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[Schwartz]

Aptitude points aren't wasted. We're all used to it working differently and getting tons of fleet bonuses so 0.8 is a downgrade. The only alternative that doesn't smack of 'two steps forward, one step back' would be to remove aptitudes altogether and give the player a couple less skill points.

Please, please no unlocks. Please no more fleet-wide buffs either. Minor tweaks aside, the skill tree is finally in a nice place.

[ChaseBears]

That's basically what I want.   

Though, now that I think about it.   There is an alternative to aptitudes if you want to encourage specializing in a branch (which is basically the only thing aptitudes do now) - synergies.  Skills could have bonuses that scale with the amount of points invested in that category. For example, putting points into Salvage could unlock a bonus that gives you +1% salvage for each point spent in the Industrial tree. This technique would reward the player for specializing, rather than penalize them for not specializing.

[Cik]

personally the new patch is just so much better. slow, unmaneuverable bricks now have the actual downsides they were supposed to have. i have frequently managed to catch onslaughts and dominators in the flank and annihilate them, as it should be.

the game is much improved in 0.8, and the skill system being chopped at the knees was a huge part of that.

[PCCL]

the reward for/penalize for not dichotomy always stuck me as silly. You're already being rewarded for specializing, you save 3 entire skill points! You might as well think of your proposal as punishing the player with -1% salvage per point spent elsewhere.

[ChaseBears]

 

That would be opportunity cost, which is not the same as a penalty. Words have meanings!

I would prefer dropping aptitudes entirely, but there are arguments to be made in favor of encouraging specialization. So i presented one possible alternative. 

[Serenitis]

personally the new patch is just so much better. slow, unmaneuverable bricks now have the actual downsides they were supposed to have. i have frequently managed to catch onslaughts and dominators in the flank and annihilate them, as it should be.

the game is much improved in 0.8, and the skill system being chopped at the knees was a huge part of that.

Bricks always had that downside. It's just in the past was had two sources of a flat OP bonus, AND a reduction in weapon sizes which meant we could easily afford to fill ships will hullmods. That's gone now, and as a result far fewer ships have things like aux. thrusters as they can only just afford to equip a full weapons load.
And the one skill which increases turn rate still exists (and is a lv.1 no less).

Hard caps are silly. Let the player progress for as long as they care to do so. You're not gaining anything by preventing this, unless you value making the player feel like there is no longer any point to continuing.
This is quite important given that it is fairly easy for a player to reach the current lv.40 cap without going to much effort, and long before they get to "endgame" content. I did this just with surveys, salvaging, and occaisionally fighting off random reds trying to hassle me.

[Giblodyte]

I certainly agree that putting points in aptitudes feels wasted. You could get the best of both worlds here where firstly, the obvious design intention is to create a limitation that makes you spend your points wisely and you lose out spreading to thin. You could still preserve that AND get some sense of not wasting a point by having buffs/rewards for certain amounts of points spent in each skill tree, creating a latent reward for really investing in that arm of the skill tree

ie

combat:

5 points: +5% weapon damage

10 points: +10% hull integrity

20 points: +10% weapon range

This way you're still preserving the intended design of spending your points wisely and weighing up your decisions but you also get rewarded for those 'wasted' points by investing heavily in a specialisation which it seems is how the system is intended.