51 replies to this topic

[wookizashi]

I just can't believe PGI is gonna remove quirks.
I don't even see the aim in this change.

"All in the same boat" !!????????? Don't tell me that all players will have a different skill tree from each other.

I'm disapointed i think it's a mistake to go in this way and will probably stop the game if i can't find fun i had in specific variants.

[swimant]

Narc and Artillery\Air Strikes
Idea and feedback

I think a really great idea is that if I call in an air strike or artillery then the strike should prioritize the Mechs that are "Narced" in that vacinity.
I mean if I "Narced" a Mech and call in a strike it should have a much greater percent chance to hit.
It would make the narc a much more useful weapon system to carry and provide a much better chance to actually do damage with to Mechs with an Air/Arti-Strikes.

I never use Narc! But I would most defiantly out fit a light with one if I could carry three Arti-Strikes! Yeah that would be fun!

Thanks for your consideration.

Narc and Artillery\Air Strikes
Idea and feedback

I think a really great idea is that if I call in an air strike or artillery then the strike should prioritize the Mechs that are "Narced" in that vacinity.
I mean if I "Narced" a Mech and call in a strike it should have a much greater percent chance to hit.
It would make the narc a much more useful weapon system to carry and provide a much better chance to actually do damage with to Mechs with an Air/Arti-Strikes.

I never use Narc! But I would most defiantly out fit a light with one if I could carry three Arti-Strikes! Yeah that would be fun!

Thanks for your consideration.

[Taynak]

The new skill tree system as of 3/2/17 is COMPLETE ***.

You guys didn't change anything from the last setup other than the order of the skills.

Here is a case in point:

On the Commando 2D:

I have to go through Laser Duration 1&2 just to get to Range 3? WHY? This is completely stupid. I don't use lasers on my 2D. It's all Streaks.

Get rid of the idea of a tree and just use the same idea of the modules... just without the modules.

[Storyteller]

I toyed around with the PTS build yesterday and spect these mechs:

• Grasshopper-5H (laservomit)
  
• Jenner-Oxide (ALL SRMS!!!!111!!)
  
• Archer-T (2x LRM20 + 4x M-Lasers + ECM)
  
• Cataphract-Muro (Tripple UAC5 + 2x M-Lasers - dakka-dakka galore!)
  
• Atlas-D-DC (tanky as hell)

I found at least decent specs for all those mechs and I was quite successfull in the following drops.

The Grasshopper was a good hunterkiller.
The Jenner Oxide killed 2 of 4 enemies + the VIP mech.
The Archer-T stood his ground even against 2 enemie lights with ECM on Canyon Network.
The Cataphract shredded everything.
The Atlas-D-DC (almost) survived a charge against 4 at the Crimson saddle.

It may not be perfect, but I am quite happy with the new skill system.

But with every build I had to do at least some sacrifices.
For example not all mechs achieved speed tweaks.
Some of them just only got one additional consumable, but no perks for the coolshots.
For example the D-DC, because I've put most of the points into survivability, weapons and of course at least some mobility tweaks.
With the Hopper I had to make some compromises because of the much needed perks for the jump jets.
By the way, non jump capable mechs are easier to skill, because you obviously can leave this skilltree out.

On top the new engine / mobility thing needs you to stop earlier than before.
All mechs feel now like totally unskilled mechs as you experience them on the live servers right now.
So stopping a D-DC feels like maneuvring a supertanker.
Even the Oxide needed one or two extra steps to come to a halt.
So mechs feel now more like gigant, extremly heavy combat vehicles than small cars.
I think it's good this way but surely we all have to get used to it.

Cheers
Storyteller

Edited by Storyteller, 03 March 2017 - 12:26 AM.

[AriCri]

Hi all,
I've tried the new skill tree system and I like the idea but unfortunatelly I've found lots of stuff that are to be reconsidered.
First of all no explanation at all regarding what we are doing. The general sensation is that we are trying to do something but we have no idea about the final result. It could be very usefull a kind of pre-guide line or something that allow us to understand or to predict the final result! We could obtain this using diagrams for instance!
The system is very complicated how can I explain to newbies?
I don't understand why if i have not balistic hard-point i should unblock balistic node in order to have a generic range or cooldown upgrade!
I would prefer linear system in which I'd able to unlock only stuff i need.

tks for all

AriCri

[Human Fighter]

I also do not feel that taking 1-3 waste skills per tree is a good precedent to set. So we got cheaper skills that you need to wade through 1-3 garbage skills to get... that's not a cost reduction its a waste of points. I do like the new firepower tree though.

I believe you could do better by making long single branch paths for desirable skills where 1 node gives you .5% percent speed tweak or whatever. Short general skill paths where you get 2% to say torso movement or arm movement or something similar. This would create multiple cost/benefit choices for each player and allow for more granular control over your mech. do you want your torso based laser boat to be faster or have better torso reaction? do you want your light to be faster or have the better arm reactions. Does your dire whale turret benefit more from .03 kph or much faster arm and torso reaction times.

in the current system you can't optimize your builds and waste points make mechs feel samey unless you devote considerably more wasted points to make them slightly less so. Skill swamp barriers in operations, sensors, and mobility are killing those trees and making mechs less diverse. Try to build each tree like the fire power and auxiliary tree and you should have a much better system. also rolling skills people are pegging as wasted nodes together or into larger bonuses would increase the chances of mechs wanting those nodes because they offer something special most mechs wont care about. Arm nodes, quick start/speed retention, torso nodes, hill climb/improved gyros.

think of a given node like a skill version of a targeting computer for clan. you get lots of good bonuses but you only care about 1 or two at a time. even though the rest of the bonuses always matter a small amount to the feel of the mech. After piloting many mechs with a tc1 I basically wont pilot without it. because it alters the feel of your weapons that much. make the "wasted" nodes like offer multiple good bonuses and their own path so that people who take them feel like they have unlocked something special with real value.

[MajCyric]

Is this working as intended?



Because it takes over 10 minutes to get the JR7-IIC near top speed

http://imgur.com/rM0PC3g
http://imgur.com/KOtTfvL
http://imgur.com/Jce8hQi

[Slumu]

After toying around with the new Skill Trees for a bit I have to say I like the way this is going.

Regarding the economics of the whole thing I think it would work out for me. Yes, from the Module refund I couldn't "master" all my mechs, but I have quite some Mechs I hardly ever use. After doing a rough calculation I figured out I could probably fully skill all my usual "go-to" Mechs. Fine by me.
The only thing I would like to see regarding economics would be to make consumables free in private lobbies, especially after the posibility to bring six now.

Regarding consumables: I think the new maximum of six consumable slots is too much. I would prefer it to be maxed out at 4, even though it should still be possible to bring two of each class. That would again force me to prioritize according to my playstyle as it is now instead of just bringing two of everything. That should also help with the problem of spending more on consumables then you earn through the match.

UI: When I have bought a skill node that is not applicable to my mech, it would be nice if the UI would actually show me the node in question. Right now, all I get is a generic warning which leaves me to go through all the 91 nodes. Ideally, the warning would pop up when I buy the node.

BTW: Currently, the UI shows a cost of 400 XP for one node, but charges 800.

Edited by Slumu, 03 March 2017 - 08:04 AM.

[Knighthawk26]

OK, who else is feeling like me? When the skill tree was first announced I was excited at the new possibilities for the game. When the first version actually came out in the PTS I realized it was not an improvement, but a mess that almost no one liked. Now the version two is online for testing and it is . . . Meh. I am not even sure if it improves the game.

At least PGI did decrease the costs so that most of us can get our currently elited mechs to an equal level in the new system.

[Magik Jack]

The skill system has promise, however, I see two real issues:

1. Refund of modules does not help players who actively swapped modules to save money in the old (current) system, and will STILL be expensive for those who bought a lot of modules and/or with cbill savings to offset the cost of re-mastering.

2. New players will be put off by the combined cbill costs of SKILLS, engines, weapons, even if they only have to buy "one mech" in theory.

As for the # 1 issue, let's break it down. At 5.5 million cbills a mech for full mastery in this new system, someone who has 20 or more mastered mechs will need around 110 million cbills to get back what they already had. If they were not actively buying sets of modules for EACH mech, and are getting perhaps 40-50 million in refund for modules, they are going to have to dip into their savings and/or grind more simply to get back what they had. But what if they have even more mechs, say 80 that are mastered? Even if they are getting, say, 150 million cbills in refund for modules, they will only be able to master (up to 91 skill points) with about 27 mechs, leaving 53 mechs that were previously mastered with absolutely 0 skill points.

As for issue # 2, I am not sure where to begin. From the round table discussions the elephant in the room was always "how do we attract new players?" to this game. Even when it is discussed, I don't see any real understanding of what the game is like anymore for someone just starting out-- it is almost as if the community itself and the developers think it will simply happen by grace, or that it is just around the corner. It isn't. The expense creep has been brutal in this game, and even in the current system you need a cbill financial advisor to keep from overspending or costing yourself cbills. How are new players going to want to jump into that hellgrind? That being said, I don't see why the skill system couldn't be free, or at such a minimal cost of cbills people won't notice too much. That, or significantly reduce the costs of everything pertaining to cbills.

[Mochyn Pupur]

Still broken from my run through of it - the skills tree may and I only say may, work for the stand alone single player game PGI are working on, but in respect to MWO, forget it. Still running with unnecessary C-Bill and XP costs, still forced to take up skills that you don't want for that build but have to get to the final result on the tree and in essence kicked the long term player in the teeth by deskilling 1/2 - 2/3 of their decks due to the ill thought out system that's heading this way.

For once, rather than grind on through to put in place what you want, scrap it and start again taking into account all the feedback you've been getting!

[Defensores 6]

I do not like the new skill tree, and here's why; it limits the overall level/capability of each of my mechs. For example, I looked at my Stormcrow. In the current system, I have the ability to max-out any build without loosing any ability, in that my Pilot skills are all unlocked up to level 5, my mechs are all mastered with the additional module slot, and my weapon skills are maxed as well. The PTS version limits me to an arbitrary value of 91 combining the mech tree, pilot skill tree, and weapon modules for each mech - this is totally unfair. Why the limitation? Why place this unrealistic value on each mech forcing players to make choices between modules and firepower, or survivability? My SC-D has 89/91 "points on the PTS, but no seismic. So, eventhough I've played this game for years and have mastered all my mechs, maxed out my skill tree and weapons, I no longer have the additional module slot for my favorite mech - which, BTW already has 2 slots less than most mechs in the game. I will do some further analysis with my IS mechs, but on first look this seems like a really bad idea for players like me. What is the purpose of this change anyway?