- Increasing Weapon Range beyond 10km can't easily be done, and might break content and AI.
Well, you've just moved the 12 km sniper cannon to the top of my Lobi-store shopping list just to see what weirdness it causes to happen .
- Improving Mines is just as bad of an idea (if not worse) from the current split. Why would we replace one issue with another?
I don't suppose we could get the current 1% CrtH/5%CrtD for projectiles decision-gate to give its bonus to projectiles and mines? It would at least get mines somewhere in the paths. And really, would incentivizing ships to carry torpedoes & mines be a bad thing?
You're right that there have been suggestions. No great ones, though. Sorry.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
With extremely few exceptions, NPCs have no skills.
Are the computational steps still there in the code for them? i.e. they could have skills, but don't?
It seems to me you could add some real richness to play by giving out unified/common skill bonus templates by species.
Totally off the cuff:
All Undine have +25 hull regen
All Voth have +30 shield power.
All Jem'Hadaar have +25 shield penetration
All Borg have +20 DrainX
All Terrans get +25 ControlX
etc.
It would add distinctiveness to their active behavior, but it would also make player strategy deeper by incentivizing certain types of drains, debuffs, and system disables to go after a particular faction's most potent aspect.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
The issues that cause Torpedoes to be unpopular would not be solved by combining the skills. Different measures would need to be taken to really shift the meta significantly.
Maybe make it so that shields lose kinetic resist as they're depleted? I'll tell you what, even with all of their other issues, the one that stands out the most is the fact that even the most meager shield will stop anything short of a High Yield Plasma cold. No matter what gimmicky radiation/drain proc you give a torp, the fact that the actual damage component is stopped so utterly so easily is what throws people off.
I mean, you guys keep adding work-a-rounds trying to make torpedoes appealing, but the fact that you have to choose between consoles that boost torps or consoles that boost energy weapons...well, you guys have obviously put in a lot of thought as far as the problems facing torps.
As I mentioned previously, we'd be willing to consider this if we had any fantastic ideas for Skills to take the place of the 3 that would be removed. We haven't come up with anything appropriate internally, nor seen any such suggestions from players.
Alright, so the issue is finding replacement mechanics to fill the resulting gaps caused by merging some projectile/energy lines.
How about~
Dire Consequences. Your weapon procs are 20%/40%/60% times their base chance more likely to trigger.
So 2.5% procs would become 3%/3.5%/4%
5% base becomes 6%/7%/8%
10% base becomes 12%/14%/16%
...and so on.
Torpedoes with their higher base proc chances gain proportionately more benefit, but it interacts uniformly with all weapon types.
(...Except antiproton, and frankly TRIBBLE those guys, they're over powered .)
and it doesn't deal ANY damage past 10 km anyway
Buwahh? But... But... That's the ENTIRE POINT. Why isn't this fixed?! And if it can't be fixed why are they taking Lobi for something so badly misrepresented?
I hope you're just pulling the new guy's leg, because that's just terrible.
[*] Unlocks for all 3 categories of Space Skills have been re-ordered. Here is the new order for each:
Tactical:5 = Projectile CritH // Projectile CritD
Tactical:10 = Energy CritH // Energy CritD
Tactical:15 = Stealth // Threat Control
Tactical:20 = Hangar Weaponry // Hangar Health
Somehow... you took what you had already... and made it worse.
Tactical 20 offers 0 benefits to anyone who isnt flying a ship with atleast one hangar... Which makes it absolutely useless 90% of the time. This should not be the case.
Tactical 15 only has one useful choice if you dont have a cloak. Useless probably 60% of the time.
Tactical 5 and Tactical 10 should be split differently:
Energy CritH / Projectile CritH
and
Energy CritD / Projectile CritD
So that they provide benefits to everyone. Your 'player agency' smoke screen ignores the fact that you are removing more agency from the system than you are adding.
Tactical 5 and Tactical 10 should be split differently:
Energy CritH / Projectile CritH
and
Energy CritD / Projectile CritD
Not sure how I can explain any more clearly that this is a non-choice, and that we won't be making that change. It does not support any of the design principles that we're trying to reinforce with these choices.
Additionally, I'd urge folks to think about the impact that 1% CritH -or- +5% CritD will actually have on their gameplay experience. I'm encouraged by the idea that you care so much, but many of the arguments here are making mountains from molehills.
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
I resubmit my earlier proposal about a skillbox to increase weapon arcs slightly, especially for low arc weapons like cannons and torpedos it could be a useful one to have.
I had one other idea that I though might make a cool mechanic for escorts but I'll put it here anyway.
Advanced Tactical Maneuvers
What if we could invest in a series of skill boxes each granting a special maneuver?
Serpentine Maneuver - your ship weaves back and forth granting bonus defense and accuracy
Jericho Maneuver - your ship performs a massive loop around your target while allowing you to face the ship in any direction you like, grants bonus to damage and critical severity
(Can't think of a good name right now) Maneuver - looks onto a target and follows on autopilot while granting your weapons bonus shield and armor penetration
Obviously they would have global shared cooldowns and such.
And finally Im gonna a talk about torpedoes again... lol
Reduces reload time of all projectile weapons by (variable)%
All projectile weapons do increased damage to shields
Projectile weapons disable shield and hull regeneration for (variable) seconds with a (variable) cooldown
Would it be too much to ask for the equation regarding crew and hull regeneration since that suddenly became relevant?
Some people have suggested that having three boxes with the last one granting only +15 to a skill may be a bad idea. In the old system low level skills like flow caps it was cheap to get the full bonus but now there is little incentive to do so. I like what y'all did for drain and control expertise, would you consider doing something similar for other skills?
Tactical 5 and Tactical 10 should be split differently:
Energy CritH / Projectile CritH
and
Energy CritD / Projectile CritD
Not sure how I can explain any more clearly that this is a non-choice, and that we won't be making that change. It does not support any of the design principles that we're trying to reinforce with these choices.
Additionally, I'd urge folks to think about the impact that 1% CritH -or- +5% CritD will actually have on their gameplay experience. I'm encouraged by the idea that you care so much, but many of the arguments here are making mountains from molehills.
And Im not sure how I can clearly explain that ITS A BAD DESIGN CHOICE.
Your design principles are fundamentally flawed. (As you seem to want to force people in to a hybrid build. Dont force your players to do anything).
As far as I see, you think splitting them the suggested way will result in a non-choice for players because they will choose both energy points and move on. What you dont seem to want to acknowledge is that people are going to choose Energy CritH and not care about the Projectile choice at all. Its gonna be non-choice either way. Except one way provides a benefit for players and the other is a lame attempt to force people to use projectile based weapons.
Its not the increase that matters, its the fact that a choice of mine is being forcibly removed, behind the false veil of player agency. (Completely ignoring the fact the more agency is being removed rather than being added). Tactical 15 and 20 are just as bad, with 20 being the worst example of bad foresight that I have seen so far. A fully specced energy build should be just as allowed as both a hybrid build or a fully specced projectile build (if thats what the player desires). There should never be a move to block choice, yet here we are.
Then again this is the same team that whats to also force a spec into ground combat as well... so I guess I should just GTFO then, because my type of fun seems to be going away.
1. Old skill tree you can set points from 0-9 per skill. So allowing for more precise tweaking a build then the new skill tree.
3. I read that following is possible:
"Q: Will I be able to replicate my existing build under the new system?
A: As much as possible, we have taken pains to ensure that players will be capable of replicating existing skill layouts in the new system."
Many players have many builds. It would be a welcome service if an algorith/button/migration was created to convert current skill settings and ship stats to the new skill settings. So people who want to keep more or less their builds intact are not presented by a lot of hassle caused due to wiping out all current setting when season 11.5 goes life.
If it is possible to replicate a build, than it should not be impossible for development team, to do so by default, during the conversion, and save all players a lot of hassle.
When my new character hit level 2, the "Purchase Skills" button popped up even though there were no skills to purchase (because I'm not level 5 yet). I assume this is a bug. I was going to complain about making us run through the tutorials again, but now I see the wisdom of it, heh.
I really like that the specialization and skill tabs have been consolidated, though. Looking forward to getting to Drozana and playing around with this more!
It would be better if the "Purchase Skills" button was used in better context; Kirimuffin's example and also the fact that the button is present even when there are no skill points available. That is one of the things I look forward to; not having to deal with the purchase skills button because you have 1000+ idle skill points but not enough for a skill you actually want or need as the system currently exists on Holodeck.
I also agree that having hangar skills offered so early in the tactical skill tree almost guarantees a respect after level 40 as that is mostly when hangars become available. Hangar skill should not be offered after spending 5 tactical points.
Science:5 = Sector Space Speed // Transwarp Cooldowns
Science:10 = Shield Capacity // Shield Hardness
Science:15 = Perception // Control Resistance
Science:20 = Power Drain Resist // Shield Drain Resist
Tactical:5 = Projectile CritH // Projectile CritD
Tactical:10 = Energy CritH // Energy CritD
Tactical:15 = Stealth // Threat Control
Tactical:20 = Hangar Weaponry // Hangar Health
Here's my purely selfish version . Changes in CAPS/BOLDFACE.
It allows people with carriers to get some benefit without massively investing in Tac. It allows people not in carriers to always pick something else. It makes harder choices for extra power by grouping offense and defense in pairs. It gives a harder choice between Subsystem Repair and Control Resistance. It gives people with cloaks benefits early in the leveling process. It gives players without cloaks a useful tool instead.
Engineering:5 = HANGER HEALTH // Battery Expertise
And Im not sure how I can clearly explain that ITS A BAD DESIGN CHOICE.
Reinforcing all-one-weapon-type builds is the bad choice. I think we can move past 'player agency' as an excuse/cover story to the harsh reality that mono-weapon-type builds are over-performing and over-represented in a setting that has always shown combined weaponry to be the preferred model for the people who actually have to live there.
- Increasing Weapon Range beyond 10km can't easily be done, and might break content and AI.
- Improving Mines is just as bad of an idea (if not worse) from the current split. Why would we replace one issue with another?
You're right that there have been suggestions. No great ones, though. Sorry.
What about increased firing arcs?
Increased rate of fire?
Reduced weapon power drain?
Obviously the values wouldn't be tremendous, but wouldn't at least one or two of those be feasible? Just saying there's more aspects to weapons than just damage, crit, and range.
I'm pretty happy with how the unlocks were shifted and the pairs of Projectile and Energy CritH/CritD. I really like Projectile being available when it might still be relevant to new players.
The reduction by 5 points to training manual unlocks is great. The fact that you added in so many previously uncraftable manuals is fantastic. I think my only concern remaining is that of the previously craftable skills, only Emergency Power to Auxiliary 3 is at the highest tier for Engineers. I think it has more usefulness than Emergency Power to Engines 3, and the two positions should be swapped. Thematically, it makes sense for Engines to require more engineering. Build-wise, I think it makes it more feasible for a science-focused engineer to get access to a more useful Emergency Power skill without overspecing into Engineering.
Regarding the skill tree itself, I agree with sarcasmdetector earlier that shuffling early science and engineering skill pairings could be fruitful. I would propose:
Engineering
Hull Restoration & Impulse Expertise (Getting players used to healing is nice, and getting more movement is nice in the early game)
Hull Capacity & Damage Control (Capacity is at this rank in the old system. Passive healing could become useful)
Hull Plating & EPS (This is when enemies start getting interesting and power management and defensive resists start getting more useful)
Science
Shield Restoration & Drain Expertise (Having the offensive categories both at the 3rd level is thematically pretty, but prompts players to ignore offensive science until later. Tachyon Beam is at its most useful early and also comes on default bridge officers. Also there is where Flow Caps is currently.)
Shield Capacity & Shield Regeneration (Capacity in the old system, regen matching engineering)
Shield Hardness & Control Expertise (Mirrors engineering, this is when resists start to matter. Also, this is around when D'deridexes remind you that tractor beams are cool as they trap you and torpedo you, so maybe you should spend some points there, too.
I feel pretty good about the engineering shuffle. The science shuffle I'm less certain about, because it might be too much too soon and may overstate the usefulness of drain, but currently I feel the message is don't bother with utility science skills until level 20.
Also I threw some bug reports up about the early KDF missions that I suffered through during this. I can confirm the poor frigate HP scaling and really annoying early travel times.
I share the criticism of picking between Stealth and Hangar Pet bonuses skills at low level. Those are useless skills for most of the characters I've created so far. Only thee characters have ships that can cloak. Same thing with fighters, only two characters have ever used a ship with a hanger. I realize there are plenty of ships out there with those abilities, but they're useless skills for anyone without that equipment. I've seen suggestions of swapping it with a higher level skill, but then the problem becomes spending the points to get there.
Skill points, it feels like there should be a few more. Specializing to get the top tier abilities is one thing, but characters look to have to way over specialize to get there. Getting past the hanger pet abilities takes 10 points, and another 5, just to get something I consider useful in the tactical tree.
I'm probably missing something obvious I wanted to add, but I can't remember what it was. ah well.
Oh, right, suggestion: Maybe more options at those junctures. Instead of picking from two abilities, what about picking from three.
I share the criticism of picking between Stealth and Hangar Pet bonuses skills at low level. Those are useless skills for most of the characters I've created so far. Only thee characters have ships that can cloak. Same thing with fighters, only two characters have ever used a ship with a hanger. I realize there are plenty of ships out there with those abilities, but they're useless skills for anyone without that equipment. I've seen suggestions of swapping it with a higher level skill, but then the problem becomes spending the points to get there.
Skill points, it feels like there should be a few more. Specializing to get the top tier abilities is one thing, but characters look to have to way over specialize to get there. Getting past the hanger pet abilities takes 10 points, and another 5, just to get something I consider useful in the tactical tree.
I'm probably missing something obvious I wanted to add, but I can't remember what it was. ah well.
Oh, right, suggestion: Maybe more options at those junctures. Instead of picking from two abilities, what about picking from three.
I'm personally of the opinion that pets should be removed from the skill tree completely and put in a brand new specialization tree instead, but i'm not gonna say much more than that. I got a bit heated over the weekend about it and started acting like a prick, and don't want that to happen again.
New bug:
Jam Sensors 3 recipe doesn't appear even after you've spent enough tac points. All the science recipe unlocks in eng and sci seem to be working fine. Need to respec to check tractor 3 and viral 3.
Update: Now that I went full Tac, jam sensors appears. There is some weird delay going on with the unlocks. I got a message that I can train Viral matrix 3, but viral matrix 3 isn't in my available manuals.
And Im not sure how I can clearly explain that ITS A BAD DESIGN CHOICE.
Reinforcing all-one-weapon-type builds is the bad choice. I think we can move past 'player agency' as an excuse/cover story to the harsh reality that mono-weapon-type builds are over-performing and over-represented in a setting that has always shown combined weaponry to be the preferred model for the people who actually have to live there.
I'd be happy to see hybrid armament flourish, but I agree with amayakitsune that the current design is bad. If people don't want to use both, forcing them to waste one pick on the other is just going to annoy them. Gaining powers on level up is cool; being forced to spend that power on a feat tax you'll never lose is extremely uncool.
If the devs really want to enforce hybrids, they should design ships that have dedicated slots for energy weapons and projectiles, exactly the way the ships do in the 'real' Star Trek world. If the devs merely want to encourage people to use hybrids, they need to take a step back and redesign the combat system so that both energy and projectiles have useful niches that synergize with each other.
In theory, energy to drop the shields, then projectiles to hammer the hull is valid. But in practice, shields wind up being more important than hull, probably because it's so easy for targets to redistribute their shields just enough to gut torp damage.
That's certainly how it feels to me, but I'm an extremely casual player so perhaps I'm mistaken.
-R
EDIT: For the record, I think devs should do away with the path powers and just add them as additional options in the trees. I don't think there's any way they can design a system full of two-pronged forks and not have a substantial portion of those choices feel either useless or excruciating to most players. And as I said above, that strips most of the fun out of the system and turns the whole thing into an annoying puzzle we have to pay $5 to fix every time we guess wrong. Blech.
Why all drain nerfs? Why did drain get kicked down hard and everything else nerfed much less by the new Aux scaling?
1) Energy siphon = Cut the slope in half. Before every 100 skill = double base drain, now every 200 skill = double base drain.
2) Plasmonic Leech = Also cut the slope in half. Before every 100 skill = +1 drain, now every 200 skill = +1 drain.
R.I.P Drain Boats. Let's all hop on part gens boats because it's what all the cool kids run.
New Boat - U.S.S. Mirror = Stack every damage reflection ability possible and the Nukara shield with high part gens. If I can buy an S'Golth and put the silent enemy set on it, even better.
Tactical:5 = All CritH // All CritD
Tactical:10 = Increased Firing Arc // Increased Proc Chance
The proc chance seems more universally useful, but those who have trouble maintaining optimal weapon coverage while flying may find the arc more useful. I didn't use either of my other suggestions here because, well, unless the player is using plasma weapons i don't think either of these options would increase maximum potential dps (this would not increase CritH for antiproton weapons, so those wouldn't see any benefit).
You fixed the bug with EPS Manifold. On live, it does not benefit the subsystem Emergency Power is given to. I am very pleased by this small, but irritating bug being fixed.
Comments
Well, you've just moved the 12 km sniper cannon to the top of my Lobi-store shopping list just to see what weirdness it causes to happen
I don't suppose we could get the current 1% CrtH/5%CrtD for projectiles decision-gate to give its bonus to projectiles and mines? It would at least get mines somewhere in the paths. And really, would incentivizing ships to carry torpedoes & mines be a bad thing?
Challenge accepted
Lol, don't waste your Lobi. The AI figures out where you are and comes get you anyway.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Are the computational steps still there in the code for them? i.e. they could have skills, but don't?
It seems to me you could add some real richness to play by giving out unified/common skill bonus templates by species.
Totally off the cuff:
All Undine have +25 hull regen
All Voth have +30 shield power.
All Jem'Hadaar have +25 shield penetration
All Borg have +20 DrainX
All Terrans get +25 ControlX
etc.
It would add distinctiveness to their active behavior, but it would also make player strategy deeper by incentivizing certain types of drains, debuffs, and system disables to go after a particular faction's most potent aspect.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Maybe make it so that shields lose kinetic resist as they're depleted? I'll tell you what, even with all of their other issues, the one that stands out the most is the fact that even the most meager shield will stop anything short of a High Yield Plasma cold. No matter what gimmicky radiation/drain proc you give a torp, the fact that the actual damage component is stopped so utterly so easily is what throws people off.
I mean, you guys keep adding work-a-rounds trying to make torpedoes appealing, but the fact that you have to choose between consoles that boost torps or consoles that boost energy weapons...well, you guys have obviously put in a lot of thought as far as the problems facing torps.
Alright, so the issue is finding replacement mechanics to fill the resulting gaps caused by merging some projectile/energy lines.
How about~
Dire Consequences. Your weapon procs are 20%/40%/60% times their base chance more likely to trigger.
So 2.5% procs would become 3%/3.5%/4%
5% base becomes 6%/7%/8%
10% base becomes 12%/14%/16%
...and so on.
Torpedoes with their higher base proc chances gain proportionately more benefit, but it interacts uniformly with all weapon types.
(...Except antiproton, and frankly TRIBBLE those guys, they're over powered
Buwahh? But... But... That's the ENTIRE POINT. Why isn't this fixed?! And if it can't be fixed why are they taking Lobi for something so badly misrepresented?
I hope you're just pulling the new guy's leg, because that's just terrible.
Somehow... you took what you had already... and made it worse.
Tactical 20 offers 0 benefits to anyone who isnt flying a ship with atleast one hangar... Which makes it absolutely useless 90% of the time. This should not be the case.
Tactical 15 only has one useful choice if you dont have a cloak. Useless probably 60% of the time.
Tactical 5 and Tactical 10 should be split differently:
Energy CritH / Projectile CritH
and
Energy CritD / Projectile CritD
So that they provide benefits to everyone. Your 'player agency' smoke screen ignores the fact that you are removing more agency from the system than you are adding.
Stop making bad design decisions.
Not sure how I can explain any more clearly that this is a non-choice, and that we won't be making that change. It does not support any of the design principles that we're trying to reinforce with these choices.
Additionally, I'd urge folks to think about the impact that 1% CritH -or- +5% CritD will actually have on their gameplay experience. I'm encouraged by the idea that you care so much, but many of the arguments here are making mountains from molehills.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
I had one other idea that I though might make a cool mechanic for escorts but I'll put it here anyway.
Advanced Tactical Maneuvers
What if we could invest in a series of skill boxes each granting a special maneuver?
Serpentine Maneuver - your ship weaves back and forth granting bonus defense and accuracy
Jericho Maneuver - your ship performs a massive loop around your target while allowing you to face the ship in any direction you like, grants bonus to damage and critical severity
(Can't think of a good name right now) Maneuver - looks onto a target and follows on autopilot while granting your weapons bonus shield and armor penetration
Obviously they would have global shared cooldowns and such.
And finally Im gonna a talk about torpedoes again... lol
Reduces reload time of all projectile weapons by (variable)%
All projectile weapons do increased damage to shields
Projectile weapons disable shield and hull regeneration for (variable) seconds with a (variable) cooldown
I'll think of more I'm sure...
Some people have suggested that having three boxes with the last one granting only +15 to a skill may be a bad idea. In the old system low level skills like flow caps it was cheap to get the full bonus but now there is little incentive to do so. I like what y'all did for drain and control expertise, would you consider doing something similar for other skills?
And Im not sure how I can clearly explain that ITS A BAD DESIGN CHOICE.
Your design principles are fundamentally flawed. (As you seem to want to force people in to a hybrid build. Dont force your players to do anything).
As far as I see, you think splitting them the suggested way will result in a non-choice for players because they will choose both energy points and move on. What you dont seem to want to acknowledge is that people are going to choose Energy CritH and not care about the Projectile choice at all. Its gonna be non-choice either way. Except one way provides a benefit for players and the other is a lame attempt to force people to use projectile based weapons.
Its not the increase that matters, its the fact that a choice of mine is being forcibly removed, behind the false veil of player agency. (Completely ignoring the fact the more agency is being removed rather than being added). Tactical 15 and 20 are just as bad, with 20 being the worst example of bad foresight that I have seen so far. A fully specced energy build should be just as allowed as both a hybrid build or a fully specced projectile build (if thats what the player desires). There should never be a move to block choice, yet here we are.
Then again this is the same team that whats to also force a spec into ground combat as well... so I guess I should just GTFO then, because my type of fun seems to be going away.
Grants bonus to physical and radiation damage, not a huge amount of course.
1. Old skill tree you can set points from 0-9 per skill. So allowing for more precise tweaking a build then the new skill tree.
3. I read that following is possible:
"Q: Will I be able to replicate my existing build under the new system?
A: As much as possible, we have taken pains to ensure that players will be capable of replicating existing skill layouts in the new system."
Source http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9808983-star-trek-online:-skills-system-revamp-faq
Many players have many builds. It would be a welcome service if an algorith/button/migration was created to convert current skill settings and ship stats to the new skill settings. So people who want to keep more or less their builds intact are not presented by a lot of hassle caused due to wiping out all current setting when season 11.5 goes life.
If it is possible to replicate a build, than it should not be impossible for development team, to do so by default, during the conversion, and save all players a lot of hassle.
It would be better if the "Purchase Skills" button was used in better context; Kirimuffin's example and also the fact that the button is present even when there are no skill points available. That is one of the things I look forward to; not having to deal with the purchase skills button because you have 1000+ idle skill points but not enough for a skill you actually want or need as the system currently exists on Holodeck.
I also agree that having hangar skills offered so early in the tactical skill tree almost guarantees a respect after level 40 as that is mostly when hangars become available. Hangar skill should not be offered after spending 5 tactical points.
Here's my purely selfish version
It allows people with carriers to get some benefit without massively investing in Tac. It allows people not in carriers to always pick something else. It makes harder choices for extra power by grouping offense and defense in pairs. It gives a harder choice between Subsystem Repair and Control Resistance. It gives people with cloaks benefits early in the leveling process. It gives players without cloaks a useful tool instead.
Reinforcing all-one-weapon-type builds is the bad choice. I think we can move past 'player agency' as an excuse/cover story to the harsh reality that mono-weapon-type builds are over-performing and over-represented in a setting that has always shown combined weaponry to be the preferred model for the people who actually have to live there.
What about increased firing arcs?
Increased rate of fire?
Reduced weapon power drain?
Obviously the values wouldn't be tremendous, but wouldn't at least one or two of those be feasible? Just saying there's more aspects to weapons than just damage, crit, and range.
The reduction by 5 points to training manual unlocks is great. The fact that you added in so many previously uncraftable manuals is fantastic. I think my only concern remaining is that of the previously craftable skills, only Emergency Power to Auxiliary 3 is at the highest tier for Engineers. I think it has more usefulness than Emergency Power to Engines 3, and the two positions should be swapped. Thematically, it makes sense for Engines to require more engineering. Build-wise, I think it makes it more feasible for a science-focused engineer to get access to a more useful Emergency Power skill without overspecing into Engineering.
Regarding the skill tree itself, I agree with sarcasmdetector earlier that shuffling early science and engineering skill pairings could be fruitful. I would propose:
Engineering
Science
I feel pretty good about the engineering shuffle. The science shuffle I'm less certain about, because it might be too much too soon and may overstate the usefulness of drain, but currently I feel the message is don't bother with utility science skills until level 20.
Also I threw some bug reports up about the early KDF missions that I suffered through during this. I can confirm the poor frigate HP scaling and really annoying early travel times.
Skill points, it feels like there should be a few more. Specializing to get the top tier abilities is one thing, but characters look to have to way over specialize to get there. Getting past the hanger pet abilities takes 10 points, and another 5, just to get something I consider useful in the tactical tree.
I'm probably missing something obvious I wanted to add, but I can't remember what it was. ah well.
Oh, right, suggestion: Maybe more options at those junctures. Instead of picking from two abilities, what about picking from three.
I'm personally of the opinion that pets should be removed from the skill tree completely and put in a brand new specialization tree instead, but i'm not gonna say much more than that. I got a bit heated over the weekend about it and started acting like a prick, and don't want that to happen again.
You may wish to check the patch notes. You're talking about a decision gate that doesn't exist anymore
Jam Sensors 3 recipe doesn't appear even after you've spent enough tac points. All the science recipe unlocks in eng and sci seem to be working fine. Need to respec to check tractor 3 and viral 3.
Update: Now that I went full Tac, jam sensors appears. There is some weird delay going on with the unlocks. I got a message that I can train Viral matrix 3, but viral matrix 3 isn't in my available manuals.
I'd be happy to see hybrid armament flourish, but I agree with amayakitsune that the current design is bad. If people don't want to use both, forcing them to waste one pick on the other is just going to annoy them. Gaining powers on level up is cool; being forced to spend that power on a feat tax you'll never lose is extremely uncool.
If the devs really want to enforce hybrids, they should design ships that have dedicated slots for energy weapons and projectiles, exactly the way the ships do in the 'real' Star Trek world. If the devs merely want to encourage people to use hybrids, they need to take a step back and redesign the combat system so that both energy and projectiles have useful niches that synergize with each other.
In theory, energy to drop the shields, then projectiles to hammer the hull is valid. But in practice, shields wind up being more important than hull, probably because it's so easy for targets to redistribute their shields just enough to gut torp damage.
That's certainly how it feels to me, but I'm an extremely casual player so perhaps I'm mistaken.
-R
EDIT: For the record, I think devs should do away with the path powers and just add them as additional options in the trees. I don't think there's any way they can design a system full of two-pronged forks and not have a substantial portion of those choices feel either useless or excruciating to most players. And as I said above, that strips most of the fun out of the system and turns the whole thing into an annoying puzzle we have to pay $5 to fix every time we guess wrong. Blech.
1) Energy siphon = Cut the slope in half. Before every 100 skill = double base drain, now every 200 skill = double base drain.
2) Plasmonic Leech = Also cut the slope in half. Before every 100 skill = +1 drain, now every 200 skill = +1 drain.
R.I.P Drain Boats. Let's all hop on part gens boats because it's what all the cool kids run.
New Boat - U.S.S. Mirror = Stack every damage reflection ability possible and the Nukara shield with high part gens. If I can buy an S'Golth and put the silent enemy set on it, even better.
Tactical:5 = All CritH // All CritD
Tactical:10 = Increased Firing Arc // Increased Proc Chance
The proc chance seems more universally useful, but those who have trouble maintaining optimal weapon coverage while flying may find the arc more useful. I didn't use either of my other suggestions here because, well, unless the player is using plasma weapons i don't think either of these options would increase maximum potential dps (this would not increase CritH for antiproton weapons, so those wouldn't see any benefit).
You fixed the bug with EPS Manifold. On live, it does not benefit the subsystem Emergency Power is given to. I am very pleased by this small, but irritating bug being fixed.
Hm, wait. It's not working again? What the heck?
I would go with:
Jem'Hadar: +Shield Penetration
It is what made them dangerous to begin with.