A Poll - What Do You Think of the Current Levelling Skill Tree System?

[Nova!]

https://www.strawpoll.me/17204644/

I'm genuinely curious what the general community of the game thinks of the Skill levelling, because for a long time I was of the opinion that it's really bad and needs to either be reworked entirely or removed, for something better, and more encouraging of unique gameplay.

I'm of the opinion that the system could use an entire rework, but it seems the general consensus is that a lot of players either don't have any issues with the system, or simply think that a few of the skills could be better balanced or improved. I know a majority of the more HOE-focused high-level play userbase takes serious issue with certain skill branches, such as Commando's level 20 (Hollow-Point Rounds vs. Eat Lead), and Medic's entire tree.

If you're unaware, I made a thread yesterday proposing the idea of a Paladins-esque Talent system that coalesces the current Skills in trees into more cohesive and distinct playstyles. My desire with the idea was to try and move away from the skill tree being more about what is generally optimal for gameplay, and move more towards a design that encourages different playstyles from the get-go, offering clear and distinct advantages and disadvantages, without simply taking away any Perk's power and locking it behind levelling (Commando, Gunslinger, and Beserker come to mind).

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Consider this as an area to elaborate on what you think about the current skill system. I'm hoping that, by the end of this exercise in gathering a consensus and putting our minds to the test, we can come up with a solution for TWI (assuming they haven't come up with one already, which is very possible, since they haven't actually touched the Skill Trees balance-wise in a year, if not longer). I love the game to death, but right now my biggest issue is the skill tree system (and the obvious "grinding to unlock vault crates" issue).

 

[hunter_hunted]

It feels like the intention at some point was for each class to have at least 2 distinct playstyles, with the option of picking parts from each if desired.

This seems fully realized in rare cases (combat medic vs buff medic), but most perks have 'useless' or sub-optimal skills that don't offer a benefit in any situation over the other choice (Like fragmentation rounds that end up having less kill radius due to the damage falloff).

Particularly when experienced players play on higher difficulties, the majority of perks have one 'best' ability loadout, occasionally with one choice based on preference.

As you stated, the other issue is that some 'keystone' abilities are unlocked much later for some perks, making the early leveling process annoying for prestiged players and uninstructive on how the perk will eventually work for first time players.

A personal peeve is that the zed-time skills are locked to level 25 only, making a major feature of the game mostly just an annoyance until then. It'd be great if the zed-time skills could be unlocked around level 5 at 1/5th power, and progress towards full power at 25.

 

[infntnub]

I voted - It's bad - I think a LOT of the system needs to be reworked or replaced

The options seem pretty uninspired and mostly copy/paste from one perk to the next with subtle changes.

This could be something that hopefully TWI addresses with a wellness update or two in 2019 and maybe even include some of your suggestions for revamping things.

With a few exceptions, I don't notice significant differences in how my perks play with one skill set selected vs another. (again, there are exceptions to this statement).

It becomes more of a preference thing vs a gameplay changer. More bullets vs faster reload for example on some of the perks. Those aren't really creative options and could easily be factored into perks as passive bonuses throughout leveling to 25.

 

[Azukki]

The five skill choices isn't a bad system, I don't think it needs a rework on that level, but a number of the current skills waste the opportunities it gives.
I think it would be a shame if they were to simplify the system for the sake of removing the poorly balanced options, at the cost of removing some of the good options we enjoy.
Efforts towards making skills better overall should go into polish, just making the bad skills better. Case by case, compare each choice, more playtesting, more tweaking, sometimes swap skills around to make them opposed to a skill they're more even with, sometimes replacing a bad skill with an all new one.