Use Based Skill System

Quick thoughts now that I've spent like seven hours playing with it.

The Good
[*] I like that I don't have to worry about spending skill points. I like that all I need is 100 Gold which is easily earned through fighting skeletons.
[*] I like how I can train each skill and tell which skills I don't want to level up.
[*] I like how skills and innates got better over time.

Overall I like the new system but there were problems,

The Bad
[*] After going from 20 to 40 on Blades, I'm pretty much stuck in the East Perennial Trail and similar low-level maps as evidenced by the fact that the East Perennial Trail zombie can kill me-usually because I'm like at 5% health when it resurrects. Also why is there a zombie who you have to kill twice in a low-level zone? Do you want people to quit from frustration because they can't even go into a low-level training zone?
[*] Likewise, there were whole levels where I got nothing at all. Heck investing in Endurance at level provides 0 strength. Come on, at least start it out with 1 strength. We're paying 100 gold for it after all. But yeah, I understand wanting to limit how powerful we can get but there comes a certain point where we need to feel like we are actually becoming good at this game.
[*] Deflect and Glancing Blow should NOT be the first tier for Shields and Heavy Armor respectively. I had to spam them a lot in order to get the innate skills for shield and heavy armor. Which is a bit silly if you ask me. Instead, the basic innate skill should always be the first tier or you shouldn't need to get Glancing Blow/Deflect/etc. to level 10 in order to invest in the innate skills.

The Ugly
[*] Having to go to Adoris to get some innates was very annoying. Especially with Random Encounters that always disorient me when I leave them and return to the Nova world map. IMO Innates should be taught by every trainer regardless of tier level.

 

Here are my thoughts, using Heradite's template:

The Good
[*] I like that I don't have to worry about spending skill points. I like that all I need is 100 Gold which is easily earned through fighting skeletons.
[*] I like how I can train each skill and tell which skills I don't want to level up.
[*] I like how skills and innates got better over time.

Overall, the system is ok for a start. But I find the following real problems:

The Bad
[*] Combat - This is more of a grind than before and not really fun. I have to spend more time in low level areas killing things just to gain Adventurer Skill in order to be able to quest anywhere significant. Ex: I have a quest from Braemar to return a dagger to Owl's Nest. Can't complete the quest at the new level 15 due to being mobbed by what seem to be overpowered spiders.
[*] Combat - I have no clear idea why my combat skills can go up, but I am still weaker than I was prior to the new system. I have no good idea how Adventurer Level works with my combat skill levels.
[*] Crafting - Foraging is frustrating. Why does a cotton plant, a tree or an ore node ONLY give ONE piece of the main material? Whereas garlic, mandrake root and nightshade always seem to give 2 or more?

The Ugly
[*] I can live without the progress bars at the bottom of the screen, but I personally miss my health and focus being replenished when I go up a level.
[*] The skill decay mechanic. Not to my liking.
[*] Not enough information on the skill trees to tell you exactly what passives are earned by what skills.

 

My list would be similar with the possible exception of the spiders at Owl's Nest. It's simple to run right past them up the hill without being killed. But I can see how a player who is new to the area and who doesn't know which way to turn would be stymied (and killed) by the spiders.

 

Yes, this is missed... also it seems like Focus regenerates at a much slower rate than previous builds.

 

All of the above for me .... everything you all said. And I don't like running thru the control points to get to where I need to go, we need an option to go around it and not have to pay 1500 gold to do so, that's outrageous.

 

A common mistake that many developers fall into is using fixed values for out of combat regeneration, rather than percentages. Using percentages, you can guarantee out of combat recovery time will always be x seconds. Using fixed values, it gets longer and longer as you increase in power, which is backwards and frustrating to customers.

 

Control points have nothing to do with use-based systems but the plan has always been to have them! I, for one, like that they've started to actually force us to use them.

 

Do they serve an actual purpose? So far I´ve just ran past them and bashed open the gate, there´s no reason to pay the 1500 gold and a new/starting character wouldn´t be able to afford it anyway.

 

I'm sure they will continue to work out the kinks but the point is that unless you want to pay or fight your way through, you have to take over the control point to allow access. It also helps create regions on the map in order to create a regional economy.

 

I am glad you like being forced to do something, I for one don't ....

 

Well forced was the wrong wrong. Technically they can't force me to do a single thing since I don't have to play the game. Rather requiring us to go through them in order to go to different regions of the game.

 

The Bad

• I don't like having so little control over skill points other than to spam skills I don't really want to bother with in order to get them up to level 10 where I can unlock skills I actually do want to use
  
• I don't like that I have to go back to Ardoris or Owl's Head every time a skill hits 10 so I can unlock the next tier, rather than having an hour or two of uninterrupted adventuring after which I can go back to town once and level up as far as I want

The Good

• There's nothing I've seen so far in this use based system that I prefer to the old way of doing it

 

who was it that once said, "control, control, you must LEARN control..."

once you learn the mechanics of the system, you can actually control what gains points. This is also the first iteration of use-based skill gain for SotA and I think will each subsequent Release we'll see vast improvements in the logic(math) therein.

 

You mean I could add to my combat deck only things I want to level up, go into my skills and select only the innates I want to level up and hope that no monster attacks me while I'm doing it? That's not control, that's a lot of boring fiddling around in the UI.

 

The devs have said before that they wanted to create a sense of preparing to go out adventuring before you actually go out, read up on the deck systems goals and philosophies. The first time, yes, you may be unprepared. But then you learn what you need to do in order to do what you want to do.

 

The first one is essentially a same problem we had in the old system: having to spend skill points and money to get them to level 3 to invest in other skills. The second one is once again the same as the old system: you still had to go to Ardoris/Owl's Head in order to invest in those skills.

 

This is not my first time, I've been a backer since R6. I even read the weekly updates.

Yes, I've learned that what I need to do is spam skills I've never wanted to use before so that I can get them up to level 10 so I can gain access to skills I do want to use. That is one of the things I'm complaining about.

No, it's different to the old system. With the old system I could go off adventuring for a couple of hours, level up several times, then visit the skill trainer a single time and upgrade all the skills I wanted. Now I have to visit a skill trainer whenever any of the skills gets to 10 if I don't want to waste experience on the lower level skills. It takes something like 40-60 seconds to load up Ardoris or Owls Head, having to do that every ten minutes is annoying.

 

I don't think that is accurate. I can honestly say I visit the trainer way less in the current system than the previous one. Also there are other towns with trainers you can use as well that are less resource intensive such as Desolis.

 

Now that I've unlocked everything I also visit less, but that first ten hours was a constant grind of running between Owl's Head and the area just south of it, because you have to visit the trainer as soon as possible after reaching level 10 in a skill in order to not miss opportunities to use up experience in levelling the higher level skills. Before I logged on, went off adventuring, came back home, sold stuff, visited the skills trainer, logged off. Now I'm log on, go off adventuring, come back home, sold stuff, logged off. I don't think the trade off, that 2 minutes I gain now, is worth that initial pain.

And with all of that I still have no idea how I'm supposed to gain experience in something like 'Heavy Lifter'. The level goes up from time to time, but I've no idea what actions of mine causes it or what I could do to make it happen more quickly.

I will wait to see how it is after the next full wipe but, given that the lack of a large XP pool is going to make that first 10-20 hours even more of a grind, I don't have high hopes.