1
To start with, a lot of my skill aspects will be basically "taken from the current selection" of skills already in the game, with a few extra/alternative skills added in. These skills are mostly placeholders for any other skills we can think of.
The overall concept of my skill tree idea is to split up the skills into three separate categories. These large categories will be "Mech Skill Slots", "Pilot Skills" and "Module Skills".
The first category I'll go over is the easiest. "Module Skills". Personally, I feel that the module skills (current pilot skills) can be completely removed from the game, as the modules themselves are already very costly on their own and don't require a "skill" to unlock them. They already have a C-bill (or MC) grinding wall behind them. However, if they are to remain, all that needs to be changed is it's name to "Module Skills" instead of calling them "Pilot Skills". This is mostly because they have nothing to do with the actual "pilot" and only unlock access to additional gear. (I still suggest removing them completely, leaving only the modules themselves to be bought and used. They are normally expensive enough.)
The second category is the more complicated (and harder to explain section). "Pilot Skills" are now actually pilot related, and not "module" related. These skills are to be bought with GEXP just like how current pilot skills are (or what I refer to as "Module Skills"). If Module Skills are retained, this can provide an interesting tug between which one people will place their experience into.
Now, the "Pilot Skills" would be split up into (at least) three separate "Pilot Skill Trees". These trees could be called "Brawling", "Scouting" and "Command/Support". Each tree would have several skills in it (which could be added on over time as desired). Each tree would have several layers/levels to it. To unlock the next level of skills, you have to unlock so many lower level skills, if not all the lower level skills. As you progress along the "Pilot Trees", you would acquire more powerful/useful skills. Without going to far into the (uncovered) "Mech Skills" section, the lower skills would still be useable as stepping stones to use the higher abilities. I'll discuss this in more detail later.
Suffice to say, this becomes your Role Warfare within the game, a much lacking part of the game by many player's standards. Each skill tree would focus on abilities which would help that role within the game. The more one focuses along that tree, the better they can be within that role. The end game (long term) players would have a lot of role options to play (which would be limited by "Mech Slots", mentioned later).
An example of my suggested skill trees: (Please pardon the bad penmanship.)
To pull a specific example:
Brawler: (These are mostly examples/placeholders/concepts.)
Level 1 skills are:
Arm Speed: Increases arm movements slightly.
Twist Speed: Increases Twist Speed movements slightly.
Acceleration Increase: Increases mech acceleration slightly.
Deceleration Increase: Increases rate a mech decelerates by slightly.
Level 2 Skills are:
Run Cool: Makes your mech cool off slightly faster.
Twist Rate: Improves the max extent you can twist your torso to.
Increase Crit Chace: Improves crit chances you deal slightly. (Can be replaced with Twist speed, or possibly even Reduced Crit chances, which would make it less likely you will receive a crit.)
Level 3 skills are:
Heat Threshold: Increases max heat before shutdown slightly.
Quickfire: Lets weapons reload slightly faster.
Level 4:
Decrease Crit Damage: Decreases the likely hood an enemy will inflict a crit on you.
These are not specific, and you will notice a lot of the current skills already in the game are still here. Just in a different manner.
Now, to unlock the skills, I was thinking one of two ways.
1. You have to unlock all skills in level 1 before you can move to level 2 skills.
2. You have to unlock all the skills under the higher skill. Ex: If you want cool run, you must have Arm speed and Twist speed unlocked to unlock the level 2 Cool Run skill.
Each level of skills would have a set skill point to acquire. Level one skills could, for example, cost 4,000 GEXP. (This number could be any number if this one is too high.) The next level of skills could cost 6,000 GEXP. Do recall though that you have to unlock the lower level skills to be able to unlock the next level skills, creating a "grind" as desired by the game creators. This will make all the end role skills of each tree an "end game" reward.
Now, some of you may be wondering where some of the other roles are. Other roles, such as the notable "Striker" would fall in as some mix of skills from several trees. A Striker would probably take any movement benefits they can from the scout trees, and also take some skills from the brawler trees, creating their own "striker" role skills as they see fit. This will let people "create" their own classes, depending upon how far they wish to focus on which tree.
With this explained, I'd like to move onto "Mech Skills". This is where you actually create your role, by using the unlocked skills from the Pilot Trees to enhance your mech's abilities. You could unlock all your Pilot skills, and it wouldn't make a difference in a new mech. Your unlocked pilot skills have to be "equipped" into a "mech skill" slot. However, I think I've gone ahead of myself here.
"Mech skills" would be basically "skill slots" you unlock for your mechs. All mechs would have the same number of slots, similar to how all mechs have the same skills now. However, the fun here is that the skill slots are actually meaningless without unlocked "Pilot Skills". You place your "Pilot Skills" into your mech skill slots you unlock. This represents the pilot becoming familiar with the mech chassis and being able to use more skills within the mech.
The number of mech skills limits how many Pilot skills one can place into each mech. This forces one to pick and choose which skills to place on what mech. It doesn't matter if they have every pilot skill unlocked, as they can't use all of them at once.
A quick picture diagram to help explain what I mean:
Each mech could have 8 total skill slots. (A ninth one could be added as a "mastery" slot, still granting the extra module slot, if desired.) We can even split it up into basic and higher skill slots. If PGI wishes to keep the 3 chassis concept for mastery, then we can keep that. 5 Skill slots are "basic" slots, and 3 would be "elite" slots. These slots are just like "basic" and "Elite" skills are now, just as slots and not actual "skills".
To keep the lower level skills in use, you could have a requirement of skill levels needed to be placed into a slot before one can place the next level of skill. I have devised two possible options for this systems so far:
1. In order to have a higher skill on the mech, you must have a lower skill of that same pilot tree already on the mech. Ex: If you want that level 4 Brawler pilot skill placed, you must take up at least 4 other mech slots to have the 3 other level Brawler skills, a level 1, a level 2, and a level 3 brawler tree skill. Skills of the same effect do stack, but each skill can only be applied once. (Such as the Scout speed tweek skills (there are two of them) would stake to increase speed more.)
2. The second concept is you must have a certain number of skills of each level before one can place the next level of skills from that specific pilot tree. Ex: If you want a level 2 skill, you must have two level 1 skills. If you want a level 3 skill, you must have 2 level 2 skills and two level 1 skills placed. If you want a level 4 skill, you must have two level 3 skills, two level 2 skills and two level 1 skills all placed, a total of 7 slots taken up to have a single level 4 skill. (This would mean level 4 skills are a total focus into that role!) This would lead to mixed roles being limited in how far they can progress along each path.
(Remember, for each option, they would be changeable within each actual mech. You do not lock your pilot skills into the mech, as you would be able to change the placed pilot skills as you wish. This means that you can change a mech's skill role, and each mech would have it's own placed skills. Not all your mechs would have to have the same skills on them.)
The balance with this system, as I see it, would be the number of skills you can place onto your mechs. The stronger and more role focused the pilot skill you place on a mech, the less of other roles you will be able to preform. You can also unlock all the pilot skills and still not become overly powerful. More pilot skills unlocked would mean more options on what skills you can place on your mechs. These skills are suppose to be small tweaks to help the mech preform more to a specific role. Such as a scout mech gaining more movement and spotting/detection abilities. A Brawler build could "tank" more hits as they can twist better to spread damage as well as reduce crit chances on themselves as WELL as faster reaction speeds. A Command/support spec mech would have better lock on abilities, command features, extra module slots (possible) and anything else that doesn't exactly fit into the other two branches.
With these pilot skills, you can mix and match as desired to create your own distinct role on the battlefield. How far you spec into any one tree will be your choice. Beyond the traditional main trees (Brawler, Scout, Command/support), you would be able to create many other roles/classes. Some examples are Striker (Brawler and Scout mixed), LRM Support (Command and intel gathering from the scout trees), Sniper (Brawler and command trees) or any other possible combination.
Any additional thoughts, suggestions or discussion is welcomed.
If I have confused anyone along the way, let me know where so I can maybe better explain it.
Edited by Tesunie, 12 July 2014 - 07:27 AM.
