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[Curon Hifor]

Greetings,

As a pre-face, I don't often visit the forums, so my viewpoints are probably a little less-informed than others. Additionally, I'll leave out any further critiques about the skill system (if this thread needs to be moved, let me know), as I believe others have voiced them with greater magnification than the critique I'm listing out here.

First of all, I love the skill-tree system proposed in the PTS--while it raises its own issues, I feel like there's only one that really irks me more than others--the lack of real uniqueness within the trees. While the tree itself allows 'Mechs to compensate for weaknesses of each chassis rather effectively and allows players to tailor their 'Mechs to their suited play-style, I feel the trees lack quirks or abilities that are largely needed in MechWarrior Online. The trees themselves, while amazing, do little with 'Mech abilities apart from increases variables that we've seen before in the game, such as range, velocity, cooldown, and the like. Most of these nodes are things we have seen before, and just boosting easily-modifiable variables does little to truly intrigue players and morph the meta-game as we've currently experienced. As such, I would like to propose unique quirks, not as an all-encompassing list, but rather as a stimulus for further feedback and creativity in this regard.

As an overall example, once a particular tree is completed (meaning you've gone from the first node all the way to the bottom/capstone node, or perhaps filled it out entirely), players should be given the option of several, mutually-exclusive nodes that they can pick to truly define their 'Mech in a role or skill. These nodes, as said, would be mutually-exclusive, meaning that the player can only pick ONE of these nodes for the 'Mech, rather than being able to select all of them, in order to present some real decision-making with their builds.

For specific examples, I'd like to look at Infotech. At the end of the tree, a player should be given the option of specializing in either ECM or Beagle Active Probe (BAP). Once the player has made their decision in this regard, they are given three choices, mutually-exclusive, to specialize in that particular component.

ECM Mastery (PICK ONE):
- Focused ECM: Your 'Mech no longer covers an area with their ECM component, but rather, focuses it entirely upon their own 'Mech. This prevents the 'Mech from being targeted with sensors, meaning they no longer show up on radar. The only viable method of detection would be eyeballs, Seismic Sensor, and Beagle Active Probe. This allows the 'Mech to effectively hide their damage and armaments from enemies, as well as negating the inherent weakness of certain 'Mechs to LRM and Streak SRM attacks, forcing direct-fire weaponry, as well as emphasizing what elements of stealth exist in this game.

- Dual Mode: Your 'Mech is able to have its ECM component on both DISRUPT and COUNTER modes simultaneously, allowing for effective ECM coverage as well as disruption of other ECM components that are opposed to you and your teammates.

- Boosted ECM: Your 'Mech's ECM component has its area of influence doubled, allowing you to cover 180m of allies in your stealth curtain, as well as being able to disrupt enemy radar out to 180m, rather than the normal 90m.

BAP Mastery (PICK ONE):
- Superior Range: BAP doubles your 'Mech's base radar range, effectively allowing you to gather information on enemy 'Mechs at a further range than normal.

- Superior Probe: BAP allows your 'Mech to detect 'Mechs under ECM coverage at a further distance, and allows the countering of multiple ECM-covered 'Mechs.

- Blind Probe: BAP allos your 'Mech to detect 'Mechs within 300m, regardless of Line-of-Sight. While this doesn't allow for information gathering and sharing, it does allow for lock-ons and positional information, which can be shared across the team for LRM and battlefield awareness.

Examples such as these help 'Mechs truly define their character and role within a team, and allows for greater customization between single-queue players and group-queues alike, especially allowing for teams to specialize individual roles within their team, granting drop-callers within those teams greater tools for strategy and tactics. This isn't the only example I would use, of course, as I would like each tree to have such unique perks in of themselves, such as Autocannons, Pulse Lasers, and the like. Having quirks such as the removal of Ultra Autocannon jam chances as a capstone ability, or being able to charge up a PPC or Gauss Rifle for Double Damage (at the cost of triple cooldown time) would be really cool, as well as being able to have your LRM volleys spread out when a lock is lost (becoming an Area-of-Effect weapon) in order to try and minimize the loss of damage with such weaponry. What about making SRM launcher tubes fire one at a time, especially Streaks, so that they have a very tight engagement grouping, rather than the shotgun-effect they tend to have? What if you're one of those weird people that wants your laser duration to INCREASE in order to sweep across multiple 'Mechs?

Once again, this isn't an all-inclusive list, but rather a stimulus for others to extrapolate and think on. I don't want to present this critique as "the system absolutely needs this," as my viewpoint only represents myself, rather than the whole. However, intelligent discussion can lead to better implementation of this system, even if nothing truly changes, allowing us to come to a general consensus on what the community wants to see from the system overall. If my suggestion has piqued your interested, either positively or negatively, please let me know. Its important to engage in dialogue with other members and the development team in order to reach a compromise that makes all parties satisfied, so I want to encourage open discussion in this regard. Thank you for reading!