Skill System Revamp Developer Livestream

pwlaughingtrendy

Come join us this Friday, March 11th at 1PM PDT on our official Twitch channel as BorticusCryptic and myself join up to showcase the new Skill Revamp system as well as answer questions from folks like you! For more information, you can find our announcement here.

We'll be pre-emptively taking questions both during the show as well as from our thread right here. Want to know more about the new Skill System? Confused about how this will affect your character? Do you have a question that isn't when Season 11.5 will launch? Ask ahead of time here!

~Morrigan "LaughingTrendy"

risian4

When will season...

I mean, is there any chance that the new system will allow those of us who have specialised ground toons to invest more points in that part of the skill 'tree'? And possibly to invest less points in the space part?

For some of us, those ground points are more valuable and a chance to specialise there would be appreciated.

primar13

Jeremy,

As someone who never really got to see the Original Stoked in it's prime. I'd love to see a Reunion Steam Sometime this year. Can you make that Happen?

Oh, I should probably ask a question about the Skill Revamp Too.... uh.............. I got nuffin...

Wait, I got somfin!

Are we ever likely, to See Special Skill Unlocks as say Featured Episode Rewards? Kinda like sometimes receiving Traits?
Or even better yet, a small sub tree, with Unlocks based around the Reputation System. Where you could unlock a slower Remod Time against Borg, or soemthing similar.

Also... Obligatory Question about Skill Tree Loadouts.


Also, maybe as a Future Update. I like to See, Special "Rank Specific" Unlocks. Where Maybe at Each Major Rank, you get to choose one of Three, Special Skills. These could be Lower Quality Versions of the Ultimates, Something new. Or maybe it would allow you the Chance to Choose between an ability, you wouldn't otherwise get with that Career. Like a Engineer getting a lower Quality Version of SubNuke, (Level 1), instead of Picking up (Level3) EPS Power Transfer. Would Provide a little more flexiblity, without removing the full need for separate careers.

evilmark444

Why was it decided to put hangar pet buffs in the skill tree, rather than in its own full blown specialization? It makes more sense IMHO for something so specialized to be a spec, rather than a small selection of skills.

risian4

primar13 wrote: »

Jeremy,

Are we ever likely, to See Special Skill Unlocks as say Featured Episode Rewards? Kinda like sometimes receiving Traits?
Or even better yet, a small sub tree, with Unlocks based around the Reputation System. Where you could unlock a slower Remod Time against Borg, or soemthing similar.

Also... Obligatory Question about Skill Tree Loadouts.

Good questions there

storules

Ground Revamp skills questions:

Many of us have dedicated ground characters. Its sad to see this change to a "normalized model" with the revamp... Is there a plan for people to still experience different parts of the game (space vs ground) instead? Maybe 5 Points as flexible where the player has to decide where to spend them (space or ground) so we can get this kind of differentiation again? IMO space is just pew...pew and doesn't involve much thinking other than just press"spacebar" when you have a good DPS system. However, in most ground stuff you have to use your "head" or work as a team. Why was this removed from the new skill revamp? Is this the new norm for future to come?

Thanks!​​

unicornfister666

How is Inspirational Leader supposed to work with this new skill tree? We're losing a lot of buffs from the old tree to the new tree with Inspirational Leader, which sucks for those of us who have spent a very large amount of EC, and Zen obtaining keys to open the box to get the trait that will now be nearly worthless without the massive buff to attack patterns and the other vital catagories of the skill tree that was removed.

huijian

I tried out the new skill system on Tribble and must say I for one am extremely satisfied. But, now that hangar pets are playing a larger role in gameplay, and have been included in skill system; can we expect to see hangar pets added to the R&D system as well?

blazeritter

First, thank you for doing this. It's a very nice show of faith, especially since I know there's been a lot of sensitivity around this topic.

However, I would request that in the future you do these types of things on a weekend, or at later hours. As do you, I have a job and can't spend an hour of my workday watching a stream about a video game. There will never be a time that is 100% convenient for everyone, and videos afterwards can help with that, but I'm sure others will have to skip this just because they are earning money (which can then be spent on your product).

I recognize that can be inconvenient for you, but would certainly be appreciated by many of your customers I'm sure.

borgresearcher

one of the points of the revamp is to get rid of the idea about going ground or going space, its all equal now, the way it should be so now you can be good at both, and no more excuses like "oh im not specced for ground so i suck at it"

captpatrick01

Yup... separate trees for engineering, science, and tactical skills on the same character from that screenshot. It looks open-class, as if your chosen profession no longer dictates what you can or can't set your build for.

evilmark444

captpatrick01 wrote: »

Yup... separate trees for engineering, science, and tactical skills on the same character from that screenshot. It looks open-class, as if your chosen profession no longer dictates what you can or can't set your build for.

The skill tree has -always- been open-class, which is a shame if you ask me. Only kits and captain abilities have ever been class specific.

drazzii

I see needing to be able to switch skill builds depending on which ship I intend or want to fly (because there are so many different ship types and play-styles). To that end, a single skill build cannot fit the needs for each play-style I may want to play on a given day.

Will we be able to create different builds and toggle which one we want to use much like the saved "ship builds" we have today?

Will there be an option to buy additional skill build slots from the ZEN store?

sarek93

Borticus touched on this briefly a week or two ago, but are there any updates regarding making respeccing/getting respec tokens easier?

I'm a LTS, so I got my free respec tokens, which I haven't used a lot of, so I have a few sitting around, but the whole point of this system redesign seems to be to get players to experiment and not just use cookie cutter builds (see, e.g., ultimate skills). But without cheaper (i.e. less Zen or moved to EC/Dil stores) skill respecs, I don't see much incentive to experiment when experimentation could be costly and you might not like it.

dareau

Couple of "starter" questions:

Is there some sort of "master guide" or "conversion chart" that'll help players identify exactly what "new" skill is the correspondence for the "current" skill?
I don't want to "misread" a critical skill and buy the wrong one...

Is there going to be a way to see our "current" builds post-revamp - or do we have to screenshot/take notes on every character we have?

I saw mention of "discounted respec token period". Are we looking at a 100% discount for 2-3 months or what?

homeboy2011

sarek93 wrote: »

Borticus touched on this briefly a week or two ago, but are there any updates regarding making respeccing/getting respec tokens easier?

I'm a LTS, so I got my free respec tokens, which I haven't used a lot of, so I have a few sitting around, but the whole point of this system redesign seems to be to get players to experiment and not just use cookie cutter builds (see, e.g., ultimate skills). But without cheaper (i.e. less Zen or moved to EC/Dil stores) skill respecs, I don't see much incentive to experiment when experimentation could be costly and you might not like it.

This is the main question for me: Will there be a reasonable way to respec without spending zen? It is really a shame to re-vamp a skill system and then force people to buy respecs until they get it right. I, for one, have never, ever purchased a respec and I will not. I am a LTS and as such have used some of the respecs I have attained but having to pay Zen for each one is bad for making the best use of the new skill system, IMO.

dragonsbrethren

What are some interesting builds you see players putting together with the new skills this revamp adds, that couldn't be done before?

eradicator84

How will the new threatening stance and cruiser attract fire aura interact with each other?
Both being on/off toggles for +threat.

farmallm

Can we have a transcript of this live event. For the ones who can't be on during it.

rllaillieu

My primary question (of what will probably develop into many) is this: Having tried this out on Tribble with a lvl 60 tactical officer, I noted that it appeared far too easy to select only tactical skills for the space side, far easier than it is with the current system, because some of us tend to like balance. So, how can we potentially balance the skills so that we have an even pool of skills and still be able to have an edge on the side of our chosen class?

Secondary question: Will there be a detailed giude explaining, in depth, how these traits work? I was more than a bit confused trying to read over all the trait descriptions that were available and then compare them across the board.

jcsww

As some have mentioned. The new skill tree system takes away from generally specing a character for multiple ships. This basically locks a character into a specific type of ship line, like escorts, because things like carrier pets are now a part of the skill tree. I have a few characters that fly one of each ship type that I switch back and forth from. This basically ruins that for my characters, as specing for a cruiser will not do for an escort and science ship type and vice versa.

I would like to see this system delayed and changed to the point where skills are broken down into categories.

Ground: Rifle (ranged), Shotgun (close range), Assault, and Melee.
Space: Escort, Cruiser, Science, and Carrier.

The way I would like to see those work is, each would be speced with the same amount of points, but the active skills would only apply to what is currently being used. If my character is carrying a rifle in the active ground weapon slot, then Rifle skills would be active and not switchable until I am out of combat. Space would be similar, but the tree that would be active would be based on the type of ship my character would currently be in. This would still allow players to specialize their roles based on what they feel like playing at that point in time, without ruining multi-role characters by doing away with the current system.

musicguru4

Thanks for holding the event - I'm definitely looking forward to it! Now a question for Borticus:

In a previous thread post, you stated the following about Shield Regen:

borticuscryptic wrote: »

To get back to approximately what you have on Holodeck, it will take one point in Shield Regen. The 2nd and 3rd points will take you beyond your old values by a decent margin.

Are there any other systems in the new skill tree that I would need 1 point in to get back approximately what we have now on Holodeck (like the Shield Regen as you mentioned)? I'm hoping to reproduce what I have on Holodeck so knowing if there are any other systems like that would be helpful. Thanks for your efforts on the new system.

megamanx82

Quite simply, why did you even bother redoing the skill system? There was nothing wrong with it. Like it was mentioned above, a lot of us have dedicated characters for either ground or space. The new system will destroy most of what we spent a lot of time to build and fine tune. I myself have high DPS toons for space and a sword user that was capable of soloing the Borg Queen. Under the new system, the potential to be unique is severely limited. I've had the chance to test all of my toons on tribble under the new system and have found that most of them have been severely nerfed.

So, instead of wasting time with a new skill system that will cause more problems, why don't we focus our efforts on fixing some of the major bugs and current exploits that are plaguing the game?

georikzaberisk

Some things I want to know if some of the "New Skills" like the shield reflect would work with gear and other skills like Feed back and the Nukara Shield.

I'm also puzzled by the fact that the weapon tree has a Energy+kinetic tree and a Mine+Torp tree. How will this be calculated damage wise?

How much of an effect does this will bring on the damage and usefulness of each energy weapons type?

The pets too how much will the new skills help protecting them against constant FAW?

And lastly how will you address the Skill Respec issues? Seriously the skill system you're implementing isn't really easy. It has lots of potential but the problem is the inability to customize due to limitations that is due behind the payment of Respec Tokens which I think would only make new players dismay because other games already have their skill resets for free or can be done by ingame monetary that can be earned through the game and not cash shop.

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dwwolfe

I have one and only one question.....

Why, for the love of Spock, did you decide to tie the pets so heavily to the Tactical Skill path? I have a Reman Engineer, that flies the Advanced Obelisk, (yeah, I know, old ship but still fun,) and with the new skill set up, her pets will be basically useless unless I take a considerable amount of points in Tac, which basically means her engineering, he chosen profession, is basically rendered moot. Has there been any discussion as to how this might be addressed, or even IF it might be addressed?

nikeix

dragonsbrethren wrote: »

What are some interesting builds you see players putting together with the new skills this revamp adds, that couldn't be done before?

Tinkering with the calculator I've got a Narcine-specific build way better than anything I can do Live.

spc1

Here's a question:

Why are we only getting 46 points in space and 10 points in ground, since we're level 60 ?
New skill system revamp brings alot of new skills because of level 5-50 limit we can't choose more than 46 skills.

It would be awesome if we could get skills from level 1 to 60 or continue getting new skills after level 60 so that players can "level up" even after level 60.

Let's say we get 1 space point every 10 levels of specialization and 1 ground point every 20 levels of specialization, people will be more motivated to "level up" and eventually get all the skillpoints in the tree, this would allow use of all classes of ships, not just limit user to one class.

jalification

I'm a hardcore engineer and I'm in love with the new skill system, specially the new treat where I get to tank even more then before.

However I have a concern/element of the skill system that I don't fully grasp yet.

Ultimate Ability of the Engineers feels underwhelming compared to the other 2 counterparts. Specially since the plasma proc can't be increased by skills or equipment (I've tested this on tribble myself). I haven't found a way/reason to use it since it really doesn't feel like an ultimate. How do you envision people using this?

+ Request which you are allowed to ignore; maybe an option to switch the ultimate ability from plasma damage to radiation damage when you want it.

breadandcircuses

Engineering Fleet on Holodeck provides a bonus to Starship Hull Repair, which Tribble shows converted to Hull Restoration; with the separation of Starship Hull Repair into two Skills, are there any plans to add Damage Control to Engineering Fleet (as was done with the Techie Trait)? Is putting Starship Hull Repair back together (pun intended) a possibility?

EPS Manifold Efficiency requires the Batteries Expertise unlock (equivalent to 100 in Starship Batteries on Holodeck) in order to maintain a viable duration, whereas Attack Pattern Alpha is maxed out for free; has there been any consideration to at least improving our base Batteries Skill to +1/level and shifting the unlock to a +50 (as was done with Willpower)? Would improving the base duration of EPS Maniford Efficiency be a possibility?

The Engineering Ultimate does not appear related to anything an Engineer can bring to the table; what were some of the alternate concepts discussed in the planning stages? If any of those alternatives receive positive feedback, is there a possibility of a change at this point? Is there any possibility of having the current Engineering Ultimate scale with anything related to Engineering (maybe EPS skill for effectiveness, Batteries Expertise for duration, power levels, etc.)?

The Tactical portion of the Skill Tree had a couple skills given to us for free, gained some hangar pet buffs, and picked up some new offensive abilities...
The Science portion of the Skill Tree had several skills consolidated, picked up some new defensive abilities, and gained the very attractive Long-Range Targeting Sensors...
The Engineering portion of the Skill Tree had an old skill broken in two and a couple things moved to unlocks (one in the Science line)...
...why didn't Engineering receive the same improvements as Tactical and Science?

DrainX and ControlX combine offensive and defensive improvements to their respective "status effects" into single Skills; why are Armor and Shield Penetration in a completely different portion of the Skill Tree than the Armor and Shield defenses?