Talent Tree Improvement

[Rofelo 19]

I was reviewing https://atlascalculator.com/ and listening to other company members talk about the requirements to unlock trees like Piracy and I think that two simple changes could greatly improve the talent trees.

1. Remove the requirements to unlock talent trees and remove the talents that are used to unlock those trees.

2. Make a cleaner interface for those trees. The Atlas calculator is a much cleaner version of the talent trees and is much easier on the eyes and easier to see the flow of the tree.          

[Rofelo 19]

I'm surprised more people are not chiming in to get the talent tree cleaned up and improved.

[Spidernumerouno 9]

The calculator interface is much more cleaner then the one ingame. And yes, remove the option to have the talent to unlock a certain tree.

[microphobe 72]

1 hour ago, Rofelo said:

I'm surprised more people are not chiming in to get the talent tree cleaned up and improved.

Bigger fish to fry right now like claim flags, once they have more of that stuff settled people will jump on the little stuff.
At the moment the skill tree is working even if it is wasteful and honestly with the +50 levels coming people wont know where to put their points in the end.

[Rofelo 19]

This wasn't a discussion of priorities, but rather if its a positive change to make. Obviously they have bigger fish to fry, but they can still add this to their list at a low priority.

[Devlin 19]

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1. Remove the requirements to unlock talent trees and remove the talents that are used to unlock those trees.

I actually like that they have skill requirements, but I wish they made a little more sense or had a different flow to them. To me it makes it seem like a natural skill progression, like you wouldn't be able to cook or make medicine without knowing how to collect water, or you wouldn't know how to make firearms without first making the basic ranged weapon. Then there are things like Melee being unlocked from either going down the hand-to-hand path or by learning to craft with metal. Those I'm okay with and understand.

Then when it comes to some of the things I'd change:

• I would move the Piracy unlock to Captaineering, implying that you need to be a captain before you can be a pirate.
• I'd swap "Navigator's Tools" and "Captaineering" on the Seamanship tree. The "Sightseeing" skills would then be attached to "Captaineering" directly, and the rest would still be attached to "Navigator's Tools" which comes after "Captaineering".
• Similarly, when it comes to things like Beastmastery, I don't think you should need to know hand-to-hand in order to tame. I don't see the connection. Instead, I'd make it an option that directly followed "The Basics". 

I'm sure there are others I'd move around, too, but that's just to give and idea of what I'm talking about.

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2. Make a cleaner interface for those trees. The Atlas calculator is a much cleaner version of the talent trees and is much easier on the eyes and easier to see the flow of the tree.   

I think the calculator website lays almost all the trees out great, but also has the luxury of horizontal space to do it. That layout would not work in the game's UI. I agree that it should be redesigned, but I think that would rely on a bigger UI overhaul to go with it. I'm hoping those sort of aesthetic changes go through eventually by the time this is out of early access, but I don't imagine them being a high priority until later on.

[Rofelo 19]

I think that they could reduce the size of the icons and just go with tool tips on mouse over. They also could do the talents in a separate window that opens up.

 

If they are going to keep all the trees connected then they should look at making a tree like Path of Exile or Final Fantasy X and just connect it all on one page you can scroll around in.