I disagree entirely that this is an oversight. While I will agree it may not be nefarious, it certainly is intentional. Again, the goal is to make money and recoup the costs put into it. Clearly they want to sell as many respec tokens as possible.
I've no doubt a "commit changes" feature could have been added. It's not that they are incapable of doing it, it's whatever sells more. I'm not saying that makes Cryptic evil. They are a business after all.
Now, to the larger audience of "You use too many words and I'm offended that you think you're smarter than me that's rude" - I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that you collectively don't seem worth my time to respond to. Yes, from my perspective that is a very rude thing to say to you all (maybe it's rude from your perspective too, I dunno - seems like using careful reasoning and precise language got your goat before, so maybe this more direct approach will be refreshing for you), but I frankly don't care since it seems like you view anything I do/say as rude, and at this point it's pretty clear that you can't/won't do me the courtesy of actually responding to what I say instead of what you percieve my tone to be.
Thus, we're done, except to say this: I'm not saying I'm right because I'm smarter than you - I'm saying the evidence seems to indicate that the way I'm building my argument is better than the way you are building your arguments, thus I'm more likely to be right, and that further this evidence based approach to truth-seeking is a better way of conducting discussions. Enjoy your mindless outrage, and know that since I'm sure you lack the awareness to be ashamed of how bad your arguments actually are, I've gone ahead and felt embarassed for you. You're welcome.
Having a cold-hearted analytical way of viewing things doesn't make you smart, it just make you a cold-hearted analytical person that perceives himself as being smart because you tend to view the world differently, but come to the same conclusions everyone else does, only alone.
The only way you will stop licking Cryptics boots is if someone shows you the spreadsheet documentation to substantiate the claim.
" I frankly don't care"
Gotta love that. Yes you do, or else you wouldn't have inserted your diatribe.
Truly smart people don't announce to everyone that they believe they are smart... That just reeks of narcissism.
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." - Q
In every other game I play as I drift around between them, respecs costs in-game currency. Even the ultimate cash shop to buy your way to whatever you want LotRO charges in-game currency to respec. The "consequences" in a game should be consequential inside the game. This isn't my college transcript in the real world. Missing a point here doesn't leave here. It has no real world consequences. Yet it has a real world cost.
In this case, the consequence is they are changing the system to something else and I have builds that I understand under the current system that are not translating 1:1 to the new one. In the end, I added things one point at a time and checked the numbers in the stats tree of the ship and even then, it was not clear what changes what. I added 6 points in tactical to crit chance and crit severity. Neither set of 3 added a single percentage to the stats on the ship. They said 5% and 50% respectively before adding anything and 5% and 50% after adding 6 points. Also I did lose something and tried to find where I was missing the points. There is nowhere to get them back. 150% regen is the best it gets on hull. I had 196% before. I wasted 2 respecs on that alone by changing the selections trying to find it and then changing them back when I didn't find it. I guess that is my fault for believing "You will lose nothing" and the $10 fine for being naive applies.
Put them in the Dilithium Store for 16k or 20k. Add a dilithium sink to remove some of the inflation. Make them an item instead of a direct purchase so people can sell them like keys and ship modules if they must be charged real world money for. Some of my characters have 5 or 6. Others have none. Make them account-wide. You quit getting them when you quit leveling but changes to mechanics don't stop when you quit leveling. How many times in the past year have they changed PartGen related mechanics like crit change and severity? Well, they just did again. I can't find the post but Bort specifically said in the new system that PartGens didn't have anything to do with something about Gravity Well. That wasn't obvious in the skill tree either where it is obvious in the tree being replaced. It didn't effect my build because I want all 100 points in EPG but that is a $5 ding to someone who has a LtComm slot on a ship and thought a GW1 might bunch up some stuff for a scatter volley.
TL/DR: The conversion is not 1:1 and it is not obvious. There should either be a grace period where respecs are free for a limited time or they should change how they are sold and make them account wide.
TL/DR: The conversion is not 1:1 and it is not obvious. There should either be a grace period where respecs are free for a limited time or they should change how they are sold and make them account wide.
orrrrrr...they should just get rid of Respec Tokens like they did with Species and Rep Trait Tokens, Simple as that.
To earn some additional Money, they could introduce a Skill Loudout System that was mentioned here and in other Threads time after time, Silver Player get 1, Gold and LTS get 2 additional Skill Loudout Slots for free and than Sell more Slots in the C-Store BAM, let the Money Roll, more Cash for Cryptic / PW and we get what we ask for, simple 1+1 that everyone should see.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
I could go for that one. I just know had I waited for this to go live, I would have a very messed up ship. One miscount and you do a lot of damage to you skill set (as much as 50 points in some cases).
Is anyone else worried that they might make major changes after the new skill system's introduced? Given their track record at least since the doffing revamp, I'm seriously considering taking a week or two off from the game to let other people be guinea pigs, when it'll cost $5 per attempt to get things right.
Is anyone else worried that they might make major changes after the new skill system's introduced? Given their track record at least since the doffing revamp, I'm seriously considering taking a week or two off from the game to let other people be guinea pigs, when it'll cost $5 per attempt to get things right.
(sarcasm on) Given the way the queues work since DR ,endgame is doffing and admiralty and neither of those use any subsystem or skill tree point. There are no optionals in patrols and no fail conditions. If your build goes from 25k to 5k, you only lose time on content with no timer. (sarcasm off)
I have one respec left from leveling however long ago that was (Long enough ago that my KDF main did it in Kerrat when PvP was about the only way to level). If what I work out here changes going there and I can't fix it with a single respec, I guess I will fly gimped. It's not like it's going to affect my endgame much.
I heard that they wish to have players go out of their comfort zone a bit and experiment and try something new, while on the same breath say the decision you make will have consequences.
I don't get it. That means if I do go ahead and leave my comfy zone and go with something that I have no idea of actually knowing if it's good or not, I get punished if it doesn't work out. I'm I suppose to go back and try again and spend another $5?
Totally understanding this is a F2P game and all and they need to make money like every other business, but I have played another F2P game in the past where respects where 'free' (in game currency only) and it was fine. There is still a cost to respect and was enough to provide said consequence, but IMO it's a bit steep here.
Besides, if the cost was ending up being reduced, it could open players up a little more at least and in fact try to get out of their comfy zone. This very easily could result in increase sales in other areas for the game and I think that's why the other game I played had the respect free, they earned it back in other areas. But otherwise, players are probably just going to stick with what they know works.
Respecs shouldn't be free, though; otherwise you would de facto be a Jack of all trades, and a master of all at the same time too! (As respeccing would just be like switching loadouts)
The new system ought to have 1 single 'Commit' button, though, like in the old system; otherwise even a single mis-click (wrong column, for instance) becomes a very costly affair.
Respecs shouldn't be free, though; otherwise you would de facto be a Jack of all trades, and a master of all at the same time too! (As respeccing would just be like switching loadouts)
The new system ought to have 1 single 'Commit' button, though, like in the old system; otherwise even a single mis-click (wrong column, for instance) becomes a very costly affair.
yes they should, to all the nay sayers i say YES they should.
With that "logic" Changing your Personal Traits (Ground/Space) shouldnt be free, changing your Rep Traits shouldnt be free (both those were NOT free, one had to buy tokens for that too but they MADE it free) and oh, you wanna change your weapons layout? well shouldnt be free, wanna change your Boff Powers? HEY! that shouldnt be free either!
But here is the thing......ALL those things that i just mentioned are BASIC Game mechanics that charging for would be silly and ridicilous, thats why its all free BUT, Respecing is in the SAME category, and THATS why the fact that its not free is WRONG and thats the reason why the respec tokens should go!
and when you talk about loudouts, well YEA we need Skill loudouts too, using different ships AND Builds on a character should be FUN and not Punishing, free respecing and Skill loudouts would make sure that IT IS FUN, right now most people stick with what they have and dont want to try other stuff, be it other builds, other ships and so on (so the exact opposite of what cryptic wants us to do "try out new stuff, leave our safe zone) cause most of those people refuse to pay for whenever they want to try something else out, and this is also the reason why many of those people just ignore new Ships that are not similar to what they have and what does not fit their build = Less potential ship sales.
So in conclusion
-Respec Tokens have to go
-Skill Loudouts have to be implemented (1 additional for Silver, 2 for Gold and LTS +more Loudouts from C-Store)
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
I've played quite a few mmos where repecs are free including ones that are buy to play. It is obvious that respecs don't sell well here, hence why they are trying to introduce a harsher skill system whch they think will increase respec sells. I've respec'd 2 times on since I started: one paid for and the other was free respec because of a one-time bug when they introduced the trait system.
It seems odd to me that a game that relies heavily on ship skill builds that this is gated, as it restricts experimentation and penalizes mistakes. One of the factors that might create problems for Cryptic by making respecs free is effectively they would be removing a subscriber perk that would need to be replaced by something else.
Someone mentioned making respecs free, and introducing skill loadout slots for zen. I think this is a great idea. Also one that can then be given to subscribers as a perk, and also imo an item that would sell much better than than a respec token. Being able to change skills on the go, or when flying different ships would likely have a positive impact on ships sells too. This way everyone is happy, and some confidence in Cryptic's direction is restored. I would buy more skill loadout slots than I ever would for respec tokens, why? For the convenience. Obviously both systems wouldn't work together so one would have to be chosen.
Respecs shouldn't be free, though; otherwise you would de facto be a Jack of all trades, and a master of all at the same time too! (As respeccing would just be like switching loadouts)
The new system ought to have 1 single 'Commit' button, though, like in the old system; otherwise even a single mis-click (wrong column, for instance) becomes a very costly affair.
yes they should, to all the nay sayers i say YES they should.
With that "logic" Changing your Personal Traits (Ground/Space) shouldnt be free, changing your Rep Traits shouldnt be free (both those were NOT free, one had to buy tokens for that too but they MADE it free) and oh, you wanna change your weapons layout? well shouldnt be free, wanna change your Boff Powers? HEY! that shouldnt be free either!
But here is the thing......ALL those things that i just mentioned are BASIC Game mechanics that charging for would be silly and ridicilous, thats why its all free BUT, Respecing is in the SAME category, and THATS why the fact that its not free is WRONG and thats the reason why the respec tokens should go!
and when you talk about loudouts, well YEA we need Skill loudouts too, using different ships AND Builds on a character should be FUN and not Punishing, free respecing and Skill loudouts would make sure that IT IS FUN, right now most people stick with what they have and dont want to try other stuff, be it other builds, other ships and so on (so the exact opposite of what cryptic wants us to do "try out new stuff, leave our safe zone) cause most of those people refuse to pay for whenever they want to try something else out, and this is also the reason why many of those people just ignore new Ships that are not similar to what they have and what does not fit their build = Less potential ship sales.
So in conclusion
-Respec Tokens have to go
-Skill Loudouts have to be implemented (1 additional for Silver, 2 for Gold and LTS +more Loudouts from C-Store)
If the forums had an upvote function, I would give all of mine to you. So have a +1 instead. Paid respecs really have to go.
I've played quite a few mmos where repecs are free including ones that are buy to play. It is obvious that respecs don't sell well here, hence why they are trying to introduce a harsher skill system whch they think will increase respec sells. I've respec'd 2 times on since I started: one paid for and the other was free respec because of a one-time bug when they introduced the trait system.
It seems odd to me that a game that relies heavily on ship skill builds that this is gated, as it restricts experimentation and penalizes mistakes. One of the factors that might create problems for Cryptic by making respecs free is effectively they would be removing a subscriber perk that would need to be replaced by something else.
Someone mentioned making respecs free, and introducing skill loadout slots for zen. I think this is a great idea. Also one that can then be given to subscribers as a perk, and also imo an item that would sell much better than than a respec token. Being able to change skills on the go, or when flying different ships would likely have a positive impact on ships sells too. This way everyone is happy, and some confidence in Cryptic's direction is restored. I would buy more skill loadout slots than I ever would for respec tokens, why? For the convenience. Obviously both systems wouldn't work together so one would have to be chosen.
most of the mmos i played also dont charge for something so basic like respecs. I too cant imagine that respecs are a hitseller and trying to "force" people to buy more with the new system will not work, the only thing it will do is damaging the reputation and trust in cryptic even more.
Yes, a Game around different types of builds, different ships (where they want you to buy more ships) but than punishing everyone who tries to try anything new, someone has to do his homework again......
I dont see any problem by making respecs free at all, even Subscribers get only so and so many free tokens, and now it would be free for all, as for the replacement:
the "someone" who tries to push the idea with the Skill loudouts is me, and by giving Gold and LTS members 2 additional loudouts vs 1 additional loudout for Silver Players is allready another perk for them as a replacement of the token perks and unlike tokens that are consumable, loudouts are permanent unlocks that stay, so worth so much more.
And since tokens most probaly dont sell to well, getting rid of them and selling us those Skill loudouts instead would be a tremendously better idea, BETTER for us BETTER for them, people would be happy to pay for them, i wouldnt be surprised if many would buy dozens of loudouts / loudout bundles for their characters so they have a loudout for every ship that they have.
ONE click and you are perfectly setup for your escort, science ship, cruiser, whatever. You want to change something on one of your Skill loudouts? set it active, go to the Skill Trainer NPC and just change it voilà!
You have restored a huge chunk of Trust in your company again, you gave people what they want AND they throw there Money at you, a simple formula that even a 5 years old Kid would understand.
The only people here that say anything against that are the notorious "NAY!" sayers, that will fight any new idea, or anything that they dont like, even if it doesnt affect them at all, but thats nothing new.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
Respecs shouldn't be free, though; otherwise you would de facto be a Jack of all trades, and a master of all at the same time too! (As respeccing would just be like switching loadouts)
The new system ought to have 1 single 'Commit' button, though, like in the old system; otherwise even a single mis-click (wrong column, for instance) becomes a very costly affair.
yes they should, to all the nay sayers i say YES they should.
With that "logic" Changing your Personal Traits (Ground/Space) shouldnt be free, changing your Rep Traits shouldnt be free (both those were NOT free, one had to buy tokens for that too but they MADE it free) and oh, you wanna change your weapons layout? well shouldnt be free, wanna change your Boff Powers? HEY! that shouldnt be free either!
But here is the thing......ALL those things that i just mentioned are BASIC Game mechanics that charging for would be silly and ridicilous, thats why its all free BUT, Respecing is in the SAME category, and THATS why the fact that its not free is WRONG and thats the reason why the respec tokens should go!
and when you talk about loudouts, well YEA we need Skill loudouts too, using different ships AND Builds on a character should be FUN and not Punishing, free respecing and Skill loudouts would make sure that IT IS FUN, right now most people stick with what they have and dont want to try other stuff, be it other builds, other ships and so on (so the exact opposite of what cryptic wants us to do "try out new stuff, leave our safe zone) cause most of those people refuse to pay for whenever they want to try something else out, and this is also the reason why many of those people just ignore new Ships that are not similar to what they have and what does not fit their build = Less potential ship sales.
So in conclusion
-Respec Tokens have to go
-Skill Loudouts have to be implemented (1 additional for Silver, 2 for Gold and LTS +more Loudouts from C-Store)
If the forums had an upvote function, I would give all of mine to you. So have a +1 instead. Paid respecs really have to go.
Thanks.
i wish we had such a upvote function, that way even people who dont want to get involved to much, could show their support with a single click, but the issue and reason why i think they would never add such a function is....it would show even more how much we get ignored most of the time. Imagine someone has a awesome idea that would benefit everyone, and he gets thousands of upvotes in no time....and than...nothing happens? would that not upset you a little bit? I gues you can see what i mean.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
most of the mmos i played also dont charge for something so basic like respecs. I too cant imagine that respecs are a hitseller and trying to "force" people to buy more with the new system will not work, the only thing it will do is damaging the reputation and trust in cryptic even more.
Yes, a Game around different types of builds, different ships (where they want you to buy more ships) but than punishing everyone who tries to try anything new, someone has to do his homework again......
I dont see any problem by making respecs free at all, even Subscribers get only so and so many free tokens, and now it would be free for all, as for the replacement:
the "someone" who tries to push the idea with the Skill loudouts is me, and by giving Gold and LTS members 2 additional loudouts vs 1 additional loudout for Silver Players is allready another perk for them as a replacement of the token perks and unlike tokens that are consumable, loudouts are permanent unlocks that stay, so worth so much more.
And since tokens most probaly dont sell to well, getting rid of them and selling us those Skill loudouts instead would be a tremendously better idea, BETTER for us BETTER for them, people would be happy to pay for them, i wouldnt be surprised if many would buy dozens of loudouts / loudout bundles for their characters so they have a loudout for every ship that they have.
ONE click and you are perfectly setup for your escort, science ship, cruiser, whatever. You want to change something on one of your Skill loudouts? set it active, go to the Skill Trainer NPC and just change it voilà!
You have restored a huge chunk of Trust in your company again, you gave people what they want AND they throw there Money at you, a simple formula that even a 5 years old Kid would understand.
The only people here that say anything against that are the notorious "NAY!" sayers, that will fight any new idea, or anything that they dont like, even if it doesnt affect them at all, but thats nothing new.
Sorry I couldn't remember your handle. But what you say makes perfect sense. The best scenario for killing several birds with one stone and making players happy while making more money than they would with respec tokens.
most of the mmos i played also dont charge for something so basic like respecs. I too cant imagine that respecs are a hitseller and trying to "force" people to buy more with the new system will not work, the only thing it will do is damaging the reputation and trust in cryptic even more.
Yes, a Game around different types of builds, different ships (where they want you to buy more ships) but than punishing everyone who tries to try anything new, someone has to do his homework again......
I dont see any problem by making respecs free at all, even Subscribers get only so and so many free tokens, and now it would be free for all, as for the replacement:
the "someone" who tries to push the idea with the Skill loudouts is me, and by giving Gold and LTS members 2 additional loudouts vs 1 additional loudout for Silver Players is allready another perk for them as a replacement of the token perks and unlike tokens that are consumable, loudouts are permanent unlocks that stay, so worth so much more.
And since tokens most probaly dont sell to well, getting rid of them and selling us those Skill loudouts instead would be a tremendously better idea, BETTER for us BETTER for them, people would be happy to pay for them, i wouldnt be surprised if many would buy dozens of loudouts / loudout bundles for their characters so they have a loudout for every ship that they have.
ONE click and you are perfectly setup for your escort, science ship, cruiser, whatever. You want to change something on one of your Skill loudouts? set it active, go to the Skill Trainer NPC and just change it voilà!
You have restored a huge chunk of Trust in your company again, you gave people what they want AND they throw there Money at you, a simple formula that even a 5 years old Kid would understand.
The only people here that say anything against that are the notorious "NAY!" sayers, that will fight any new idea, or anything that they dont like, even if it doesnt affect them at all, but thats nothing new.
Sorry I couldn't remember your handle. But what you say makes perfect sense. The best scenario for killing several birds with one stone and making players happy while making more money than they would with respec tokens.
no problem, thanks and lets hope that they finaly will see those points too. Speaking for myself, i would be extremly happy with those changes and iam very confident that many many more would feel the same.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
So:
- respec cost go away, it's free for everyone
- skill loudouts enter Zen-store allowing players to save their skill settings
Best ideas IMO. Player will pay for optional saving their time when setting their skills for specific builds, while community will have chance to explore new builds without unfair penalty.
So:
- respec cost go away, it's free for everyone
- respec loudouts enter Zen-store allowing players to save their skill settings
Best ideas IMO. Player will pay for optional saving their time when setting their skills for specific builds, while community will have chance to explore new builds without unfair penalty.
*smartass mode on* iam sure you meant "skill loudouts" instead of "respec loudouts" cause a respec loudout would be weird (:P) *smartass mode off*
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
So:
- respec cost go away, it's free for everyone
- respec loudouts enter Zen-store allowing players to save their skill settings
Best ideas IMO. Player will pay for optional saving their time when setting their skills for specific builds, while community will have chance to explore new builds without unfair penalty.
*smartass mode on* iam sure you meant "skill loudouts" instead of "respec loudouts" cause a respec loudout would be weird (:P) *smartass mode off*
I've played quite a few mmos where repecs are free including ones that are buy to play. It is obvious that respecs don't sell well here, hence why they are trying to introduce a harsher skill system whch they think will increase respec sells. I've respec'd 2 times on since I started: one paid for and the other was free respec because of a one-time bug when they introduced the trait system.
It seems odd to me that a game that relies heavily on ship skill builds that this is gated, as it restricts experimentation and penalizes mistakes. One of the factors that might create problems for Cryptic by making respecs free is effectively they would be removing a subscriber perk that would need to be replaced by something else.
Someone mentioned making respecs free, and introducing skill loadout slots for zen. I think this is a great idea. Also one that can then be given to subscribers as a perk, and also imo an item that would sell much better than than a respec token. Being able to change skills on the go, or when flying different ships would likely have a positive impact on ships sells too. This way everyone is happy, and some confidence in Cryptic's direction is restored. I would buy more skill loadout slots than I ever would for respec tokens, why? For the convenience. Obviously both systems wouldn't work together so one would have to be chosen.
There's a difference between re-slotting a few Traits (which really just should be part of your loadouts), and a meta change like your entire Skills. The latter is of a different order of magnitude. If Skill respecs were free, then they might as well just give you everything maxed out, up-front, to begin with (as being able to change them on-the-fly would be tantamount to precisely that).
Also, you seem to be saying two things at the same time: that you want respecs to be free, or pay for it anyway, but in a different form. As for the former, I maintain they can't be free. "Introducing skill loadout slots for zen" is something I could get wholeheartedly behind, though! (Although that would really just be like a respec token, except 'enhanced', and turned into a loadout, but which you still gotta pay for).
So:
- respec cost go away, it's free for everyone
- respec loudouts enter Zen-store allowing players to save their skill settings
Best ideas IMO. Player will pay for optional saving their time when setting their skills for specific builds, while community will have chance to explore new builds without unfair penalty.
*smartass mode on* iam sure you meant "skill loudouts" instead of "respec loudouts" cause a respec loudout would be weird (:P) *smartass mode off*
Actually, what you BOTH mean are "loadouts" with an "a", not a "u".
And again, skill loadouts are the worst possible outcome for the overall health of the game. They will make you even worse at the game than you are now, while simultaneously encouraging you to think you've got an optimized build, such that you end up feeling like your inability to do well in missions like Borg Disconnected Advanced/Elite, or Battle of Korfez (particularly the Benthan escort stage), or The Herald Sphere Advanced/Elite (particularly the "prevent Heralds from entering the gateways" stage) is the result of poor mission design that makes those missions "unfair", not the result of your own sub-optimal choices.
Here's (again) how this works: First, lets start with what you all seem to assume is going to happen if you get free respecs, loadouts, whatever. You think you're going to do something like try out a build and tweak it over time until it is a finely honed, optimal skill set. That even seems like it makes sense until you consider that tweaking builds effectively requires doing some pretty intensive work on evaluating relative performance on some sort of objective, quantifiable scale, and that, in turn, is a lot of hard work too. Many of you have already said you don't want to be forced to do "hours of research" to figure out the right spec for you, which is fine, but then raises the question - if you don't want to do the work to learn how to skill properly now, for one single build, why on Earth do you think you would be willing to put in two or three times as much work to optimize not just one build, but your alternate "specialist" builds as well? Instead, it seems highly likely that your "tweaking" will take the form of following a series of reasoning shortcuts that end up leading you astray. For example, you might find that you can get 3k extra shield hp per facing by fully speccing into shield capacity, and thus that's "better performance", right? Well, no, probably not - if you weren't blowing up very often at all before you added those shield hp, then they aren't really making your ship substantially better in actual function at all. Thus, that tweak LOOKS optimal, but only because you're using the wrong criteria to judge effectiveness.
This misanalysis will be compounded by confirmation bias and the fact that the game simply isn't generally hard enough to give you the kind of feedback you really need to improve (read: the game won't kill you often enough for you to realize the weaknesses in your builds, especially on Normal difficulty). Thus, you end up becoming even more convinced that your bad choices are actually optimal, and when you encounter the situations that DO point out the problems with your build, you tend to believe the problem is those situations, not your build (because, after all, your build "works" everywhere else, right?). This trend, in turn, ends up making it extremely difficult for the design team to come up with missions that can accommodate the bulk of the player base, because the skill disparity is so extreme. Some would argue that the issue is simply that the devs don't design to accommodate anything besides DPS, and that if the devs would design missions that better rewarded tanking/control builds, then the builds that currently look sub-optimal would suddenly be better.
This is tempting, but then look at a mission like Borg Disconnected - this is a mission where higher DPS really, really doesn't have to be the answer - tanking, control, or even simple teamwork and awareness can accomplish the main objective of the mission (freeing disconnected borg) just as well as straight DPS could, yet I very rarely see any of the so-called "optimized" specialist builds actually trying any of that. Instead, many "tank" or "control" players just seems to fly aimlessly in a circle, spamming FAW and ignoring the objectives until they either clear all the enemies from that area, or they blow up. Then they come on the forums and complain about how the mission is designed to only reward DPS because their "optimized" tanking/control build wasn't successful. It never occurs to players to think that maybe the problem with is with their builds, or their implementation of their build. Instead, it's always "I've been playing for 6 years and have like 42 characters, so clearly I know what I'm doing!", and a refusal to adapt or learn because they think they know it all already.
And that's where skill loadouts enter the picture. Far from encouraging players to develop better builds, or to experiment and step out of their comfort zone by actually critically examining how the game works, a relatively consequence free skill system allows players to stay content with their misunderstandings of how the game works because instead of being forced to think about what trade-offs they should make if they want to be an effective tank who can still be comfortable doing dps, they just figure "If I want to be the best tank, I should get every engineering power and run a cruiser", without thinking about things like the gear/boff abilities they run, or how redundant many of those skill points are going to end up being. About the only upside to skill loadouts is that players mistakenly want them, but in actual practice they would likely be terrible for the health of the game. If Cryptic really cared only about milking players for money, I'm sure you'd see skill loadouts in the C-store, with free respecs available all the time, and new skills for the tree coming soon to a lockbox near you, regardless of what that would do to the health of the game. Instead, they seem to genuinely be trying to find ways to encourage players to improve so that they can make the game better overall, with the full understanding that at least some players are going to be FURIOUS about not getting what they want.
I've played quite a few mmos where repecs are free including ones that are buy to play. It is obvious that respecs don't sell well here, hence why they are trying to introduce a harsher skill system whch they think will increase respec sells. I've respec'd 2 times on since I started: one paid for and the other was free respec because of a one-time bug when they introduced the trait system.
It seems odd to me that a game that relies heavily on ship skill builds that this is gated, as it restricts experimentation and penalizes mistakes. One of the factors that might create problems for Cryptic by making respecs free is effectively they would be removing a subscriber perk that would need to be replaced by something else.
Someone mentioned making respecs free, and introducing skill loadout slots for zen. I think this is a great idea. Also one that can then be given to subscribers as a perk, and also imo an item that would sell much better than than a respec token. Being able to change skills on the go, or when flying different ships would likely have a positive impact on ships sells too. This way everyone is happy, and some confidence in Cryptic's direction is restored. I would buy more skill loadout slots than I ever would for respec tokens, why? For the convenience. Obviously both systems wouldn't work together so one would have to be chosen.
There's a difference between re-slotting a few Traits (which really just should be part of your loadouts), and a meta change like your entire Skills. The latter is of a different order of magnitude. If Skill respecs were free, then they might as well just give you everything maxed out, up-front, to begin with (as being able to change them on-the-fly would be tantamount to precisely that).
Also, you seem to be saying two things at the same time: that you want respecs to be free, or pay for it anyway, but in a different form. As for the former, I maintain they can't be free. "Introducing skill loadout slots for zen" is something I could get wholeheartedly behind, though! (Although that would really just be like a respec token, except 'enhanced', and turned into a loadout, but which you still gotta pay for).
You've pretty much misunderstood everything I've said. For starters how would skill loadouts amount to "maxed out skills" as you can only run one loadout at a time. Also no one is asking for everything to be free, that would be daft. But I have offered a suggestion on how cryptic can still make money (probably more), and make the game more user friendly and new player friendly at the same time.
I've played quite a few mmos where repecs are free including ones that are buy to play. It is obvious that respecs don't sell well here, hence why they are trying to introduce a harsher skill system whch they think will increase respec sells. I've respec'd 2 times on since I started: one paid for and the other was free respec because of a one-time bug when they introduced the trait system.
It seems odd to me that a game that relies heavily on ship skill builds that this is gated, as it restricts experimentation and penalizes mistakes. One of the factors that might create problems for Cryptic by making respecs free is effectively they would be removing a subscriber perk that would need to be replaced by something else.
Someone mentioned making respecs free, and introducing skill loadout slots for zen. I think this is a great idea. Also one that can then be given to subscribers as a perk, and also imo an item that would sell much better than than a respec token. Being able to change skills on the go, or when flying different ships would likely have a positive impact on ships sells too. This way everyone is happy, and some confidence in Cryptic's direction is restored. I would buy more skill loadout slots than I ever would for respec tokens, why? For the convenience. Obviously both systems wouldn't work together so one would have to be chosen.
There's a difference between re-slotting a few Traits (which really just should be part of your loadouts), and a meta change like your entire Skills. The latter is of a different order of magnitude. If Skill respecs were free, then they might as well just give you everything maxed out, up-front, to begin with (as being able to change them on-the-fly would be tantamount to precisely that).
Also, you seem to be saying two things at the same time: that you want respecs to be free, or pay for it anyway, but in a different form. As for the former, I maintain they can't be free. "Introducing skill loadout slots for zen" is something I could get wholeheartedly behind, though! (Although that would really just be like a respec token, except 'enhanced', and turned into a loadout, but which you still gotta pay for).
*Replay Mode Activated: Changing Species and Reputation Traits were originaly also NOT Free but only possible with a Token, JUST like the Respec Token, and as we all know both the Species and Rep Tokens are NO MORE. Replay Mode Deactivated*
For you its a different order of Magnituted, for most other its the same Category, if the other stuff like that was thrown out of the window, so should the Respec Tokens too! Therefore I and iam sure most others here too Maintain our Oppinion that it DEFINATELY should be free.
Other than that interestingly you Support the Idea of the Skill Loudouts, yet you are against Free Respecing? If i have 20-30 or more Skill Loudouts and Switch through them like a freak again and again, than i basically do respec "for free" through all the loudouts i have, so i dont understand what your Problem here is, or what the big difference is.
Both those Ideas go hand in hand, and therefore both should be implemented, it is a Win Win for everyone.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
I read the first sentence of "Mr Wall of Text" and dont bother reading the rest, since its the same "NO NO NO NO NO!" so i dont really care anymore. Everyone who likes the Idea (and as far as i can see there are many more YAY sayers than NAY sayers) can show his Support so Cryptic can see that its something we want, for the People who dont want it, just DONT FRIGGIN USE IT THAN, no one would force you, but DONT RUIN THE OTHERS DAY! or like someone else said:
I've played quite a few mmos where repecs are free including ones that are buy to play. It is obvious that respecs don't sell well here, hence why they are trying to introduce a harsher skill system whch they think will increase respec sells. I've respec'd 2 times on since I started: one paid for and the other was free respec because of a one-time bug when they introduced the trait system.
It seems odd to me that a game that relies heavily on ship skill builds that this is gated, as it restricts experimentation and penalizes mistakes. One of the factors that might create problems for Cryptic by making respecs free is effectively they would be removing a subscriber perk that would need to be replaced by something else.
Someone mentioned making respecs free, and introducing skill loadout slots for zen. I think this is a great idea. Also one that can then be given to subscribers as a perk, and also imo an item that would sell much better than than a respec token. Being able to change skills on the go, or when flying different ships would likely have a positive impact on ships sells too. This way everyone is happy, and some confidence in Cryptic's direction is restored. I would buy more skill loadout slots than I ever would for respec tokens, why? For the convenience. Obviously both systems wouldn't work together so one would have to be chosen.
There's a difference between re-slotting a few Traits (which really just should be part of your loadouts), and a meta change like your entire Skills. The latter is of a different order of magnitude. If Skill respecs were free, then they might as well just give you everything maxed out, up-front, to begin with (as being able to change them on-the-fly would be tantamount to precisely that).
Also, you seem to be saying two things at the same time: that you want respecs to be free, or pay for it anyway, but in a different form. As for the former, I maintain they can't be free. "Introducing skill loadout slots for zen" is something I could get wholeheartedly behind, though! (Although that would really just be like a respec token, except 'enhanced', and turned into a loadout, but which you still gotta pay for).
You've pretty much misunderstood everything I've said. For starters how would skill loadouts amount to "maxed out skills" as you can only run one loadout at a time.
Very simple, as you'd effectively no longer have to chose how you wish to spec. When respecs would be free, there'd no longer the question "Shall go Tact heavy? Or more partgen/sci?" You will have both at your immediate disposal, thus, de facto, have maxed out skills on everything.
Also no one is asking for everything to be free, that would be daft. But I have offered a suggestion on how cryptic can still make money (probably more), and make the game more user friendly and new player friendly at the same time.
And I offered the suggestion that 'paid for skill loadouts' is something I'd get behind. But that that's basically just the same as a respect token, but enhanced to included a loadout.
I've played quite a few mmos where repecs are free including ones that are buy to play. It is obvious that respecs don't sell well here, hence why they are trying to introduce a harsher skill system whch they think will increase respec sells. I've respec'd 2 times on since I started: one paid for and the other was free respec because of a one-time bug when they introduced the trait system.
It seems odd to me that a game that relies heavily on ship skill builds that this is gated, as it restricts experimentation and penalizes mistakes. One of the factors that might create problems for Cryptic by making respecs free is effectively they would be removing a subscriber perk that would need to be replaced by something else.
Someone mentioned making respecs free, and introducing skill loadout slots for zen. I think this is a great idea. Also one that can then be given to subscribers as a perk, and also imo an item that would sell much better than than a respec token. Being able to change skills on the go, or when flying different ships would likely have a positive impact on ships sells too. This way everyone is happy, and some confidence in Cryptic's direction is restored. I would buy more skill loadout slots than I ever would for respec tokens, why? For the convenience. Obviously both systems wouldn't work together so one would have to be chosen.
There's a difference between re-slotting a few Traits (which really just should be part of your loadouts), and a meta change like your entire Skills. The latter is of a different order of magnitude. If Skill respecs were free, then they might as well just give you everything maxed out, up-front, to begin with (as being able to change them on-the-fly would be tantamount to precisely that).
Also, you seem to be saying two things at the same time: that you want respecs to be free, or pay for it anyway, but in a different form. As for the former, I maintain they can't be free. "Introducing skill loadout slots for zen" is something I could get wholeheartedly behind, though! (Although that would really just be like a respec token, except 'enhanced', and turned into a loadout, but which you still gotta pay for).
You've pretty much misunderstood everything I've said. For starters how would skill loadouts amount to "maxed out skills" as you can only run one loadout at a time.
Very simple, as you'd effectively no longer have to chose how you wish to spec. When respecs would be free, there'd no longer the question "Shall go Tact heavy? Or more partgen/sci?" You will have both at your immediate disposal, thus, de facto, have maxed out skills on everything.
Also no one is asking for everything to be free, that would be daft. But I have offered a suggestion on how cryptic can still make money (probably more), and make the game more user friendly and new player friendly at the same time.
And I offered the suggestion that 'paid for skill loadouts' is something I'd get behind. But that that's basically just the same as a respect token, but enhanced to included a loadout.
genemorph said it right, free respecs are not equel to maxed out skill, since plain and simple you ONLY can use ONE loadout at ANY given time, those loadouts like all other loadouts should only be switchable outside of combot (not in Missions, PvEs, PvPs and so on) so your point is invalid, other than that, Skill Loadouts and Free Respecs go hand in hand, suporting the one, but saying nay to the other is just silly.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event and mission rewards!!
Comments
Having a cold-hearted analytical way of viewing things doesn't make you smart, it just make you a cold-hearted analytical person that perceives himself as being smart because you tend to view the world differently, but come to the same conclusions everyone else does, only alone.
The only way you will stop licking Cryptics boots is if someone shows you the spreadsheet documentation to substantiate the claim.
" I frankly don't care"
Gotta love that. Yes you do, or else you wouldn't have inserted your diatribe.
In this case, the consequence is they are changing the system to something else and I have builds that I understand under the current system that are not translating 1:1 to the new one. In the end, I added things one point at a time and checked the numbers in the stats tree of the ship and even then, it was not clear what changes what. I added 6 points in tactical to crit chance and crit severity. Neither set of 3 added a single percentage to the stats on the ship. They said 5% and 50% respectively before adding anything and 5% and 50% after adding 6 points. Also I did lose something and tried to find where I was missing the points. There is nowhere to get them back. 150% regen is the best it gets on hull. I had 196% before. I wasted 2 respecs on that alone by changing the selections trying to find it and then changing them back when I didn't find it. I guess that is my fault for believing "You will lose nothing" and the $10 fine for being naive applies.
Put them in the Dilithium Store for 16k or 20k. Add a dilithium sink to remove some of the inflation. Make them an item instead of a direct purchase so people can sell them like keys and ship modules if they must be charged real world money for. Some of my characters have 5 or 6. Others have none. Make them account-wide. You quit getting them when you quit leveling but changes to mechanics don't stop when you quit leveling. How many times in the past year have they changed PartGen related mechanics like crit change and severity? Well, they just did again. I can't find the post but Bort specifically said in the new system that PartGens didn't have anything to do with something about Gravity Well. That wasn't obvious in the skill tree either where it is obvious in the tree being replaced. It didn't effect my build because I want all 100 points in EPG but that is a $5 ding to someone who has a LtComm slot on a ship and thought a GW1 might bunch up some stuff for a scatter volley.
TL/DR: The conversion is not 1:1 and it is not obvious. There should either be a grace period where respecs are free for a limited time or they should change how they are sold and make them account wide.
orrrrrr...they should just get rid of Respec Tokens like they did with Species and Rep Trait Tokens, Simple as that.
To earn some additional Money, they could introduce a Skill Loudout System that was mentioned here and in other Threads time after time, Silver Player get 1, Gold and LTS get 2 additional Skill Loudout Slots for free and than Sell more Slots in the C-Store BAM, let the Money Roll, more Cash for Cryptic / PW and we get what we ask for, simple 1+1 that everyone should see.
I mean how much money do they really make on respecc tokens? I have never bought one and im here since headstart.
(sarcasm on) Given the way the queues work since DR ,endgame is doffing and admiralty and neither of those use any subsystem or skill tree point. There are no optionals in patrols and no fail conditions. If your build goes from 25k to 5k, you only lose time on content with no timer. (sarcasm off)
I have one respec left from leveling however long ago that was (Long enough ago that my KDF main did it in Kerrat when PvP was about the only way to level). If what I work out here changes going there and I can't fix it with a single respec, I guess I will fly gimped. It's not like it's going to affect my endgame much.
I don't get it. That means if I do go ahead and leave my comfy zone and go with something that I have no idea of actually knowing if it's good or not, I get punished if it doesn't work out. I'm I suppose to go back and try again and spend another $5?
Totally understanding this is a F2P game and all and they need to make money like every other business, but I have played another F2P game in the past where respects where 'free' (in game currency only) and it was fine. There is still a cost to respect and was enough to provide said consequence, but IMO it's a bit steep here.
Besides, if the cost was ending up being reduced, it could open players up a little more at least and in fact try to get out of their comfy zone. This very easily could result in increase sales in other areas for the game and I think that's why the other game I played had the respect free, they earned it back in other areas. But otherwise, players are probably just going to stick with what they know works.
Is this an actual game design moving forward or just temporary while in Tribble?
Respecs shouldn't be free, though; otherwise you would de facto be a Jack of all trades, and a master of all at the same time too! (As respeccing would just be like switching loadouts)
The new system ought to have 1 single 'Commit' button, though, like in the old system; otherwise even a single mis-click (wrong column, for instance) becomes a very costly affair.
yes they should, to all the nay sayers i say YES they should.
With that "logic" Changing your Personal Traits (Ground/Space) shouldnt be free, changing your Rep Traits shouldnt be free (both those were NOT free, one had to buy tokens for that too but they MADE it free) and oh, you wanna change your weapons layout? well shouldnt be free, wanna change your Boff Powers? HEY! that shouldnt be free either!
But here is the thing......ALL those things that i just mentioned are BASIC Game mechanics that charging for would be silly and ridicilous, thats why its all free BUT, Respecing is in the SAME category, and THATS why the fact that its not free is WRONG and thats the reason why the respec tokens should go!
and when you talk about loudouts, well YEA we need Skill loudouts too, using different ships AND Builds on a character should be FUN and not Punishing, free respecing and Skill loudouts would make sure that IT IS FUN, right now most people stick with what they have and dont want to try other stuff, be it other builds, other ships and so on (so the exact opposite of what cryptic wants us to do "try out new stuff, leave our safe zone) cause most of those people refuse to pay for whenever they want to try something else out, and this is also the reason why many of those people just ignore new Ships that are not similar to what they have and what does not fit their build = Less potential ship sales.
So in conclusion
-Respec Tokens have to go
-Skill Loudouts have to be implemented (1 additional for Silver, 2 for Gold and LTS +more Loudouts from C-Store)
Even if they give us either of those options, I'd still be extremely happy.
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It seems odd to me that a game that relies heavily on ship skill builds that this is gated, as it restricts experimentation and penalizes mistakes. One of the factors that might create problems for Cryptic by making respecs free is effectively they would be removing a subscriber perk that would need to be replaced by something else.
Someone mentioned making respecs free, and introducing skill loadout slots for zen. I think this is a great idea. Also one that can then be given to subscribers as a perk, and also imo an item that would sell much better than than a respec token. Being able to change skills on the go, or when flying different ships would likely have a positive impact on ships sells too. This way everyone is happy, and some confidence in Cryptic's direction is restored. I would buy more skill loadout slots than I ever would for respec tokens, why? For the convenience. Obviously both systems wouldn't work together so one would have to be chosen.
i would still hope for both since i really think we need them, BUT of course something is better than nothing.
If the forums had an upvote function, I would give all of mine to you. So have a +1 instead. Paid respecs really have to go.
Mine Trap Supporter
most of the mmos i played also dont charge for something so basic like respecs. I too cant imagine that respecs are a hitseller and trying to "force" people to buy more with the new system will not work, the only thing it will do is damaging the reputation and trust in cryptic even more.
Yes, a Game around different types of builds, different ships (where they want you to buy more ships) but than punishing everyone who tries to try anything new, someone has to do his homework again......
I dont see any problem by making respecs free at all, even Subscribers get only so and so many free tokens, and now it would be free for all, as for the replacement:
the "someone" who tries to push the idea with the Skill loudouts is me, and by giving Gold and LTS members 2 additional loudouts vs 1 additional loudout for Silver Players is allready another perk for them as a replacement of the token perks and unlike tokens that are consumable, loudouts are permanent unlocks that stay, so worth so much more.
And since tokens most probaly dont sell to well, getting rid of them and selling us those Skill loudouts instead would be a tremendously better idea, BETTER for us BETTER for them, people would be happy to pay for them, i wouldnt be surprised if many would buy dozens of loudouts / loudout bundles for their characters so they have a loudout for every ship that they have.
ONE click and you are perfectly setup for your escort, science ship, cruiser, whatever. You want to change something on one of your Skill loudouts? set it active, go to the Skill Trainer NPC and just change it voilà!
You have restored a huge chunk of Trust in your company again, you gave people what they want AND they throw there Money at you, a simple formula that even a 5 years old Kid would understand.
The only people here that say anything against that are the notorious "NAY!" sayers, that will fight any new idea, or anything that they dont like, even if it doesnt affect them at all, but thats nothing new.
Thanks.
i wish we had such a upvote function, that way even people who dont want to get involved to much, could show their support with a single click, but the issue and reason why i think they would never add such a function is....it would show even more how much we get ignored most of the time. Imagine someone has a awesome idea that would benefit everyone, and he gets thousands of upvotes in no time....and than...nothing happens? would that not upset you a little bit? I gues you can see what i mean.
Sorry I couldn't remember your handle. But what you say makes perfect sense. The best scenario for killing several birds with one stone and making players happy while making more money than they would with respec tokens.
no problem, thanks and lets hope that they finaly will see those points too. Speaking for myself, i would be extremly happy with those changes and iam very confident that many many more would feel the same.
- respec cost go away, it's free for everyone
- skill loudouts enter Zen-store allowing players to save their skill settings
Best ideas IMO. Player will pay for optional saving their time when setting their skills for specific builds, while community will have chance to explore new builds without unfair penalty.
*smartass mode on* iam sure you meant "skill loudouts" instead of "respec loudouts" cause a respec loudout would be weird (:P) *smartass mode off*
Yes, thx.
There's a difference between re-slotting a few Traits (which really just should be part of your loadouts), and a meta change like your entire Skills. The latter is of a different order of magnitude. If Skill respecs were free, then they might as well just give you everything maxed out, up-front, to begin with (as being able to change them on-the-fly would be tantamount to precisely that).
Also, you seem to be saying two things at the same time: that you want respecs to be free, or pay for it anyway, but in a different form. As for the former, I maintain they can't be free. "Introducing skill loadout slots for zen" is something I could get wholeheartedly behind, though!
Actually, what you BOTH mean are "loadouts" with an "a", not a "u".
And again, skill loadouts are the worst possible outcome for the overall health of the game. They will make you even worse at the game than you are now, while simultaneously encouraging you to think you've got an optimized build, such that you end up feeling like your inability to do well in missions like Borg Disconnected Advanced/Elite, or Battle of Korfez (particularly the Benthan escort stage), or The Herald Sphere Advanced/Elite (particularly the "prevent Heralds from entering the gateways" stage) is the result of poor mission design that makes those missions "unfair", not the result of your own sub-optimal choices.
Here's (again) how this works: First, lets start with what you all seem to assume is going to happen if you get free respecs, loadouts, whatever. You think you're going to do something like try out a build and tweak it over time until it is a finely honed, optimal skill set. That even seems like it makes sense until you consider that tweaking builds effectively requires doing some pretty intensive work on evaluating relative performance on some sort of objective, quantifiable scale, and that, in turn, is a lot of hard work too. Many of you have already said you don't want to be forced to do "hours of research" to figure out the right spec for you, which is fine, but then raises the question - if you don't want to do the work to learn how to skill properly now, for one single build, why on Earth do you think you would be willing to put in two or three times as much work to optimize not just one build, but your alternate "specialist" builds as well? Instead, it seems highly likely that your "tweaking" will take the form of following a series of reasoning shortcuts that end up leading you astray. For example, you might find that you can get 3k extra shield hp per facing by fully speccing into shield capacity, and thus that's "better performance", right? Well, no, probably not - if you weren't blowing up very often at all before you added those shield hp, then they aren't really making your ship substantially better in actual function at all. Thus, that tweak LOOKS optimal, but only because you're using the wrong criteria to judge effectiveness.
This misanalysis will be compounded by confirmation bias and the fact that the game simply isn't generally hard enough to give you the kind of feedback you really need to improve (read: the game won't kill you often enough for you to realize the weaknesses in your builds, especially on Normal difficulty). Thus, you end up becoming even more convinced that your bad choices are actually optimal, and when you encounter the situations that DO point out the problems with your build, you tend to believe the problem is those situations, not your build (because, after all, your build "works" everywhere else, right?). This trend, in turn, ends up making it extremely difficult for the design team to come up with missions that can accommodate the bulk of the player base, because the skill disparity is so extreme. Some would argue that the issue is simply that the devs don't design to accommodate anything besides DPS, and that if the devs would design missions that better rewarded tanking/control builds, then the builds that currently look sub-optimal would suddenly be better.
This is tempting, but then look at a mission like Borg Disconnected - this is a mission where higher DPS really, really doesn't have to be the answer - tanking, control, or even simple teamwork and awareness can accomplish the main objective of the mission (freeing disconnected borg) just as well as straight DPS could, yet I very rarely see any of the so-called "optimized" specialist builds actually trying any of that. Instead, many "tank" or "control" players just seems to fly aimlessly in a circle, spamming FAW and ignoring the objectives until they either clear all the enemies from that area, or they blow up. Then they come on the forums and complain about how the mission is designed to only reward DPS because their "optimized" tanking/control build wasn't successful. It never occurs to players to think that maybe the problem with is with their builds, or their implementation of their build. Instead, it's always "I've been playing for 6 years and have like 42 characters, so clearly I know what I'm doing!", and a refusal to adapt or learn because they think they know it all already.
And that's where skill loadouts enter the picture. Far from encouraging players to develop better builds, or to experiment and step out of their comfort zone by actually critically examining how the game works, a relatively consequence free skill system allows players to stay content with their misunderstandings of how the game works because instead of being forced to think about what trade-offs they should make if they want to be an effective tank who can still be comfortable doing dps, they just figure "If I want to be the best tank, I should get every engineering power and run a cruiser", without thinking about things like the gear/boff abilities they run, or how redundant many of those skill points are going to end up being. About the only upside to skill loadouts is that players mistakenly want them, but in actual practice they would likely be terrible for the health of the game. If Cryptic really cared only about milking players for money, I'm sure you'd see skill loadouts in the C-store, with free respecs available all the time, and new skills for the tree coming soon to a lockbox near you, regardless of what that would do to the health of the game. Instead, they seem to genuinely be trying to find ways to encourage players to improve so that they can make the game better overall, with the full understanding that at least some players are going to be FURIOUS about not getting what they want.
You've pretty much misunderstood everything I've said. For starters how would skill loadouts amount to "maxed out skills" as you can only run one loadout at a time. Also no one is asking for everything to be free, that would be daft. But I have offered a suggestion on how cryptic can still make money (probably more), and make the game more user friendly and new player friendly at the same time.
*Replay Mode Activated: Changing Species and Reputation Traits were originaly also NOT Free but only possible with a Token, JUST like the Respec Token, and as we all know both the Species and Rep Tokens are NO MORE. Replay Mode Deactivated*
For you its a different order of Magnituted, for most other its the same Category, if the other stuff like that was thrown out of the window, so should the Respec Tokens too! Therefore I and iam sure most others here too Maintain our Oppinion that it DEFINATELY should be free.
Other than that interestingly you Support the Idea of the Skill Loudouts, yet you are against Free Respecing? If i have 20-30 or more Skill Loudouts and Switch through them like a freak again and again, than i basically do respec "for free" through all the loudouts i have, so i dont understand what your Problem here is, or what the big difference is.
Both those Ideas go hand in hand, and therefore both should be implemented, it is a Win Win for everyone.
Very simple, as you'd effectively no longer have to chose how you wish to spec. When respecs would be free, there'd no longer the question "Shall go Tact heavy? Or more partgen/sci?" You will have both at your immediate disposal, thus, de facto, have maxed out skills on everything.
And I offered the suggestion that 'paid for skill loadouts' is something I'd get behind.
genemorph said it right, free respecs are not equel to maxed out skill, since plain and simple you ONLY can use ONE loadout at ANY given time, those loadouts like all other loadouts should only be switchable outside of combot (not in Missions, PvEs, PvPs and so on) so your point is invalid, other than that, Skill Loadouts and Free Respecs go hand in hand, suporting the one, but saying nay to the other is just silly.