P
At launch, the skill system was fine in my opinion ... it required thinking and planning to optimize a build ... they just needed to explain the tool tips way better ... but then they caved in for something easier to use with a loss of customization ...
6 months down the road, this new updated system will still confuse brand spanking new players (even with upgraded tool tips) and then we are right back to where we are today, but with even less customization ...
I know the system needs an overhaul, but this is going to impact far more than making skill selection easier for players ... STO used to be unique in build customizations, but that seems to be going towards cookie cutter builds ... and that is not a good thing ... idk ... maybe I need more coffee or something ...
On the cookie-cutter thingy, I read somewhere here, that falloff for both cannons and beams is going to be the same: great if cannons get a falloff buff, but not so great if both are brought to some sort of median (at which point we're looking at a major nerf again).
I think they are about to do just that! Giving them the same basis. While a cannon user will profit from the new skill option to reduce damage drop over distance (if he goes for it) the beam user basically HAS to invest into it now if he intends to maintain current performance.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
I see Bort managed to avoid answering the question as to whether respecs would be free after the skill system changes. Safe to assume they won't be. Especially after the upcoming changes, respec tokens are a nice bit of revenue for Cryptic that I doubt they'd be willing to just give up like that. As someone else mentioned, this is one of the few/only games I know that actually asks that you pay money for something like that....
While I can see your point of view on this, I'm wondering if the reason why the respec question(s) are being avoided may be because they're planning something that they're not willing to tell us about yet. I can see them doing the typical week-long giveaway prior to the season rollout where one of the items is a free respec token, or having that as being one of the options for the "first time" playthrough reward of whatever new episode comes out then.
Either way, I know I'd feel more comfortable if we were allowed just a single free respec token simply because I worry about messing up on my first try when I "retrain" all of my characters under the new system.
For those of us who played before F2P, we all got a free skill respec the last time the skill tree was revamped. I'm sure we'll all get one now.
For all of us who played before F2P respecs were 100% FREE, you could buy tokens, but you could easily grind "Merits/Honor" points within a day to purchase a full respec.
Whereas now, somebody who only has 1 character would have to grind 20 days for a single respec at present exchange rates.
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." - Q
How about if we wait until we actually see the damned thing before we start jumping to conclusions and threatening to quit playing ? Oh yeah, wrong crowd
How about if we wait until we actually see the damned thing before we start jumping to conclusions and threatening to quit playing ? Oh yeah, wrong crowd
Wait and see the thing first? They blatantly tell you You are making the wrong choices and they are removing the choice you want to make so they can make you pick what they want you to pick.
Will have to see how this plays out but that this announcement comes right after a Bonus Upgrade Weekend could be unsettling. After pouring considerable resources into PartGen , GravGen, PartGen/GravGen Consoles, hopefully they will not be deprecated.
Post edited by ltminns on
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Will have to see how this plays out but the that this announcement comes right after a Bonus Upgrade Weekend could be unsettling. After poring considerable resources into PartGen , GravGen, PartGen/GravGen Consoles, hopefully they will not be deprecated.
Bingo!
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Well, I put a copy of my main char on Tribble and ready for the test to roll out. I'm having a hard time telling if this will be benifical or will a hinderance. It looks a bit simpler (which is good as I have a secondary I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want to do with). I see some points where it could be of help - I like grav wells but with the other abilities I needed elsewhere I don't have any points into decompiler for hold improvment because I needed them elsewhere - the new system appears will help aliviate some of the compromises I had to make with the combining of stuff. But my concern - well, Eng in a sci ship is arguabily a hinderance (I've seen pleantly of arguments on choosing ship based on career to the opposing fly what you like arguements - I like sci ships, I like CC, and eng's do bring some neat things to the table of a sci ship when I compare to a sci char I've got going doing the same things) - will this change make these desicions easier or harder yet for choosing a ship and it's loadout(s). On the other hand, will it make it easier to jump from a sci vessel to a cruiser to an escort to a carrier with the char (although I can't say I having issues in this repect though I can feel some compromises when choosing the loadout). So I've got my hopes, and looking forward to the test. :-)
Will have to see how this plays out but the that this announcement comes right after a Bonus Upgrade Weekend could be unsettling. After poring considerable resources into PartGen , GravGen, PartGen/GravGen Consoles, hopefully they will not be deprecated.
They will be IF you want to have strong weapons (tac) or healing (defense) as well. Currently we can pick which skills we want precisely and not spend points on useless skills. Soon we will have to add useless skills that eat up our points to get say grav and particles both. There will not be sufficient points left to spend for weapons and defense. However you can be sure there will be plenty for Tac to max out flow as well. You will not be able to replicate your build if you are anything but standard Tac faw under this new system. People may not believe this now but just wait and see the flames when this goes live.
This is designed to shed more freeloading veteran players and it will shed as many or more as DR. The hope is to attract new low IQ players who won't become lost by this skillzzzz system and will spend hundreds a month on the game which, believe it or not, is the desired amount. I like money.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Guys don't forget that this is WIP and it's not even on tribble yet... Itll be released with S11.5 in the spring!
So yes, there is still time to give thoughts and feedback... Once it is live in tribble server... My prediction later today at night or early next week!
For those saying: if it ain't broke don't fix it...
Please remember that a skill revamp has been the thing most asked since pre-LOR
What @comrademoco says, there's going to be plenty of time to go over this with a fine comb.
I do also find it funny how people seem to think the current tree isn't broken, it very much is. Not only can it add up wrong during the initial levelling of a character, but its a nonsensical system that punishes the more imaginative players by sticking skills at the far end that cost your good arm to use.
There's going to be an awful lot of compare and contrast work to do, not to mention the maths. If people want to spend their time complaining and not helping that's their problem, however the intelligent people will wait for this to come out on tribble and get to work.
Are you going to be snide every time someone asks a question?
If you can't be bothered to read, that's your problem, not ours. Same goes for everyone else who's questions could be answered by reading what @borticuscryptic and the blog already said.
As for specific issues on different powers, you can answer those yourselves by testing the insane combination possibilities on tribble instead of expecting us to do the maths for you.
Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides
I no longer do any Bug Hunting work for Cryptic. I may resume if a serious attempt to fix the game is made.
So, they way i take it, If my Engie on ground wants threat generation, well, too bad it gets removed and him becoming the tank is no longer an option. My Tactical flying an escort with maxed tactical tree get threat generation whether I want it or not. No thanks. I built my characters the way I intended them.
Yeah. I have 3 points in Threat Control (precisely measured for an increase in resists, to be able to spec 3 points less in hull plating). I like choice!
How about if we wait until we actually see the damned thing before we start jumping to conclusions and threatening to quit playing ? Oh yeah, wrong crowd
Wait and see the thing first? They blatantly tell you You are making the wrong choices and they are removing the choice you want to make so they can make you pick what they want you to pick.
Correction: they are offering you the option to buy respec tokens for when you inevitably make the wrong choices.
And yes, that will happen. Even spending a full week on Tribble won't be enough to fully grasp all the ramifications of your choices (like how consoles, space sets, etc. buff certain skill stats, down to their isolated elements in compound new skills). An incredibly amount of parsing will be required to get some sort of idea of what's going on (and that is barring the things that get fu-barrred in the process, and thus will parse as if not working at all).
Again, I re-iterate my question as to whether a grace period will be given, on Holodeck, for like a week or so, in which we can respec for free, in order to get it right.
Sorry that I have to admit it but given past experience with the administration of this product I also have a lack of confidence that this change will be made without major problems.
Depending on how exactly the transition of gear will take place this change has the easy potential to devalue months if not years of in game progression from the player base.
Let’s take flow caps! A single embassy console ads up to +37.5 Skill Points to our flow caps skill. That roughly translates to basically 1/3 (a bit more) of our current max in skill in tree.
If under the new system this policy is maintained and the console will still ad 1/3 to the joined flow-caps-insulator-mix all seems cool. If it does not however we look at a massive nerf and that’s what I’m afraid of the most at the moment.
^^ This man gets it!
From what I'm understanding, then yes, it will. Though if there is a stealth nerf in here, it's only going to affect people who aren't running a "traditional" all 3/6/9 points in their chosen skill blocks.
As others have pointed out, 3 "current pips" = 54, 6 "pips" = 84, 9 "pips" = 99. New system will - for 3 block powers - run 1 block = 50 (oops, a -4 nerf), 2 blocks = 85 and 3 blocks = 99.
So if all your current skills are 3/6/9, screenshot your build, find the appropriate area with that skill, and click 1-2-3 blocks as appropriate. Build replicated.
If your skills aren't like this (I am known to run 4 in Driver Coil a lot...), then you'll either have to underpay (and therefore get nerfed), or "overpay" - and buy to a higher level than currently ran at.
However, I posted earlier, after just the announced combinations / conversions to unlock mode, 30 of our 35 current space skills will be contained in 22 "nu-skills". With 50 points available, dumping 44 of them into the "old skills" will run 85s in these 30 skills, and if my belief that unlocks will give 100 in the skill, then 48 of the 50 gives everyone 85/100 in the entire current skill tree. So I'm not sitting here crying that people will be "overtly concerned" about "overpaying" for a skill or two...
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]
Does this thread now officially count as a DOOOOOMMMM!!! thread?
On a more serious note about the redundancy of specific ground toons. The inverse is also true. Specific space toons are also redundant, but I don't see anyone complaing about their space toon that they spent time/money/magic beans on.
What's so hard to understand about it? You specific ground toons, as well as being super awesome at ground, can now not suck in space and vice versa. It's not a nerf to specific ground toons, they will benefit.
Mostly what I see in this thread and in game chat is the typical reaction to anything new or any changes to existing mechanics and a whole lot of people hiding under their ready room desk with the lights off hoping that the nerfmonster doesn't hear them breathing.
I'm not going to go into detail, there's several threads and bug posts for you to read, but there is a lot of 'borken' in this game, as anyone who knows how the many elements that make up this game interact will tell you, and it looks to me like this revamp is a step to remedy that. (and yes, the combination of bork and broken was intentional)
"So my fun is wrong?"
No. Your fun makes everyone else's fun wrong by default.
If you can't be bothered to read, that's your problem, not ours.
'Ours'?! You're part of some elite 'we' now, just because you're a Bug Hunter?!
Same goes for everyone else who's questions could be answered by reading what @borticuscryptic and the blog already said.
Yeah, no. Your odd grandstanding despite, I've seen even the greatest experts in this thread left with many unanswered questions (especially on the matter of console boosts, etc, on the new 'compound' skills) that frankly you have no idea about either. So, if you have nothing real to contribute, please desist from making all these snide posts.
As others have pointed out to you, as a professional Bug Hunter, you should purport yourself with some more decorum. Sad to see that you don't. Don't let the Title get to your head.
Comments
And this, man-friend, is why the new system is most certainly not 'easier' for new players. For frak's sake, just look at it! It's completely unintelligible! It's like staring at the Matrix, raw. :P
Really, its like many many many game trees, you mouse over the icon you see what the skill is, the linked ones open up in sequence and they unlock for use at the ranks indicated..
don't even need to do that, free respect tokens will be on tribble.
Well as what is there clearly has jumps in the "trees" and all 3 trees there and several active... presumably spend where you want with unlock/level limits
And what will happen to the +30 Attack Patterns of my Romulan Advanced Prototype Impulse Engines?! Or the Flow Caps on my recently upgraded Terran set?!
Some of these boosts may (behind the scenes) still apply somehow. But what about boosts to skills that are now part of a consolidated set of skills? Will a thing that now boosts, say, partgens, later suddenly boost the entire consolidated skill?! Or what about boosts to skills that are not unlocked yet?
Yes, questions.
^^ All so very true! No offense, but they can't even fix a single ability, like KLW, without immediately breaking it again in the process. The changes they propose are so incredibly huge, and so far-reaching, perhaps I should rephrase the old adagio to: "Don't break it if it's fixed!" Pretty please?!
More buffs for the Scimitar! Odysseys and Bortasqus are for suckers!
If you're so interested in how the changes are supposed to interact with the current items we have, it might be a beneficial idea for you to head onto tribble when they patch it up with the skill revamp so you can test out all these item effects yourself.
Depending on how exactly the transition of gear will take place this change has the easy potential to devalue months if not years of in game progression from the player base.
Let’s take flow caps! A single embassy console ads up to +37.5 Skill Points to our flow caps skill. That roughly translates to basically 1/3 (a bit more) of our current max in skill in tree.
If under the new system this policy is maintained and the console will still ad 1/3 to the joined flow-caps-insulator-mix all seems cool. If it does not however we look at a massive nerf and that’s what I’m afraid of the most at the moment.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
At launch, the skill system was fine in my opinion ... it required thinking and planning to optimize a build ... they just needed to explain the tool tips way better ... but then they caved in for something easier to use with a loss of customization ...
6 months down the road, this new updated system will still confuse brand spanking new players (even with upgraded tool tips) and then we are right back to where we are today, but with even less customization ...
I know the system needs an overhaul, but this is going to impact far more than making skill selection easier for players ... STO used to be unique in build customizations, but that seems to be going towards cookie cutter builds ... and that is not a good thing ... idk ... maybe I need more coffee or something ...
It should have been simpler to make equal ground and space skill points, but I guess the devs want everyone to be DPS, no matter if they want to tank or heal.
I will just wait till it hits tribble, and if it blows chunks, I'll just stop playing.
"Eliminate Sub-Optimal Choices – Where possible, prevent players from making bad choices, and raise the performance “floor.”"
And their idea of preventing players from making bad choices? If there was bad choices why was it added to the game in the first damn place? Only bad choice is telling the players that they are doing it wrong. That's the beauty of choice. Different people play differently.
"Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations" Remember that quote from somewhere? Oh, wait, the devs must have forgotten that.
Sounds like the devs are forcing DPS Online instead of Star Trek Online.
Sorry, I have to add this in:
Threat Control (Ground):
We recognize that Threat Control has been a poorly understood skill option for some time, and "most players did not invest in it." While cutting skills was something we tried to avoid in this revamp, "we felt that removing this particular option could make room for more potent options" that can have a more understandable impact on gameplay.
Those sentences in quotes are one of the main reasons why Tanks and Healers are non existent in the game. The devs have force fed DPS down our throats so far, that is all most these players build for anymore. And removing options is not ADDING options. It just removes more customization.
^^ This man gets it!
i would like to ask:
Can i a play with exotic dmg with a tactical character on a tactical ship? Can i have 400 part gen like now? Or an skill what will buff my exotic dmg? and can i hit big one with isocannon, isocharge and can i use the feedback pulse? my setup will be playable in the future?
i very liked my playstyle, iam not a big fan of beams or cannons. I only like the exotic big bumm dmg and some cool torpedo.
I hope i will can play my setup.
The change is always good. (maybe not for everyone:D)
I am grateful for the work you. I love this game and iam glad to the developments the new sector space and specializations are cool. and so on.
Thank you for your answer and iam sorry for my weak English.
On the cookie-cutter thingy, I read somewhere here, that falloff for both cannons and beams is going to be the same: great if cannons get a falloff buff, but not so great if both are brought to some sort of median (at which point we're looking at a major nerf again).
Yes; I'm looking at it from a pure amount of stuff available to invest since we don't really know enough to speculate more than that at this stage, but you are quite right that it could be more bang for less buck to get the same result. We'll find out for sure soon enough.
Like the time you changed all the games icons into indecipherable tiny squiggles for no discernible or beneficial reason.
I think they are about to do just that! Giving them the same basis. While a cannon user will profit from the new skill option to reduce damage drop over distance (if he goes for it) the beam user basically HAS to invest into it now if he intends to maintain current performance.
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For all of us who played before F2P respecs were 100% FREE, you could buy tokens, but you could easily grind "Merits/Honor" points within a day to purchase a full respec.
Whereas now, somebody who only has 1 character would have to grind 20 days for a single respec at present exchange rates.
Wait and see the thing first? They blatantly tell you You are making the wrong choices and they are removing the choice you want to make so they can make you pick what they want you to pick.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Bingo!
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They will be IF you want to have strong weapons (tac) or healing (defense) as well. Currently we can pick which skills we want precisely and not spend points on useless skills. Soon we will have to add useless skills that eat up our points to get say grav and particles both. There will not be sufficient points left to spend for weapons and defense. However you can be sure there will be plenty for Tac to max out flow as well. You will not be able to replicate your build if you are anything but standard Tac faw under this new system. People may not believe this now but just wait and see the flames when this goes live.
This is designed to shed more freeloading veteran players and it will shed as many or more as DR. The hope is to attract new low IQ players who won't become lost by this skillzzzz system and will spend hundreds a month on the game which, believe it or not, is the desired amount. I like money.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
What @comrademoco says, there's going to be plenty of time to go over this with a fine comb.
I do also find it funny how people seem to think the current tree isn't broken, it very much is. Not only can it add up wrong during the initial levelling of a character, but its a nonsensical system that punishes the more imaginative players by sticking skills at the far end that cost your good arm to use.
There's going to be an awful lot of compare and contrast work to do, not to mention the maths. If people want to spend their time complaining and not helping that's their problem, however the intelligent people will wait for this to come out on tribble and get to work.
If you can't be bothered to read, that's your problem, not ours. Same goes for everyone else who's questions could be answered by reading what @borticuscryptic and the blog already said.
As for specific issues on different powers, you can answer those yourselves by testing the insane combination possibilities on tribble instead of expecting us to do the maths for you.
Yeah. I have 3 points in Threat Control (precisely measured for an increase in resists, to be able to spec 3 points less in hull plating). I like choice!
Correction: they are offering you the option to buy respec tokens for when you inevitably make the wrong choices.
And yes, that will happen. Even spending a full week on Tribble won't be enough to fully grasp all the ramifications of your choices (like how consoles, space sets, etc. buff certain skill stats, down to their isolated elements in compound new skills). An incredibly amount of parsing will be required to get some sort of idea of what's going on (and that is barring the things that get fu-barrred in the process, and thus will parse as if not working at all).
Again, I re-iterate my question as to whether a grace period will be given, on Holodeck, for like a week or so, in which we can respec for free, in order to get it right.
From what I'm understanding, then yes, it will. Though if there is a stealth nerf in here, it's only going to affect people who aren't running a "traditional" all 3/6/9 points in their chosen skill blocks.
As others have pointed out, 3 "current pips" = 54, 6 "pips" = 84, 9 "pips" = 99. New system will - for 3 block powers - run 1 block = 50 (oops, a -4 nerf), 2 blocks = 85 and 3 blocks = 99.
So if all your current skills are 3/6/9, screenshot your build, find the appropriate area with that skill, and click 1-2-3 blocks as appropriate. Build replicated.
If your skills aren't like this (I am known to run 4 in Driver Coil a lot...), then you'll either have to underpay (and therefore get nerfed), or "overpay" - and buy to a higher level than currently ran at.
However, I posted earlier, after just the announced combinations / conversions to unlock mode, 30 of our 35 current space skills will be contained in 22 "nu-skills". With 50 points available, dumping 44 of them into the "old skills" will run 85s in these 30 skills, and if my belief that unlocks will give 100 in the skill, then 48 of the 50 gives everyone 85/100 in the entire current skill tree. So I'm not sitting here crying that people will be "overtly concerned" about "overpaying" for a skill or two...
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]
On a more serious note about the redundancy of specific ground toons. The inverse is also true. Specific space toons are also redundant, but I don't see anyone complaing about their space toon that they spent time/money/magic beans on.
What's so hard to understand about it? You specific ground toons, as well as being super awesome at ground, can now not suck in space and vice versa. It's not a nerf to specific ground toons, they will benefit.
Mostly what I see in this thread and in game chat is the typical reaction to anything new or any changes to existing mechanics and a whole lot of people hiding under their ready room desk with the lights off hoping that the nerfmonster doesn't hear them breathing.
I'm not going to go into detail, there's several threads and bug posts for you to read, but there is a lot of 'borken' in this game, as anyone who knows how the many elements that make up this game interact will tell you, and it looks to me like this revamp is a step to remedy that. (and yes, the combination of bork and broken was intentional)
No. Your fun makes everyone else's fun wrong by default.
'Ours'?! You're part of some elite 'we' now, just because you're a Bug Hunter?!
Yeah, no. Your odd grandstanding despite, I've seen even the greatest experts in this thread left with many unanswered questions (especially on the matter of console boosts, etc, on the new 'compound' skills) that frankly you have no idea about either. So, if you have nothing real to contribute, please desist from making all these snide posts.
As others have pointed out to you, as a professional Bug Hunter, you should purport yourself with some more decorum. Sad to see that you don't. Don't let the Title get to your head.