Game Changer

Tactical readiness will keep a close eye on the changes and we will report back our findings as soon as we can.

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9797693-star-trek-online%3A-skill-system-revamp

Also Tactical Readiness is now recruiting for the Positions of Test Gophers and test Guinea Pigs to join us on Tribble so we can test out these changes as they are put up on Tribble.

For those of us "Silver" F2P non-subscribers who don't get a free respec token at every level, I wonder whether the existing skill trees will be wiped clean when this goes live so we can adjust to the new system, or whether it will be a flat conversion.

Enquiring minds and all that.

they will need to give everyone a free respec as this is being changed from the ground up

Reddit is on fire with this news. They did confirm a free respec when the changes are released. Most of the comments are very positive. I'm so proud of our community right now; in almost every MMO I've played their communities hate change, but here is a vocal majority who are happy to see the evolution of STO.

Reddit thread
https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/46fqic/star_trek_online_skill_system_revamp/?sort=confidence

ARC forum thread
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1212020/skill-system-revamp

I made such the unholy noise, even at the screenshots.

Question: Traits got split, so you don't have to stifle one at the other. Now skills. I wonder if they're looking on bringing a focus back to ground in some way.

Wow. These changes are really significant. Will definitely change how the game is played for sure.

I'm of the opinion that this is actually going to change very little for most long-time players.

The skilltree system has been (at least since its last major overhaul) an incredibly narrow buildspace. Most decent builds look remarkably similar to each other - there's very little meaningful room to vary builds - the most significant exception being Science.

By the looks of it - the point of the overhaul is to limit the wasted space, that people weren't really using anyways.

There's even the outside possibility that this might be an opportunity for Cryptic to use the revamp as a backend nerf for the steady escalation of player power.

I am waiting to see the full skill trees before worrying/getting excited. Though I am hoping for some build diversity with this change

Quote by Gravity

I am waiting to see the full skill trees before worrying/getting excited. Though I am hoping for some build diversity with this change

Part of what's led me to my position being that the post describes specific changes to the one place there remained build diversity in the game - in the Science trees.

Specifically, the revamp effectively collapses certain coordinate skills into a single marker - Cotnrol, Drain, you get the drift.

I admit - some of Bort's discussion at Reddit seems to at least somewhat acknowledge the possibility they may be trying to incentivize or clear away skillsets that go underutilized. Threat and maybe even Stealth/Detection mechanics most notably.

Quote by Kasandaro

Question: Traits got split, so you don't have to stifle one at the other. Now skills. I wonder if they're looking on bringing a focus back to ground in some way.

given there's a 46/10 space/ground split...and you can't fill them all, I'm guessing not

Quote by WhiteOnmyoji

Tactical Readiness is now recruiting for the Positions of Test Gophers and test Guinea Pigs

ooh what's the diff between a Goph and a GP? :dry:

They did say that nothing would be worse after the change. We'll see.

I'm with sej. There will be some new meta with this new system and then people won't think of it much anymore.

The benefits seem to be centered around making the whole thing easier for new players, which is good.

We'll see....