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Survival
While were happy to see enthusiasm for the Survival Skill Tree, we feel the average investment seen in these Nodes did not represent a compelling give-and-take scenario. In the vast majority of cases investing all the way into the Survival Tree was almost seen as mandatory. As a result we have altered the overall layout of the Survival Tree, spreading the bonuses across a greater number of Nodes within the Tree. We have also introduced a new defense-oriented Skill Node which will allow for a reduction in your chances of receiving a Critical Hit.
With the changes youll see to the Survival Tree, unlocking the full potential of Structure and Armor Skills will need greater investment, requiring you to evaluate the potential commitment more deeply.
This got me worried that all your going to do is spread the 'good' skills across the tree intermingled even more so with 'crap' skills.
Remember PGI, one of the key issues a lot of people have is the way a player is forced to spend to many skill points in nodes that they just don't want.
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Firepower
While the various Firepower Skill Branches were intended to provide players with a similar analogue to the Module system, the distinct Branches overwhelmingly favored single-weapon Loadouts and provided Mechs suited to that configuration with a significant number of Skill Points to invest elsewhere. Mechs with an array of Hardpoints of different types did not share that freedom.
In the upcoming PTS update youll see a significant rework of the distinct Firepower Skill Branch into a single, all-encompassing Firepower Branch. All individual Weapon Branches have been removed, such as the LBX Skill Branch or the Autocannon Skill Branch. The new Firepower Branch will contain Skill Nodes which provide universal bonuses to all weapons. There are no longer distinct Cooldown Nodes specifically for Autocannon weaponry, for example. In their place are all-encompassing Weapon Cooldown Nodes affecting all Ballistic, Energy, and Missile weaponry.
Some weapon-specific Nodes such as UAC Jam Chance and Gauss Extended Charge do still remain, and will be located in a Ballistic hemisphere of the Firepower Tree. Laser Duration Nodes also still remain, located in an Energy hemisphere of the Firepower Tree, while Missile Spread Nodes are located in a Missile hemisphere.
The goal here is to provide players with more options for skilling Mechs with multiple Hardpoint types, ensuring that investing into Firepower Skills will provide the same benefits to a much larger variety of builds.
More detailed information regarding the consolidated Firepower Tree will be provided when the PTS update arrives.
My only concern here is that it will be much harder to balance the skills for individual weapons.
For example. CoolDown.
Lets say a Bonus of 5% is chosen for all weapons.
That is 'ok' for say a AC20 with its 4 second CD. The result would be 3.8 seconds. A reduction of 0.2 seconds.
Where as a AC2 with its 0.72 CD would result in a CD of 0.684 seconds. A reduction of only 0.036 seconds, which is next to nothing.
If quirks go the way of the dodo then 5% wont be enough to make the use of, what looks to be a ever diminishing amount of 'free' skill points after defensive, mobility, operations, and sensor/auxiliary, essential skill points are taken.
Even if it was 10%, while that may be good enough for a AC20, 10% of 0.72 on a AC2 however is still next to nothing at only 0.072 second reduction.
My advice would be to have the skill bonuses effect a weapon differently based on size. Much like how the armor bonus effects mechs differently based on class. This would require you to , if you have not already done so, add a hidden classification to weapons such as 'small' (ac2), 'medium' (ac5), 'large' (ac10), and possibly even 'extra large'(ac20). Each classification would essentially be a modifier that the skill tree uses.
So for example. Skill tree bonus of 28% CD reduction across 7 nodes (4% per)
Small - 1x multiplier (E.G ac2 CD 0.72 down to 0.52) 0.20 reduction
Medium - 0.5x (E.G ac5 CD 1.66 down to 1.43) 0.23 reduction
Large - 0.38x (E.G ac10 CD 2.5 down to 2.23) 0.27 reduction
Extra Large - 0.25x (E.G ac20 CD 4.0 down to 3.72) 0.28 reduction
Anyway this is just an example to show my point. Too many skill trees for weapons made boating the only real viable option going by the skill tree, whilst putting them all into one creates a problem with balancing bonuses for different weapons, even those within the same category.
Also still no mention of 'weapon convergence'. The current live Pilot Skills has weapon convergence. But the PTS skill tree didn't have a replacement for it. What is happening with weapon convergence ? (NOT weapon spread for things like SRM,LRM, or LBX)
Finally, will you be doing anything additional to increase TTK and decrease alpha damage ?
Many players reported an increase in TTK but the PTS didn't have full 12 v 12 groups, that's a lot more dmg on the field to deal with than a small 4 v 4 skirmish. Thus I doubt TTK will have actually increased much when in a proper 12 v 12 drop.
My thoughts on reducing alpha damage was a simple reduction in heat capacity.
OR
Just the removal of 'Heat Containment' as a skill, and the introduction of a buffed Cool run skill or an replacement for heat containment that increases cooling efficiency further at the cost of heat capacity.
Thus giving the player the OPTION to CHOOSE between standard heat capacity of 40 + normal cool run, OR lower capacity (35?) + normal cool run + additional faster cooling, allowing for more DPS and stager fire builds over the ever meta Alpha strike builds.
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