I want to know why you need to gain 20 points before a second skill is available. Would it not make more sense that at 10 points, players get a second skill? I often play matches where I don't get more than twenty points until the game is almost over, and a quick look at the scoreboard shows that many others suffer the same. Therefore, I do suggest that players get a second skill at 10 points, a third at 20, and so on. Pro: All players get more skills faster. Con: :confused: I can't think of one, since this will effect all players evenly. Edit: I clarified a lot of my ideas in a later post on page five, but I think I should also put them here so that it's more visible.
Skill points are to reward, well skill. That and teamplay. Allowing people to get skills earlier on blurs that distinction.
to understand why it is setup that way we need a little history lession: it used to be that you started with no skills and got 1st at 10, 2nd at 20, ect, but in order to encourage squad participation the devs (dev?) it was set up so you got your 1st skill when you joined a squad or at 10 points which ever came first. this led to ppl joining squads at the start of the game but then ignoring them. the devs then implemented squad leader powers and auras to actually promote squad participation but ppl did not want to loose their "free" skill at the start so it was just handed out to everyone. all that being said, i am conflicted about it: getting new skills at 20/30/40 is kinda silly without getting one at 10, but it order to keep the game paced as it is we could not give one at 10 unless we remove the free one but that adds so much variety to early game strategies that i dont want to see it go. the other option is to change when you get all the skills (start with 1 but get new ones every 8 points or whatever). it might be interesting to let you only get general skills for free and you need lvl 10 before getting squad skills but it is acceptable as is.
I, like mr quackums, have been around for several years and I distinctly remember all that he mentioned. I also support Lumi's idea (seen in two posts above). Though, a main reason of only getting four skill slots is so that you have to prioritize, and also to make sure that late joining players are not too far behind. moving it up to five will give the skilled players even more of an advantage over the less skilled players, but fortunately only a minor one. After deep consideration over the pros and cons of said change, I fully support Lumi's suggestion. Wertbarg's stamp of approval.
This was already discussed here: http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=8553 So this thread can be closed.
That thread got really quickly derailed into people complaining about the first skill not being dependent on joining a squad, though.
Why not? Only LVL3 turrets should be limited somehow. Maybe only 3 MG and 3 ML per team. Or even more dramatic: Remove skills with points. (But I guess that noone will like this)
The only reason I object to that is I quite like the progression you get from unlocking them. I'd like some form of progression left in the game, but I have no objections to making it easier to do.
Wow. :eek: I have just witnessed a forum conversation go full circle back on topic in a relatively short period. That was cool.
I would say that the first skill absolutely must be free. The impact of having a skill vs. not having a skill is too high -- you would see games decided by who reaches five points first so they can use repair upgrade or drop a level 3. That shouldn't happen. Also, many of the game's basic roles (reviving, hiding, etc) are currently defined by skills. I don't think anyone should be without them. It also makes it suck to join a game midway through, because you won't be able to access the basic features of your class. Points should not be a big deal; they should not be intended, really, to make you more powerful. They're there because they're fun and encourage people to do things that help their team that they might not do otherwise, like reviving, healing, repairing, and constructing. They're not there for you to "earn" more power; the reward for playing well is that you play well and win the game. Like Mayama said, giving significant power for points only makes good players better... it becomes a "win more" feature, which is not something the game needs.
That has the same problem, though. The class-specific skills are too powerful, and the gap between having access to them and not having access to them is way too much of an advantage to give for something that is ultimately unimportant, like points. Getting points faster shouldn't let your team build 2x faster than the enemy, or revive when the enemy can't at all, or drop level 3s when the enemy can't. Those bonuses are just too much to give to whoever manages to reach X points first. Games are supposed to be decided by res, not points; points are just for very, very minor perks, not game-changing alterations in your capabilities.
