(and makes me want to play a game with that sort of skill tree.)
Well, there's always
the mammoth tree of Path of Exile.But more ontopic, the skilltree went through some decent iterations, but the current problem with it is related to how gamey it feels and very hardwired. I mean, it works fine for us players that've been here forever, we all know our level 50 builds (really only three or four), but even so, everyone would rather have an extra skill or two. Since at that level, it just feels that you're always getting 95% of what you want but just caaaan't get to 100% and that's frustrating. If we only could have gotten 50-60% of the skills, that would'ave felt better because you're always playing against the other skills, and not the entire build.
However, for new players, given also no respec, it can feel a bit arcane let alone not having enough information to understand what's useful and what isn't for them, and seeing how they'll mostly hit 20-30 or so before either restarting with mods or something, it's mostly just 'there'. It also cannot be understated that it's a huge choice paralysis, since players may choose to not put points into skills before they understand what they want, and the first 10 levels will just be them playing at a disadvantage. Coupled with 'buy-in', which indeed, is significantly reduced post.. 0.8?, anyhows, coupled with that, it just leads to a very shaky entrance into the tree.
I have a saying (stolen from the great Sid Meier), if the decision seems important enough, me as a gamer, will optimize the fun out of the game and alt-tab then read forum rundowns or Youtube videos on skills or for two-three hours instead of actually playing the game. That's why i think a respec is /so/ important in games and should be a mandatory feature.
As for gamey, the issue lies soley that at this moment it's a mix between map/galaxy/60-hourplaythrough bonuses (colonies), campaign-map/currentsessionplaythrough bonuses (fuel use) and actual combat bonuses/thebattlerightnow (the rest of the 60% of the skills). Now that i lay them out like this, and given combat is the core of the game, it might be cool to have a sort of trickle down system? For each 2-3 combat skill-ups you get one campaign map upgrade, and for each 2-3 of those you get one galaxy upgrade. They can be tiered to say, your level as a commander (Commander, Captain, Admiral) so it doesn't seem too schlocky.
What i will say about the skilltree and would hate for it to change is that i love how most skill/skilllevels feel hefty. Like worth putting an actual skillpoint into it. My mental ideal for skills that you get in RPGs is that it has to feel like slotting a coin to get that bonus and getting a chunky return, that's why i'm more tilted towards perks instead of 'classic' multitiered trees. Like not 2% extra gatling gun damage while between 50 and 55% flux or other crud which you have to upgrade 18 times to play into a more 'diablo-esque' stat creep.
Still, the dust (just the 'mid/top' layer?) does 'spiral' around your ship when you change heading, disorientating while you do that since the 'drift' helper mostly disappears in that case or just gets lost in the jumble.