15 replies to this topic

[Tiewolf]

Here is a proposal to change the skill tree to be more user friendly.

First i like the skill tree! The three things i don`t like is the name, its usability and its ecomomy. Economy is completly up to pgi and their decisions where to milk the players so i won`t comment on that.

Just a personal thing but i hate the name skill tree! We are not playing a RPG and a mech is not a fricking bearded dwarf! Name it Tweaks or Upgrades but plz not skill tree!

Why change the skill tree?
I tried it now long enough and my assassments and that of many other players are still the same. It is too complicated and time consuming to use, you need to pay for nodes you don`t want and most of the time you end up with the same skill setup for many mechs anyway.

What am i aiming for?
1. Easier usage for beginners
2. Less clicks for veterans
3. Faster to change nodes
4. Encourage diverse weapon loadouts
5. Real choices


necessary conditions for a revamp are:
1. Easy transition (not much effort for pgi or the players to adopt the changes)
2. Usage of the parameters that are allready there (like skill points or the values)
3. Much easier and faster to skill then before

How would that look like?

(plz don`t take the values too serious, i don`t have the time to do the math to determine them appropriately)

Keep the Firepower, Survival, Mobility etc. categories. They make sense but plz integrate jumpjets into mobility.

Every category got 5 tiers, sensor and consumables maybe less. Every Tier got a specific skill point cost that gets higher with every tier. The benefits acumulate with every tier level and are higher on the last tiers.

Example for Firepower: 5 Tiers

Tier 1:(3 sp to aquire)
Benefits:Cooldown+1%, Heatgen +1,25%, Laserduration -1,5%, Range +2%, Velocity+2%...
Tier 2:(6 sp to aquire)
Benefits:Cooldown+2%, Heatgen +1,75%, Laserduration -2,5%, Range +2,5%, Velocity+2,5%...
Tier 3:(9 sp to aquire)
Benefits:Cooldown+2%, Heatgen +1,75%, Laserduration -2,5%, Range +2,5%, Velocity+2,5%...
Tier 4:(12 sp to aquire)
Benefits:Cooldown+3%, Heatgen +2,25%, Laserduration -3,5%, Range +3%, Velocity +3,5%...
Tier 5:(15 sp to aquire)
Benefits:Cooldown+4%, Heatgen +3,5%, Laserduration -5%, Range +5%, Velocity +5%...

That makes 45 skill points to max all firepower tiers. To get the big bonuses you have to commit to a tree and make real choices that make a difference between others.

Only 1 click for every tier so no endless clicking.

If you want to max laser duration you get all the other weapon benefits for free too. So diverse loadouts don`t need more skill points compared to a pure laser vomit build.

Easy to handle for beginners that don`t understand the values and fast to change tiers in categories to adopt other combat roles with the same mech.

You could experiment again with different weaponsystem loadouts without the need of changing alot nodes in the firepower tree and investing the huge XP cost. You only have to pay if you change your combat rolle by changing tiers in the different categories.

The downside is, that you lose a bit of individual customization for the benefit of flexebility, clarity and much better usability.
I do not mind that because picking a generall combat rolle or generall enhancements with a few clicks is far more apealing to me then the endless skill maze that ends up in the same configuations in the most cases anyway.

Would a simplified skill tree like this be ok for you too?

Edited by Tiewolf, 08 December 2017 - 06:37 AM.

[Asym]

I'm pretty sure the ST was part of a general balancing plan someone dreamt up.... If they'd allow us to pick only the nodes we want, there'd be a balancing mess somewhere down the road. Consider the wasted nodes you are forced to pick that eats away at the 91.....

Never happen. But, a good thought.

[KodiakGW]

Asym, on 08 December 2017 - 07:41 AM, said:

Consider the wasted nodes you are forced to pick that eats away at the 91.....

But, min-max...MIN-MAX...won’t someone think of the children!!!! MIN-MAX!!!!!! URBANMECH OP!!! IT NEEDS TORSO YAW GATING!

Yep, +1 to thanks for contributing. But, never going to see a change to Skill Web.

[Beaching Betty]

Yeah I have to agree with OP, its not user-friendly

[Khobai]

id be happy if they just cut all the useless skills out of the skill tree

which is at least half the skills in the skill tree right now

[Athom83]

[SirSoggyDog]

Personally, I think the long time to build enough XP and Cbills to fill out the skill tree, coupled with the skill reallocation fee is the biggest issue for new users.

[MechaBattler]

It would be simpler to consolidate the points. Honestly the whole point of skill tree is to force people to pay c-bills for all skills because too many people were just not buying the module c-bill sink. That's not to say that I don't think it's an improvement over the other version. I like that people have to choose and make sacrifices. Though I do feel like they should add more skills with different effects. Honestly they should have called it a module system. How does one skill higher range on weapons?

[Mole]

I wish I could comment on on the skill tree grind, but the refund debacle that came with the introduction of the skill tree gave me so many free skill points that I will probably never have to grind XP for a new 'mech again. I've bought a ton of new 'mechs since the tree was released and I have been able to instantly master all of them and I still have like frikkin' 2,000 skill points.

[Ace Selin]

Id be happy if they removed the horribly awkward and unintuitive Skill Tree completely from the game!

[Escef]

So much for MWO being the thinking man's shooter. Skill tree is too complex. Game modes with objectives other than "shoot mechs" are hated. I mean, for a thinking man's shooter, this game sure has a lot of people in it that refuse to think.

[J0anna]

I would like PGI to clean up the skill tree a bit, but there's a better chance of winning the lottery than ever seeing that happen. However it would be nice if PGI could divert a few MW5 assets to give us the ability to save skill plans and import them into other mechs. Like saving "standard ECM setup" then whenever you set up a new ECM mech, you could import that plan...

[arcana75]

Having the privilege of not experiencing what came before (I know what it was), I am ok with the ST. But with the knowledge of other systems, I'd prefer less of a tree, more of columns eg +1, +2, +3, etc, instead of having to get nodes I don't want to reach nodes I do want, and instead the more I invest, the better the returns, eg +1, +2, +3, +5, +7, +10 as you invest further into a skill column.

And of cuz, I want to see PILOT skills, on top of mech tweaks aka current skilltree.

[JadePanther]

bout the only thing i can really ask for is for them to get a shovel and dig ECM skills out of the deep hole they are buried in.. Seriously why did they bury them under radar DERP seeing as ECM makes DERP obsolete.. As for all the other skills above it one can really live wihout most of them..

IMO move ECM up the tree somewhere else..

[jss78]

I like the concept in the current tree. It's an actual tree, with high profile nodes down the tree.

What I keep wondering is whether the trees have to be quite so big. Does there have to be as many as 15 armour nodes, whether it could be made work with just 50-60 nodes selected in total.

What I don't get though is how worked up some people get over it. Like saying people are quitting because of it. In the big picture I don't give a toss what the skill tree is like, 95% of what matters is the core gameplay once I'm in the match.

[Unnatural Growth]

C'mon, embrace Sudoku Warrior Online.

Hey it only took them 5 years to "fix" the skill tree last time. I'm sure in another 4.5 years they'll take your suggestions into account, and then turn and do something incomprehensible again.