Originally Posted by Soothsayer
I want to specialization to mean something, the time I've put in to the game should translate to a meaningful increase in whatever abilities I choose to develop.
To the people who are saying that having vets who are specc'ed into whatever will be a deterrent to new players, I've heard the same argument from people who haven't tried EVE. Its the first two weeks that really matter, once you're in and you have a good time you don't leave for a while... then you come back for more later. The main reason you don't have a good time is when you try to play it like a single player game. If PS2 has engaging gameplay for all levels of player, people will like what they see and stick around longer.
Due to the transient nature of achievement in PS, the PS2 skill system offers something that lasts longer than capping a continent. A record of achievement or advancement that can't (and wouldn't) be wiped out with a "reset all" cert button.
Sorry to keep going on about EVE Online, but we're talking time base skill training and that's the current model we have to base this on.
Best way to shut down a person arguing that a 6 year vet in EVE Online always having an advantage is this... that 6 year veteran can only fly one ship at a time. You could be on an equal playing field with that vet within a couple of months. So it comes down to skill. That 6 year veteran may have been mining asteroids for the last six years, the guy playing for six months may have just spent all that time flying cheap ships, getting blown up and learning how to pvp effectively.
In PS2 you'll only be able to fire one weapon at a time, may not even have that many more weapons than that (we don't know what the inventory system is like). The difference is that the skilled up vet will have different options.
The skill system offers versatility within a specialization, how can you say that a BR1 player has the same level of power as a BR20? PShield, med apps, BANKs, Rexo w/extra medkits and ammo... The BR20 has significantly more resources at his disposal than a BR1. They are equally matched in terms of damage per shot, but survivability is nowhere near equal.
I have no issue with the skill tree because power differentiation is not solely about having a more powerful weapon, but the ability to customize that weapon to suit your playstyle/situational needs.
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But no one explains why "a record of achievement or advancement" absolutely no questions asked has to be in the form of power. Merits, battle rank, etc, all contribute to character achievement do they not? Also, I fail to see how a forget all button wipes out any achievement you've gained, in fact it does the exact opposite. If you are BR25 and you use a forget all, you can respec to an ENTIRELY different play style, whereas if a BR1 did a forget all it would be pointless... this does nothing to "wipe out character achievement".
Plenty of FPS games have character achievement via cosmetics, ranks, stats (like how many kills stats, not stats for weapons etc), and stuff of that nature.
There are already plenty of MMO aspects to PS2 without adding power advancement into the fray. Besides the focus of FPS games usually is never around character advancement, its around the battles, and how you prefer to play. Character advancement in PS served to allow you to more closely follow your play style by giving you more options without increasing power, I see no reason why PS2 should be any different. It was one of the few things PS actually did completely right that was different from other games.
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