Innate Skills BLOCKER

So....level 46

Built the deck I want.....130 skills points going to waste.....wish I could sell them.

So essentially once you built your deck, the only thing really worth leveling for is the innate points.......so im leveling getting something like 1 or 2 points each level.................at what point is this not fun in the slightest?........the answer is about 20 damn levels ago!

 

I'll keep it short: Remove this innate skill points distribution subsystem and redesign the skills. There should be no limitations how to distribute the adventure points. It should be the freedom and the choice of the player. This system causes always an annoying situation and it feels not well and satisfying.

 

Defensive Stance is useful in light armor because it does boost your defense without that important of a penalty if you have dex skills. The other stances I don't find useful. Though maybe a heavy armor user might find Reckless Stance more useful. I agree with you though, and I've suggested before, that there should be an at-will attack/defense toggle.

 

whether is redesigning the skills or restricting the poitn you can spend on them, As long as there is some limitation on how many of the innate abilities you can get i'll be cool with it. I'm not in favor of everyone having everything, i like seeing diversity in a fight.

Still gotta see how thigns work out when all of the skills are finished and working and the balancing begins.

 

Im level 46 as well, i have used all my skillpoints to keep a deck with soem heals and defense as well as attacks, and now have the option to swap to using a deck that just pours out attacks one after the other with no heals or defense cluttering it up. I have higher stats than i had in previosu releases at this level as well and am surviving stuff better.

you dont HAVE to use the 130 points if you already have what you want.

But adaptability is a strength, and once people have lots of different things they can use in a fight, adaptation will be invaluable.

 

So I would really love someone to explain why it is so cool limiting innates for people who actually want to specialise and create 'real' templates, and force people down the route of having many 'skills' most of which noone will use. This is one of those changes that I never expected to make it into the game because its like switching the off switch for all the real PvPers (many of which have been sitting on the fence before diving into the game)

I can honestly say, I was very sceptical over the card system. It turned out not to be as bad as I expected due to the choice element that players still had (increase glyph spaces, lock some down etc etc). Sadly the changes that have been made has turned the combat system in SotA into probably the worst ever system I have seen in 15+ years of playing games. Combat has taken a massive step backwards away from players being creative and choosing how they want to build there character.

So apparently the next release will have some focus on balance............. will have to see, however if the direction of combat is anything similar to this release then I would say we have 2 hopes, Bob Hope and No Hope in terms of creating a combat system that will impress or attract more than a handful of people.

 

So all attack on one deck, all defense on the other.

I guess with that you could probably just watch your health bar and randomly hit keys....because hey its all random anyway so why not and more random into it....makes no difference. Then you go "I need heal", switch deck then randomly hit keys again.

Sorry this combat just sucks. You can try to make sound great.......you can also put lipstick on a pig.

 

i find the stances only of use in pve, otherwise i'd rather spend what preciois time i have in a pvp scenerio to either control, damage, or kill.

 

Yes......our current combat system

 

Pigs are delicious!

And the combat is far from done. Looking at it now i'd agree its horrible. But looking at whats comming up for it and not knowing how these upcoming things will affect it make it difficult for me to judge right now.
I don't mind the deck system, i like it better than traditional hotbar combat, but i like action combat alot better, like in Tera.

And i like the idea of NOT allowing people to put points into every buff in the game.

While you can play random, you dont have to, just because the deck draws randomly. you control what it draws. I've used soem very particular attack patterns based on what my deck "randomly" draws.

Sometimes i even like to swap between a locked hotbar build and a deck build

Pigs are delicious.

 

If we're starting to talk about not allowing people to put points into every buff in the game, we should be steering moreso towards a level cap. Not locking down how many skill points can be assigned to passives per level.

 

Combat is horrible. It was horrible the day we got auto attack and the skill tree, then made more horrible with the card system, and AoE spell targeting behavior. This issue with innates is just one more thing to add to the list. Oh well, at least there is /dance3.

 

yea I'm sitting at level 24 or is it 26 ? but I stopped even wanting to spend skill points since a few levels ago, I already have 30 points sitting there and nothing really interests me.

I feel forced in every magic school to go down the same type of path, feels very restrictive, the only way of spending more points is to switch decks... but is that really a skill ? It's a meta-gaming skill... and I admit I WANTED to be tolerant and accepting of such an atrocity, but now I must call it out again as it is.

It was told that this was to force people to specialize, but this is highly unlikely, everyone has to take the focus tree, and thus it limits their specialisation in magic because it requires so many innate points for often being less versatile and less powerful so we're able to switch decks between heals and attack, how boring.

Sorry but it bores me also, in the current state I'd rather just sit on auto-attack and hit heals as they pop up... I'd rather have classes... and I don't like WoW or items with UO:AOS type properties...

I can see crafting skills taking more importance like alchemy and bandages maybe ? can we even hope for semi-passive skills like healing ?

But to me its one or the other, you can't make a hybrid between WoW and UO:AOS... but you can revolutionarize the genre and some people suggested some pretty amazing things on here we should listen to before its too late and the skill system is "set in stone".

*vacuum sound* *awh vacuum makes no sound?*

 

No the stances are a waste of skill points they are just another skill like using parry or any other card based skill. A real stance would be something we are trained in and we can swap stances apart from the card system. I've never bought into the stances this game has introduced I cannot get past the fact that we have to wait for a card to show up in order to stand in a stance. However if anybody likes them then they should definitely use them (perhaps those people are who this game is made for).
I hate to admit it (especially since I pledged so high), but this game's direction and my hopes for what it would eventually be clearly are clearly not compatible. While I know the devs have listened to us and made changes based upon what we've said, maybe they shouldn't listen to any of my ideas because I probably won't be playing this game.

I don't feel bad that this game wasn't made for me. I'm beginning to realize that this game is like Star Wars Episode 1-3. They were made by George Lucas FOR George Lucas. Maybe this game is being made by Lord British FOR Lord British. The combat system is Jar Jar.

 

While I don't entirely disagree with the contents of the thread, I don't mind taking the contrarian role.

First and foremost is the fact that combat is completely a place-holder. Its far more playable than it should be considering, which is what makes criticism so tempting. If it were animation-less and all word-based, perhaps the criticism would subside, but it looks like a poorly made complete game as far as combat is concerned. While I am not a developer on this project, I can read between the lines and force a little perspective on myself. The next two releases are slated to be combat-laden changes, which I would wager would bring it to about... 50% of completion? And that 50% doesn't mean its just lacking a doubling of content. I'm not saying "finished 50% of combat to 100% state," I'm saying something more like "75% of combat to around 65% state." And that is after R19.

Maybe this is where the issue is, is that there has been some time wasted? A bit too much time making alpha more playable - in a way it won't be at release? I've seen it far too many times in too many different facets of life. Let's call it "premature e-game-ulation."

That said, back to the first point of the thread. I'm having fun with a dynamic deck, and I've tried 3 builds so far this release. I think it should be half dynamic and half static just all around, with some "immersive logic" behind it; like conscious and reflexive abilities (reflexive being dynamic, basically). The capping of passives has pushed me to pick up skills I certainly would not have otherwise, which has been fun as a single-character account in testing times. But, to me it does dilute the playerbase. Open up the points, balance the trees, and whatever happened to a character that can only craft? The field should not be limited to min/maxers and role-players.

 

The capping of passives doesn't seem to have enhanced anything at all for me. I have completely respecced my character in r17 three times now, and none of them had to do with the passive limitation.

I've stopped levelling for now, because each time I get a level, it's depressing. I get _2_ points for passives, and the passives I want cost 7 or more. There are still lots of passives I really want to buy into. I stopped looking at the HUGE number of available points I have to spend on active abilities like 25 levels ago.

Even if I wanted to duel spec, and say have a pvp spec, and a leveling spec, I couldn't because the passives I need for PVP are not going to be available for me to purchase with the gagillion skill points I've earned which can only be spent on active abilities.

I'm really really hoping this particular experiment ends with r18.

 

It is? This is complete new news to me. I know they are talking about making changes to it, but don't expect these changes to be radical ones unless they drop the system entirely.

IN ADDITION: Unless this game is fun for me, and is exceedingly successful there is no way I'm going to shell out a dime for the kickstarter for episode 2. They are supposed to have 5 episodes, and recently they mentioned their will be a kickstarter each time. At this point I'm not expecting episode 3. To be brutally honest I am not even expecting episode 1. By that I mean the episode 1 is not shaping up to be something I want to play.

I'm done with kickstarter games after this. If I hear about one I like I'll chip in the small $5 pledge so I can get updates but I'm not buying a game before it is released again. This is not like any ultima I've seen, and it is a far cry from UO. I've tried rallying people and helping attract people on steam by writing good reviews and trying to create a positive spin on the steam forums to attract new players to buy into this in hope that this game will some how get better, but I have to be honest with myself at this point.

I've had more solid criticisms than I have seen anything worth my time. Most of my optimism was based upon potential future changes (not based on anything but my own imagination like watching a bad movie and filling in the gaps with our imagination... or playing an old video game like net hack and imagining a lot of cool stuff is happening when the game is crap). So you say this is a place holder... I've felt that way too, and I'm done trying to promote this based upon my optimistic view on how this game will turn out because I'm just not seeing the evidence.

 

i certainly hope this is in the game... i know way too many people who complain about this very thing never being in games - honestly, it seems like a no-brainer to me. my extra toon slots won't ever be used if this isn't the case..

 

Edit: @Isaiah

I hear ya, but I try to simplify it in my mind from step one. I ask, how far along do the devs think they are? Beta means all systems and content are in place, pending bugs, stress, and balance testing. Alpha is a skeleton with missing bones. So what the hell is pre-alpha?! Because that's where the devs feel they are. This is 100% where I base my assumptions. How much will it change? No clue. Will it make it to launch? Probably. What will beta be like? Who knows. A lot of these threads should wait for Beta, when is the best time for balance discussions. The connotations on these forums is that everyone is beta testing. Until the devs say beta is around the corner, or for that matter even alpha, I assume it is all placeholder.

 

I was wondering one detail.

What if the cap on passives was always there? I.e. if we weren't spoiled with unlimited passives from day one, and was "normal" to have the cap?

Probably we get too easily used to rules and mechanics that can change at any time, and probably never were correct to start with.

Oh, and while at it: I'm reevaluating the active skills I'm forced to take. I put Sprint and Dash in the non-combat bar, and running huge distances in scenes is not tedious anymore.