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View Full Version : A "Mini-Respec" For Skill Points At Level 8



_ck
04-24-2010, 02:00 PM
When the game first came out you had to assign all the skill points you got from the get-go, but as I've understood it this was changed at some point to auto-assign one point to your first four skills because many new players weren't aware of skill point assignment.

While this change makes total sense to help out those who are completely new to the game, it's a bit more annoying to those of us who are familiar with the game when we start a new character. I just started playing a Warrior, and being aware of what all the 12 skills are, there were some of the first four skills that I didn't want to spend skill points on. But now the game doesn't give you a choice, except to buy a respec which I think most of us would agree is excessive to do at that early stage.

So what I'd like to suggest is a form of "Mini-Respec" that kicks in when you hit Level 8. Once you've leveled up to 8, if you then go to the Skills page, maybe there could be a "Reset Skill Points" button that shows up just below the "Increase Skill Rank" button, and tapping it would blank your first four skills and allow you re-assign the 7 skill points you've used/gotten so far, or save them for later.

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/1277/resetskillpt1.jpg

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8886/resetskillpt2.jpg

The "Reset Skill Points" button would ONLY show while you're Level 8 and could only be used once, so if you hit Level 9 and didn't opt to use it, the button goes away and you effectively forfeited your chance to reset. In other words, it wouldn't be a free respec you could save for when you're Level 30, it'd only work while you're Level 8 in order to give you full control over your skill points.

This would allow new players to be able to use skills before they've learnt about assigning skill points, and it would allow those of us who are aware of skill points to use all our points as we wish. Ideally we'd be able to assign our points however we chose from the get go, but this is the best compromise I can think of.

Demarrer
04-24-2010, 02:02 PM
Great Idea, got a question. What program did you use to add in the Reset Skill Points button?

setec
04-24-2010, 02:32 PM
I love this idea!

_ck
04-24-2010, 03:46 PM
Great Idea, got a question. What program did you use to add in the Reset Skill Points button?

Photoshop :)

Splurd
04-24-2010, 04:08 PM
mmm, one problem is that the fact that
1) it is only 1 time
2) it is only available at lvl 8

makes this idea a little hard to implement.

Also, by screwing up everyones skills, this potentially forces the player to respec in the future. (lol)

And lastly, mspaint ftw!

_ck
04-24-2010, 04:30 PM
mmm, one problem is that the fact that
1) it is only 1 time
2) it is only available at lvl 8

makes this idea a little hard to implement.

Also, by screwing up everyones skills, this potentially forces the player to respec in the future. (lol)

And lastly, mspaint ftw!


How about we let the developers say what's hard to implement? I can't imagine this being difficult to implement at all, and I'm not even a game developer/coder.

If characterlevel=8 then resetbuttonshow=yes except resetbuttonused=yes. If characterlevel=>8 then resetbuttonhide=yes.

And how is this screwing up anyone's (let alone EVERYONE'S) skills? You're given the FREE and OPTIONAL choice to do a mini-respec very early in the game, and it's sole intent is to allow veteran players starting a new character to use all skill points the way they want to use them, or save them for later skills. How is ANY of this I'm suggesting even remotely negative for anyone?

Splurd
04-24-2010, 04:35 PM
How about we let the developers say what's hard to implement? I can't imagine this being difficult to implement at all, and I'm not even a game developer/coder.

If characterlevel=8 then resetbuttonshow=yes except resetbuttonused=yes. If characterlevel=>8 then resetbuttonhide=yes.

And how is this screwing up anyone's (let alone EVERYONE'S) skills? You're given the FREE and OPTIONAL choice to do a mini-respec very early in the game, and it's sole intent is to allow veteran players starting a new character to use all skill points the way they want to use them, or save them for later skills. How is ANY of this I'm suggesting even remotely negative for anyone?

Ah no, you mis understand me (rather, I was not clear about my point. 5am does that to you.) Of course coding it is simple. But what I meant was... how would the player know?
We already have people clueless about how to level past 13, having a lvl 8 only respec would make them go "OMG THE SHINNY RED BUTTON IS NOT THERE ANYMORE! WHYYYY"

So how do you let the players know its only level 8? A tips pop up? An additional message below the red button? etc. The technical implementation is probably not hard, the harder part is telling people the terms and conditions of this special level 8 respec

And also, I was saying that since the game screws up the skills for you, it kinda forces people to buy a respec latter on.

Apologises for any miscommunication. I must go sleep soon.

Splurd
04-24-2010, 04:40 PM
If characterlevel=8 then resetbuttonshow=yes except resetbuttonused=yes. If characterlevel=>8 then resetbuttonhide=yes.

btw, it would be more like


if (char.level == 8){
if(char.lvl8RespecUsed == false){
displayRespec(true);
}else{
displayRespec(false);
}

KronicDecay
04-24-2010, 04:57 PM
Once the char hits level 8 there could be a popup the next time they goto their skills list saying about the respec

KronicDecay
04-24-2010, 04:59 PM
btw, it would be more like


if (char.level == 8){
if(char.lvl8RespecUsed == false){
displayRespec(true);
}else{
displayRespec(false);
}

you didn't define your variables! Lol

_ck
04-24-2010, 05:00 PM
Ah no, you mis understand me (rather, I was not clear about my point. 5am does that to you.) Of course coding it is simple. But what I meant was... how would the player know?
We already have people clueless about how to level past 13, having a lvl 8 only respec would make them go "OMG THE SHINNY RED BUTTON IS NOT THERE ANYMORE! WHYYYY"

So how do you let the players know its only level 8? A tips pop up? An additional message below the red button? etc. The technical implementation is probably not hard, the harder part is telling people the terms and conditions of this special level 8 respec

And also, I was saying that since the game screws up the skills for you, it kinda forces people to buy a respec latter on.

Apologises for any miscommunication. I must go sleep soon.


Okay, I understand what you mean now. Sorry if I was being harsh.

Maybe there could be a pop up window when you first go to the Skills page after you've hit Level 8 that explains that this "Reset Skill Points" button will only work once and will only work once while you're Level 8, and if you want to reassign your skill points you just hit it and reassign your points, or you can chose to just let it be if you don't want to change anything.

As for how the players would know.. Well, if you have played the game and you're familiar with how it works, you know that after you level up you get attribute points and skill points to assign, and when you reach Level 8 you get a new skill too which would give you even more reason to check out the Skills page. So the vast majority of players who know about the skill points will most likely go to the Skills page when they reach Level 8, see the pop-up and the Reset button, while those who never knew about skill points or cared to begin with, the ones for whom this auto-assign was implemented, probably aren't going to miss anything since they've most likely never been to the Skills page at all.

To be honest, more than anything I think Spacetime should go back to the way it was instead of catering to people who haven't taken the time to understand how the game works.. But in case Spacetime wants to keep it this way, this is just an idea for how to not force those of us who do know how to play the game to have to waste skill points on skills we don't want to use.

Another idea, much simpler than this one, would be that the auto-assign thing only happens to your very first character, when you first start playing on a brand-new account/login, instead of it always happening.

_ck
04-24-2010, 05:03 PM
LOL at the code correction, but as I said, I'm not a coder and I know I wasn't writing proper code or anything.

Splurd
04-25-2010, 03:07 AM
you didn't define your variables! Lol

Code snippet only lol
Anyway its just a random rubbish, no idea how they handle their objects and methods.

Splurd
04-25-2010, 03:10 AM
Okay, I understand what you mean now. Sorry if I was being harsh.

Maybe there could be a pop up window when you first go to the Skills page after you've hit Level 8 that explains that this "Reset Skill Points" button will only work once and will only work once while you're Level 8, and if you want to reassign your skill points you just hit it and reassign your points, or you can chose to just let it be if you don't want to change anything.

As for how the players would know.. Well, if you have played the game and you're familiar with how it works, you know that after you level up you get attribute points and skill points to assign, and when you reach Level 8 you get a new skill too which would give you even more reason to check out the Skills page. So the vast majority of players who know about the skill points will most likely go to the Skills page when they reach Level 8, see the pop-up and the Reset button, while those who never knew about skill points or cared to begin with, the ones for whom this auto-assign was implemented, probably aren't going to miss anything since they've most likely never been to the Skills page at all.

To be honest, more than anything I think Spacetime should go back to the way it was instead of catering to people who haven't taken the time to understand how the game works.. But in case Spacetime wants to keep it this way, this is just an idea for how to not force those of us who do know how to play the game to have to waste skill points on skills we don't want to use.

Another idea, much simpler than this one, would be that the auto-assign thing only happens to your very first character, when you first start playing on a brand-new account/login, instead of it always happening.

Yeah, I know. My first posts was like, not very intuitive.

I think the Tips page would be the way to go, in terms of pop ups.

LordRaid
04-25-2010, 01:13 PM
Great idea, considering many of us forumers are included in this list of those who know what they're doing in this game, sure. This button would do wonders for us.

For others who do not use the forums, they can purchase a respec later if they believe later on they messed up. No worries on our part, they spend their money by their choice, or they can just leave the respec button alone until it disappears at level 9.

Regardless, I believe strongly that the auto skill point allocation is quite annoying :P I'd like to be able to use my skill points the way I want to.

Shebee
04-25-2010, 01:38 PM
Just out of curiosity, why do you always have to make a short post use ½ of a page with useless pictures? I think we have enough imagination to imagine a respec button rofl.
(btw i think the button is too red)

Splurd
04-25-2010, 02:13 PM
Just out of curiosity, why do you always have to make a short post use ½ of a page with useless pictures? I think we have enough imagination to imagine a respec button rofl.
(btw i think the button is too red)

You never been a programmer. :p

People are STUPID. You can tell them you want to put a button and they go HUH WHERE?
Far easier to just make a pic so they go ohhhhhh and understand.

_ck
04-25-2010, 02:42 PM
Just out of curiosity, why do you always have to make a short post use ½ of a page with useless pictures? I think we have enough imagination to imagine a respec button rofl.
(btw i think the button is too red)

Clearly I do it only to annoy you. :rolleyes:

Demarrer
04-25-2010, 06:13 PM
Ignore Shebee, the pictures are a nice touch. They make your posts and ideas look more thought out.

Splurd
04-25-2010, 08:21 PM
Clearly I do it only to annoy you. :rolleyes:

Why does he get special treatment? :(