Xp gains, class skills, and other suggestions.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

So, I've been playing a new character. I've been here since beta, but I've never really played a Powertech until recently. After watching some of the Mandalorian, I was inspired.

 

I've been playing the Advanced Prototype trait line. I like the extra range, and the variety of the weapons. However, as I've been going along with no new skills for a while, I decided to look ahead at what was coming, and I saw that at level 60, my iconic and marvelous Flame Burst skill gets REPLACED by Magnetic Blast. This was very disturbing to me. I stopped playing my Commando because of something similar, where Full Auto was replaced by Boltstorm, which I loathe. The flame thrower is one of the Bounty Hunter's most recognizable, iconic skills, and it gets taken away.

 

To correct this problem, on this class and others, I have a suggestion. Simply that the skill being added be OPTIONAL. That is, don't require the change to the newer skill, let us use the one we prefer. Alternatively, allow us to keep both the original AND the new skills, but make them share a cooldown. That way, the character could only ever use one or the other.

 

A third option, and not one which I prefer, is to give us the option to turn off ALL xp gains, allowing us to stop leveling. That way, we could stop leveling before we reach levels where skills we like are replaced.

 

Another problem is one which has come up repeatedly since launch. I haven't reached it yet, but apparently on acquiring the passive trait, Prototype Particle Accelerator, my character is going to start giggling every time he uses one of several core skills, denoting the activation of a proc. The giggling forced me to stop playing my Operative, my Scoundrel and also my Commando (who abandoned Gunnery because of Boltstorm and Assault Specialist because of the giggling).

 

This is a long standing problem. When the game launched, characters giggled as they do now, and people complained about it. It's a BEHAVIOUR inappropriate for many characters (for example, my Operative was supposed to be a cold, emotionless, robotic character, so giggles were way out of character for him). So, the giggle was removed. But then, people who liked it complained, and it was put back. Of course, the people who complained originally complained again, and have BEEN complaining for YEARS to no avail. However, I've been given some semblance of hope by an excellent CSR who answered a ticket for me, and at his suggestion, I'm making my own suggestion once again.

 

Make the giggling OPTIONAL. You don't want to remove it entirely, some people do like it. I get that, people like what they like. However, there are plenty of us who greatly dislike it. Making it optional would satisfy BOTH camps. It was removed once before, I can't imagine it would be all that difficult to make it an option.

 

I could make many more suggestions, but these are the ones on my mind right now. Perhaps I'll add more later.

[SteveTheCynic]

1. Replacement abilities becoming optional in some way:

 

Just be prepared to catch some flak if you stick to using the pre-replacement version in group content, especially in harder group content. (This is especially applicable to Full Auto/Boltstream, where the difference is very clearly visible.) For that reason, I'd favour the option of keeping the old version when the new version arrives, so you can easily switch.

 

2. Re: giggling (in my opinion the Operative is cackling rather than giggling, but whatever). It's probably part of the activation sound of the ability rather than an invocation of the character's voice, so they'd need two sound sets each for male and female - one set for "with cackles" and one for "just the weapon sound", then a way to select it. And someone would probably want to switch the cackles off just for <== this ability but not ==> that one.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

It's a sound that plays when a trait procs.

 

The thing is, it has no purpose. The trait activates when you use the skill... EVERY time you use the skill, so you don't need to have audio feedback telling you it activated. In addition, the affected skill on your toolbar gets a glowing square around it, so there's also a VISUAL cue telling you you've activated the skill you activated. It's not doing anything useful.

[Vego_Mohenjo]

Well it's too late now, my character has reached L60.

If I play the Advanced Prototype spec, I lose my Flame Burst and instead get a damn silly looking purple fart blast (Magnetic Blast).

If I play Pyrotech, I lose my extended range on several abilities, I lose my Retractable Blade and my Thermal Detonator, and I lose the variety of skills, as everything is now about fire.

If I play Shield Tech, I lose my extended range, and don't have even ONE longer ranged ability (unlike the other specs), I lose Retractable Blade, and I lose most of the variety, as the build relies VERY heavily on Heavy Flamethrower (which also makes Flame Burst kind of redundant).

So, as usual, I am forced to lose something, no matter what I do.  How disappointing.  Let me therefore reiterate my suggestion.

Instead of replacing a skill with another skill, allow us to CHOOSE whether to retain the original animation OR to upgrade the skill.  For example, Flame Burst would be upgraded to have the Magnetic Blast effects, but I could choose to have it use the Flame Burst animation OR the Magnetic Burst animation.

[SteveTheCynic]

2 hours ago, Vego_Mohenjo said:

Instead of replacing a skill with another skill, allow us to CHOOSE whether to retain the original animation OR to upgrade the skill.  For example, Flame Burst would be upgraded to have the Magnetic Blast effects, but I could choose to have it use the Flame Burst animation OR the Magnetic Burst animation.

That's probably the best way out of the maze, although in the first sentence, I'd change "upgrade the skill" to "use the upgraded animation", since you presumably would want the upgraded damage (etc.) *effects*...