[Proposal] Revamp for PADD Training pre-reqs

autumnturning

So, @borticuscryptic ... been looking at the PADD Training situation and ... there has Got To Be A Better Way™ to permit what I shall modestly call ... Selfish Sufficiency in being able to craft PADDs for Skills. Looking over what you're doing here on Tribble is perhaps trying too hard to retain the "many hoops to jump through" legacy of the current Skills system on Holodeck. You're taking a clunky system that's already been kludged into its current form and maintaining the kludge rather than streamlining things better while you have the chance.

So ... taking a quick stock of things with the help of the STO Wiki, for Bridge Officer Skills we have the following that can be trained/crafted by Captains:

Tactical Ground Tier 3 (2)
Photon Grenade III
Sweeping Strikes III

Tactical Ground Tier 4 (7)
Lunge III
Suppressing Fire III
Target Optics III
Fire on My Mark III
Overwatch III
Stealth Module III
Stun Grenade II

Engineering Ground Tier 3 (3)
Chroniton Mine Barrier III
Quick Fix III
Shield Recharge III

Engineering Ground Tier 4 (6)
Shield Generator Fabrication III
Turret Fabrication III
Cover Shield III
Equipment Diagnostics III
Combat Supply II
Support Drone Fabrication II

Science Ground Tier 3 (3)
Electro-Gravitic Field III
Hypospray - Dylovene III
Medical Tricorder III

Science Ground Tier 4 (6)
Sonic Pulse III
Tricorder Scan III
Hypospray - Melorazine III
Neural Neutralizer III
Dampening Field II
Nanite Health Monitor II

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Tactical Space Tier 3 (4)
Beam Array: Fire at Will III
Tactical Team III
Torpedo: High Yield III

Tactical Space Tier 4 (4)
Attack Pattern: Beta III
Cannon: Rapid Fire III
Dispersal Pattern: Beta III
Attack Pattern: Omega III

Engineering Space Tier 3 (5)
Emergency Power to Auxiliary III
Emergency Power to Engines III
Emergency Power to Shields III
Emergency Power to Weapons III
Engineering Team

Engineering Space Tier 4 (3)
Directed Energy Modulation III
Extend Shields III
Eject Warp Plasma III

Science Space Tier 3 (4)
Hazard Emitters III
Jam Sensors III
Science Team III
Tachyon Beam III

Science Space Tier 4 (4)
Feedback Pulse III
Scramble Sensors III
Gravity Well III
Photonic Shockwave III

So ... taking the above "Data Dump" ... what is the pattern that emerges?

Tactical Ground: 2+7 = 9
Tactical Space: 4+4 = 8

Engineering Ground: 3+6 = 9
Engineering Space: 5+3 = 8

Science Ground: 3+6 = 9
Science Space: 4+4 = 8

Essentially, they're pretty close to each other in terms of "shaping" of what can be done at what Tiers.

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Now compare that to how things work for the Specialization Trees when it comes to equipping Modules:
Common Module: 8 points spent
Uncommon Module: 13 points spent
Rare Module: 18 points spent
Very Rare Module: 27 points spent

There is also the precedent of the Training Manual Unlock in the Specialization Trees, specifically:
Specialization Skills Rank III: 22 points spent

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So with all of that ... what am I proposing as an alternative to the current Tribble method of doing a Pick & Choose for Unlocks that mathematically "force" a specific shaping of Skill expenditure proportions onto builds (I'm referring to the current 12/17/17 distribution yielding an All But One Unlock of permission to craft Skill Manuals)?

I'm suggesting ... taking a cue from the Specialization Trees for handling the Unlocks of permission to craft Skill Manuals. Rig it so that you need to meet two requirements.
Skill Points Spent Overall
Skill Points Spent In Your Captain's Profession Tree

So right now, on both Tribble and Holodeck, your Captain needs to be a Rank above your Bridge Officers. In order to even have Lieutenant Commander Bridge Officers capable of using Tier 3 Skills, your character needs to be a Commander, which is character Level 20. To have Commander Bridge Officers capable of using Tier 4 Skills, your character needs to be a Captain, which is character Level 30. Conveniently enough, this corresponds to the following in the new Skill Revamp you've been doing:

Unlock Tier 3 Skills: 15 Space Skill Points Spent
Unlock Tier 4 Skills: 25 Space Skill Points Spent

That then gates the unlocks for those Tiers to happen no sooner than your character could theoretically make use of them due to restrictions on Bridge Officer Promotions. So that's the first requirement set for this [Proposal] alternative to what you're doing on Tribble.

The second requirement then simply depends on setting a threshold for the minimum number of Space Skill Points to be spent in a character's Profession Tree. Following the precedent set by the Specialization Trees of unlocking the Training Manuals once reaching a threshold of Skill Points invested which is a supermajority but not ALL of the Points to fill that tree, we'd derive the following (using a similar 2/3rds "rule"):

Unlock Tier 3 Ground and Space Skills: 10 Space Skill Points Spent on Profession matching character's Profession
Unlock Tier 4 Ground and Space Skills: 16 Space Skill Points Spent on Profession matching character's Profession

Now, to help favor build diversity, I'd actually recommend consolidating all of the above into the following streamlined version of things with a slight bit of tuning:

Unlock Tier 3 Ground and Space Skills (own Profession only):
4 Ground Points Spent + *9* Space Skill Points Spent in Own Profession + 15 Space Skill Points Spent Overall

Unlock Tier 4 Ground and Space Skills (own Profession only):
6 Ground Points Spent + *15* Space Skill Points Spent in Own Profession + 25 Space Skill Points Spent Overall

That corresponds to a requirement that a character be a specific minimum Level (20 or 30) and that they have a minimum threshold investment of Skill Points in their own Profession Tree. By setting the requirement for your own Space Profession tree at 60% of the Skill Points available up until that earliest opportunity, you ensure that Captains who are "focused" on gaining skills within their own Profession are the ones who learn how to Create Manuals for their Bridge Officers the fastest. At the same time, though, you're still permitting 40% of a character's Space Skills to be spent outside of their own Profession, and that ultimately, by reaching Level 50 with 46 Skill Points, no more than 1/3rd of a character's available Skill Points would need to be spent in a specific fashion to be able to "teach" those Profession Skills to others via the Training Manuals system. That way you don't wind up with a need for a Crippling Overspecialization in terms of "shaping" builds too rigidly just in order to maintain Selfish Sufficiency™ in being able to craft Training Manuals.

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Apologies for the WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU!!!™ nature of this post, but I wanted to lay things out in an extremely clear fashion so as to get the INTENT of this [Proposal] across with a minimum of possible erroneous alternative interpretations. My personal feeling is that the entire PADD crafting system is something that is mainly a legacy of the original Bridge Officer Training mechanics, and its ties to the "pump" system in the Skill System, which no longer serves a useful purpose. Taking advantage of the Skill Revamp to GREATLY simplify the entire endeavor to be more "freeform" in terms of Skill Investment would be advantageous to the overall health of the game, methinks.

S imple
E asy
E ffective

Your mileage may vary, of course. ^_~

birzark

That is a much better plan than what is beong implimented on tribble.

autumnturning

Your support is appreciated ... especially if you read everything I wrote! ^_~

preiko

I also would like to get rid of the Ability s that are Bridge Officer ONLY

Some of Character s had to wait weeks and check the Exchange and every Single BO there was, one by one.
To find the Ability i wanted, (Energy siphon iii)
and the three available at "Manuals" 5 Millionen and more

It takes 48 hours to get a BO over the Duty Officer System and everything about (except rate) is totally random,
4 random ground / 4 random Space / 2 to 3 random Traits
How much possiblitys makes that? A couple hundred possible combinations.... Very uneffective

The System only works because there are Millions of Players who creating BOs, and Most of them don't know which Ability is rare
Or even (in some Kind of way) Ultra rare because the Chance is practicly non existing

Most of the time they are mondaine Abilitys
not special
Just a different Set up possiblity,
to give the Player more freedom

Thank you for your time