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This has been a long time coming: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9797693-star-trek-online%3A-skill-system-revamp
From Borticus:
“There’s more to this than is covered in the blog, as well. We have also normalized the drop-off between Cannons and Beams, as part of these changes. Both have the same drop-off calculations, now.”
“Previously:
Cannons lost 60% of their base damage potential at 10km
Beams lost 40% of their base damage potential at 10km
Now:Both lose 50% of their base damage potential at 10km (and this loss can be mitigated with the new Skill)”
There you go, with some of the traits, more rapid firing cycles and equivalent drop off – cannons and beams may just reach some kind of parity.
“Existing Consoles will be translated to the new Skills. You’ll see plenty (possibly too many) that boost Control Expertise and/or Drain Expertise.”
In addition, skills will pull at minimum double duty. For example, a skill will buff both what we currently know as flowcaps and power insulators. Consoles will also buff these effects.
But beware; In reference to a question about the Romulan Rep engine, “Ahh. Items that gave Attack Patterns will instead grant a small amount of one of the new Skills. Probably Long-Range Targeting or Weapon Penetration.”
Might be better might be worse depending on how the chips fall.
On whether you’ll be able to fill out the whole skill tree, like one can for specializations, “… We never intended for players to be capable of purchasing 100% of the available Skills.”
“You will get a total of 46 Space Points and 10 Ground Points. There are 90 Space Skill Nodes you can purchase, and >20 Ground Skill Nodes. So no, you won’t be able to buy everything.”
“Space Points = 1 per level for levels 5-50 = 46 points
Ground Points = 1 per 5 levels for levels 5-50 = 10 points”
On Node Progresson, “The first node is worth more than the last. This mirrors the current Skills, and was necessary in order to maintain a level of “not losing anything” under the Revamp.”
There are diminishing returns in the skills, so putting everying in just the first perk will be enough for most players.
Yes, you will get a free respec, “All players will have their Skills refunded when this goes live.”
Will update as I find more."You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole, Babylon 5
Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s not terribly dissimilar to the old WoW talent trees (which, as it happens, WoW no longer has).
I like that they’re trying to rebalance beams and cannons, but what I would really like is for mixed beam/cannon/turret build to become more comparable. It’s a pretty big advantage to be able to hit one ability that affects all your weapons, vs using two slots that each affect half your weapons. Surgical Strikes doesn’t really balance the scales.
It’s nice to see they are creating a more uniform and concise system. That would make life easier for new players; They must have big plans for this year 😀 . From a retroactive perspective though I’m terrified. Trying to rebuild 21 captains feels overwhelming. I think I’d have to slide back in gradually.
Consoles and sets that were, for example, giving bonus to control resistance will now be equivalent to PrtG, same with sets. Interesting change, more options for my sci captain. Or what stats will have my [Flow] [Grav] [PrtG] crafted secondary deflector?
I like that they will add more detailed tooltip so new players can understand how each skill works. I had no idea what skills to invest in when I was starting out.
Now this is sweet! New systems seems more simplified and ground and space skills will be finally separated as it should have been from the start. Also the beams and cannons won’t be so unbalanced anymore. I think this will be very good change. And besides that I was already thinking about respecing some of my characters in near future, and now I’ll be able to do it for free so it’s a win-win scenario for me 😎
Links in this thread have all the tooltips of skills as it they currently appear on Tribble: https://m.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/46oq04/new_skill_system_unlocks_summary/
To say the least, I am not impressed. Instead of giving us multiple options for builds, in every section there is really one one sensible choice. And further, there are really pointless skills which we are forced to choose between to get to higher tiers (hangar pet damage vs stealth, what if you have no use for either?).
The good news is that Bort has said he’s open to changes. My advice to anyone reading this is to put any plans on buying things on hold. Unless you’re planning on doing some market speculation (I know I am lol).
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole, Babylon 5
Goodbye Part Gens, Goodbye Flow Caps… Goodbye true Sci builds… it was fun while it lasted. 😳
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."@Marcase wrote:
Goodbye Part Gens, Goodbye Flow Caps… Goodbye true Sci builds… it was fun while it lasted. 😳
I don’t think Part Gens is gone. It didn’t appear to be listed as rolled into either the drain or control buckets. So I’m guessing that it still exists as a separate stat.
Quoteing this from reddit; he has a point….
Don’t have time to read all the threads on this topic, but I see enough complaints going on. I guess I’m the only one that thinks they haven’t takin it far enough.
IMO, we have been spoiled. I see the game has been broke for YEARS. A tac should never be doing Elite Deeps and be able to tank that damage. Bring the game to a point like others, where elite runs need an Actual tank. Where a tac doing crazy damage is also very Squishy.
Like IMO them Ultimates need to be the end all be all Skill. But a toon investing into the tree to get that Ultimate Tac ability means he can’t spend Crap on Defensive skills, Period.
The game should have that Trinity and not just be in the state it is. Let all 3 Carrers be great in each role, but PICK A ROLE!.
Have a real Tank, A real DPS, a real Crowd Control, etc. The state the games in is all DPS, nothing else matters. That is broke. And always has been.So playing around with the skill tree over on tribble I think we’re all in for a pleasant surprise. As long as people ignore the “ultimates”, various builds will have lots of options. I’d be pretty happy with things as it stands now.
However, the aux power scaling issue is a big one. Going from 100 to 125 aux really nets no gains to powers at the moment. And mostly, tactical powers are the ones worth investing in.
Now to see when we can copy our main characters over for a true comparison and gear.
The big issue will be training manuals being unaccessable for many builds anymore.
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole, Babylon 5
Listening to Borticus’ interview today, he mentioned that many player’s builds (actual in-game ones as used) can be duplicated over, and then still have skill pts room to spare. So the ‘ultimates’ can be considered a sort of super-bonus. He also mentioned though that many players won’t reach ulitmate status because of their current build / skill choices.
As Jim mentioned earlier the meta from certain specialized builds (like some of my own Sci part gen/flow cap ones) can be affected negatively.
But once again tribble is just the first version, with many balancing fixes to be made, no doubt.
Borticus did also mention that the Plasmonic Leech console and its succesfull marriage to Flow Cap consoles wasn’t exactly working as intended (way too good), similarly like the Aux2Bat/Technician Doffs mechanic was a ‘happy accident’. I hope the Leech console mechanic won’t be nerfed because my power-hungry Romulans would be really sad bunny’s if that would happen.
To be continued.
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."A post from the tribble feedback forum:
megrae wrote: »
I want to know why they are making each point of aux power over 100 weaker than each point under 100borticuscryptc wrote: »
First of all, the bonus from each point of Aux is uniform, regardless if that point is above or below the 100 mark. What this changed was the end-points of an overall chart.Here’s a visual representation:
As to the “why” of the change… the primary reasons are readability, predictability, and simplification of mechanics for the sake of player understanding.
The old scaling calculation was:
(((AuxPwr*.5)/75)+.333)
Can you make sense of that at a glance? What it resulted in a bonus that scaled as such:
0 pwr = .333333
25 pwr = .5
50 pwr = .666667
75 pwr = .833333
100 pwr = 1
125 pwr = 1.16667Or, stated another way, the base modifier from Aux was 0.333333 and every 1 Point of AuxPwr granted a multiplier of 0.006667… or translated yet more:
Each point of AuxPwr gave 2/3 of 1% bonus above baseline effectiveness.
I dunno about you, but attempting calculations that include “2/3” in my head isn’t easy.
Under the newly updated calculation, it could instead be described as:
Each point of AuxPwr gives a 1/2 of 1% bonus above baseline effectiveness.
0.5, or “half” — that’s really easy to use in napkin math.
Additionally, while the latter is a weaker bonus per point, that “baseline effectiveness” was also boosted by ~50% of its previous value (0.5, up from 0.33333).
In summary… this change wasn’t orchestrated as a means of “nerfing Science,” but rather as a way to move more of the game’s underlying mechanics into an easier-to-understand format. That fact that it simultaneously raises the baseline effectiveness of low-Aux builds is an accepted side effect, rather than being a goal that we set out to meet.
TL;DR: High end science builds get a nice nerf, while nothing else gets nerfed. With the upcoming change, you will be punished for running more aux power. But at least you’ll never be punished for overcapping beams and using FAW… [sigh].
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole, Babylon 5
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