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Skill System Revamp

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    toivatoiva Member Posts: 3,276 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    kelettes wrote: »
    Is there any chance that this skill and item revamp will change it so that our warp speed maximum is dictated by warp cores instead of impulse engines? I am really tired of having to switch to my over to my borg impulse engines every time I go to sector space to hit warp 14.

    It just seems like now would be a good time to make a change since the driver coil skill is getting reworked and so are almost all skill giving items.

    Warp cores have been influencing warp speeds for a while now :smile: Check their tooltips to see the max warp factor that each particular core allows.

    Speeds above warp ~9.97 are considered "unconventional" drive methods. The Borg subtranswarp engine is just one example.

    But to stay on topic, yeah, I'm curious how this revamp will affect Driver Coil as well. It helps me out a lot during Tour the Galaxy and I like zooming around in sector space in general. :smiley:

    Yeah I know that lol, it's the unconventional warp drive speeds I am interested in. Since sector space got merged into giants zones I want to be able to exceed warp 10 with special warp drives not special impulse drives.

    Then get the Tal Shiar Adapted Borg warp core that comes on the Tal Shiar Adapted Destroyer and battlecruiser. It gives a bonus to transwarp speeds equivalet to the Assimilated engine.

    Disclaimer: I cannot be held liable for the above mentioned warp core possibly not being usable in other ships than above mentioned that come with it by default. (lol, no seriously, I'm not entirely sure other ships can use it, but I believe any ship with a matter/antimatter warp core slot can.)
    TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class.
    Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
    Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.

    Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
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    oninotaki18oninotaki18 Member Posts: 38 Arc User
    toiva wrote: »
    kelettes wrote: »
    Is there any chance that this skill and item revamp will change it so that our warp speed maximum is dictated by warp cores instead of impulse engines? I am really tired of having to switch to my over to my borg impulse engines every time I go to sector space to hit warp 14.

    It just seems like now would be a good time to make a change since the driver coil skill is getting reworked and so are almost all skill giving items.

    Warp cores have been influencing warp speeds for a while now :smile: Check their tooltips to see the max warp factor that each particular core allows.

    Speeds above warp ~9.97 are considered "unconventional" drive methods. The Borg subtranswarp engine is just one example.

    But to stay on topic, yeah, I'm curious how this revamp will affect Driver Coil as well. It helps me out a lot during Tour the Galaxy and I like zooming around in sector space in general. :smiley:

    Yeah I know that lol, it's the unconventional warp drive speeds I am interested in. Since sector space got merged into giants zones I want to be able to exceed warp 10 with special warp drives not special impulse drives.

    Then get the Tal Shiar Adapted Borg warp core that comes on the Tal Shiar Adapted Destroyer and battlecruiser. It gives a bonus to transwarp speeds equivalet to the Assimilated engine.

    Disclaimer: I cannot be held liable for the above mentioned warp core possibly not being usable in other ships than above mentioned that come with it by default. (lol, no seriously, I'm not entirely sure other ships can use it, but I believe any ship with a matter/antimatter warp core slot can.)

    Already tried that, I was pretty bummed to find out that they cannot be. Now I ask questions instead of just jumping in.
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    cryptiecopcryptiecop Member Posts: 239 Arc User
    huskerklg wrote: »
    megamanx82 wrote: »
    Ugg... why are they wrecking an already decent system? Have you ever heard of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it"? Just leave the system alone. Time would be better spent fixing current bugs.

    Wouldn't go so far as to say they are wrecking it. And some of the changes are something that should have been done a long time ago.

    But I question the claim of flexibility being added to builds.

    "One of these ships, is just like the others" comes to mind after playing around with Tribble for 4 hours last night ...
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    huskerklghuskerklg Member Posts: 561 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    Feedback so far is not inspiring any confidence in the changes.

    http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1212091/official-feedback-thread-for-the-skill-system-revamp

    Skill trees front loaded with stuff with no use at low levels. Front loading with useless stuff while the core pieces of current builds are burried.

    You claim that the design intent of the ultimates was to get people to try other things, yet you are burrying core build compents at the ends of trees. If you want ultimates to get people to try other things, put those other things at the end of the trees, not the front.


    And the number of people saying they can't replicate builds they currently have, the claim we won't lose anything doesn't hold true either.
    Post edited by huskerklg on
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    sgtfloydpepper#7911 sgtfloydpepper Member Posts: 1,111 Arc User
    > @huskerklg said:
    > Feedback so far is not inspiring any confidence in the changes.

    Can you honestly say this is surprising? It's going to be really difficult to replicate a lot of current popular build types. Pretty much feels like they're making it needlessly difficult to have unique builds without sacrificing the stuff we really want.

    Not impressed at all.
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    huskerklghuskerklg Member Posts: 561 Arc User
    > @huskerklg said:
    > Feedback so far is not inspiring any confidence in the changes.

    Can you honestly say this is surprising? It's going to be really difficult to replicate a lot of current popular build types. Pretty much feels like they're making it needlessly difficult to have unique builds without sacrificing the stuff we really want.

    Not impressed at all.

    yeah the whole players won't lose anything claim from the blog is completely false as it is right now.

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    darthpostaldarthpostal Member Posts: 245 Arc User
    I know that this change is happening regardless, but I'm going to say it anyway: I love the old system. New system looks just like any other MMO - LvL up to get 1 point to dump into a tree. Old system was more fun.

    I also do not understand why skill system needs revamp in the first place? Did anyone actually asked for this? There are so many things in this game that need to be fixed, like PvP and Crafting, so why fix something that isn't broken?
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    dragnridrdragnridr Member Posts: 671 Arc User
    I know that this change is happening regardless, but I'm going to say it anyway: I love the old system. New system looks just like any other MMO - LvL up to get 1 point to dump into a tree. Old system was more fun.

    I also do not understand why skill system needs revamp in the first place? Did anyone actually asked for this? There are so many things in this game that need to be fixed, like PvP and Crafting, so why fix something that isn't broken?

    I agree. I had my Fed Tactical specialize in shutting people down with the current skill tree. Also doing it with VERY LITTLE SCIENCE. Now, it would seem that specific build has been thrown away for more pew, pew, pew. The current skill tree allows MORE customization besides the cookie cutter DPS build.

    Don't believe me, Show me you older build against your newer build using the EXACT SAME gear and abilities. It's not the same.
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    sgtfloydpepper#7911 sgtfloydpepper Member Posts: 1,111 Arc User
    > @darthpostal said:
    so why fix something that isn't broken?

    I'm at a loss for that answer, as well. I'm not the least bit surprised that this question has not been answered.
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    vengefuldjinnvengefuldjinn Member Posts: 1,520 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    IMO all Subscribers should get their Level-Up Respec tokens refunded, and free players get a handful of complimetary tokens.
    It's only fair as this is a fundamental rework that invalidates everything we have learned and done for the past 6 years and essentially sending us all back to square one.

    You know, I could stand behind this idea, I've spent my fair share on respects to get to where I want to be, and now everything's gonna change again.

    I can't even test this out on tribble yet because they want me to start up a new character and at the moment I'm not in the new character making business, I just don't have the fortitude to grind up another character ATM, so I guess I've gotta wait till they allow my current characters to test this.

    I know, video games and life change frequently, but then again respects for end game characters aren't exactly cheap anymore, it's not like I can earn them in any other way. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't respects are up to about seven dollars now?

    Spending money on more respects wasn't exactly what I wanted/intended to spend more money on right now. Flagships, maybe, more respects no.
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    sennahcheribsennahcherib Member Posts: 2,823 Arc User
    I don't know if this is a good thing or not, but evolution is always a necessity
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    vengefuldjinnvengefuldjinn Member Posts: 1,520 Arc User
    qziqza wrote: »
    "the current system may work, but it is flawed, and lacks any real transparency.​​

    Sorry, but that's your opinion.

    Thus far, I haven't seen any evidence that this new system is any clearer, OR any less flawed. At least not yet anyway. My guess is that's why it's being tested.
    qziqza wrote: »
    im pretty sure the majority of players end up having to visit external sites to 'copy paste' builds, or worse, just end up playing something they threw together that in no way compliments their build?" ​​

    I researched my builds through trial and error along with friends/fleetmates, spending money for zen, for respects along the way. Yeah, I watched a few youtube videos from those DPS guys, but I consider that research, because I'm interested in the game. It was in no way necessary. My builds were pretty effective through experience and trial and error.

    Are there players who copy and pasted builds ?, I'm sure there were, people are always gonna try to find the easiest way out of things. I'm sure there will still be a lot of that going on even after the revamp.
    qziqza wrote: »
    if a player doesn't understand the skill tree, how can they be expected to understand how best to gear up?

    Again, I'm thinking trial and error's gonna get us where we wanna go.
    qziqza wrote: »
    if this change results in the majority of players being able to make informed choices about their build (as opposed to its current minority) then regardless of any minor losses or hiccups we may encounter, it will be a success. besides.. no matter what happens, there will undoubtedly still be things we can tweak and improve, to squeeze the most out of what we have.. hopefully this will draw the playing field a little closer, so there are more players to play with or compete against.​​

    I'm sorry, But I've been playing this game for a more than a few years now and I'm gonna have to test this out on tribble to make my informed choices.
    Thinking that simply revamping things is automatically going to make everything more transparent is just silly talk.

    I know I'm supposed to embrace change and I'm prepared to, but I'm really not buying that this is gonna make anything easier, it's still gonna take some research, at least for me anyway and I'm reasonably positive respects are gonna be selling like hotcakes when this hits holodeck.

    I personally would have been happier with an exploration revamp myself. C'est la vie It's not my game, I'm just playing it at this moment in time.

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    dragnridrdragnridr Member Posts: 671 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    After testing it out in Tribble, being forced to spend points on skills I DO NOT WANT in order to advance down the tree. Making true tanks are gone the way of the DODO. You can tank, but you can no longer do any real damage. Oh, you want to be a science heavy character, No damage or tanking for you. Wanna be a self tanking DPS, Nope. Hybrid builds are getting thrown out the airlock too.

    I admit, I'm still messing with it, but currently, I am not happy. Might as well write down my current skill tree, cause that'll be the last I will ever see of it. Probably remaking it will never happen.

    At least they need a tooltip telling you that you have to spend x amount to advance down the tree. And let us pick the skills FIRST and then finalize our choices with a CONFIRM button.
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    toivatoiva Member Posts: 3,276 Arc User
    I know that this change is happening regardless, but I'm going to say it anyway: I love the old system. New system looks just like any other MMO - LvL up to get 1 point to dump into a tree. Old system was more fun.

    I also do not understand why skill system needs revamp in the first place? Did anyone actually asked for this? There are so many things in this game that need to be fixed, like PvP and Crafting, so why fix something that isn't broken?
    Sadly, some people were asking for a reworked skill system a long while back.
    toiva wrote: »
    kelettes wrote: »
    Is there any chance that this skill and item revamp will change it so that our warp speed maximum is dictated by warp cores instead of impulse engines? I am really tired of having to switch to my over to my borg impulse engines every time I go to sector space to hit warp 14.

    It just seems like now would be a good time to make a change since the driver coil skill is getting reworked and so are almost all skill giving items.

    Warp cores have been influencing warp speeds for a while now :smile: Check their tooltips to see the max warp factor that each particular core allows.

    Speeds above warp ~9.97 are considered "unconventional" drive methods. The Borg subtranswarp engine is just one example.

    But to stay on topic, yeah, I'm curious how this revamp will affect Driver Coil as well. It helps me out a lot during Tour the Galaxy and I like zooming around in sector space in general. :smiley:

    Yeah I know that lol, it's the unconventional warp drive speeds I am interested in. Since sector space got merged into giants zones I want to be able to exceed warp 10 with special warp drives not special impulse drives.

    Then get the Tal Shiar Adapted Borg warp core that comes on the Tal Shiar Adapted Destroyer and battlecruiser. It gives a bonus to transwarp speeds equivalet to the Assimilated engine.

    Disclaimer: I cannot be held liable for the above mentioned warp core possibly not being usable in other ships than above mentioned that come with it by default. (lol, no seriously, I'm not entirely sure other ships can use it, but I believe any ship with a matter/antimatter warp core slot can.)

    Already tried that, I was pretty bummed to find out that they cannot be. Now I ask questions instead of just jumping in.

    Most unfortunate.

    Anyway, seeing as I use all kinds of ships on all kinds of characters, a skill tree that locks me in one more specialised role is definitely against my better judgement.
    TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class.
    Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
    Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.

    Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
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    captxpendablecaptxpendable Member Posts: 127 Arc User
    IMO all Subscribers should get their Level-Up Respec tokens refunded, and free players get a handful of complimetary tokens.
    It's only fair as this is a fundamental rework that invalidates everything we have learned and done for the past 6 years and essentially sending us all back to square one.

    You know, I could stand behind this idea, I've spent my fair share on respects to get to where I want to be, and now everything's gonna change again.

    I can't even test this out on tribble yet because they want me to start up a new character and at the moment I'm not in the new character making business, I just don't have the fortitude to grind up another character ATM, so I guess I've gotta wait till they allow my current characters to test this.

    I know, video games and life change frequently, but then again respects for end game characters aren't exactly cheap anymore, it's not like I can earn them in any other way. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't respects are up to about seven dollars now?

    Spending money on more respects wasn't exactly what I wanted/intended to spend more money on right now. Flagships, maybe, more respects no.
    Actually, once you finish the tutorial mission, you can head to Drozana station and get XP packs that will boost you right up to 60 in a couple minutes, then you can use the Dilithium and Reputation packs to get equipment.

    "Let me guess, my theories appall you, my heresies outrage you, I never answer letters and you don't like my tie" - The Doctor

    "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!" -
    Agatha Heterodyne
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    sgtfloydpepper#7911 sgtfloydpepper Member Posts: 1,111 Arc User
    > @captxpendable said:

    > Actually, once you finish the tutorial mission, you can head to Drozana station and get XP packs that will boost you right up to 60 in a couple minutes, then you can use the Dilithium and Reputation packs to get equipment.

    Frankly, it'd be so much simpler to just wait the week and copy over an existing character. Doing all that stuff (lvls, reps, gearing up, etc) at Drozana is just WAY too time consuming to get a new character to the status of one's live server character.
    1xe027q.png
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    sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    dragnridr wrote: »
    After testing it out in Tribble, being forced to spend points on skills I DO NOT WANT in order to advance down the tree. Making true tanks are gone the way of the DODO. You can tank, but you can no longer do any real damage. Oh, you want to be a science heavy character, No damage or tanking for you. Wanna be a self tanking DPS, Nope. Hybrid builds are getting thrown out the airlock too.

    I admit, I'm still messing with it, but currently, I am not happy. Might as well write down my current skill tree, cause that'll be the last I will ever see of it. Probably remaking it will never happen.

    At least they need a tooltip telling you that you have to spend x amount to advance down the tree. And let us pick the skills FIRST and then finalize our choices with a CONFIRM button.

    My analysis indicates that the new system punishes hybrids as well. If you are pure tac or pure sci you will be fine and tac will likely be even strong (play tac guys). But specialty and hybrid builds that require careful choice from many different areas will not be possible without a major sacrifice to defense (pssst play tac).

    I've said my bit now and will whine some more today then just forget about it. The train has left the station. (oh and did we suggest already PLAY TAC!!!)
    Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

    "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

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    malebissemalebisse Member Posts: 86 Arc User
    A quick note for folks wanting to experiment with the new System:

    When it arrives on Tribble, we'll have a test vendor available that sells free Respec Tokens, as well as bundles of 10,000 Experience Points. So please try it out when it gets patched to Tribble, and send us your feedback!

    Unable to use the character transfer to test on Tribble, only to Redshirt. What's up with that? I was hoping to test this revamp out.
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    samt1996samt1996 Member Posts: 2,856 Arc User
    YOU HAVE TO PLAY AS A NEW CHARACTER UNTIL NEXT WEEK SO THEY CAN FIND BUGS WHILE LEVELING AND THEN NORMAL CHARACTRR COPY WILL RETURN.

    If you were reading any of this you would know that.
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    ltcmdjamescoreltcmdjamescore Member Posts: 423 Arc User
    I must say, I'm little disappointed. I'm tactic but I'm not a pet person. :) More or less, the new system fells less free in terms of how I'd like to build my skills. There is much less room for diversity if you wanna have high-end skills there's much more calls to do compromises.
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    jcswwjcsww Member Posts: 6,790 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    dragnridr wrote: »
    After testing it out in Tribble, being forced to spend points on skills I DO NOT WANT in order to advance down the tree. Making true tanks are gone the way of the DODO. You can tank, but you can no longer do any real damage. Oh, you want to be a science heavy character, No damage or tanking for you. Wanna be a self tanking DPS, Nope. Hybrid builds are getting thrown out the airlock too.

    I admit, I'm still messing with it, but currently, I am not happy. Might as well write down my current skill tree, cause that'll be the last I will ever see of it. Probably remaking it will never happen.

    At least they need a tooltip telling you that you have to spend x amount to advance down the tree. And let us pick the skills FIRST and then finalize our choices with a CONFIRM button.

    I have been testing it on Tribble as well. I haven't been overly impressed with the generic looking UI that has so much wasted space. It almost seems like they are nerfing everyone with the revised skill tree. You won't be able to spec as much into the things you need, making players a bit more fragile and less powerful than they would be on the current system. It also seems designed in a way to intentionally sell more respec tokens. I completely agree that there needs to be a finalize skills button.
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    mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    "Drain Expertise combines the mechanical benefits of what used to be Flow Capacitors, Power Insulators and Subsystem Repair. In other words, this single Skill now oversees both the offensive potential, and the player’s resistances to, all Shield Drains, Energy Drains, and Subsystem Offline effects."

    Ok here is my question lets say I have deflector with
    +8.5 flow capacitors
    +8.5 Power insulators
    +24.4 subsytem repair

    What is my new Drain Expertise skill?
    This is what I mean about items and set items. Do we only get the highest, or an average, or lowest, or all 3 added. This could mean many of the items normal, upgraded, fleet, rep. may all be majorly changed. Are they going to change all the texts on these items too? I wonder if the developres thought on this issue, as this would be a lot of work.
    Currently, you get the sum of all 3 skills from the deflector. That might change. (To me, it seems a bit excessive.)

    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
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    mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    > @huskerklg said:
    > Feedback so far is not inspiring any confidence in the changes.

    Can you honestly say this is surprising? It's going to be really difficult to replicate a lot of current popular build types. Pretty much feels like they're making it needlessly difficult to have unique builds without sacrificing the stuff we really want.

    Not impressed at all.

    It seemed to me that pretty much any so called "unreplicatable" build has proven repeatable in the new system by Borticus. Many Skills from the old system have been rolled together, and there are new ones, and people do not always realize that, trying to take skills they didn't even have because they seemed similar, but are actually different.

    And Borticus also addressed a few concerns regarding when or how skills become available and seemed to react positively to alternative suggestions.



    I think the biggest problem to me currently is that there is no "Commit" Step in the system anymore. You pick a skill, you have it, and to change it again, you need to respec. It doesn't feel "safe" and too easy to make a mistake.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
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    ssbn655ssbn655 Member Posts: 1,894 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    ltminns wrote: »
    You couldn't max out every category with the current system as it us, so I have no idea what some of these people are complaining about.

    The current system allows you to have a very specific skill set or a general skill set that allows great flexibilty in how your charecter is set up. You can have a very good tactical charecter whose skills are all maxed in combat area tweaked for combat and minimal or zero for science outside of the ones that boost combat. You can max out several skills under the current setup that reflect how you play. Unfortuantly after trying the new one if you max out energy and torpedo you have pretty much nothing left to boost shields or hull. Which you can do under the current setup. This is very bad news for escort and Pilot Raptors that depend on boosted shields and hull along with maxed out weapon skills to be effective and chance at surviving the close in combat these excell at. So with the new skills you can either hit hard and die easy or survive and not be an effective combat ship but not both as splitting the few points you get leaves you half vast at anything.
    Post edited by ssbn655 on
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    ssbn655ssbn655 Member Posts: 1,894 Arc User
    Just tried the new and "improved" skill tree. UGH! It's going to create a lot of comprimised builds and Charecters. Ok fine keep the new and improved but be realistic and up the number of points a charecter gets to use! The weapon Boosting Sci skills should be under tactical or give enough points so Tac players can access them along with all the tac buff skills.
    I said it earler this is a very very bad move Devs! It feels like Warcraft Cataclysm all over again!
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    vengefuldjinnvengefuldjinn Member Posts: 1,520 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    I haven't created a new character on tribble, (just don't have the time), I'm waiting till I can transfer my existing ones.
    But I've been lurking the feedback thread.

    I'm still not clear if my science character who is currently skilled 9 points in particle gens, flow caps, and graviton gens, PLUS also skilled 9 points in torpedoes and torpedo efficiency, will be able to replicate a similar build on the new system, much less include the smattering of engineering skills I have as well, like hitpoints, shield stuff ect. without loosing some effectiveness.

    It appears that in my quest to get the "ultimates" in my science skills, (which I perceive I have now with investing 9 points in the current skill, will exclude me from getting the ultimates in torpedo skills as well.

    Plus make me a lot more squishy.

    Am I right ?

    I've seen it stated a few times that the "ultimates" are like "red herrings" as it were, and that it looks like it's best to avoid them to get the other things from other career trees that you want.

    Does this revamp make us choose to either go all out, "points wise" in a particular career skill tree, to maximize in those career specific high end skills, (like particle gens, flow caps, graviton gens)?

    Doesn't this take away choices in other careers we enjoy now?

    Do the "Ultimates" offer better returns than currently putting 9 points in a specific skill does now?

    Sorry, not trying to be negative, just tryin to understand.

    Post edited by vengefuldjinn on
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    cryptiecopcryptiecop Member Posts: 239 Arc User
    Maybe someone from PW / Cryptic Studios should get a hold of John Smedley from SOE and ask him how well his CU / NGE "make things easier for the player base" changes worked out for Star Wars Galaxies ... if you are a former SWG Pre-Pub 9 / Pre-CU player, you already know the answer ... it didn't ...
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    sgtfloydpepper#7911 sgtfloydpepper Member Posts: 1,111 Arc User
    cryptiecop wrote: »
    Maybe someone from PW / Cryptic Studios should get a hold of John Smedley from SOE and ask him how well his CU / NGE "make things easier for the player base" changes worked out for Star Wars Galaxies ... if you are a former SWG Pre-Pub 9 / Pre-CU player, you already know the answer ... it didn't ...

    I haven't played SWG, but I've heard the horror stories. It does not bode well for STO. One of the greatest things about STO is that it was unique from other MMO's. That seems to be going the way of the dodo and quickly turning into a clone of other MMO's, which is sad and disheartening. They've made great strides and improvements since before it was F2P, I'll give'em that, but this new skill system is a mistake and I really don't see it being an improvement, but rather a detriment to the enjoyment of what makes STO great.
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    daveynydaveyny Member Posts: 8,227 Arc User
    edited February 2016
    cryptiecop wrote: »
    Maybe someone from PW / Cryptic Studios should get a hold of John Smedley from SOE and ask him how well his CU / NGE "make things easier for the player base" changes worked out for Star Wars Galaxies ... if you are a former SWG Pre-Pub 9 / Pre-CU player, you already know the answer ... it didn't ...

    I was sooo... pis..

    ... Unhappy, with what happened to SWG, I stopped playing (and paying).
    My character overnight, became something I didn't even recognize after having been playing him for a very long time.

    It was one of the few times in my life when I actually felt like I got robbed.
    :'(

    I don't think this change is going to be any where near on the same scale, but this could really turn a lot of folks away from the game and I don't think we can really afford to lose too many more.
    :#

    I've got a LTS so I'm probably not going anywhere, but from what I've tried so far on Tribble, it's definitely made at least the low level ships, a lot weaker in the Advanced Mode.
    (I'm playing through from the start with a TAC, and dying a lot more (in space) than I've ever done with my last 5 Alts on Advanced from the beginning)
    :o
    I'm up to level 18 at the moment and just starting to feel like I'm at a point where my skills are actually helping to keep me alive.
    The ground skills also seem much weaker when playing in Advanced Mode, but I've been able to compensate for that change with my experience over the last 6 years of playing the game and knowing how to load out my toons.
    B)
    STO Member since February 2009.
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    sythkainynsythkainyn Member Posts: 39 Arc User
    Joy, because I really needed to buy skills I didn't want or had no use for just to unlock lower down skills I actually wanted... Not to mention that in the previous system I could spend 9 bars in literally ever space skill in my profession tree (even engineering, the most expensive one) and out of the 10 ground skills, 1 Lt skill at full value, 7 at 6 bars and 2 at 0, mostly due the skill cap on ground skills and trying to get points in all the important ones. Usually have to cut some points in something to get Will up, and I normally spend a bit differently than that, though I get pretty close to that 100k ground cap usually. I could train (if I felt like it) to be able to train every skill in my career and still have points left to learn 3-6 bars in most of 1 other career or split it between them however I liked. Meaning I didn't have to learn any lt. skills to learn an Captain one, etc.

    In this system, while you might be able to get everything in your own profession, you're only going to have 20 at best (if the skill points stop coming at 50 like they do now) to spend in other trees and will be unlikely to fully skip skills that have no value to the player (going by the way the Specialization tree is set up so that I have to buy things I don't want just to get an unlock underneath it) not to mention that now ground skills will be split (from the picture provided by the news post) into 20 skills with only 10 points shown available (and only 45 for space instead of 50, although since it doesn't show what level the subject is, it might not be fully leveled and at least it's not 40) so we'll be cut out of things contrary to the showcase news suggestion that we won't lose anything.

    Also curious about why it says things contrary to the accompanying pictures... such as 50 ranks... there are 6 skills for each career for 5 tiers just for space, that's 90. There's 20 more for ground and with a 45 to 10 ratio in skill points, I'm guessing I'm going to have to stagger new character's ground skills with far more levels between each buy than I used to instead of just having to wait for a new rank to open up because I'd already bought all I wanted in the last tier on top of being cut out of a quarter to half of them (depending on what the full skill points will be, though I doubt we'll get more than 1 space point per level to probably a max of 50 and it looks like less than 1 ground point per every 4 levels).

    On top of lowering the amount of skill versatility we're likely to have, what with 90 actual space skills you're adding skills that cost 3 points, further reducing what we can spend outside our tree, you know, the thing that's more likely to separate 1 tactical officer from another... especially when we now have to spend at least 32 (if there's only 1 skill each tree, which is doubtful, that costs 3 points) points in a career tree to have full use of it. Possibly 34 if there's a 3 point skill in each 'line'. Really what the skill tree might have needed was a removal of the caps and either a raise of points to 400,000 or 500,000 or a cap removal and bit of a revamp of skills, taking out things like threat control's armor boost and maybe adding a pve only debuff to the outgoing damage of npcs firing at you, and combining some of the other skills like the damage resistance ones, weapon boosts, some of those power systems... like Engines with Aux etc... Those Engineers had way to many skills to have to split points between. I mean an entire extra 5?

    At least with Specializations we can keep getting skill points so the unlock system isn't as bad, so at least give us continuing skill points if you're going to do this kind of locked up, 'stick to your tree' system... Especially if you're going to keep requiring knowing a certain skill or number of skills (if teaching is going to the passive tree) just to teach skills to our bridge officers... and maybe add torpedo spread III and a few of the other 'why is this missing' skills...
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