6 replies to this topic

[0bstinate]

One of the stated goals for this change it to enhance build diversity. It's not really clear to me how that will happen.

Getting rid of quirks will definitely have that effect, but you could just get rid of quirks and not have a skill tree. So let's consider just the skill tree for a second.

There are something like seventy five semi-must-have points in lower chassis, survival, infotech and mech ops. Mech ops is required for almost any build, except I suppose a very cool gauss sniper build. Infotech is just required, full stop. Survival could be forgone on some sniper builds, as could lower chassis, but it seems really questionable and I doubt in practice that you'll see many people skipping out on this. The only sniper builds I can really even see benefitting from skipping out on the other trees are the dual guass-dual PPC type builds. For those, you could imagine sacrificing survivability for the PPC nodes.

In the main, this leads me to expect that we will only see diversity in which firepower tree the remaining points get dumped into. I would be really curious to see the PTR histogram of skill node choices to see whether my estimations are correct.

Edited by czAbsolute, 10 February 2017 - 12:28 PM.

[nehebkau]

No, it will not. Or at least not very much. Like you said there are around 75 that people will spend in the same way.

Edited by nehebkau, 10 February 2017 - 12:45 PM.

[Skribs]

PTR histograms won't be accurate because right now people are testing things.

[Fox2232]

Of course No, the respec cost is prohibitive.

And some nodes are so weak and wasteful that 95% of people will evade them as they are now.
(Easily fixed by numeric tweak and I expect that to happen.)

Then there are per mech physical limitations. Mechs without Arm weapons equipped will not go into upper torso as it is very wasteful... means more points in other things.

I expect that following percentage of builds will utilize:
Any Firepower Tree (One or More): 80% (~25 of 195 nodes)
Defensive: 100% (~15 of 17 nodes)
Upper Chassis: 25% (Mostly used by new players and ignored by veterans/skilled.)
Lower Chassis: 95% (~17/20)
Jump Jets: 20% (Limited by mech design mostly, and will require boost, otherwise current values will attract like 5% of people.)
Mech Operations: 90% (~20/22)
Sensors: 90% (~24/27)
Auxiliary: 15% (Mostly used by veterans.)
- - - -

That being Said, almost everyone will have Defensive + Lower Chassis + Mech Operations + Sensors. As those give most benefit per point and there is nearly no reason to respec away from them.

[Skribs]

What's wrong with upper torso stuff?

The torso twist increase seems like it would be useful for brawlers or for Mechs without arms (ironic, because you have to spend more). I could always use more torso twist on my Atlas.

[Leopardo]

it will make the diversity go lower. gauss ppc everywhere. also boating of 1 weapon.

[Fox2232]

Leopardo, on 10 February 2017 - 01:12 PM, said:

it will make the diversity go lower. gauss ppc everywhere. also boating of 1 weapon.

Have you used 2 PPCs on test server? AC laughs into its face. AC has more sustained dps thanks to much lower heat.
You make 6 shots from PPC and you are done or 3x double shots.

With 4x U-AC/5 I had sustained 23.3dps. By sustained I mean continuous shooting for 2.5 minutes. (Time to waste all ammo - 3500 total damage delivered.)
How does 1 PPC compare? What about 2 PPCs?

Edited by Fox2232, 10 February 2017 - 01:22 PM.