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Respec problem

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
The skills system was broken by adding a cap. This will be "fixed" when respecs appear. Some people think that the skill cap was imposed precisely so respecs could be added, for a tidy profit.

Whatever the reasons, has anyone considered that respecs will mean Captains can abuse the skills system?

For example, a Captain might want to train their BOs up in various version III skills. So, they respec into level 9 of certain abilities, unlocking their ability to train their BOs. Once done, they respec a second time to return to the distribution of points that they had originally. Simple to do for everyone as soon as we get the respecs.

This is more evidence for the cap being completely oposed to the original design of the game, right?
Post edited by Unknown User on

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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Good eye for detail and minutiae, I too have pondered just that question, but with only deductive reasoning to prove my case I was remiss to add it to the ever growing list of reasons why the skill cap is utterly and completely asinine.

    With the way skills work for Boffs, once they learn them, they are learned, and unless you go out of your way to retrain them another way, they will remain as such. So yes, Cryptic going out of their way to lie to us about needing a skill cap did indeed break the game, utterly ruin any semblance of balance, and of course it's now a developer sponsored exploit of the game mechanics.

    Rather than them leaving the game well enough alone, they decided a week before launch to lie through their teeth and claim they had intended a preposterous skill point cap all along, this is simply not so as proven by the links in my signature.

    I also invite any and all apologists, who's numbers are ever dwindling as they see how much they have been deceived by the likes of StormShade (Prevarication Representative of Cryptic), to read up on the Hammer Post prior to trying to argue back with the same tired and already disproved drivel. The Hammer Post, as its name implies, is an instrument capable of obliterating any regurgitated buffoonery from Cryptic's lackeys, and crushes it under the weight of reality.

    But I digress... Again, Cryptic's short sighted zeal to place a cap on players for no other possible reason than to cash in on paid re-specs, which wouldn't be necessary at all under the original and working skill system, completely overlooked that when everyone had equal access and opportunity to all skills, then everyone had the same possible roster of skills with which to train their Boffs in as well. Thus nobody could get a leg-up on anyone else, and balance was de facto. It was an inescapable fact that when everyone is capable of achieving the same advancement should they put in the effort, then clearly nobody could get any more awesome than anyone else, it's literally perfect balance from the day the box is opened... Cryptic thought that wasn't good... They quite literally threw away perfect and inescapable balance for profit.

    Now, those who like the idea of exploiting the system can specify themselves one way, train their Boffs with that line of skills, then re-specify themselves, to apply another set of skills, while their Boffs retain the previous ones. Since the system was so clearly designed for no SP cap in the first place, it wouldn't be anything worth noting in the original system, but with the broken mechanic it allows for one spec to the captain but anyone with a yen for re-specifying (when it's put into the game in a "month or two"), will then have the potential exploit of still retaining actions OUTSIDE of their new specification because the Boff's don't wipe their skills.



    Serious, at this point do any of the apologists or even Cryptic's own liars, have any evidence of any kind that the asinine skill cap has done any of the following:

    1) Improved the game in any way?
    It's done nothing but break it from day one, it hurts player advancement, and only adds a completely unnecessary burden on players.

    2) Helped make the game more fun?
    Having -LESS- options makes the game -LESS- fun, end of discussion. Apologists who whine that they want variety defeat their own argument by supporting the cap that by its very nature allows for LESS variety, not more. You can't have more variety when there are fewer viable builds and options to arrange oneself.

    Let's put it another way and prove this mathematically, you have three swords, three axes, three maces, and three shields sitting on a table. A combatant is allowed to pick any assortment among them up to three to equip (one for each hand, and another slung on the back). Using such an arrangement, potentially one could have three swords, two swords and one of something else, and so on and so on. There are 81 combinations or possible iterations. The number a user can equip is the cap, and obviously the weapons in hand are the only ones useful to the combatant at any given time, meanwhile the third item while nice, is useless unless actively being used, much like skills for Cruiser when you're piloting an Escort/Science ship.

    Now, if you had the asinine notion to lower the cap to two equipped items, you then wind up with only 16 combinations, as opposed to 81! Less than 1/5th as much potential variety, and on top of that, it could very well be a build where one item is slung on the back, and thus not immediately useful to the player.

    So you apologists, do tell, how exactly does LESS THAN 20% of the options somehow allow for more variety? Also bare in mind that the example is actually MAGNIFIED with STO's larger number of skills and nine levels within each, and thus far larger portion of denied potential.

    If anything it only allows for greater potential for broken builds as has already been proven by actual players, it makes unbalanced game play a certainty, and the only thing it helps is Cryptic's bottom line of the ledger when they start charging for Respecs which won't be in the game for another MONTH OR TWO!
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