The main thing with the new system is the design choice to force trade-offs.
I will not argue whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. It could be both, depending on your point of view.
But psychologically, I think most players are going to end up feeling unsatisfied precisely because the trade-offs are now very much in-your-face whereas before they weren't quite as evident.
The main thing I have going through my head, about this change, is every other major change that we've experienced in this game, we've experienced major issues, and told everything is "working as intended" (for months on end), until enough people show them its not. When it got time to fix the problem, the other half measures conflict and bugger things up.
Cryptic,
Please take the time to REALLY beta this, and LISTEN to the feedback. Thhe players shouldn't have to be told everything is "working as intended", it should be apparent by the end result.
The main thing I have going through my head, about this change, is every other major change that we've experienced in this game, we've experienced major issues, and told everything is "working as intended" (for months on end), until enough people show them its not. When it got time to fix the problem, the other half measures conflict and bugger things up.
Cryptic,
Please take the time to REALLY beta this, and LISTEN to the feedback. Thhe players shouldn't have to be told everything is "working as intended", it should be apparent by the end result.
Bingo. It seems that often times, developers get somewhat defensive and try to justify blatant issues instead of saying "Hmmm...that's a good point". Heretic DID listen to feedback with an open mind and we ended up with the Doffing system...a system so solid it has been the copypasta basis for the fleet system and admiralty system.
Please, devs...listen with an open mind......dont rush this.
I used to be with it, but then they're changing what *it* was. Now what I'm with isn't *it*, and what's *it* seems weird and scary to me.
When 1st announced there was optimism but also some trepidation regarding this skill revamp from the 1st few posts. Now the majority of what i see after players have seen it live is far more resistance and negativity towards it. Maybe this is due to not liking the UI, or that current builds aren't easy to replicate, the cost of tinkering if a mistake is made once live on holodeck, or the readjustment of certain powers and consoles putting them below current standards.
Personally i think this revamp is a complete waste of resources and time when you have year old bugs and recent bugs that go unfixed, but! you decided to restructure a system that was working fine.
When are doff assignments going to be fixed so the UI doesn't hide and refresh itself after loading an assignment for example.
I believe that the line "Players Lose Nothing" from the Skill System Revamp blog will be the new tag line of infamy,
right up there with "Delta Rising is the best expansion ever, and the players love it".
I believe that the line "Players Lose Nothing" from the Skill System Revamp blog will be the new tag line of infamy,
right up there with "Delta Rising is the best expansion ever, and the players love it".
The main thing with the new system is the design choice to force trade-offs.
I will not argue whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. It could be both, depending on your point of view.
But psychologically, I think most players are going to end up feeling unsatisfied precisely because the trade-offs are now very much in-your-face whereas before they weren't quite as evident.
I dunno. I can see one place where they are blatant and that's the progression unlocks. The rest of it is not really much in the way of direct trade offs. To me, the biggest difference is that I can't spec a character to be able to do ALL the training manuals in their branch. But there's a lot less skills that are captain trained now. So I'm really not missing that many skills to train.
I see a bad moon rising for some folks who like to complain...
**SNIP**
Personally, Reading about it, informs me, but leaves me in the dark as to how it performs for me.
I'll reserve judgement till I actually get to figure it out on Tribble and then the Holodeck.
Agreed, though the "skill tree" practice ad nauseam is so derivative at this point that many of us are numb to its repetitious use. I'm saddened because the skill point distribution as it was seemed pretty clear cut to me, as I knew into what systems I was pouring my expertise. I KNEW what I was getting. This not only looks like a dumbing down of the game, but is less informative about into what you're pouring your skills. I'm not a fan, but I'll reserve final judgment until after I've tried it.
Agreed, though the "skill tree" practice ad nauseam is so derivative at this point that many of us are numb to its repetitious use. I'm saddened because the skill point distribution as it was seemed pretty clear cut to me, as I knew into what systems I was pouring my expertise. I KNEW what I was getting. This not only looks like a dumbing down of the game, but is less informative about into what you're pouring your skills. I'm not a fan, but I'll reserve final judgment until after I've tried it.
Look at the old tooltip for Starship Particle Generators, and look at the tooltip for Exotic Particle Generators in the new system.
I think the new system is much more telling.
Understanding what PG used to do was an example of "tribal knowledge", I think - or extreme heavy testing with all the powers you had and lots of skill respec.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Agreed, though the "skill tree" practice ad nauseam is so derivative at this point that many of us are numb to its repetitious use. I'm saddened because the skill point distribution as it was seemed pretty clear cut to me, as I knew into what systems I was pouring my expertise. I KNEW what I was getting. This not only looks like a dumbing down of the game, but is less informative about into what you're pouring your skills. I'm not a fan, but I'll reserve final judgment until after I've tried it.
Look at the old tooltip for Starship Particle Generators, and look at the tooltip for Exotic Particle Generators in the new system.
I think the new system is much more telling.
Understanding what PG used to do was an example of "tribal knowledge", I think - or extreme heavy testing with all the powers you had and lots of skill respec.
A fair point, but why not keep the current Skill Point system and simply fix the tooltips? For your example, what prevents the use of the more accurate Exotic Particle Generators tooltip with the existing Starship Particle Generators?
That's meant as a counter point, btw, rather than a direct argument against the Skill Revamp; it's still a work in progress and the devs are (for once) iterating things like base values to try and keep things more consistent. In the long run, a shallower slope for certain abilities may actually be better for the game, limiting outliers and making it easier to balance NPC's... though this does not currently appear to apply to weapons damage, which in some ways defeats the purpose of rebalancing the Science end of things.
Still, the Skill Revamp actually is undergoing changes as a result of Tribble feedback, something Tribble testers have long complained about; that alone deserves some positive recognition.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Agreed, though the "skill tree" practice ad nauseam is so derivative at this point that many of us are numb to its repetitious use. I'm saddened because the skill point distribution as it was seemed pretty clear cut to me, as I knew into what systems I was pouring my expertise. I KNEW what I was getting. This not only looks like a dumbing down of the game, but is less informative about into what you're pouring your skills. I'm not a fan, but I'll reserve final judgment until after I've tried it.
Look at the old tooltip for Starship Particle Generators, and look at the tooltip for Exotic Particle Generators in the new system.
I think the new system is much more telling.
Understanding what PG used to do was an example of "tribal knowledge", I think - or extreme heavy testing with all the powers you had and lots of skill respec.
A fair point, but why not keep the current Skill Point system and simply fix the tooltips? For your example, what prevents the use of the more accurate Exotic Particle Generators tooltip with the existing Starship Particle Generators?
Because it can't. The effect of the skills is not the same across all bridge officer abilities on the current system. It is not a simple "x skill means n*x %" .
The whole Plasmonic Leech scare was a good example for that - Some drain skills got a bonus based on 1/4 of the skill points, some based on 1/2, and others based on skill point per skill point. The skill revamp standardized this to the 1/2 rate - which "nerfed" Plasmonic Leech and Energy Siphon until Borticus raised the base values of these skills.
The same was true for aux power, too.
It requires a lot of work to get this right, and then there are still skills that make things extra complicated, like the different type of weapon bonus skills.
Then, the cuirrent skill system has this weird problem that each tier has different amount of skill cost - which also allows you to accidentally come up with a combination of skills that leaves some points unspendable. Which requires you to track back to figure out how to reshuffle skills until you us them all up again.
Then there is a group of bridge officer skills that is much harder to buff than others, since they require high tier skill points. Subspace Decompilers for example is very costly (ironcially, it might also offer the least use overall. Adding insult to injury, the skills offering resistance to what a skill like Subspace Decompilers does is a lot cheaper). The new system unifies some skills, and ensures that while you can unlock some skills only later, they don't get more costly.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Agreed, though the "skill tree" practice ad nauseam is so derivative at this point that many of us are numb to its repetitious use. I'm saddened because the skill point distribution as it was seemed pretty clear cut to me, as I knew into what systems I was pouring my expertise. I KNEW what I was getting. This not only looks like a dumbing down of the game, but is less informative about into what you're pouring your skills. I'm not a fan, but I'll reserve final judgment until after I've tried it.
Look at the old tooltip for Starship Particle Generators, and look at the tooltip for Exotic Particle Generators in the new system.
I think the new system is much more telling.
Understanding what PG used to do was an example of "tribal knowledge", I think - or extreme heavy testing with all the powers you had and lots of skill respec.
A fair point, but why not keep the current Skill Point system and simply fix the tooltips? For your example, what prevents the use of the more accurate Exotic Particle Generators tooltip with the existing Starship Particle Generators?
Because it can't. The effect of the skills is not the same across all bridge officer abilities on the current system. It is not a simple "x skill means n*x %" .
The whole Plasmonic Leech scare was a good example for that - Some drain skills got a bonus based on 1/4 of the skill points, some based on 1/2, and others based on skill point per skill point. The skill revamp standardized this to the 1/2 rate - which "nerfed" Plasmonic Leech and Energy Siphon until Borticus raised the base values of these skills.
The same was true for aux power, too.
It requires a lot of work to get this right, and then there are still skills that make things extra complicated, like the different type of weapon bonus skills.
Then, the cuirrent skill system has this weird problem that each tier has different amount of skill cost - which also allows you to accidentally come up with a combination of skills that leaves some points unspendable. Which requires you to track back to figure out how to reshuffle skills until you us them all up again.
Then there is a group of bridge officer skills that is much harder to buff than others, since they require high tier skill points. Subspace Decompilers for example is very costly (ironcially, it might also offer the least use overall. Adding insult to injury, the skills offering resistance to what a skill like Subspace Decompilers does is a lot cheaper). The new system unifies some skills, and ensures that while you can unlock some skills only later, they don't get more costly.
As to the the whole "because they can't" part... why can't they? They could keep the existing Skill Point system, fix the tooltips and behaviors "under the hood", without the change to the visual UI and build process. They chose to translate Skill Points over to Skill Tree unlocks with equivalent point values (from pips of 18/18/18/10/10/10/5/5/5 to unlocks of 50/35/15 and 60/40); those values tell us that they could have simply fixed the existing Skills without changing the UI we use to select them... assuming they fix Exotic Particle Generators before launch, since that one is still a WIP in many cases.
Now the relative value is another point, though I don't know if it's in the Revamp's favor; a bunch of stuff got rearranged (mostly benefittng our Tac/Sci captains), but I'm not sure it's any more/less costly... just different. It will depend on individual builds how helpful these rearranged skills are, though since most of my builds came with both Sci resists and Sci boosts I'm seeing a net gain (even if equivalent results from the Eng portion of the Skill Tree are costing more). Overall, weapons damage is seeing a nice bump thanks to freebie offensive skills (Weapons Training, Attack Patterns) and new enhancements (Armor/Shield Penetration), while the actual impact of Science Skills is seeing a decrease at the high end and an increase at the low end (thanks to changes in base value and slope). The thing is, the relative value is good for some, bad for others, so it isn't really an argument for/against the Revamp.
Now Decompilers... that's a win. Sort of. Most of us will see more investment in it thanks to the massive conglomeration of Graviton Generators/Inertial Dampeners/Starship Sensors (Confuse/Placate resist only)/Subspace Decompiler/Countermeasures, or at the very least some investment in it... but how often are we really going to use a Disable? We're getting back to the inflated hitpoints of Delta Rising yet again, but it really does play a factor how useful these abilities are... in PvE. In PvP, the same consolidation that makes Decompiler (as ControlX) easier to obtain also means that most opponents will see an increase in resistance against the same (take the MACO deflector and Assimilated Modules as examples, both of which now grant improvements to ControlX). *Sigh* It's still mostly coming down as different rather than good/bad, but that was such a low-value skill that anything is better than what was...
Anyway, sure, the skills in the Skill Tree never get more costly relative to each other... but that does also mean that they don't get less costly either. It's again a case of different rather than necessarily better.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Space Points = 1 per level for levels 5-50 = 46 points
Ground Points = 1 per 5 levels for levels 5-50 = 10 points
I am wondering why do we only get points from level 5 - 50 ? why don't we get points from level 1- 60 ?
After all we are level 60.
Level 50 was highest level in the old days now we're level 60.
I'd also like to see that we can get all the skill points in the tree in time, so every time i get a specialization point or 10 specialization points beyond level 60 i could get a skill ? that would be good because people will have more reasons to "level up"..
Space Points = 1 per level for levels 5-50 = 46 points
Ground Points = 1 per 5 levels for levels 5-50 = 10 points
I am wondering why do we only get points from level 5 - 50 ? why don't we get points from level 1- 60 ?
After all we are level 60.
Level 50 was highest level in the old days now we're level 60.
I'd also like to see that we can get all the skill points in the tree in time, so every time i get a specialization point or 10 specialization points beyond level 60 i could get a skill ? that would be good because people will have more reasons to "level up"..
Points stop at 50 because that's where Specialization takes over. But getting points from 1 to 50 would be a nice change I think. And provide for the ability to make better, more rounded, characters.
Ah Sounds interesting but isn't this the Second time on Skill re-vamp I spent a lot of Respec Tokens LOL to get it right now. I hope they plan on giving some Respec Tokens out to re-do this skill Process.
Fortunately, I got a nice pile of Respec tokens on my newest 'toons from my LTS, so I guess these will be the test beds for my account. From what I have seen so far in all the discussions & screenshots (I personally do not have time to learn the Tribble system ATM), the skill tree works rather differently than the specialization tree. The skill tree appears to be a copy of the Spec tree, but with limited points available. If the Spec tree had the same limitations as the new skill tree, people would be getting out their torches & pitchforks a long time ago.
Not being able to see how each node in the tree affects others would be unacceptably punitive, and inevitably require multiple respecs to reveal the correct career path for a given style of play. The current system at least allows a degree of subtlety that does not exist in the new system. For example, if I want to broaden my effectiveness as a Sci captain, I can currently focus on the core skills of Part/Grav gen's, but add a point or two of the peripheral skills that enhance my weapons resistance, weapons performance, etc. The new model does not appear to have such flexibility from what has been reported.
I just hope that 10 respecs per 'toon will be enough...
Expendables Fleet: Andrew - Bajoran Fed Engineer Ken'taura - Rom/Fed Scientist Gwyllim - Human Fed Delta Tac Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
Then there is a group of bridge officer skills that is much harder to buff than others, since they require high tier skill points. Subspace Decompilers for example is very costly (ironcially, it might also offer the least use overall. Adding insult to injury, the skills offering resistance to what a skill like Subspace Decompilers does is a lot cheaper). The new system unifies some skills, and ensures that while you can unlock some skills only later, they don't get more costly.
The last skill tree revamp irked me so much that I left the game for three months (forcing a switch to a PWE account at the time didn't help any either) and only came back because of the start of the featured episodes. I was flying a science ship and specced in sensors, previously one of the earlier/cheaper science skills and then -WHAMO!- the sensor modifiers went to the last/most expensive end of the tree. Pretty much killed my build and wasted the dilithium I spent on consoles.
The skill change may not be as bad as some folks think it will end up. I just tried my (pilot spec) Tac (58) in both Space and ground combat with the results that I was one-shotting Tholian Commanders on Romulus with just a grenade (and maybe 2 shots from a mk 12 rep gun) and took down a D'rex in a system mission at 9km in just about 4-5 seconds. Bearing in mind I only use mk 12 rep kit the killing power seems to have been improved a fair bit so I would think a few nerfs may be incoming before we go live.
Reading the complaints about the pending Skill system revamp could my suggestion help?
1. talk to the skill trainer and select "Test a skill point" 2. Enter Holodeck and pick the point you would like to "try before you commit" (only 1 skill point test per visit at a time) 3. Start holodeck mission. (Mission could be anything as long as it can help the player see what the chosen skill can do). 4. After mission ends the chosen skill point could be highlighted with detailed information (like a end of mission report etc.) to help you decide to accept or reject. 5. Obviously once you have make your choice the only way to undo it is to purchase a re-spec token.
I think this would be a fairer way to deal with the skill re-vamp.
I played around on Tribble with a character that had several spare respec tokens... And I've gotta say I dislike the feeling of being forced into either/or choices with the new system and it feels like I'm being pushed into over-specialising rather than being able go more Jack-of-all-trades. And the fact this is the only way I can play around assigning points before I commit is royally stupid, New players are not going to know what works and what doesn't and will (maybe, probably) inevitabley make mistakes assigning points to the wrong skills leaving them with little choice but to buy respec points, which seems a shabby way to do things.
I would suggest something similar to the Power House in Champions Online. You can do a respec, then test the build in the test area. If you don't like how your choices work you can return to the skill trainer and reset without a token as long as you don't leave the power house map. Do the same in STO. As long as you are at the faction specific skill trainer map you can select your skills then try them on a test range map. Once you complete the test you could return to the trainer and beam out or reset as you choose. But once you beam out the skills are locked in requiring a respec token for a full respec or say the hefty price of 1 million EC per single skill point reset.
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
I would suggest something similar to the Power House in Champions Online. You can do a respec, then test the build in the test area. If you don't like how your choices work you can return to the skill trainer and reset without a token as long as you don't leave the power house map. Do the same in STO. As long as you are at the faction specific skill trainer map you can select your skills then try them on a test range map. Once you complete the test you could return to the trainer and beam out or reset as you choose. But once you beam out the skills are locked in requiring a respec token for a full respec or say the hefty price of 1 million EC per single skill point reset.
Borticus already explained why they didn't do that.
Comments
I will not argue whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. It could be both, depending on your point of view.
But psychologically, I think most players are going to end up feeling unsatisfied precisely because the trade-offs are now very much in-your-face whereas before they weren't quite as evident.
Cryptic,
Please take the time to REALLY beta this, and LISTEN to the feedback. Thhe players shouldn't have to be told everything is "working as intended", it should be apparent by the end result.
Bingo. It seems that often times, developers get somewhat defensive and try to justify blatant issues instead of saying "Hmmm...that's a good point". Heretic DID listen to feedback with an open mind and we ended up with the Doffing system...a system so solid it has been the copypasta basis for the fleet system and admiralty system.
Please, devs...listen with an open mind......dont rush this.
I used to be with it, but then they're changing what *it* was. Now what I'm with isn't *it*, and what's *it* seems weird and scary to me.
When 1st announced there was optimism but also some trepidation regarding this skill revamp from the 1st few posts. Now the majority of what i see after players have seen it live is far more resistance and negativity towards it. Maybe this is due to not liking the UI, or that current builds aren't easy to replicate, the cost of tinkering if a mistake is made once live on holodeck, or the readjustment of certain powers and consoles putting them below current standards.
Personally i think this revamp is a complete waste of resources and time when you have year old bugs and recent bugs that go unfixed, but! you decided to restructure a system that was working fine.
When are doff assignments going to be fixed so the UI doesn't hide and refresh itself after loading an assignment for example.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1174293/delta-rising-is-the-best-expansion-ever-and-the-players-love-it
Yikes...that was so much fun!!!
Original STO beta tester.
Good times.
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing
The trainer only sells the I and the II but not the III. And nothing on the skill tree has it.
Agreed, though the "skill tree" practice ad nauseam is so derivative at this point that many of us are numb to its repetitious use. I'm saddened because the skill point distribution as it was seemed pretty clear cut to me, as I knew into what systems I was pouring my expertise. I KNEW what I was getting. This not only looks like a dumbing down of the game, but is less informative about into what you're pouring your skills. I'm not a fan, but I'll reserve final judgment until after I've tried it.
Look at the old tooltip for Starship Particle Generators, and look at the tooltip for Exotic Particle Generators in the new system.
I think the new system is much more telling.
Understanding what PG used to do was an example of "tribal knowledge", I think - or extreme heavy testing with all the powers you had and lots of skill respec.
A fair point, but why not keep the current Skill Point system and simply fix the tooltips? For your example, what prevents the use of the more accurate Exotic Particle Generators tooltip with the existing Starship Particle Generators?
That's meant as a counter point, btw, rather than a direct argument against the Skill Revamp; it's still a work in progress and the devs are (for once) iterating things like base values to try and keep things more consistent. In the long run, a shallower slope for certain abilities may actually be better for the game, limiting outliers and making it easier to balance NPC's... though this does not currently appear to apply to weapons damage, which in some ways defeats the purpose of rebalancing the Science end of things.
Still, the Skill Revamp actually is undergoing changes as a result of Tribble feedback, something Tribble testers have long complained about; that alone deserves some positive recognition.
The whole Plasmonic Leech scare was a good example for that - Some drain skills got a bonus based on 1/4 of the skill points, some based on 1/2, and others based on skill point per skill point. The skill revamp standardized this to the 1/2 rate - which "nerfed" Plasmonic Leech and Energy Siphon until Borticus raised the base values of these skills.
The same was true for aux power, too.
It requires a lot of work to get this right, and then there are still skills that make things extra complicated, like the different type of weapon bonus skills.
Then, the cuirrent skill system has this weird problem that each tier has different amount of skill cost - which also allows you to accidentally come up with a combination of skills that leaves some points unspendable. Which requires you to track back to figure out how to reshuffle skills until you us them all up again.
Then there is a group of bridge officer skills that is much harder to buff than others, since they require high tier skill points. Subspace Decompilers for example is very costly (ironcially, it might also offer the least use overall. Adding insult to injury, the skills offering resistance to what a skill like Subspace Decompilers does is a lot cheaper). The new system unifies some skills, and ensures that while you can unlock some skills only later, they don't get more costly.
As to the the whole "because they can't" part... why can't they? They could keep the existing Skill Point system, fix the tooltips and behaviors "under the hood", without the change to the visual UI and build process. They chose to translate Skill Points over to Skill Tree unlocks with equivalent point values (from pips of 18/18/18/10/10/10/5/5/5 to unlocks of 50/35/15 and 60/40); those values tell us that they could have simply fixed the existing Skills without changing the UI we use to select them... assuming they fix Exotic Particle Generators before launch, since that one is still a WIP in many cases.
Now the relative value is another point, though I don't know if it's in the Revamp's favor; a bunch of stuff got rearranged (mostly benefittng our Tac/Sci captains), but I'm not sure it's any more/less costly... just different. It will depend on individual builds how helpful these rearranged skills are, though since most of my builds came with both Sci resists and Sci boosts I'm seeing a net gain (even if equivalent results from the Eng portion of the Skill Tree are costing more). Overall, weapons damage is seeing a nice bump thanks to freebie offensive skills (Weapons Training, Attack Patterns) and new enhancements (Armor/Shield Penetration), while the actual impact of Science Skills is seeing a decrease at the high end and an increase at the low end (thanks to changes in base value and slope). The thing is, the relative value is good for some, bad for others, so it isn't really an argument for/against the Revamp.
Now Decompilers... that's a win. Sort of. Most of us will see more investment in it thanks to the massive conglomeration of Graviton Generators/Inertial Dampeners/Starship Sensors (Confuse/Placate resist only)/Subspace Decompiler/Countermeasures, or at the very least some investment in it... but how often are we really going to use a Disable? We're getting back to the inflated hitpoints of Delta Rising yet again, but it really does play a factor how useful these abilities are... in PvE. In PvP, the same consolidation that makes Decompiler (as ControlX) easier to obtain also means that most opponents will see an increase in resistance against the same (take the MACO deflector and Assimilated Modules as examples, both of which now grant improvements to ControlX). *Sigh* It's still mostly coming down as different rather than good/bad, but that was such a low-value skill that anything is better than what was...
Anyway, sure, the skills in the Skill Tree never get more costly relative to each other... but that does also mean that they don't get less costly either. It's again a case of different rather than necessarily better.
I am wondering why do we only get points from level 5 - 50 ? why don't we get points from level 1- 60 ?
After all we are level 60.
Level 50 was highest level in the old days now we're level 60.
I'd also like to see that we can get all the skill points in the tree in time, so every time i get a specialization point or 10 specialization points beyond level 60 i could get a skill ? that would be good because people will have more reasons to "level up"..
KDF: Dahar Master Kan (Borg Klingon Tactical)::Dahar Master Torc (Alien Science)::Dahar Master Sisteric (Gorn Engineer)
RR-Fed: Citizen Sirroc (Romulan Science)::Fleet Admiral Grell (Alien Engineer)
RR-KDF: Fleet Admiral Zemo (Reman Tactical)::Fleet Admiral Xinatek (Reman Science)::Fleet Admiral Bel (Alien Engineer)
TOS-Fed: Fleet Admiral Katem (Andorian Tactical)::Lieutenant Commander Straad (Vulcan Engineer)
Dom-Fed: Dan'Tar (Jem'Hadar Science)
Dom-KDF: Kamtana'Solan (Jem'Hadar Science)
CoHost of Tribbles in Ecstasy (Zombee)
Not being able to see how each node in the tree affects others would be unacceptably punitive, and inevitably require multiple respecs to reveal the correct career path for a given style of play. The current system at least allows a degree of subtlety that does not exist in the new system. For example, if I want to broaden my effectiveness as a Sci captain, I can currently focus on the core skills of Part/Grav gen's, but add a point or two of the peripheral skills that enhance my weapons resistance, weapons performance, etc. The new model does not appear to have such flexibility from what has been reported.
I just hope that 10 respecs per 'toon will be enough...
Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci
Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac
Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
The last skill tree revamp irked me so much that I left the game for three months (forcing a switch to a PWE account at the time didn't help any either) and only came back because of the start of the featured episodes. I was flying a science ship and specced in sensors, previously one of the earlier/cheaper science skills and then -WHAMO!- the sensor modifiers went to the last/most expensive end of the tree. Pretty much killed my build and wasted the dilithium I spent on consoles.
I am not looking forward to this change
Still waiting to be able to use forum titles
1. talk to the skill trainer and select "Test a skill point"
2. Enter Holodeck and pick the point you would like to "try before you commit" (only 1 skill point test per visit at a time)
3. Start holodeck mission. (Mission could be anything as long as it can help the player see what the chosen skill can do).
4. After mission ends the chosen skill point could be highlighted with detailed information (like a end of mission report etc.) to help you decide to accept or reject.
5. Obviously once you have make your choice the only way to undo it is to purchase a re-spec token.
I think this would be a fairer way to deal with the skill re-vamp.
Just my 2 pence worth.
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
Expatriot Might Characters in EXILE
Borticus already explained why they didn't do that.
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/comment/12877533/#Comment_12877533