Frykka

First, there is no locks for what Race/Class vessel that you CAN play, only on the bonus you get from training in the trees that improve that race or class... say you dumped all of your marbles into Sylvan-Rogue, you can still play any vessel but get the stat/skill bonuses on that combination plus half the stat bonus on Sylvan-x and x-Rogue, right... and with VIP you have your off training... if you cannot seem to nail down your playstyle choosing 2 of 3 race types and 2 of 3 class types in the parent tree you always will have the possibility of buying training tomes for the 3rd choice rather than requiring the development of an expensive reroll mechanic. It is months into the game, probably after the first campaign before you narrow your choices in the child trees of race and class and by that point, if you are still training away from your playstyle.. hrmm. Yes, tomes are not planned until x months post launch, but a reroll seems superfluous given if you question your original choices then for goddess sake, change your training. With passive skills looking to be a shrinking portion of combat power (I see it as down to 20% from the discussed 33%) unless we do get valuable tray powers unlocked through the passives (ressurection, racials, non-base, non disc tray powers). I would bet a non-passive trained race-class combo on a combat trained account with a level 30 crafted vessel and blue gear would be perfectly viable if you decided to play something different. Don't associate passive training with a "have to play as that" attitude... the game doesn't lock you out and everyone is going to fall behind the min/max in something, every player will have an area where they need to catch up... thus certain tomes will be highly valuable and alt accounts will eventually be "tome generators". Gaming the training is what we do... and have always done. Maybe this is a pita2w scheme given the planning and effort to twink an account or two from multiple accounts but remember by time training you are devaluing the alt accounts that we may/may not have an opportunity to sell re:trusted traders later on.

I get the "standardization" need yet now the skill trees do give very little choice that matters because I will now be a Gatherer AND Combat player like most everyone else out there even though I will get better a gathering twice as fast as combat, that will make little to no difference. At 10X training and no basic trees it is likely 80% of the players can all do exactly the same things with nearly the same skill very quickly... I like the passive system, I have real reservations about it making anyone unique in their abilities. I don't want to see choosing one branch lock out another choice, rather I think a lot more branch choices that lead to a long term skill or power at a branch ending and takes a commitment to that branch above all else could be a solution I feel could lead to some uniqueness.

By Jove,... Now finish the movie line, what movie and the actor who said it...

You stockpile them until you are or know a crafting professional who can properly use QUANTITY to statistical advantage.

Yep, but how much and how well you experiment makes all of the difference... In the current iteration the lowest components can be between 5 and 7 and these make up a larger part of the quality at the end because each step gets a chance for amazing experimentation (it snowballs). That is also where factory production will make color quality shine. When you have just enough for 1 bow, you make 7 planks and will have a spread of stats from 5.x (simple success) to 6.x(great/amazing). Also in the current iteration the only bonus is at using half of your experimentation pips (not half of the experimentation spot available but half of the results of your training/stats/ gear/bench/thrall final pip count.) This has lead to players in some cases with far more training NOT being able to even reach 50% which is counterintuitive... yet betting 50%/50% or going 1 pip at a time is currently the ONLY choices in experimentation. We are lobbying for more bonus break points... i.e when you go 2 pips at a time you should get a slightly better result given identical great or amazing rolls... all the way up to betting the farm and getting that one single amazing at the right time. When you are able to make 21, 28, 35 planks at a time you can shuffle all of the best results into the next component phase (sights, rails, riser, stave limb)... in the case of factories, once you get that top of the line result you can make ALL duplicates of the result which will trickle up to much higher stats in the end product. This is the only way that color quality effects final product... a true craftsman result.

I have to keep plugging the fact that Crowfall is a game system more than a specific game. By this I mean that crowfall itself is not the game per se, it is the support of background mechanics and a game loop void of most actual "content" as compared to all MMO/RPGs... There is lore but will be no storyline, there are parameters and a game loop that we work within but the "game" is ours to create. If all of the integrated game loop systems are in and working as intended we will be in business... Then it is our time to create the story from there with our blood, sweat, and tears. Crowfall is a framework like the Handbooks of DnD that outline how to play but give you relatively little story... a truer definition of Sandbox could not be presented. the sandbox needs the sand toys, the play structure and most of all a pack of screaming kids to function.

I am a unicorn at 55... though out and about, I get pegged as 40 something which is quite amazing, maybe it is the fresh mountain air of living in Neverland. First RPG - Wizardry on 5 1/4 floppy Apple IIe In Color! 78' or so First real MultiPlayer PvP - Myth II soulblighter with WWII Mods... 8 v 8 arena battles in 98' that would still hold up to most players standards today... los, physics, action combat in that you could juke and jive and cause misses, rolling grenades... Who else played these relics?

I get too many warnings? but not enough waffles...

any and all pre-release garbage, mostly by PvE goons who hate any and all open world PvP will simply blow away on the wind... It is the beta and soft launch builds that will tell the truth to interested players. Those who miss the boat because of bad information have none to blame but themselves and the haters, they will still come when the game goes awesome and then will complain about catching up until they realize that it also won't be as big an issue as every other phony concern.

yes, YES crows should fly at BIRD level above most terrain so a straight line shot to your body and 2x ground speed is achievable...

Jah is correct, soft launch is after Beta and IS the actual launch for Crowfall dedicated guilds. Remember Beta will allow access to non-paid accounts and these players will have to pony up 50 ducets to continue beyond soft launch and VIP will start deducting. Another consideration is the in-game economy and the period between soft-launch and launch, besides working the NPE, is priming the economy... we see how pure PvP types despise entering when you cannot buy gear because the economy is not established. Part of the NPE depends on an economy and at soft launch there is zip for sale. At Commercial Launch, players will have established vendors full of crap gear to sell and alleviate some of that pain for those who do not care to train exploration.

It isn't going to change anything that much and balancing is not around solo play at all... balancing is last and is group meta, not 1v1 so one class has no balancing thought vs another... Combat right now is 90% of how it will balance out at launch as far as build and snowballing... yea... champs will get a nurf to their self heal and stuff but don't exect any major changes to classes, it is the group synergy that counts. This stretch and pass on the skill trees I hope is the last of this phase where we get 10x training...

WE are doing that right NOW in live... Many Vet players have NO MORE skills to train and have had top end vessel and gear for several CWs and vessels now too... there should be good data on end game and we all are bored and some of us desire a full skill wipe because early game is usually more balanced and fun than end game... Lose the 10x training already...

So I use my VIP accounts to twink my other less trained account and go roll newbies? If you have a guild crafter(s) you make much better gear for new players that have little skill training but it boosts their combat power by 8X over "actual" new players... makes absolutely ZERO sense when ANY player can equip the best vessel and gear on day they first log in. SKILL TRAINING is less than 20% of combat power... you cannot base entry on some kind of solo player mentality. We are already gonna twink out vessels in the outer ring CWs with gear made from materials gained from wins in the inner dregs ring... We cannot likely import that high quality gear back into the Dregs so "twinking" IS a main part of the whole CW scheme.

Pretty much players who have ever gone all in at launch should get the process... you participate in the final beta tests and are ready at soft launch... if you miss the final beta it is likely that you won't be ready for the launch/soft launch. It is pretty much a given in every game that Beta testers have a distinct advantage and beta is free for all who registered an account. Missing the boat is kind of an "own damn fault" problem. Your guilds economic machine being set up is FAR more important that the skill training anyway... if you get set up so players joining after soft launch can be quickly brought up to speed in gearz/vessel alone you eliminate 80% of any power gap to launch players. Crowfall allowing full trade of any and all gear as opposed to character locked gear like most mmo launches means catch up is very real if you are part of a guild.