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Skill web layout: We don't like being forced to take skills. Additionally, everything is all over the place in such tiny increments that there is no sense of direction OR choice.
The 'web' idea has to go. There are other ways to hinder people bee-lining for one powerful stat than forcing us to take skills we don't want.
Low budget solution: Rearrange the hexes so that every relevant stat is together (preferably linear) but implement any of the following:
- increased skillpoint cost per level
- an amount of required points spent in a skill class before you can equip a next level of a certain branch
- diminished returns for each node deeper in a stat.
- remove skills that no-one willingly takes, or increase the worth of each skill point invested in that stat (say: 40% improved gyros)
Respecs: The 'respec cost' is an XP-sink, but an unnecessary one and it hinders tinkering. People would rather pay more up front to unlock a node permanently without respec costs, or unlock it for the entire chassis, so other variants of a mech can catch up more quickly (mech pack buyers compensation) and you automatically account of mech duplicates.
Low budget solution: Remove re-spec costs per node. Eventually increase unlock cost per node to compensate.
Engine decoupling & Quirks: Should be studied seperately. The idea of reducing dependency on a large engine is good, the execution is too black-white. By also removing the quirks this makes it impossible to evaluate mechs that are supposed to be mobile from lore. Victors are as immobile as Awesomes, and that is not okay. It takes away their individual mech identity. It has to be figured out to work on its own first, before trying to balance it with the skill tree, because the skill tree does not help individual mechs, but every mech at once.
Low budget solution: Try this seperately from the skill tree, even if they're supposed to work together. The two systems are to be balanced in different ways and once they both work as intended, they can be added together.
When testing: Instead of removing engine influence on torso movement entirely, slightly reduce the influence of big engines on twisting.
Skill point amount (big change): There are too many skill points to distribute in an enjoyable way. Some people have to assign 91 skills to over 250 mechs. Reducing the amount of total skill points also makes each increment more noticeable.
Solution: Remove a lot of hexes, while rearranging such that about 1/3rd is left. give us 30 points to distribute across many skill trees. This also requires a different refund worth.
Refunds (big change): People were expecting C-Bills instead of skill points for their modules. Most of the loyal players can't even use these skill points, and it adds complexity to the system with all these different types of XP and SP rewards.
Solution: Just refund in CB, XP and GXP, we'll figure out what we want to spend it on afterwards.
The more I start getting invested in the game again the more I remember why I took such a long break from playing. The game is held back a lot, and some of the PTS releases aren't helping. The game has a lot of potential and is definitely fun, though seeing the wasted potential of what it COULD have been makes it difficult to enjoy for what it is: big stompy robots shooting big stompy robots.
Edited by Excalibaard, 29 April 2017 - 05:47 AM.
