Question: Is the number of skill points set in stone?

seaofsorrows · March 2016

Thread topic says it all, is there any flexibility on the number of points granted under the new system?

The reason I ask is because I personally find that 46 is just barely short of being able to replicate most of my builds to a reasonable level. I generally end up just 1 or 2 skills away from being able to maintain something close to what I had before.

Ideally, I would like to see the total raised from 46 to 50, but I consider that my 'shoot for the moon' request and I don't expect to get it.

My reasonable request (at least in my opinion) is upping the number from 46 to 48 points. This would still leave me slightly weaker in most cases but will get me close enough to where the end result in actual game play will be 'close enough.'

If everyone else disagrees, then I'll assume I'm the only one having this issue and that I just need to do a better job spreading my points around. As it is though, under the new system it seems like we're just a little short of being able to get close to where we were. The way skills are broken up now and not being able to partially invest in skills anymore is leaving gaps in my overall build.

So I pose the question, is the 46 points set in stone? or is this a subject that can also be evaluated in the coming weeks?

Thank you for your time.

dareau · March 2016

Three questions off the top of my head:

1. Are you running a "traditionalist" 3/6/9 build? Or are you one of the "rare" cases that run 4s and 5s in a lot of places?
2. Are your point spendings in some of these "combined" skills way out of whack - like 3 in the decompilers and sensors but a 9 in graviton generators?
3. Are you having a hard time reaching the unlock level on some of the "tucked away" skills?

seaofsorrows · March 2016

dareau wrote: »

Three questions off the top of my head:

1. Are you running a "traditionalist" 3/6/9 build? Or are you one of the "rare" cases that run 4s and 5s in a lot of places?
2. Are your point spendings in some of these "combined" skills way out of whack - like 3 in the decompilers and sensors but a 9 in graviton generators?
3. Are you having a hard time reaching the unlock level on some of the "tucked away" skills?

It's pretty much the 'traditionalist build.' This is a copy of my current skill setup. I can actually get it pretty close, I just am having a hard time packing the same punch while keeping my durability and power levels. I'm not going for any of the 'ultimate skills.' I can't make a balanced build that includes any of those.

I just saw a thread that fixes one of my issues. For some reason, no matter what I do I was coming out with really low hull healing and I just saw that's a bug. My hull repair rate dropped from 151.2%/Min to 60%/min. I have to take another look because I didn't realize that was bugged and I moved a ton of points trying to fix it.

I didn't put hardly anything in science, I simply can't. I put enough to keep my shield capacity, hardness, and regen at a respectable level, and I specced into Drain for Flow Caps to keep what's left of my Plasmonic Leech.

I'm still playing with the system, maybe once the hull repair bug is fixed, I can spread some things out. Like I said, if most people feel that 46 is fine, then I'll assume the problem is that I just need to do a better job with my skills. I do miss being able to go only 3 or 6 points into a skill, that really felt like it gave me more options. The new system is much more simple, but just feels limited so far. I'll keep playing with it.

mustrumridcully0 · March 2016

I think Bort was saying it wasn't set in stone, but if the number would change, it would probably not be by much. I wouldn't count on it changing. Assuming that many reductions we see are actually bugs (like Aux was, like Control Expertise still is, and as some damage and healing issues look like, then it's not really needed. It would be convenient, of course, to test out some of the new skills without sacrificing anything.)

banatine · March 2016

Hmm, that's odd. You're using a pretty much identical skill setup to me, and yet when i replicated it, i did so with 8-9 points to spare.

It is worth baring in mind that certain skills function slightly differantly to their old counterparts when it comes to exact skill duplication. For example, The old specialisation skills gave you 2.5% critical hit chance and 25% Severity (not tht you have any way of knowing that in game). In the new system, a single point gets you 3% crit chance, however the total Severity bonus is slightly less at max in that side, but i'd say that balances out.

Likewise, having a single point in Defensive/Offensive power boosts is equal to about 5 points in two of the previous power skills, so you wouldnt need all 6 pips there to match what you already had before.

seaofsorrows · March 2016

banatine wrote: »

Hmm, that's odd. You're using a pretty much identical skill setup to me, and yet when i replicated it, i did so with 8-9 points to spare.

It is worth baring in mind that certain skills function slightly differantly to their old counterparts when it comes to exact skill duplication. For example, The old specialisation skills gave you 2.5% critical hit chance and 25% Severity (not tht you have any way of knowing that in game). In the new system, a single point gets you 3% crit chance, however the total Severity bonus is slightly less at max in that side, but i'd say that balances out.

Likewise, having a single point in Defensive/Offensive power boosts is equal to about 5 points in two of the previous power skills, so you wouldnt need all 6 pips there to match what you already had before.

I'll keep trying, thanks for the tips.

I know I won't be able to get where I was, I just want to get close. I have it pretty close right now, I just need to move a few things around. Hopefully, someone will make a template soon that we can use to post builds in the new system, that would help us all see what everyone is doing.

Thanks for the tips.

Personally, I would love to have 48 points, that seems perfect to me, but we'll see what happens in testing.

seaofsorrows · March 2016

So, I played around a little more, and part of my problem was simply a silly mistake on my part.

I forgot, that when you respec, it undoes all your traits. I was looking at numbers with no space or ground traits in place which had an obvious effect on my overall numbers.

After playing with the system I was able to replicate my Tactical Build pretty close to what it was before. I took a slight decrease on one or two things and gained a slight increase in other areas.

It doesn't seem like others were having any problems either, so I respectfully withdraw the request. 46 points seems to be enough for me.

Thanks to all that offered advice, it was very helpful. I actually ended up with the most points in Engineering 21/8/17.

xapocalypseponyx · March 2016

seaofsorrows wrote: »

So, I played around a little more, and part of my problem was simply a silly mistake on my part.

I forgot, that when you respec, it undoes all your traits.

I did the same thing.

I suspect this will lead to some fireworks on the forums at launch from others doing the same. I also wonder how many and how quickly people will figure out 3 is the new 9, in that you only want 3 points in something that you really want to max out.

bones1970 · March 2016

My ground build need some more skill points, 2 or 3 !!

markhawkman · March 2016

seaofsorrows wrote: »

So, I played around a little more, and part of my problem was simply a silly mistake on my part.

I forgot, that when you respec, it undoes all your traits. I was looking at numbers with no space or ground traits in place which had an obvious effect on my overall numbers.

After playing with the system I was able to replicate my Tactical Build pretty close to what it was before. I took a slight decrease on one or two things and gained a slight increase in other areas.

It doesn't seem like others were having any problems either, so I respectfully withdraw the request. 46 points seems to be enough for me.

Thanks to all that offered advice, it was very helpful. I actually ended up with the most points in Engineering 21/8/17.

Given that you:

I put enough to keep my shield capacity, hardness, and regen at a respectable level,

the regen and hardness skills didn't exist before, so any points placed there were additions to your build. So that might be part of the problem you had.

mustrumridcully0 · March 2016

I think the current number will work fine, but I must admit - it would feel more elegant if it was 50 space and 10 ground skill points.

But that would probably only work if skills were split further or we got more new ones (and in any case, it would likely lead to power creep, at least for some builds.)

meimeitoo · March 2016

The greatest issue for me now are the hull skills (now basically split over 2 rows). So, maybe if those got consolidated somehow, or will simply gain effectiveness (Bort said he's working on it), then possibly 46 will suffice.

sheldonlcooper · March 2016

I'm sure with Gamma fleet holding we can buy back 4 skill points come fall. This will bring me closer to current durability but not quite.

seahorse1965 · March 2016

mustrumridcully0 wrote: »

I think the current number will work fine, but I must admit - it would feel more elegant if it was 50 space and 10 ground skill points. But that would probably only work if skills were split further or we got more new ones (and in any case, it would likely lead to power creep, at least for some builds.)

Instructional popups states that you earn 1 space point per level.
We have 50 levels before Specialization takes effect.
Why then does it max out at 46 instead of 50?

nikeix · March 2016

And here I was thinking 45 would be more elegant - there's 20 ground nodes and you can have exactly half of them, there's 90 space nodes, why not exactly half of those?

borticuscryptic · March 2016

46 = 1 per level for 5-50

legendarylycan · March 2016

which means the first 4 levels essentially get bugger all when this goes live vs. now where all 50 levels earn skill XP...yeah, i'm casting my vote for 50 space points

primar13 · March 2016

shadowfang240 wrote: »

which means the first 4 levels essentially get bugger all when this goes live vs. now where all 50 levels earn skill XP...yeah, i'm casting my vote for 50 space points

There is no Need for Points form 1-4.... Most times, you are still in the Tutorial During that time, in which you don't need all that information.

legendarylycan · March 2016

now: level 1-4 - get skills

future: level 1-4 - get jack TRIBBLE

point stands

primar13 · March 2016

shadowfang240 wrote: »

now: level 1-4 - get skills

future: level 1-4 - get jack ****

point stands

Getting the Same amount of Points either way....

Why is this a Big deal?

captxpendable · March 2016

seaofsorrows wrote: »

So, I played around a little more, and part of my problem was simply a silly mistake on my part.

I forgot, that when you respec, it undoes all your traits. I was looking at numbers with no space or ground traits in place which had an obvious effect on my overall numbers.

After playing with the system I was able to replicate my Tactical Build pretty close to what it was before. I took a slight decrease on one or two things and gained a slight increase in other areas.

It doesn't seem like others were having any problems either, so I respectfully withdraw the request. 46 points seems to be enough for me.

Thanks to all that offered advice, it was very helpful. I actually ended up with the most points in Engineering 21/8/17.

They really should fix the respecs so they stop clearing traits, it's annoying and unnecessary. I also think it would make more sense, now that space and ground points have been separated, to split the respecs into space and ground and adjust the zen price accordingly.
On Tribble, it got old real quick when I had my space skills done, made a mistake on Ground, and had to start the whole thing over.

nikeix · March 2016

borticuscryptic wrote: »

46 = 1 per level for 5-50

Oh no. I get it. I'm just making fun of the CONSTANT wheedling going on for moar powah!

We're already getting a substantial buff out of this. People's need to poke the bear when there's an equally strong or even stronger case that LESS points would be a better mirror of our current capabilities just jabs me right in the overlapping sets of "silly" and "tiresome".

To me we've got it good with 46 points and should leave it alone rather than try to attract Dev scrutiny to the topic

. No good can come of it and it might backfire mightily.

doublecha · March 2016

borticuscryptic wrote: »

46 = 1 per level for 5-50

48 space, 12 ground, 48+12=60 1 per level

Question: Is the number of skill points set in stone?

Comments