Lukoi Banacek, on 23 December 2016 - 11:10 PM, said:
We don't know yet how it's really going to work out.
You may well be able to go down the "sensory" branch to get Radar and Seismic on all of your mechs, cover a couple of weapon slots etc, just as we have now. We don't know what the caps are, how many points we're allowed etc yet. Just placeholders.
I think the unfortunate part is though is that it likely shifts the grind from c-bills (buying multiple copies of unlocked modules) to needing more xp, gxp to unlock them across multiple mechs. Worse still, space-poor folks cannot move modules mech to mech anymore under this system.
True, we don't
know precisely how large the trees are, how high the cap is or the respective depths within those trees the most favorable skills will rest... However, as previous iterations of the exact same type of skill tree layout used in numerous other games have demonstrated, you can easily and assuredly conclude that:
1. You will not be able to 'max out' all of the trees, typically no more than 1 or 2 with some spillover into others.
2. 'Critical' skills will be preceded by less-than-favorable skills, which leads to...
3. The sacrificing of multiple skill points that would collectively grant a favorable bonus in order to reach one of equal, greater or 'essential' benefit, which results in...
4. Critical decision making and cost vs. benefit analysis within the parameters of the design goal.
And I don't really see the downside of moving away from the C-Bill oriented Module system, which is by comparison extremely confined and unimaginative, to one that relies on another passively-earned resource (XP/GXP) that has no other outlying demands for expenditures. It shifts some of the weight from an otherwise heavily utilized resource to one that is equally available yet underutilized... Helping the 'space poor'.
The only thing it doesn't allow is seamlessly switching from one chassis to another for
New Mechs and
New Players until an effort of an undetermined amount is made. That's only temporary because after crossing that threshold it will be
easier to switch between established Mechs... Which I, personally, prefer.
The only legitimate downsides I see with the new skill system are:
1. It will create a sizable performance gap between established players and new ones - Something PGI has previously expressed a distaste for. This is assuming, though, that the current reward system remains exactly as it is--It may not.
2. It will widen the gap between the Mechs that perform well versus those that do not. This is, again, assuming every chassis begins at the same baseline. PGI has already stated, though, that this
will be a consideration in the development process... That doesn't mean they'll actually do anything about it, or that what they do implement has any measurable effect... Which I'm not holding my breath for.