PAYDAY 2: Skill Tree Open Beta Presentation
Heisters!
As we mentioned last week we are going to show you our ongoing work with our new design on the current skill trees.
The first thing we’ve done is adjusting our design to fit the goals that we presented.
Every Friday, including today, for five weeks we will present one of our reworked Skill Trees. Today we will start with the Mastermind.
The Suggestion & Feedback forum will have a thread where the Mastermind Skill Tree will be shown in detail and where you can discuss your thoughts about it.
Right now the skill trees are too disorganized, with no clear focus of specialization in each tree. A lot of skills are disconnected from their respective tree, forcing the player to get skills they don’t need in order to reach the skills they want. The revamp is made to change this.
We want to keep all the possibilities of current builds but also enable more skill build variations. A lot of experimental builds sacrifice a lot of points in things that doesn’t fit the build’s playstyle and therefore they are not on par with more straightforward builds.
We feel that this revamp changes such a fundamental part of the game that we don’t want to release it before hearing your feedback.
We have given each tree a better focus on specialization. We have put skills that relate to the same type of gameplay in the same tree and merged skills that are similar to each other. This doesn’t mean that skills between trees won’t synergize, of course.
Additionally, same tier skills have had very differing values. A same tier skill can feel lackluster compared to a powerful one of the same skill point value.
We’ve tweaked the skills that we kept and balanced their skill value to match where they fit in the new system.
We’ve reworked and improved skills that had good potential but didn’t quite fit in how the game is played.
We’ve also added new skills that we felt would complement the skill trees nicely.
Finally, we’ve removed and replaced skills that didn’t fit with how the game is played, or fit better as base passives that the player doesn’t need to use skill points to acquire.
The five skill trees remain; Mastermind, Enforcer, Technician, Ghost and Fugitive. The Basic and Aced version of each skill remain the same as well.
What’s different is that each skill tree will have three subtrees each, 15 subtrees in total.
Each subtree have a set number of skills in them, with the best skill in the top tier of the subtree. Investing skill points in a skill unlock tiers inside of that specific subtree. For example, the player won’t be able to invest in tier 4 in a subtree if points haven’t been invested in tier 3 and 2.
A subtree has 4 tiers, each tier contain the following amount of skills: Tier 1 = 1 skill, Tier 2 = 2 skills, Tier 3 = 2 skills and Tier 4 = 1 skill. Each skill has a Basic and an Aced version.
The skill point cost of each tier is as follows:
Tier 1 Basic skills costs 1 skill point and Aced skills costs 3 skill points
Tier 2 Basic skills costs 2 skill points and Aced skills costs 4 skill points
Tier 3 Basic skills costs 3 skill points and Aced skills costs 5 skill points
Tier 4 Basic skills costs 4 skill points and Aced skills costs 6 skill points
[media.overkillsoftware.com]
No, players can spend skill points in as many skill trees as they want.
Yes, the player will now gain 1 skill point every time they level up to a total of 100 skill points.
The Infamy skill has been changed so instead of percentage reduction it adds 1 extra skill point up to a total of 4 additional skill points.
Yes. In order to fit with our changes, the skill menu will change. It will be clearer on how the player will unlock higher tiers of skills by investing points in the lower tiers.
Also, since each skill tree will be divided into three subtrees, this will be visually displayed.
Thank you for your interest and have a good weekend. We’re looking forward to hear your feedback!
Jules
OVERKILL – A Starbreeze Studio
Via: Steam Community
