0
- High costs for everyone with currently high mech/module ratio or new players
- Low incentive to experiment with builds due to respec costs
- Skill tree actually benefitting boating
1. High costs for everyone with currently high mech/module ratio or new players
Problem: The prices (especially the C-Bill prices) are too high to skill an entirely new Mech or Mechs of players with few modules (no to few refunds for those)
Solution: Obviously: lower the prices. I'm actually fine with the total amount of XP needed to fully master a mech, as an "almost mastered" mech is only marginally worse than a fully mastered mech (more about that in point 2).
But the C-Bill costs, as many player rightfully have pointed out, will only result in people buying less mechs and spending their C-Bills on those few mechs (Thus, less money made through sale of mech bays.) I suggest a fully mastered mech should cost between 5-6M C-Bills.
How to keep it profitable: Allow people to use MC instead of C-Bills to decrease the amount of XP needed to purchase skill nodes. No pay to win, only pay to grind less.
2. Low incentive to experiment with builds due to respec costs
Problem: Respecking nodes actually costing both C-Bills and XP to both, unspecking and respecking will certainly lead to people to find their meta build and never deviate from it. This destroys the entire purpose of the skill tree.
Solution: My suggestion is a bit more complicated but bear with me.
Unlocking skill nodes as described in point 1 should permanantly unlock those nodes. Think of these unlocked nodes as your mech's level, which he aquired by spending XP and C-Bills. The amount of XP needed to unlock one such node should be around 2/3 of its current value.
The last third of the XP is payed when you actually activate a node in the skill tree.
Thus you have 3 values:
- max nodes: 91 at the moment for every mech
- Currently available nodes: The amount of nodes (between 0 and 91) you have unlocked --> your mech's level
- Active nodes: The amount of nodes (between 0 and the number of currently available nodes) currently providing bonuses in the skill tree
3. Skill tree actually benefitting boating
Problem: Obviously, if you have to decide between boating and getting an entire tree of excellent nodes or having 2+ weapons actually benefitting from the tree but ignoring another one, players will certainly lean towards boating and stay there, thanks to problem Nr. 2.
Solution: Diminishing returns. So simple, so effective. have each level of the nodes in a (weapons) tree give less bonus the more you spend on the tree. Thus you could decide between spending 10 points to get +15% on one weapon group or 10 points to get +10% on two groups.
This system is also why I'm okay with the total amount of XP needed to master. After unlocking 2/3 of your tree you will find that you will only get marginally stronger. This especially helps newer players trying to level up their first mech. They will have to spend their first few XP on leveling bottom tier nodes which however grant the most bonuses and making them competitive more quickly.
Any feedback is much appreciated.
Edited by Rizn Nuke, 09 February 2017 - 07:02 AM.
