A perk system would make each playthrough a little different and keep you playing longer. Not to mention giving the player something more to strive for. Heres the idea: For every other level up, you choose a perk from one of 5 speciality trees. There are 25 perks and 25 levels, but only 12 chances to get a perk, so you are forced to specialise. However, you can explore and find knowledge nodes from ???, progenitor and derelict ship pois. (Which means more ilmarinen sized derelicts to explore please, not just wrecks) 2 knowledge nodes can be combined to unlock another perk, so completionists can get them all. 5 speciality trees: - soldier - explorer - engineer - scientist - economist Perks could be as follows (bear with) SOLDIER 1. J. Wick - 50% faster reload time 2. The gunsmith - 80% slower weapon degredation. 3. The Ranger - 50% slower stamina loss while sprinting. 4. The Quartermaster - 30% more damage for non energy weapons. 5. DARPA - Epic weapons can be repaired EXPLORER 1. Sensor specialist - 50% larger detector range 2. Grav racer - 50% higher top speed on all vehicles 3. Engineered warp drive - 50% less pentaxid use per jump 4. Quantum tunneling- Double jump distance 5. Quantum sensor suite - 30 second delay maps entire playfield (i.e the map command) uses alot of energy ENGINEER 1. Efficient salvage systems - twice as many common materials pulled while salvaging. 10% more of everything else. 2. Ground Penetrating Radar - 30% more ore while mining 3. The weaponsmith - 50% faster fire rate on all weapons, handheld and vehicle based. 4. The hacker - locked faction doors can be hacked . Chance based, causes faction standing loss. 5. The jury Rigger - all systems take 50% less power and 30% less cpu to use. SCIENTIST 1. The botanist - 50% better food yield, and 25% better harvest yield from wild plants and animals 2. Alien tech specialist - 50% more damage to poi and cv turrets 3. Shieldmaster - shields have 30% more hitpoints 4. Frenquency resonation - shields recharge twice as fast 5. Heisenberg certainty - 30% longer range on all weapons. ECONOMIST 1. The wolf of ellyon - 30% better prices at traders friendly or above 2. The negotiator - + 5000 reputation with all factions that are above unfriendly. 3. The researcher - ability to find out the buy sell commodity prices of everything within 50ly, through a dialogue option. Result saved to pda. 4. The looter - 100% more gold coin, money gems etc in loot containers 5. The tycoon - 40% better prices at stations for all services Obviously the details are just ideas, but i think it would add so much to the game. What do you think?
All sounds good, except for J. Wick. It was cool to see my name on the screen at first, but after a while it gets old. I never got anything for the story, exaggerated as it is. How about Neo or Trinity? They were fast, too. I'm kidding. J. Wick is my brother. The rest is true.
Gotta have a doctor class too. I will pump up my teammates with so much meds. Maybe I get a status debuff resistance.
The idea isn't bad in theory, but the proposed perks are absolutely ridiculous. We're not even remotely in the realm of equivalent value when you're comparing a permanent 50% speed boost or 30% CPU reduction with something like "You can hack locked doors from friendly factions with a chance to succeed and reputation loss". Something like 50% faster fire rate on all weapons isn't optional, you'll never win a fight again if you don't pick that in multiplayer. Who the heck is supposed to pick 50% better food yield or cheaper warp jumps if you can just build more grow plots or mine more pentaxid, when they are put up against perks that give permanent bonuses to vital hard stats that you can't increase any other way? A perk system would be great, but it should be based on small changes to individual modules that add up to a playstyle, not these kinds of massive bonuses that completely break the game. So for one the perks should either all be based on the idea that you can save resources or earn more resources in specific ways, so that you're making choices based on optimizing resource usage for your preferred playstyle, or they should all be based on bonuses or modifiers to specific systems so that you can weigh those benefits against each other. If you get resource saving perks and hard stat perks mixed together in a system you pretty much force people to pick the hard stat ones if they want to actually stand a chance in any combat.
I LIKE (support) ... I also want to add to the perks: + master gunsmith - any armor and weapons - less wear and tear + war veteran - automatic strafe (left to right) to get out of the trajectory from a lot of enemy shots (when the enemy shoots at the character - the character dodges, thereby taking less damage (!) + Engineer - drone range increased by 50 ... 100% + Soldier - the drone can shoot at enemies (from non-energy weapons), but then the enemies will start shooting at the drone + Medic - reducing the risk of contracting alien parasites and a poisonous bite, reducing the time for recovery, recovery - the health scale is slowly but surely replenished + Soldier - (works only for NPCs, and does not work for shooting at other players) = SNIPER - AIM for aiming at the head of NPCs, and AIM for precise aiming of BS / SV guns at POI turrets + Athlete - more carrying capacity, and less risk of breaking a leg when falling from a height, and higher running speed + Engineer - create a personal shield (a shield for the character that players are asking for so much) + Farmer - TIMER display - time until harvest + Engineer + Medic = SHARP VISION == >> increased spawn range of NPCs and ANIMALS (now mobs can be seen at a distance) + Engineer - reduced energy consumption for all structures (requires creating a new module => ENERGY SAVING, to install in a structure) + Researcher - increases HP and decreases the MASS of all building blocks (even for alien xeno-blocks) + Farmer - Beekeeper => the LONGER not to harvest after ripening => THE MORE THE AMOUNT OF HARVEST + Engineer - increase the work of the jetpack (higher jump)
I think a perk system would be a great way to extend the life of the game. Once you reach Lvl 25 you focus more on acquiring stuff than acquiring XP. That's all fine and good but the game does peter out a bit at this point unless you are on a very active and populated server. So a good way to extend the quest to "do things" instead of "acquiring stuff" is to give players an XP bar beyond level 25. Don't get me wrong I still want my tech-tree to be filled out at level 25 but I also want a perk tree to keep leveling beyond level 25. Something to reach for. I love this idea but the tab menu already has so many tabs on it. Maybe it's time to think about consolidating some of those?
Honestly, the leveling system as it is right now should just be removed. It adds nothing to the game. For one, the way you gain XP is no good. You basically get punished for taking a more pacifist approach to the game, because if you're not killing things the only reliable way to gain XP is to spend a huge amount of time picking flowers. What about that makes you qualified to build a warp drive? It's just a bunch of busywork that has nothing to do with the actual progression of the game. The fact that parts for all vehicles are scattered across all 25 levels is also bad. By the time you can build a powerful HV you just don't need one anymore. There is no progression from HV to SV to CV, and going deep into building HVs early on just slows down your resource progression.
I wouldn't be that aggressive about it but I do see your point. You greatly outpace the initial HV stage of the game and can often rush to an SV just by repairing the damaged HV. I would argue that, that is a problem with the HVs and POIs in the early game not necessarily the leveling system. In fact I disagree with you on how to level your character. You get a great deal of XP for doing other things in the game besides killing stuff. Every time you mine something: XP. Every time you place a block: XP. Every time you discover a new POI: XP. Every time you complete a mission: XP. I argue that the two key items that make an HV desirable are: 1) The clone chamber (Turns your HV into a mobile spawn point) 2) The medical bay (Turns your HV into a mobile med station) That is HUGE early game but not so much mid game when you get your first CV. They either need to make early game more interesting and extend the necessity of play in that area, or allow the players easier access to these items, earlier in their campaigns before they become obsolete. All about that free healthcare. But I digress, I think the leveling system is acceptable where it is now. Players who want instant gratification to items locked are welcome to play their servers in creative mode (which I myself do sometimes and I enjoy having things instantly available). But there should be some progression system and locking some items behind levels is a good way to help the player make wiser decisions economy and progression wise. It does give you that "I want that" player desire. I believe that both; a perk system, and a recipe tech tree, are a good combination of player desires. It rewards you the stuff you want (tech tree) while playing the way you want (perk system).
