[Airik]

Hey guys its time for a long awaited Dev Watch with Airik, i took some time out from doing these to get to grips with a few things mostly taking over as CO of FNN and a short trip away to the sunny valleys of Wales. So i just want to re affirm my commitment to you that going forward FNN and I will produce regular weekly content with Dev Watch as the spearhead providing you with Relevant interesting information.





that done time for the goood stuff im going to start with the ground skills tree revamp courtesy of CaptainGecko (Al Rivera)

Here is a look at the upcoming Ground Skill Changes. As you can see, it follows a similar scheme to the Space Skill changes. This is an early iteration, and subject to change. This may make it out to Tribble next week (no promises), and are hoping to move it to F2P. Here are some highlights:
There is a set of ground common skills, and 5 career (class) specific skills.
Ground Common skills are mostly new. They are similar to some of the new space skills in that they just add a bonus, like bonus Shields, or improve armor. There was no reduction in base Shields, armor, HP, whatever. These skills just add to the old values.
For each Rank (Lt, Com, etc), there are now a total of 9 skills to choose from (adding space and ground)
Every ground ability remains modifiable by a skill.
All training nodes were retained. All career specific ground skills unlock a BOff training node at both Rank 3 and 6!
This new Skill Update will come with a mandatory respec… like we did when we introduced the Space Skill changes.
We will be changing the cost of skills at each rank. We are still working this out, but Tier 1 will increase, but tiers 5 and maybe 4 and 3 will decrease. This change will likely come with a compete re-tooling of the numbers. No players will lose any skill points, but you will not have the same as before. For instance, if you had the max, you will be converted to the new max. It’s a complete 1:1 conversion.
We are looking at changing the scale of Skill Points and Skill Point costs. So instead of a skill costing 200, it may now display as 1000. This is just a display change to make the numbers look nice and rounded. No skill points will be removed or added. We don’t know what this scale change will be, but it will be larger than it is now.
The requirement for Vice Admiral may go up a tiny bit to make the numbers all nice and rounded (maybe around 500). Any player at the max will be automatically bumped to this new max and retain their Vice Admiral Rank.
Before season 5, there were 86 skills. Now there are 55.
Before season 5, the cost to buy every skill at max rank would be 235800. The total estimated cost now may be about 162000 - an approx 31% cost reduction.
We are looking at splitting Ground and Space skill points - around a 75:25 ratio between Ground and Space. This is being tried for several reasons - the main reason is to help prevent players from putting all their points into space, and then not being effective on the ground. It also helps make PvP more accessible to casual players by leveling the skill point playing field (players who split their skills because they play ground and space could not compete with a player who put all their points into space or ground alone). While this will reduce how many points you can put in space, there is a significant reduction in the amount of skills needed to purchase. This is further aided by the upcoming reduction in the cost of higher tier skills.
All of the above is subject to change at any time.
The update will come with a new enhanced skill tree UI.


GROUND COMMON (Avialable to all Professions):
Lt
Devices - Improves Hypos, Power Cells, Shield Charge
Team Leader - buffs your boffs (merged existing leader skills)
Weapon Proficiency - Buffs weapon damage

Lt Cm
Person Shield Generator - Buff Shield HP

Cm
Threat Control - Increased Threat when attacking + Dam Res

Cpt
Willpower - Res all control (hold, disable, slow, knock, repel, confuse, placate)

Adm
Combat Armor - Improves Armor

TACTICAL:
Lt
Grenades - Improves Grenades

Lt Cm
Combat Specialist - Bonus weapon damage (stacks with Weapon Proficiency) and weapon secondary effects;, buffs Melee damage (armed and unarmed); Bonus Crit Chance and Crit Severity

Cm
Special Forces - Improves Self Buff abilities

Cpt
Squad Command - Improves "Buff Others" abilities

Adm
Advanced Tactics - Improves debuff abilities

ENGINEERING:
Lt
Demolitions - buffs explosives dam

Lt Cm
Repairs - Improves Shield Heals and Repairs

Cm
Generators - Buffs places generators

Cpt
Turrets and Drones - Buffs engineering turrets and drone damage

Adm
Modification Specialist - Improves Buff and Debuffs

SCIENCE:
Lt
Medic - Improves Healing

Lt Cm
Physiology - Improves Buff abilities

Cm
Scientist - Improves Debuff abilities

Cpt
Probability Logistics - Improves Control abilities

Adm
Particle Physics - Improves Science Damage abilities (not weapons)

And now thats out of the way its time i treat you with the lovely new images tweeted by capnlogan of the enterprise F in saucer seperation mode and laucnhing its Escort/auxilary craft

[Doken]

This has been a very good article indeed! Nice screens too! Many thanks for sharing it!

[Kains]

I for one would love to see a ground skills revamp. I will still put points into generators and whatnot (Love my generators) but being able to buff armour and ignore holds etc would be awesome.

I probably should want more shooty power, but honestly less time being pinned sounds like win to me!

Thanks for typing this all up!

[Airik]

actually just go find the post that the dev posted it in and copy and paste it here that way its straight from cryptics mouth untainted by my bias

[Kains]

But... how is that reporting the news? You're supposed, nay, expected to put your own spin on it!

Otherwise, is it really the news then?

Just mention how it undermines true Cardassian values or that it is clearly an act to promote the Jem'Hadar or something along those lines.