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[TKSax]

After spend 3 or 4 days fooling around on the PTS here is my feedback.

1. Too many nodes, and useless choices: Some of the complaints from the old skill tree were things like pin-point did nothing and Arm Reflex was useless on mechs that did not have arm actuators. But instead of fixing this with the current skill tree PGI has made it worse by still making people buy Arm Reflex on mechs that can't use it and including a bunch of worthless modules (Hill CLimp, Speed Retention, Airstrike/Artillery Accuracy...). To fix this I would, of course, have fewer nodes but those nodes would be more useful and meaningful and fewer node points. With fewer node points you would have to make so real decisions on what to take between the trees and those capabilities in each tree.

2. The balance between the Good mechs and bad mechs: In the PTS I was able to give a KDK3 with Dual Gauss and Dual PPC, 25% accel and decel 25% more structure and 10% more armor. And still had some points left over for an extra UAV and Strikes. The mech was incredible, able to peek out shoot and reverse back. You could do the same to mechs like the Nigh Gyr and HBK-IIC, with the IS losing a lot of the weapon quirks, this is just going to kill them unless their node value are increased more or their quirks are not nerfed as much. So even if node were giving more effectiveness on the IS side, that still does not fix the issues of individual bad mechs on Clans or IS, which may never be fixable. However, the Skill tree as it is just makes the Balance between IS and Clans favor clans even more.

3. Rebuying Nodes: Please drop the respec cost, I should not have to spend xp on a node I already unlocked. This hurts the ability to try new builds. Honestly, I would have to run the numbers but I think if you up the initial node cost to 1000xp and them they were unlocked forever, that would be great.

4. GSP Refund: I am not a fan of how they are doing it, but this is the smallest of the issues. I think their refund date is backwards. The should give everyone cbills back for modules bought before March 2017 when Russ talked about changing the way they were going to do refunds. But I can live with the existing GSP policy if it goes forward. Becuase, in the long run, I can use those GSP points when respecing mechs.

Edited by TKSax, 01 May 2017 - 09:35 AM.

[Katastrophy Kid]

I'd like to make a couple points to start with. First, these aren't Skills. How is Armor Hardening a skill? This is more like a Mech Upgrade Perk Tree. Second, the engine desynchronization seems like a dirty way to make the mobility tree more attractive, kind of like putting most of the speed tweak perks at the bottom of the tree. People with mechs like the dire wolf are going to be practically forced to spend a lot of points there just to keep from being a burden to their teammates. Dirty tactics.

And now, after playing some of my favorite mechs on the test server, I feel quite discouraged. When I first heard of the 'Skill Tree' (mech upgrade perk tree) I was excited and thought that it would be a great way to add depth to the game. I imagined that it would be a way to customize my mechs and make them a little better than they already are now in small increments. But, that doesn't seem to be the case because of how engine desynchronization has affected the handling of the mechs. The difference between how my mechs handle on the live server now and how they handled on the test server are like night and day. I even tested how much of a difference the mobility tree affected handling and found it to be negligible to the point of being practically irrelevant. If it weren't for speed tweak I doubt it will be worth the investment for many people, which is probably why its at the bottom of the tree (dirty tactics.) I feel like the Mech Upgrade Perk Tree (I'm calling it that now) ought to enhance game play, and its a strong step in the right direction, just please,please don't downgrade the mechs just to influence how people spend their perk points. That's manipulative. And don't do it in the name of balancing the game, because it isn't. There's no balancing when everything is diminished equally.

Finally, a few suggestions. First, no skill involved, ergo, not a skill tree; Mech Upgrade Perks and Perk Trees seem more appropriate. Second, either enhance the Mobility Tree to allow pilots to achieve the same degree of agility that they enjoy now or forgo the engine desynchronization (because otherwise I don't see how it would be worth it.) And finally, I'd like to see a higher perk point cap with a progressively higher cost per point beyond ninety-one to give the feeling that this change enhances mech performance.

I know all the Developers are trying to make the game more fun and I love and appreciate your work and commitment, Thank you.