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Let me explain: this is a game about applying damage to enemy mechs.
However, each and every one of us likes to apply said damage in different way through positioning.
Some of us like to brawl, some like to snipe, some like to flank, some like to trade, etc.
Each and every one of us has a different playstyle, and what we want is a skill tree that reinforces it.
For example, people who like brawling could want to have greater durability and faster reload speed on their AC20s and SRMs.
A lover of clan laser trading, who likes hill-humping with lazors would like to have lower duration and better accel-decel.
And so on and so forth.
However, the actual skill tree puts all variables of a certain weapon in one single tree, and separates similar things (torso twist speed and durability, for example) in different trees, while giving us a lot of points.
Ergo, there are actually very little choices to be had: you just buff your (preferably boated) weapons in all their variables, your agility, radar derp, durability and you call it a day.
Small differences could exist, but would be hardly noticable: maxing your equipped weapons, durability and agility are no-brainers.
Let's say instead that i had a "Offensive" tree, this tree has a number of separated nodes, each of them giving a bonus to one, and only one, of the following: Weapon Cooldown -10%, Weapon Heat -10%, Weapon Range +10%, Weapon Duration -10%, Projectile speed +10%, etc. (numbers and names are just examples, boni could be separated along longer node branches, but each branch would have only one bonus type).
Now you have to choose one (i.e. you cannot have unlocked nodes with different boni... maybe on some "bad" mechs this could be possible, i.e. a Myst Lynx could have 2 or 3 boni unlocked).
All of a sudden stuff gets intresting: i can build my mech to my liking.
Maybe i have a cool-running brawler that i want to reduce the cooldown on, or a sniper i want to get more range on.
Same thing could be done on other trees: a "mech" tree with durability and mobility nodes (do i want a higly mobile hill-humper or a "in-your-face" tank? or maybe i want my JJs to be better?), a "Infotech" tree with sensor and stealth nodes (do i want to lock on faster and more effectively or do i want to stay unseen?), and maybe an "utility" tree with stuff like consumables and the like.
Each mech would get only a small number of available nodes, and only a very small number available on each tree (most mechs should get 1 on each tree, and the stronger ones even less than that). However, each bonus would become a bit stronger than it is now.
Ideally, later on, each tree could be slightly modified between different mech classes, archetypes or even between single mechs or variants.
(Note:I will leave the costing problem, which IMO needs to be adressed as well, to other threads. Please do not derail the discussion on it)
Thanks for reading.
Edited by TheCharlatan, 10 February 2017 - 03:34 AM.
