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[Lucax]

I really, really like Neural Link ! Combat skills will gain a lot of value with this. Combined with the addition of limitations on most fleetwide skills in 0.95, this will finally make combat skills somewhat on par with fleetwide skills in the endgame.

[TaLaR]

A question on Support Doctrine - does this mean that a player with 0 personal skills can now be worse than un-officered ship?

0-8-5-0[+2] (AI spam) sound like a strong build, but would leave player very little to do in combat. Like, take a cheap frigate and pretend you're helping. Even an Afflictor completely without skills is only a pale shade of it's better self.

[HELMUT]

I really like what i'm seeing so far. The derelict contingent/operations got reworked into exactly what i hoped for.

Neural link i clearly the really big one. It's something i wished to see in a mod for a while, but i did not expect it to happen in vanilla. The opportunity to fly two ships "at the same time" is incredible, it radically change the way the game can be played, both in the way one can outfit a ship and how it is used on the battlefield. First thing i'll try is a pair of Neural Linked Harbinger to see if a chain-stun strat is viable. Depending on how the mercurial scythe of balance fall in the next blog post.

[Marco]

I really like what i'm seeing so far. The derelict contingent/operations got reworked into exactly what i hoped for.

Neural link i clearly the really big one. It's something i wished to see in a mod for a while, but i did not expect it to happen in vanilla. The opportunity to fly two ships "at the same time" is incredible, it radically change the way the game can be played, both in the way one can outfit a ship and how it is used on the battlefield. First thing i'll try is a pair of Neural Linked Harbinger to see if a chain-stun strat is viable. Depending on how the mercurial scythe of balance fall in the next blog post.

I dare you to duo Excelsiors.

[AcaMetis]

Regarding changes, the root of the problem still stays - the skill tree mixes personal piloting skills (1), fleet commander skills (2), fleet technician skills (2) and colony government skills (4) while having too few points and too big of disparity between these groups, making players pick certain skills in certain order from (2) and (3), ignoring (1), while (4) shouldn't even be there.

I wanted to expand on this a bit - it's a common enough sentiment (and also, IMO, wrong) and I think it warrants addressing. At the core of it is, I think, the idea that personal combat skills have too little impact compared with fleetwide bonuses for personal combat skills to be worth taking, and that this is a fundamental problem because the scale of battles is such that it'll always be the case - too many ships benefit from fleetwide skills.

The problem for me isn't that personal combat skills can't compete with fleetwide combat skills, it's that personal combat skills can't compete with campaign/logistics skills. No personal combat skill, or officer for that matter, will allow my fleet to get +1 base burn on the campaign map, passively repair D-mods, give me +1 S-mod on my ships (which is very nice QoL on logistics ships), etc. The same pretty much goes for fleetwide combat skills in fact: No officer in the game is going to pick up Wolfpack Tactics for me, only I can do that, so unless I'm not going to be using any frigates at all what personal combat skill can compete with that? And after all is said and done what points are left to invest in personal combat skills? Unless I'm a skilled enough player to solo entire fleets on the wings of the Combat tree (and Neural Link), obviously, but, eh...I'm not .

Oh, also - only of interest for modded games, but raising the level cap will no longer mess with the SP gain rate once you reach max level.

That is great to hear, but what about the XP curve past level 15 (I'm assuming that cap hasn't changed)? Is it as crazy as it was in 0.9.1, or more reasonable?

[Draba]

Support doctrine looks like a great addition, ships without officers felt like wasted potential in most cases (Monitors/Omens excluded).
Same for derelict operations, emphasizing the difference between junkers and superships feels better than making junkers the superships.
Neural link also sounds fun.

TL;DR excited for all of the changes mentioned in this post, didn't read anything I don't like.

[SonnaBanana]

* Aux Support is gone, not an issue
* Fighter Uplink got shoved into Leadership.
* Industrial Planning, or at least something which uses it's icon is still there
* What about the other Industry piloted ship skill? Does this affect strike craft?
* Is T4L the new Ground Operations?

[Lucky33]

I didn't get how new Damage Control works.

It affect all hits above 500 in a battle.

Or.

It affect a single hit per battle.

?

Former boost difficulty of the Redacted fights from current Hardcore to Nightmare level. While decisively nerfing most high-tier weapons with the finishers being stomped face down into the dirt. And dramatically reducing usefulness of most damage boosting systems and skills in the process.

Latter simply not worth the story point.

[ubuntufreakdragon]

0.9.1 had 31 skills + 4 levels, which makes 35*3=105 options to invest a skillpoint, while offering 52 skill points that was ~1/2 of all skills, the new system offers 40 skills and 15 skillpoints, how about raising this a bit.

[Sutopia]

0.9.1 had 31 skills + 4 levels, which makes 35*3=105 options to invest a skillpoint, while offering 52 skill points that was ~1/2 of all skills, the new system offers 40 skills and 15 skillpoints, how about raising this a bit.

It was 42 originally, 52 was a placeholder
Besides, .91 skills have generally weaker effects.
I think 15 is at a very good balance to force player make decisions instead of pick everything.
If you want to go ahead and find mods that increases the cap, they're already there.

[pairedeciseaux]

Looks promising.

IMO, the best thing here is (hopefully!) this time there won’t be a 18 month delay between the blog post and the release, so that the actual player feedback loop will be shorter this time.

I like that the existing 5-tiers-each-having-2-choices is being broken in such a sensible way. Seems like a good balance between the old choose-whatever and the current approach, retaining the important high-tier skill required commitment.

That said, UI-wise I still feel like those “swimming lanes” are not the best way to convey information, choices, and progression. Having a vertical progression from bottom to top would feel more natural, IMO. And replacing the contextual “Requires at least X lower tier skills” by something always visible for all skills at once would clarify how progression to higher tier works and what choices are actually available.

Best of the best increasing DP budget will allow player fleet to be less at a disadvantage when NOT using fast frigates. Which is fair.

Support Doctrine is a going to have interesting consequences on fleet composition. The trade-off  decision between putting an officer and not putting an officer further rebalances the wide-vs-tall game. As an example, looking at my 239 DP fleet in my last campaign:

Spoiler

[close]

Depending how you count, that’s a potential 10% to 20% fleet strength increase.

Battle-gameplay-wise Neural Link is going to be great, opening new battle strategies and tactics. I have yet to try Automated Ships, it will be hard to resist in 0.95.1 AFAIC.

Regarding Elite Damage Control:

Spoiler

Single-hit hull damage above 500 points has the porting above 500 reduced by 60%

Sounds like an appropriate solution to counter torpedo / AMB / high damage guns. Even Mining Blaster will only do 580 instead of 700, Hellbore will do 600 instead of 750.

I didn't get how new Damage Control works.

It affect all hits above 500 in a battle.

Or.

It affect a single hit per battle.

?

Former boost difficulty of the Redacted fights from current Hardcore to Nightmare level. While decisively nerfing most high-tier weapons with the finishers being stomped face down into the dirt. And dramatically reducing usefulness of most damage boosting systems and skills in the process.

Latter simply not worth the story point.

I think it's former. And yes, my understanding is that's precisely the point. That said we will have to see other damage reducing skills.

[close]

[Lucky33]

It is not a solution. It is a murder.

[Undead]

Hold on a second, where is the +10 vents/caps bonus? Please dont tell me that skill is gone

Spoiler

_{and where is the 30 op s kite}

[close]

[Hiruma Kai]

The blog was an interesting read and I like the direction you're taking things.

The argument about "game changer" combat skills locking you into a limited ship style makes sense, and I can see why you didn't want to go that route.  And I can't deny that in skilled hands the power of current combat skills are a significant force multiplier. 

Although, to be honest, Neural link almost sounds like a "game changer" combat tree skill hiding in the technology tree.  It certainly gives you a good reason to spend points in the combat tree.  Not that I'm complaining about the location.  Putting it opposite the Automated ships sounds about right.  I expect to see Monitor + Radiant solo player fleets.

I like how there's some clear mixing and matching to be done.  Assuming we are still limited to 15 skill points, and just the top abilities, the combinations look fairly varied.  So we've got the combat tree in general, best of the best, support doctrine, neural link, automated ships, hull restoration and derelict operations.

Keeping in mind that neural link gives you the most benefit when combined with combat, and hull restoration and derelict operations don't mix, you've got something like 14 reasonably distinct combinations that look like they should play differently.  Sounds pretty good to me.

Although I do have a few questions.  Given we now have percentage reductions in deployment points for ships, will they be allowed to be fractional, or will they be rounded?  For example, does a Lasher without officer and under Support Doctrine cost 3 DP, 3.2 DP or 4 DP to deploy?  And does Support Doctrine add with or multiply with the reduction from Derelict operations (20+30=50% off DP costs?).  That will allow for some interesting fighter saturation attempts.  Assuming they add, and if you get choosy with your D-mods, you can get something like 18 Herons worth of fully operational fighters in 180 DP (or 36?! Condors).

[SonnaBanana]

Hold on a second, where is the +10 vents/caps bonus? Please dont tell me that skill is gone

Spoiler

_{and where is the 30 op s kite}

[close]

It's part of Flux Regulation now.