As has been stated before the skill tree was designed around unlimited skill advancement. A very novel concept...not used in current MMO's.
Because of that, it was expected that most players would only level up one character.
Hence so few character slots being given at launch.
That's also why there was no respec system in place at launch.
This decision also allowed developers to concentrate on only one advancement path. Not one for each type of character most mmo's have. This makes for a very good business case for a short developement cycle.
Hmm what about the PvP crowd? We'll give them Klingon players to fight...oops that means more content.
Nope not enough time in our shortened developement cycle. Let them level in PvP...that's what those players want anyway. Still on the short develpoement cycle (dodged a bullet there).
Hmm most MMO subscriptions are from casual players, how do we keep them? Rapid leveling advancement. Cool...still on that short developement cycle.
Open Beta starts.
Hmm the new open beta players are blowing up to much. We need to dumb down the NPC's so casual players won't get upset and quit!
Then someone really panics.
OMG people are getting to Admiral in a WEEK! They will be so skilled that by the time future content comes out it won't be a challenge.
And we have Level Cap then at RA5.
Forum rage insues...
Now, what the person that made that last decision didn't know, didn't realize or didn't care was...
That by the end of Commander Rank a person that understood space combat had their space combat skills fully developed. Their ships were fully outfitted with exploration equipment (green). Any future SPACE content was not going to be a challange...(imo it wasn't a challenge at start)
Which is probably why the STF's are mostly ground based.
Now the three decisions that really hurt STO launch were...
1) Rapid level advancement.
2) The dumbing down of the NPC's instead of a better tutorial system to help "casual" players fight their ships.
3) Implementing the level cap.
What would have been the harm of unlimited advancement? Players that actually skilled up their ground skill as well as space. STF's WOULD STILL BE TOUGH - ground skills don't pump out the damage that space one's can.
Fan boys will say that unlimited advacement would eventually put 9's in all skill's making things to easy.
You are mistaken if you beieve that. Any ship is limited to the skills their BO's have and their Captain skills. A completely maxed character still has to pick and choose his BO skills and weapons. And he has a LIMITED amount of space to put BO's in his ship. So what if he can pick ANY weapon and have 9's in it?
People are already running fully developed ground characters for STF's and they are still tough, give me a break.
So to the person or persons that made those decisions....who makes decisions on your bonus, pay raises etc.? Hope he doen't panic.
I agree... who decides the bonuses for these people's paychecks? That person needs to read the forums... then maybe something will get fixed. It's amazing how a paycheck or lack thereof motivates an individual.
An anti-cap thread that ignores all the arguments for a cap (and why a maxed 9 in all Tier 5 abilities would naturally lean toward even more specific builds than at present). Right now the cap lets you get away with greater variety of builds that are equally as useful.
Comments
I agree... who decides the bonuses for these people's paychecks? That person needs to read the forums... then maybe something will get fixed. It's amazing how a paycheck or lack thereof motivates an individual.
The cap was a good idea, people just need to move on.
Can you do me a favor and post your feedback in the specific subforums?
Got feedback about the launch of the game? We've got a new home for that - the "General Community Feedback" subforums.
Feedback about the STF content? We have a section in the feedback forums for Missions and Episodes.
Feedback about the advancement? Check out the Federation/Klingon gameplay sections (depending on your faction of choice)