in my personal opinion the introduction of a skill tree is a good idea, but at the current iteration it is not very thought through as there is not enough diversification. Every Mech has 91 SP available, regardless of it's opportunities or "needs".
For example: a variant that is strictly about energy weapons without having access to JJ, ECM and other weapon systems than energy has the same amount of possible SP/nodes as a variant that strongly depends on a more mixed loadout and has additional skillable equipment (like JJ and ECM).
That leaves so called "Monobuilds" with a big advantage as they have a greater possibility to really max out it potential over more diverse builds.
So my suggestion would be to give every variant a lower base-number of SP (50 for example) and from there make the skill tree/available nodes more individual for every variant.
E.g.: add 20 additional SP for every usable weapon category but cut the number down by 1 for every available hardpoint of this category. Plus add extra SP for every skillable equipment the variant can carry, like +4 for ECM and + 8 for JJ. That way boating would not be the way to go and more diverse builds wouldn't be punished that hard. For example, a BL-6-KNT would get 12 additional SP (+20 base-SP for the available energy weapon category minus 8 SP for it's 8 energy hardpoints), while a Mech with a heavily mixed loadout like the SHD-2H would get 61 additional SP (plus 68 for 3 available weapon categories and JJ minus 7 for it's amount of hardpoints). This way the SHD would have less but more effective weapons than the pure energy boat and still be able to skill it's mobility. The numbers are purely made up by me to make an example and would need a more through out approach to get it done good in a balancing way. Further to that give additional SP for the role the variant has to fulfill, like +10 additional SP for sensors in light Mechs, +10 SP for Medium Mechs for mobility, +5 SP for firepower and +5 SP for defensive on Heavies and +5 for operations and +5 for defensive on Assaults.
These are only first thoughts based on first and little experience, but that could be a good way helping the skill tree to really diversify builds and roles.
In addition, a Mech without missile hardpoints shouldn't have to skill target decay in order to get the sensor upgrades he desires and no Mech without real arms (e.g. Stalker) should be forced to skill arm-movement-nodes in order to turn it's torso faster etc. So please take a closer look on which skills make sense on a variant and delete unneccessary/completely useless nodes from the skill tree for such variants.
Edited by Dodger79, 11 February 2017 - 02:13 AM.