I’m pretty sure the general consensus is that the current skill tree is loaded with disappointing or extremely niche perks and specializations. Rather than going “Trog say skill tree need fix ug”, I wanted to give a more tangible suggestion.
I want to keep the amount of points in each tree roughly the same, and give skills further down a given tree stronger, but more specialized roles. So I’m going to go through each tree, from left to right.
Marksman: To me, this is the obvious sniper skill tree.
- Aim speed: I personally think this is fine, although it could be made a bit more noticable.
- Reload Speed: I swapped this with hip fire accuracy in the Vanguard tree, as markmen are generally more stationary; the skill remains easy to access as it is still useful in general.
- Weapon recoil: I think this is fine as is.
- Weapon Sway: I think this is fine as is.
- Make 'em Count: Increases the damage of semi-automatic weapons by 10%/20%/30%
Note that this excludes automatic weapons even in semi-auto, but including handguns. To compensate, the power is vastly increased. Previously, there was very little reason to put points here as the DPS increase was fairly negligible due to the low fire rate. This also helps to make the marksman rifles a much more competitive option.That being said, I kind of want to exclude the PVG90 as I feel that’s more of an explosive weapon and already is topped in usage. - Marksman Specialization: Increases the effect of all points spent in this tree by 50%. In addition, you no longer suffer from damage drop-off due to distance.
The current marksman specialization renders points in weapon sway useless, and specializations in general should definitely have a greater effect than they currently do.
Vanguard tree: To me, this is the run-and-gun player, they draw the attention with rifles, smgs, and shotguns.
- Hip Shot Accuracy: Increases hip shot accuracy by 10%/20%/30%
A bit more efficacy in general since they’ll probably want to spec into reload speed as well. - Run and Gun: I think this is fine as is.
- Armor: 10%/20% resistance to bullets and explosives.
- Armor Damage: This skill is very underpowered, not due to the skill itself, but due to how easily armor plates are destroyed. Enemy armor needs to be vastly increased or given a heavy resistance against non-explosive weaponry and then maybe give this skill the ability to counteract that.
- Trigger Happy: I feel that this should be extended to shotguns as well but is otherwise fine.
- Vanguard Specialization: Increases the effect of all points spent in this tree by 50%. In addition, bullets weigh half as much.
Commander: Situational awareness is his purview, while others are laser-focused on any given enemy. Also supports with flares and utility items.
- Pitcher: You throw items 20%/40% faster, 60%/100% more accurately, and 15%/30% farther.
Honestly? I wanted to drop the throwing skills altogether, as only the thrown EMP cells benefit from range and accuracy and you generally only use them against enemies that pretty difficult to miss. - Flanking: This is either utterly worthless or one of the best skills in the game depending on whether you’re playing multiplayer. I’m just going to leave it as is.
- Enemy Marking: You mark an enemy for 30 seconds which will highlight them to all players.
I could kill most things in the time it takes to mark them, much less mark them again once it wears off. One point should be plenty. - Designated Target: Marked targets take 10%/20% more damage.
In solo, this would make it worthwhile. And its effect should be pretty powerful considering it’s lower on the tree. - Target Suppression: Marked targets deal 10%/20% less damage.
Probably more useful than last man standing, and at least more thematic. - Commander Specialization: Increases the effect of all marking skills by 50%. In addition, you swap equipped items twice as quickly. Furthermore, at the beginning of combat, mark all enemies for 15 seconds.
I mean, I could go with the original effect of more field radio uses; or I could carry two field radios. Overall the commander tree costs two points less than the others, which can be used to fill in other trees to round off the character.
Medic: The medic spec is an extremely difficult tree to make use of. Half of it is only usable in multiplayer, where you generally want to avoid being near each other and everyone carries several dozen medkits. Furthermore revives are generally a waste of time since field radios exist and it’s faster to just abandon and fast travel back. So I want to introduce the stimpistol, a “gun” that fires exclusive recovery ammo that helps cross-train with handguns. Think of a stimpistol as a having similar stats as a revolver in terms of firing speed that heals 10HP per shot. Left click to fire the pistol (does nothing to machines) right-click to inject yourself.
- Healing Amount: +25%/50% health from medkits
- Ounce of Prevention: If a healing source would heal you above 100%, the excess becomes temporary health up to 200% max health that is lost at 3hp/1hp per second.
I personally don’t find xp bonus skills useful as they fall off once you hit 31, so I replaced it with something with reasonable utility. You still can’t use medkits at 100% or above. - Painkiller: Stimpistols heal +5hp/10hp per shot and you deal 10%/20% more damage with handguns.
- Booster Shot: Stimpistols fire 15%/30% faster and handguns have 15%/30% less recoil.
- Surgical Precision: Stimpistols can revive downed players.
- Medic Specialization: Increases the effect of stimpistol skills by 50%, in addition Paramedic Response kits you deploy have 3x as many uses and are 3 times as effective. Furthermore, players you revive are revived at full health.
Again, 10 points to this tree like the other support tree. It’s a a potentially powerful tree in multiplayer but strictly third rate when solo.
Survivor: Survivor is THE tree when it comes to QoL, although its later skills are definitely lackluster. Hopefully this can help change that.
- Stamina Amount: I think this is fine as is.
- Health Amount: Swapped with the Commando tree, which is the more travel-related tree. It’s still high up on the tree so easy to get.
- Carry Capacity: It feels a bit out of place but it’s one of the big draws to this tree, so I’ll leave it as is.
- Steady Feet: I think this is fine as is.
- Down, but not out: Receive 1/2 free revives per combat.
Admittedly this is pretty strong, but adrenaline shots are farmable, so this fits into a nice QoL niche. - Survivor Specialization: Increases the effect of all points spent in this tree by 50%. In addition, you immediately regain full health after combat.
Again, incredible survivability, including a third revive if you have two points in DBNO. At the same time, its effects can be replicated by having more items so…
Commando: Quick and stealthy, kinda needs help in the stealthy department. It’s not so much that stealth skills are good or bad but rather how blind machines are when you’re prone and then suddenly gain wallhax once they’re hostile, but I can’t really help there.
- Stamina Recharge: I think this is fine as is.
- Running Speed: Swapped from survivor, otherwise the same. Still easy to get due to being high in the skill tree.
- Visibility: Wonky stealth mechanics, but can’t really help there.
- Movement Noise: Same as visibility.
- Covert Movement Speed: Does this affect prone? If not, it definitely should.
- Commando Specialization: Increases the effect of all points spent in this tree by 50%. In addition, enemy machines lose sight of you more quickly. Furthermore, damage done to an unaware enemy is increased by 20%.
It’s still kind of a hard sell to me, but you’re always gonna need to move and this does buff that.
Tech: A specialist that cripples enemies with damage to components and EMP.
- Spotting Intel: Displays difficulty and distance when spotting an enemy with binoculars.
Did anyone really feel they needed to spend two points here? One should be enough. - Component Damage: I think this is fine as is.
- EMP Expert: I think this is fine as is.
- Chain Reaction: Whenever a component is destroyed, deal 5%/10% damage to 2/3 other components.
Again, I dislike XP skills for aforementioned reasons. This is a very powerful skill so I moved it further down the list. - Remote Hacking : The chance for a successful hack needs to be increased for this to be useful, If it fails deal 10%/20% damage to random components instead.
- Hacker Specialization: Increases the effect of all points spent in this tree by 50% In addition, remote hack has an increased chance of success and can jump to nearby machines. Furthermore, hacked machines attack each other.
If the hack fails, component damage is always good. If it succeeds, then even better. Larger machines are naturally more resistant to hacking but have more components that will take damage even on a failure.
Engineer: Loot, loot, and more loot. And explosives.
- Chemist: 15%/30% resistance to gas/radiation/fire
More resistance to some of the more later damage types to get a bit more out of this skill. - Lockpicking: I don’t really like this skill, but loot is loot, so in it stays.
- Salvage: I think this is fine as is.
- Mechanic: I kinda feel that this is both overvalued and undervalued, but I can’t really add anything to it so it stays.
- Explosives expert: Increase explosive damage by 10%/20% and explosive radius by 15%/30%, gain 10%/20% resistance to explosive damage.
I feel that a lot of the explosive weapons like the GL and RPG have incredibly lackluster damage, but we also have explosive ammo which would benefit from this. So 20% sounds like a decent breakpoint for a damage buff. - Engineer Specialization: Increases the effect of all points spent in this tree by 50% In addition, explosives and components have their weight reduced by 50%. Furthermore, you may salvage tick pods from enemies.
Explosives are good, and tick pods are explosives. The reduced weight will help counteract the fact that explosives are pretty heavy to carry in bulk.
This does definitely make players more powerful, so the numbers can be fudged a bit to balance. What do you think?