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Skill Revamp should include free respec tokens
potencethe1st
Member Posts: 257 Arc User
I spent years perfecting my build and dozens of respec tokens.
This is adding poison to a well in order to force me to buy an antidote.
Either the new system comes with freespecs so we can "experiment and test" as you desired, or I don't even bother playing for weeks until "the build" is optimized and figured out, thereby completely bypassing the intent of this change, for me, a veteran.
If you really wanna TRIBBLE off your whales, don't offer freespecs.
Good luck with that next generation.
This is adding poison to a well in order to force me to buy an antidote.
Either the new system comes with freespecs so we can "experiment and test" as you desired, or I don't even bother playing for weeks until "the build" is optimized and figured out, thereby completely bypassing the intent of this change, for me, a veteran.
If you really wanna TRIBBLE off your whales, don't offer freespecs.
Good luck with that next generation.
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Any free testing and tinkering before committing has to be done on Tribble.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
This game is simply too easy for respecs to be worth paying for. The paywall just makes you want to fill up the skilltree once and then forget it even exists.
Hey Azreal, super original name btw, maybe you missed the part of my post indicating a plural, as in respecS, not a singular. Then again someone who chastises other on reading comprehension is usually the one lacking in it.
They're changing a system many have spent a great deal of resources to figure out.
They did it with mk14 gear, and now with skills. Being asked to pay for what we already paid for, again.
This should have multiple tokens, or respecs should be free for a set amount of time so we can actually test, like they said they wanted us to.
No I shouldn't need to log into a test server if I'm not there to test bugs and help find exploits. That's not the purpose of test server.
It's just another notch on a long list of snubs by cryptic and for us vets it adds up.
I hope for the future of the game that the next generation of whales is as generous. I won't hold my breath.
Yup, and yup. For all I know my skill tree could have spontaneously emptied out months ago and I'd not have known. That's how often I look there. (Kinda like how traits seem to spontaneously deactivate every so often.)
Agreed.
Also respecs should straight up cost Dilithium or EC, and not be an exclusive Zen store purchase. this has been badly needed for a long time.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
Indeed, especially since it wasn't a store exclusive in the first place.
Back before F2P we could use Merits/Honor for respecs, and it had a reasonable fixed price that was obtainable with just a day or two of diehard grinding.
But at present if we want to exchange dil for token's we are completely at the mercy of the market, and the cost for respec is not a constant.
At the very least, we should be refunded every respec token ever applied on every character assuming there is a purchase history. Anything less is not acceptable. The notes with respect to this are vague, and need to be clarified.
If there is no purchase history to go by, I'd suggest 3 free respec tokens per character to be bare minimum compensation: the first to be able to play the game (this much is given now), a second to try something different, and a final third token to settle on a general something.
This way, each player who has purchased respec tokens in the past will get something fair in the absence of alternatives (purchase history), new and existing players will have a sample of how spec points impact gameplay, and be able to either rely on the F2P model without being discouraged from potential future purchases (eg. science ships on a skill tree lacking in science tree), while others can buy more respecs after that and get that fine tuning or alternating setups for different characters/factions/ships/careers/etc.
I don't know about other MMOs but I have heard many times that STO is one of the best F2P models out there if not the best, despite the costs. This much would to be me fair enough, but anything less (1 forced respec) is not if only for the sole reason that a respec on an existing character with character bound items and a history of progress under an entirely revamped game (it isn't just respec that's changed, but items, modifiers, and game mechanics) practically ensures mistakes will be made followed by regrets and a need to buy respecs multiplied across every toon.
New F2P players with new characters can start over, or make new toons (up to 3 or 4 free ones), while those who don't mind/can afford a monthly sub can acquire a respec token every ~10 levels giving them leeway to discover the game at an appropriate pace, unlike existing established players who are expected to make do with entirely revamped dynamics with just one-or don't play.
It's a bit bothersome if you realize you put 1 point in the wrong spot and have to pay 500z to fix that single mistake.
Another thing is, it would make it nicer since we have so many types of ships. While on my engineer captain, working on a science or carrier ship to unlock the starship trait, it would be nice to easily swap around some skills to better suit the ship I'm using instead of sticking with a build designed for cruisers.
Also, it would be nice to freely move some skills around so I could put points into hangar skills if I wanted to fly a Gal-X instead of a cruiser. Again, to make the most of my currently active ship I'm using.
As others have said, you wind up getting stuck using a single build for all types of ships you want to use on that character, or have to open up your wallet every time you want to change to a different ship.
Bort said on the recent livestream overview on the skill revamp that they don't want players to be able to swap whole skill builds on the fly.
(per Bort & Trendy in the livestream)
We will get a Free Reset when this goes live and ONE Free Token to go with it.
We'll get an undetermined amount of time to fiddle with free tokens on Tribble, but eventually that will go the way of the DO-DO as well.
There are folks out there who are building out-of-game testing sites, so it isn't a total washout for the players.
This is just another one of those instances where the "Money Matrix" is Top Dog in STO.
<shrug>
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
you can experiment to your hearts content and have 2 free save slots for space and 2 for ground so you can save your favourite skill set to call up quickly, extra save slots for space and ground sold on the c-store 2 x ground @ 500zen & 2 x space @ 500zen so you can have as many different pre-defined skill sets as you want.
you may find one set of ground traits is better for borg while another is better for breen and so on while with space you may find one set is better if you are flying sci while another is better with carriers.
with improved and advanced skills to make things work the way the current new system works you will need to stack skills in order to get the higher ability so you would need to slot shield restoration before you slot improved shield restoration and so on.
slotting a certain number of skills from a certain category like tactical will unlock the choices of bonus skills as it does in the new system.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
The debut of 11.5 should come with unlimited free respecs for a week or two and then after that they should cost Dilithium or EC. If they do stay with Zen, it should be no more then 100 max.
*sigh*
It is what it is. No sense getting worked up over it. I guess they have their reasons.
Well we tried.
My character Tsin'xing
Then there is no reason to have a skill system in the first place, if you can't swap easily on the fly.
Find a happy medium and stick with it until the next revamp. kind of makes the whole revamp process worthless imho...
I suggest you take the time to actually read that OP. You'll find that it isn't what you expected it to be.
Oh, and I pity the fool who agrees to help you move. My sister had nearly a thousand books at one point, and let me tell you, that makes for a whole lot of really heavy boxes. I can hardly imagine having multiple thousands of novels... unless they're ebooks, in which case I commend you.
This game is nowhere near hard enough to ever justify paying for a respec.
I know it seems kind of entitlement but agree with this one. They should give out the tokens spent in the past for the old system. Tribble testing or just "one" freebie is NOT enough.
Either this seems to me:
1- PLOY or ponzi scheme for Cryptic to make more "revenue" at the back of the players to "respec" again.
2-If not a new way to make money then at least make more of the "freebies" respec tokens available.
IMO this "new" revamp is NOT needed and why fix something that is NOT broken. Why they alleged the current system is so "complex" yet I find no single post complaining about it. What seems fishy actually smells really bad. Prove me wrong and at the mercy of your kindness make more of those "free" tokens available. At least 5 should be good enough across the board per account and more for those who are LTS.
at the end of the day regardless of tribble and online skill calculators some players are inevitably going to go with a certain skill set and then change it down the line 2 or 3 times before they get the right skills that works best for them, even then there will be problems when some players suddenly decide to change to carriers and they haven't got the pet skills they need or they will change from a sci ship to a destroyer and find their skills are not working so well for them any more and they will have to change them again.
unless someone can quickly come up with a good all round skill set that we can all adopt early on so we all have the same cookie cutter skills (which is expressly what cryptic doesn't want according to the live steam) as I see it respecing at least 2 or 3 times a year is going to be unavoidable.
and don't forget, when ever you want to respec in the future even if you go to tribble to test certain skill sets you are still going to need to use a token when you come to change your skills on holodeck.
ether that or you will have a whole lot of players going into battle with skill sets that are not ideal for the ships they are using.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
The rest of us recognize that this game is so easy and players so overpowered that paying extra for even more overkill is just waste. When shooting rats with anti-tank missiles, you don't need to optimize for armor penetration.
I just hope the devs get what they want from the first group, because for the second this revamp is going to be interesting for all of 5 minutes after release.