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Skill Tree menu
Appearance: The Skill Class toolbars are simple and attractive. Expanding the Firepower class, the color-coded Ballistic, Energy, and Missle subclasses look good and feel natural. The Total Nodes Active data is only margianlly useful, but I found myself liking that it was there.
Skill Class categories: Generally, I like the categories and their naming. Survival and Operations seem a little ambiguous with their single Skill Branch each.
Suggestion: Make the two Skill Classes sub-classes of a single class, Operations. It would seem like a natural pairing as they pertain to the passive and internal functions of the mech- armor, structure, cooling, ignition, etc. This might also make for a more even overrall layout without the categories that have a single subcategory. Or, maybe just change the name of Survival to Defense or Mech Defense so that is a little more inline with the others.
Current Mech Enhancements window
Appearance: Overall, it looks good. A little confusing at first glance, but wasn't hard to figure out. Feels a bit awkward as an overaly. The Available XP Types and SP totals are simple and straightforward, as are current enhancements and costs.
Transfer Historic XP: The dialog is fairly straightforward itself, although only being able to type in how much to transfer was a bit of a pain. On the first Mech I transferred Historic XP from, I had about 700k and transferred way too much (it seems you can transfer more than the 136,500XP needed for 91 SP). Also, the window seems a little wider than it needs to be, and the Skill Branch windows might benefit from more real estate.
Suggestions: Add a button to "max out" HXP to XP, transfer directly up to 91 SP, or add a button to transfer XP in 1 SP increments. Make the window narrower if possible.
XP transfer and conversion
Observations: When I transferred HXP to XP on a mastered variant, it only seemed to get me part of the way to 91 SP on that mech. How much of this, if any, my GXP represents (if that is the case), eludes me. Either way, I seem to be coming up short in mastered mechs. Also on the regular client, I have nearly 500k GXP and have only purchased the few specific pilot/mech skills that I've needed. Things being the same, I'm unsure if it's better, worse, or no different to keep my GXP banked or buy all the skills before this goes live. Extra XP on mastered variants appears to be able to be spent on additional mechs of the same variant, but still cannot se spent on other variants of the same mech.
Suggestions: A fully mastered mech should transfer enough HXP to be worth 91 points of SP, with whatever extra XP left over banked. Look at ways to funnel XP overflow outwards towards other variants of a chassis.
Skill Branch windows
Appearance: Straightforward. Informative, but not very impressive. The hexes remind me a little of a tabletop mat, or maybe BT armor allocation pips, which I like. All the differently-sized widows feel a bit weird, especially coupled with the zoom and scrolling. The Current Mech Enhancements window overlaid on top of the Skill Branch windows is a little awkward. This part of the interface felt like to was more clumsy to use than it needed to be.
Skill Branches: These were possibly the most disagreeable part of the new system. While I thought the individual categories were good (but sadly no MG Skill Branch), I had a hard time seeing the rationale for the manner of progression through a branch. For example, to get Radar Deprivation, a module I had previously invested a significant amount of time grinding for that specific effect, I had to spend XP and cbills on multiple ranks of nodes that I had very little interest in. To get the increased magazine capacity, I have to purchase the greater portion of a branch with enhancements that don't really correlate well with ballistic ammunition, many of which I would simply pass on. To complicate things, I was unsatisfied with my resulting build and decided to strip a weapon type off the mech entirely. While it was a secondary system, the change required me to reallocate SP which resulted in a few clicks but non-trivial additional costs. As I typically need to make multiple tweaks to get a mech how I want it, the realization washed over me that I had to do this for almost two hundred mechs, and it felt daunting and honsetly a bit terrifying. I thought the actual process of removing the old weapon SP and replacing them elsewhere was smooth and easy within the Skill Branch windows.
Suggestions: The Skill Branch windows, the branches themselves, and the cost associated with using them, are the aspects of the new system that I urge reconsideration. My first suggestion is probably a doozy- make the Skill Branches linear by enhancement type. For example, In the Laser Skill Branch, put Heat 1-5 in an independant column, Duration 1-5 in another, Cooldown 1-5 in yet another, and so on. This might provide a more intuitive build and respec process without all the complicated dependancies on other Skill Nodes in a given branch. The cbill cost for building and respecing should be nonexsistant or a magnitude less than it currently is on the PTR, as tweaking builds is the heart of the BT/MW universe and all these costs really take some of the joy out of what really is the game's biggest hill to stand on. This could also address issues with navigation and layout issuses with the Skill Branch dialog. Navigation could be done using the Skill Tree menus at the top, and clicking on a subskill category such as "Ballistic" would lay out the all 4 (or 5... hint, hint) ballistic weapon types right on the screen, without thier boxes, and not overlayed by the Current Mech Enchancements window. Maybe retain a little bit of the zoom and pan for comfort. Combining Survival into Operations would lessen the awkward-feeling "widows" (when you write a paragraph and one word hangs down at the bottom to end it) that are the singular Skill Tree categories, and would make the Skill Tree navigation one button simpler and the layout more horizontal. Besides, every Skill Tree deserves a buddy
Overall, the 91 SP relative to the total number of nodes feels about right, but I wouldn't mind a few more than 91, either.3 Mech system
Observation: Currently in the PTR, there is no continued benefit to owning or mastering 3 mech variants. As the functional need to own 3 mechs has driven player purchases for quite some time, the benefit and purpose for doing so should continue to be available to players.
Suggestion: "Signature" mechs. If 3 mech variants are mastered, one variant could be flagged as the player's "Signature" variant and be given additional SP, perhaps 3, 5, or 9 points- whatever fairly rewards earning and mastering 3 variants without being overpowering. These would represent a player's favorite variant that he or she has pushed a little bit beyond manufacturer specifications. To deter match-swapping of a signature flag, a cooldown or a substantial cbill cost could be added if a more reasonable cbill sink is needed (compared to cbills for swapping SPs), such as 1 million cbills to flag a mech or switch a flag. The gold "mastery" symbol for a Signature mech on the Mech Select screen could have a gold or platinum star with multicolored, preferably customizable or by national flag colors. Include the ability to toggle signature SPs in private and competative matches. Last but not least, let players display the custom names of thier signature mechs in-game, viewable by both friend and foe in the HUD (subject to the same profanity guidelines as pilot names). This would carry over value for players who bought into the 3 mech system, would be a fun use of the new Skill Trees, and would probably sell PGI a few mechpacks going forward.
Overall opinion/TL;DR
I like the idea of the Skill Trees in general. I think the 91 points feels about right given the amount of choices, maybe a little light. I dislike the co-dependancies between desired and unwanted Skill Nodes while skilling up. I feel the cbill cost for buying skills is too high. The Skill Tree menus and windows look good and are mostly easy to use, apart from the Enhancement window overlay and the feel of the pan and zoom when looking at the Skill Tree branches. XP transfer seems to operate at a loss and it's a bit disheartening. Lastly, the 3 mech system so many players invested in needs to have some sort of ongoing value. That all said, I really do like the idea of the skill points and the removal of most quirks- in concept it is far more interesting and customizable than the current system, and still has the potential to be something really cool.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading.
Edited by Abel Enders, 11 February 2017 - 06:42 PM.
