[Unstable] Talent rework feeback v0.20.0.X

[ubertpendragon]

Updated with recap down in the thread

First impressions so far. Will keep updating this after further testing and updates
For unchanged talents there might be some repeats of #9625

The good:

• Talents are generally more focused; some of the old talents had 3 different effects all rolled into one. New talents are more straightforward.
• Balance is better; talents don't give as many health/resistance/damage stats and the values arent as high as they used to be, so you can't just be an invincible juggernaut of a stat pile.
• Talent progression/specialization is good, you can't have all the talents by the end of the campaign and you're forced to choose, also slows it down a bit.

The bad:

• Disappearance of active talents. Specifically looking at Tinkering and Inspire. Talents can feel "active" via a recipe that gives a specific item, or using an active component. Tinkering by interacting with machines, Inspire by giving orders. Both are gone, and it's never good to have less things to do, and that those tinkering bonuses turned into boring passive bonuses. I'll detail and give some examples of more active talents at the bottom

• Some talents don't do enough / are unexciting. A bit of a repeat as above, and maybe a contradiction with more "focused" and "balanced" statements, but there's a fair amount of talents that just don't feel good to unlock because they give an imperceptible, passive bonus.

---

Classes:

Captain:

• T1 Inspirational Leader is a little insane, +50% skill for the whole crew. No reason to pick Prodigy over Veteran; it's an absurd amount of stats that remain after death. Everything else seems fair. Experience bonuses don't affect the entire crew but only the captain which is unfortunate as it would help new recruits catching up.
• T2 Choices are all fair, although Down with the ship seems to be the worst one (unchanged)
• Gunslinger feels weak, considering the captain is rarely in a situation of fighting enemies. Quickdraw still has its old stats. At the same talent tier, other classes unlock things like Assault Rifles; captain gets +25% damage on one bullet. It needs to be much stronger considering how little fighting the captain does. Tumble is gone, which was once again an active ability. Big guns as a flat damage bonus is rather boring for a T4. Also you can't craft Handcannon.
• Skipper is inspire but boring. Stats all rolled into one, unconditionally and passively, to everyone. Inspiring Presence is a great concept, Steady Tune is useless, Helmsman is far too strong (it's like 6 tiers of sub upgrades in one talent). Helmsman+Veteran+Captain hat means that, even after dying, the bare minimum Helm skill you can have is 115 which boosts your entire ship's speed by about 25%.

-NO INSPIRE. Really unfortunate to see inspire go as it was a somewhat active ability. It was also a good incentive to use the order system. Inspire's problem was that it lasted all round, and it's possible from experience to make inspire orders that grant only temporary bonuses or limited per mission, so giving order becomes a more active process.

Security

• T1 Protect and Serve doesn't give extra money for Escort, but the medic talent does. Swole is an obvious must pick due to health.
• T2 Bootcamp is unchanged, so you have 2 talents unlocking SMG mag(?). Everything else seems good.
  -Endgame recipes (slipsuit/axe/shotgun/rifle) are unlocked very early compared to every other class.
• Frogman is mostly the same as the old Specialist tree, which is good, but lost TWO active abilities in Buccaneer and the water dash from dual spec ops.
• Enforcer unlocks THREE items on its first talent which might be a bit much, Fulgurium dart could stay on By The Book. Stonewall remains very strong. Beat cop active was lost sadly
• Gunner is overall a good tree. Gun runner can make you run so fast you take damage on hitting doors

Medic

• T1 Some weird overlap with Security talents. Health insurance is Protect and Serve but better, while Self-Care is First aid training but worse. The T1 selection is overall not really good bar the 20% extra health.
• T2 You WILL be choosing the Auto-injector Headset. 1 bloodbag from Blood Donor is underwhelming. Pressure stabilizer is still not very good due to a very limited duration compared to oxygen bottles.
  -Everything about alien resources disappeared; old Xenologist was not balanced but strange to see it completely gone.
• Xenologist is a solid tree overall, nothing to say here.
• Medic: The tree isn't really inspired besides Miracle Worker. Don't die on me is useless since the 90 medical skill you succeed all of your CPR checks. Medical Expertise giving 90 medical doesn't really do much besides... boosting CPR. Medical Assistance boosts the CPR of your assistants and so does Stayin Alive in T1. That's 4 talents dedicated to CPR in single branch. Emergency response is a repeat of Fireman's Carry. Before the rework it had more identity but all the talents have been moved to other branches. It needs something closer to the old Dr Submarine where applying medical items has side effects.
• Scientist Interesting tree with a lot of items revolving around the idea of using burns vunerability + acid. It's strange that Acid Grenades don't generate an acid cloud over time despite the visuals doing exactly that. Sulphuric Acid syringes are weak, it takes 10 to kill a Mudraptor (5 with europabrew). Advanced Syringe gun seems rather useless as it only has one slot (and one type of med) and the regular syringe gun can achieve the same result; you'll have to equip two guns to swap between syringes. Endocrine booster is still busted for obvious reasons but you have to specialize and it's a little more expensive now?

Engineer

• T1 Fair choices. Reactor PDA doesn't seem that useful on its own.
• T2 Cargo scooter is an absolute must pick, and increased fuel rod quality doesn't matter (fuel is a non-issue). Aggressive Engineering competes with diving knives; math dictates it's not that good if you factor weapon quality.
  -All specialist trees compete for the final recipe: RFA vs PUCS vs Arc
• Weapons Engineer is roughly unchanged, but balanced this time. More nukes is fun but all other talents in the tree are a little boring. Dirty bomb can't be crafted?
• Electrician: An decent tree overall but competes with the other two. Grid Maintainer is less interesting than In The Flow. High quality batteries is a little more useful now thanks to Arc/Exosuit. Submarine of things (Extra FPGAs) is THE most useless talent in the game, unlocked super late and saves a pitiful number of resources. Move FPGA to crafting bonus to Remote Monitor in T1, replace SoT with Placeable periscope+camera for Submarine Of Things? Limited to 2 per sub (it'll be possible to wifi all turrets so there's finally a reason to make many FPGAs). Or anything really
• Physicist Only works because it doubles down on PUCS+Crowbars which get a damage bonus on TWO talents at a time. Buzzing is inherently better than Cruisin since max output also increases efficiency, plus fuel isnt an issue, and you can't have RFA + Volatile Fulgurium on the same character, which makes Danger Zone completely useless. Both reactor upgrades are boring passive upgrades too.

Mechanic

• NO TINKERING

• T1 Fair choices although Salvage Crew doesn't give extra money. Extra wrench/Crowbar damage is nowhere near Engineer levels. Hard to judge Ballast Denizen as it isnt "low O2" resistance but something else.

• T2 Oiled Machinery is an absolute must pick no questions asked. It's tinkering but much stronger, and also passive/boring. Repair Packs got weaker since they don't give XP like they used to and need a buff. Makeshift armor, like all body armor, competes with diving suit and therefore has very limited use.

• Scrapper: Gives a metric shit ton of resources (like it used to). There is no reason to pick Mass Production/Redidual Waste. It assumes resource scarcity is a factor and that 10% alleviates that, but it isnt the case. Miner/Scrap Savant will generate a ton of excess resources. Double scrap output on Scrap Savant especially is HUGE. Iron Storm is interesting but only if you're willing to interact with the submarine tier system and from experience most players don't want to. Scrap canon is also weaker than regular shotgun? (8x8 vs 16x3 damage, uses scrap which you can scrap savant). Tool maintenance is a complete freebie and gives +1 Quality to everything for no particular reason.

• Machinist: It's not a bad tree but... it's no tinkering. Although it does have some good active items.

• Brawler Heavy Wrench can be a superior Boarding Axe if you take 100% increased wrench damage in T1. Berserker/Foolhardy aren't good (low health talents in general) and feel like Security talents. Heavy Lifting doesn't increase swim speed and doesnt feel useful compared to Mudraptor Wrangler which gives two decent permanent stats. Exosuit can carry its own oxygen/batteries which means virtually unlimited fuel to run on, and since oxygen/batteries stack it's a non-factor. Scooter propulsion multiplier should be 0; it allows you to move without a battery. The exosuit can also be affected by a lot of different speed boosts.

• NO TINKERING. It's very important, as the loss of one of the most well liked, ACTIVE abilities leaves a pretty big void in Mechanic gameplay.

Assistant

• T1 Limited but good selection of talents
• T2 Clown Crate is hilarious, but could use a buff (like pressure resistance, possible via statuseffect+affliction) to have a practical effect. Weirdly enough that's 2 clown talents in T2. Peer Learning could use a buff, 30% is still on the low side. Revenge Squad is a Greyshirt talent, it's also too weak.
• Grayshirt: Perhaps the worst talent tree of all classes combined? The Waiting List actually only gives Low O2 resistance, which is bad. It should give damage reduction in general while incapacitated. Non-Threatening doesn't work (never has?); AI will keep attacking you for some reason. Insurance Policy/Apple A Day split into two talents, which makes it worse than it was. Petraptor is fun, but doesn't belong in that tree. Massively buff Revenge Squad in T2 and swap it with Petraptor.
• Apprentice: The absolute best tree currently. Maxing out a skill value usually isn't really worth it; you ususally don't need 100+ skill, but hitting Graduation Ceremony gives you a ton of free talents + Ceremonial Sword. Disloyal Scum is completely overpowered, obviously much better than Loyal Assistant, and YOU also get increased quality for non-apprentice items?
• Clown Clowns have lost pressure resistance and unfortunately can't swim in their clown outfit which is a pretty big loss of identity. They either need their own Clown Diving Suit, or transparent helmets (honestly the latter for everyone). The Clown Tree is more balanced than before although +50% swim speed is a little nuts. It also lost active abilities such as the instakill hammer. It needs more items/abilities because there isnt much clownery going on besides clown crate, which isnt even a clown talent.

---

Let's talk about active talents a bit

More or less Active abilities lost:
Tinkering as a whole, Inspire, Books, Tumble, Buccaneer, Dual Specops, Beat Cop, Dr Submarine, In The Flow, Slapstick Expert, True Potential

---

Other minor changes

Holsterable 1-Handed Riot shield
Perfect for peacekeeping since you can also use a Stun baton.

  <Item name="" identifier="riotshield" category="Equipment" tags="mediumitem" health="300" impactsoundtag="impact_metal_light" cargocontaineridentifier="metalcrate" damagedbyprojectiles="true" scale="1" allowasextracargo="true">
    <PreferredContainer primary="armcab" secondary="secarmcab"/>
    <Price baseprice="360" sold="false" minleveldifficulty="65" >
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantoutpost" multiplier="1.4" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantcity" multiplier="1.25" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantresearch" multiplier="1.25" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantmilitary" sold="true" multiplier="0.9" minavailable="0" maxavailable="2" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantmine" multiplier="1.25" />
    </Price>
    <Deconstruct time="10">
      <Item identifier="steel" />
      <Item identifier="plastic" amount="2" />
    </Deconstruct>
    <Fabricate suitablefabricators="fabricator" requiredtime="10" requiresrecipe="true">
      <RequiredSkill identifier="weapons" level="30" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="steel" amount="2" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="plastic" amount="3" />
    </Fabricate>
    <InventoryIcon texture="Content/Items/InventoryIconAtlas.png" sourcerect="640,320,64,64" />
    <Sprite texture="Content/Items/Jobgear/Security/riotgear.png" sourcerect="31,54,27,147" origin="0.5,0.5" depth="0.55" />
    <Body width="40" height="125" density="30" />
	<Holdable slots="LeftHand,RightHand" aimpos="60,-30" holdpos="45,-30" handle1="-10,0" handle2="-10,0" controlpose="true" blocksplayers="true" msg="ItemMsgPickUpSelect">
      <StatusEffect type="OnActive" target="Character" SpeedMultiplier="0.6" setvalue="true" />
      <StatusEffect type="OnBroken" target="This">
        <particleemitter particle="weldspark" drawontop="true" particleamount="50" velocitymin="100" velocitymax="500" anglemin="0" anglemax="360" distancemin="0" distancemax="30" scalemin="0.1" scalemax="0.35" />
        <Sound file="Content/Sounds/Damage/HitArmor1.ogg" range="800" />
        <Remove />
      </StatusEffect>
      <StatusEffect type="OnDamaged" target="This">
        <particleemitter particle="weldspark" drawontop="true" particleamount="5" velocitymin="100" velocitymax="500" anglemin="0" anglemax="360" distancemin="0" distancemax="20" scalemin="0.1" scalemax="0.35" />
        <Sound file="Content/Sounds/Damage/HitArmor1.ogg" range="800" />
        <!-- an invisible explosion to make the user "flinch" -->
        <Explosion range="100.0" force="1" showeffects="false" camerashake="1.0" />
      </StatusEffect>
    </Holdable>
    <Wearable slots="Bag" msg="ItemMsgEquipSelect" canbeselected="false" canbepicked="true" pickkey="Select">
      <sprite name="Riot Shield Worn" texture="Content/Items/Jobgear/Security/riotgear.png" canbehiddenbyotherwearables="false" inheritlimbdepth="false" depth="0.4" sourcerect="31,54,27,147" limb="Torso" ignorelimbscale="true" scale="1" origin="-0.2,0.5" rotation="180" />
    </Wearable>
  </Item>

Pressure Resilient Clown Crate:

  <Item name="" identifier="clowncrate" tags="crate,allowcleanup" scale="0.5" linkable="true" pickdistance="150" showcontentsintooltip="true" impactsoundtag="impact_metal_heavy" waterproof="true">
    <Price baseprice="170" sold="false" canbespecial="false" />
    <Deconstruct time="5" />
    <Fabricate suitablefabricators="fabricator" requiredtime="20" requiresrecipe="true">
      <RequiredItem identifier="metalcrate" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="redpaint" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="rubber" />
    </Fabricate>
    <sprite texture="Content/Map/Outposts/Art/FactionItems.png" sourcerect="5,2,158,104" depth="0.54" origin="0.5,0.5" />
    <Body width="150" height="100" density="25" />
    <Holdable slots="RightHand+LeftHand" holdpos="0,-80" handle1="-20,14" handle2="20,14" aimable="false" msg="ItemMsgPickUpSelect" />
    <ItemContainer capacity="12" canbeselected="false" hideitems="true" keepopenwhenequipped="true" movableframe="true">
      <Containable items="smallitem" excludeditems="toolbox,cargoscooter" />
    </ItemContainer>
    <Controller UserPos="0,-20" direction="Right" canbeselected="true" selectkey="Use" drawuserbehind="true" msg="itemmsggoinside">
      <limbposition limb="Head" position="74,-40" />
      <limbposition limb="Torso" position="74,-40" />
      <limbposition limb="Waist" position="74,-40" />
      <limbposition limb="LeftHand" position="74,-40" />
      <limbposition limb="RightHand" position="74,-40" />
      <limbposition limb="RightLeg" position="74,-40" />
      <limbposition limb="LeftLeg" position="74,-40" />
      <limbposition limb="RightFoot" position="74,-40" />
      <limbposition limb="LeftFoot" position="74,-40" />
      <StatusEffect type="OnActive" targettype="Character" delay="0.25" stackable="true" indetectable="true" Enabled="false">
        <Affliction identifier="pressurestabilizedclowncrate" strength="1" />
	  </StatusEffect>
    </Controller>
  </Item>
  
    <Affliction
    identifier="pressurestabilizedclowncrate"
    type="talentbuff"
    isbuff="true"
    limbspecific="false"
    maxstrength="1"
    treatmentthreshold="1000"
    iconcolors="33,75,78;126,211,224;126,211,224;227,247,249">
    <Effect minstrength="0" maxstrength="1"
      strengthchange="-2"
      resistancefor="oxygenlow"
      minresistance="1"
      maxresistance="1">
      <AbilityFlag flagtype="ImmuneToPressure" />
      <StatusEffect target="Character" usehulloxygen="false" setvalue="true">
        <ReduceAffliction identifier="oxygenlow" strength="0.5"/>
      </StatusEffect>
    </Effect>
    <icon texture="Content/UI/MainIconsAtlas.png" sourcerect="512,896,128,128" color="10,193,114,255" origin="0,0"/>
  </Affliction>

Acid grenade emits acid over time:

  <Item name="" identifier="chemgrenade" category="Weapon" maxstacksize="8" cargocontaineridentifier="explosivecrate" tags="smallitem,weapon,explosive,demolitionsexpert" Scale="0.5" impactsoundtag="impact_metal_heavy">
    <PreferredContainer primary="secarmcab" minamount="1" maxamount="3" spawnprobability="0.75" notcampaign="true"/>
    <PreferredContainer primary="wreckarmcab,abandonedarmcab" minamount="1" maxamount="2" spawnprobability="0.05"/>
    <PreferredContainer secondary="armcab"/>
    <Price baseprice="80" sold="false">
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantoutpost" multiplier="1.5" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantcity" multiplier="1.25" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantresearch" multiplier="1.25" mindifficulty="60" sold="true" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantmilitary" multiplier="0.9" mindifficulty="60" sold="true" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantmine" multiplier="1.25" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantarmory" multiplier="0.9" />
    </Price>
    <Deconstruct time="5"/>
    <Fabricate suitablefabricators="fabricator" requiredtime="20" amount="2">
      <RequiredSkill identifier="weapons" level="40" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="iron" amount="2" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="sulphuricacid" />
    </Fabricate>
    <Sprite texture="Content/Items/Weapons/weapons_new.png" sourcerect="256,312,26,54" depth="0.55" origin="0.5,0.5" />
    <Body width="26" height="54" density="30" />
    <ItemComponent characterusable="false">
      <!-- statuseffect that explodes the grenade when used by something else than a character (e.g. a detonator) -->
      <StatusEffect type="OnUse" target="This" Condition="-100.0" disabledeltatime="true" />
      <StatusEffect type="OnBroken" target="This" lifetime="5">
        <sound file="Content/Items/Weapons/StunGrenade.ogg" />
        <Explosion range="500" ballastfloradamage="10" itemdamage="20" force="0.5" sparks="true" shockwave="false" flames="false" smoke="false" flash="true">
          <Affliction identifier="acidburn" strength="25" />
          <Affliction identifier="stun" strength="0.5" />
        </Explosion>
		<!-- 		spawns the acid cloud -->
        <SpawnItem identifiers="acidcloud" spawnposition="ThisInventory" />
      </StatusEffect>
    </ItemComponent>
    <Throwable slots="Any,RightHand,LeftHand" holdpos="0,0" handle1="0,0" throwforce="4.0" msg="ItemMsgPickUpSelect">
      <StatusEffect type="OnSecondaryUse" target="This" Condition="-100.0" delay="3.0" disabledeltatime="true" checkconditionalalways="true" />
    </Throwable>
    <ItemContainer capacity="1" maxstacksize="1" drawinventory="false" canbeselected="false" ShowConditionInContainedStateIndicator="true" hideitems="true">
      <Containable items="gas" />
    </ItemContainer>
    <Quality>
      <QualityStat stattype="ExplosionRadius" value="0.1"/>
      <QualityStat stattype="ExplosionDamage" value="0.1"/>
    </Quality>
  </Item>  
 

  <Item name="" identifier="40mmchemgrenade" category="Weapon" maxstacksize="8" interactthroughwalls="true" cargocontaineridentifier="metalcrate" tags="smallitem,grenade" Scale="0.5" impactsoundtag="impact_metal_light">
    <PreferredContainer primary="grenadelauncher" amount="1" spawnprobability="0"/>
    <PreferredContainer secondary="wreckarmcab,abandonedarmcab" minamount="1" maxamount="2" spawnprobability="0"/>
    <PreferredContainer primary="secarmcab" secondary="armcab"/>
    <Price baseprice="130" sold="false">
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantoutpost" multiplier="1.5" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantcity" multiplier="1.25" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantresearch" multiplier="1.25" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantmilitary" multiplier="0.9" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantmine" multiplier="1.25" />
      <Price storeidentifier="merchantarmory" multiplier="0.9" />
    </Price>
    <Deconstruct time="5">
      <Item identifier="iron" />
      <Item identifier="sulphuricacid" />
    </Deconstruct>
    <Fabricate suitablefabricators="fabricator" requiredtime="10">
      <RequiredSkill identifier="weapons" level="30"/>
      <RequiredItem identifier="iron"/>
      <RequiredItem identifier="sulphuricacid"/>
      <RequiredItem identifier="phosphorus"/>
    </Fabricate>
    <Sprite texture="Content/Items/Weapons/weapons_new.png" sourcerect="256,286,41,17" depth="0.55" origin="0.5,0.5" />
    <Body width="38" height="15" density="30" />
    <Pickable slots="Any" msg="ItemMsgPickUpSelect"/>
    <Projectile characterusable="false" launchimpulse="20.0" sticktocharacters="false">
      <Attack structuredamage="40" penetration="0.5">
        <Affliction identifier="explosiondamage" strength="50" />
      </Attack>
      <sound file="Content/Items/Weapons/FragGrenade40mmShot1.ogg" type="OnImpact" range="500" selectionmode="Random" />
      <sound file="Content/Items/Weapons/FragGrenade40mmShot2.ogg" type="OnImpact" range="500" />
      <!--Grenade launcher ammo explodes on impact-->
      <StatusEffect type="OnImpact" Condition="-100.0" disabledeltatime="true" lifetime="3">
        <Explosion range="300.0" ballastfloradamage="10" itemdamage="20" force="1.0" sparks="true" shockwave="false" flames="false" smoke="false" flash="true">
          <Affliction identifier="acidburn" strength="35" />
          <Affliction identifier="stun" strength="0.5" />
        </Explosion>
<!-- 		spawns the acid cloud -->
        <SpawnItem identifiers="acidcloud" spawnposition="ThisInventory" />
        <ParticleEmitter particle="acidmistgrenade" particlespersecond="6" scalemin="0.9" scalemax="1" velocitymin="50" velocitymax="150" anglemin="0" anglemax="360" copyentityangle="false"/>
        <sound file="Content/Items/Weapons/StunGrenade.ogg" />
      </StatusEffect>
      <!--Destroy this after exploding-->
      <StatusEffect type="OnUse" target="This" disabledeltatime="true" delay="6" >
        <Remove />
      </StatusEffect>
      <StatusEffect type="OnBroken" delay="3" >
        <Remove />
      </StatusEffect>
    </Projectile>
    <ItemContainer capacity="1" maxstacksize="1" drawinventory="false" canbeselected="false" ShowConditionInContainedStateIndicator="true" hideitems="true">
      <Containable items="gas" />
    </ItemContainer>
  </Item>
  
  <Item name="acidcloud" identifier="acidcloud" Scale="1" tags="gas" sonarsize="0" hideinmenus="true" health="10" depth="0.1" isdangerous="true">
    <Sprite texture="Content/Items/Weapons/weapons_new.png" sourcerect="0,0,2,2" depth="0.55" origin="0.5,0.5" />
    <ItemComponent>
<!-- 	particle emitter, sprays for 3 seconds, particles last a little longer -->
      <StatusEffect type="Onspawn" target="This" duration="3">
        <ParticleEmitter particle="acidmistgrenade" particlespersecond="6" scalemin="0.9" scalemax="1" velocitymin="50" velocitymax="150" anglemin="0" anglemax="360" copyentityangle="false" lifetime="1"/>
        <sound file="Content/Items/Tools/Sprayer.ogg" range="700.0" loop="true" />
      </StatusEffect>
<!-- 	the actual damage emitter, 10 second lifetime  -->
      <StatusEffect type="Always" target="This,NearbyCharacters" range="250" disabledeltatime="false" condition="-1">
        <Affliction identifier="acidburn" strength="0.25" dividebylimbcount="true"/>
          <Affliction identifier="acidburn" strength="0.25" probability="0.2" dividebylimbcount="false"/>
      </StatusEffect>
      <StatusEffect type="OnBroken" target="This">
        <Remove />
      </StatusEffect>
    </ItemComponent>
  </Item>  

Avanced syringe gun with more capacity and health scanner HUD

  <Item name="" identifier="advancedsyringegun" variantof="syringegun">
    <PreferredContainer primary="armcab" amount="1" spawnprobability="0" notcampaign="true"/>
    <PreferredContainer secondary="secarmcab,weaponholder"/>
    <PreferredContainer secondary="wreckmedcab,abandonedmedcab,wreckarmcab,abandonedarmcab" amount="1" spawnprobability="0" />
    <Price baseprice="310" sold="false">
    </Price>
    <Deconstruct time="10">
      <Item identifier="titaniumaluminiumalloy" />
      <Item identifier="plastic" />
    </Deconstruct>
    <Fabricate suitablefabricators="fabricator" requiredtime="10">
      <RequiredSkill identifier="medical" level="50" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="titaniumaluminiumalloy" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="aluminium" />
      <RequiredItem identifier="plastic" amount="2" />
    </Fabricate>
    <InventoryIcon>
      <Clear />
    </InventoryIcon>
    <Sprite texture="Content/Items/JobGear/TalentGear.png" sourcerect="354,429,145,78" depth="0.7" origin="0.5,0.5" />
<!-- 	A light because it looks cool -->
    <Holdable slots="RightHand+LeftHand,Any" controlpose="true" aimpos="30,-20" handle1="0,-7" handle2="55, 20" msg="ItemMsgPickUpSelect">
      <LightComponent LightColor="120,255,120,120" Flicker="0.2" flickerspeed="0.5" pulsefrequency="0.2" pulseamount="0.2" range="250" IsOn="true">
        <LightTexture texture="Content/Lights/lightcone.png" origin="0.0, 0.5" size="1.0,1.0" />
      </LightComponent>
	</Holdable>
<!-- 	just 2x8 slots with a little syringe icon to indicate which shoots first -->
    <ItemContainer capacity="1" maxstacksize="8" itempos="0,25" itemrotation="-90" hideitems="false" containedstateindicatorstyle="syringe">
      <SlotIcon slotindex="0" texture="Content/UI/InventoryUIAtlas.png" sourcerect="833,278,45,45" origin="0.5,0.45" />
      <Containable items="syringe" />
      <SubContainer capacity="1" maxstacksize="8">
        <Containable items="syringe" />
      </SubContainer>
    </ItemContainer>
<!-- 	health scanner HUD -->
    <StatusHUD drawhudwhenequipped="true" />
  </Item>

[Rehexr]

Wanted to add, as a comment, that the commitment to a specific tree limits the potential for a player and might force them to even purposefully kill themselves to try a different tree, which im not a huge fan of.

[PokkeTigrex]

All the "Get extra X for completing Y" is are by far the weakest talents that almost every job has several of. Especially for extra exp, when the level cap has been reduced to accommodate the rework means less exp needed, and makes these talents much less useful, especially once the player hits that max level. Almost all of them need to go, replacing with a far more interesting passive ability or active that has a longer term effect overall for the player and campaign.

The loss of some very interesting talents is also a bit of a bummer for this unstable, like tinkering which is always handy for some situations, like getting a sub quickly out of a flood to get out of dodge faster. Dual Specops was also such a cool talent too (not the free talent points), being able to dodge in water is silly to watch and use, and can zip around the waters is so much fun and useful.

As for more specific talents that could use some work, Graduation Ceremony should at least let you pick which tree you want to get the skills out of, as certain people might be going after something specific, and RNG on a t6 skill might not be very fun to deal with.

Iron storm's scrap cannon for mechanic is not only a weird weaker sidegrade to the shotgun, but it is highly expensive to upkeep due to now only a 20% for one chance of scrap instead of the stables double dipping skills of like 50% and 80%. I think some sort of either craftable shrapnel from cheap material, or just the ability to throw basically any item inside it (potentially with various effects), would make it far more interesting to use as a viable heavy weapon. apparently can use iron and steel bars as well? It makes this weapon actually usable, but still a shame that other materials cannot be used to be fired out of the cannon, like titanium, uranium/thorium, carbon, silicon, etc. Where each could have differing effects, like uranium giving radiation poisoning to whoever is shot by it, or titanium just being an upgrade overall compared to iron/steel, and carbon and silicon a weaker alternative, or perhaps more stunning capability? It can be a very interesting weapon if playing with different materials it can shoot.

Greyshirt tree is much more lame and boring in comparison to the other two assistant trees, outside of its T6, which itself doesn't have much practicality unless they add mechanics to the pet mudraptors that makes them handy to have around, and allow them to follow very basic commands.

The physicist specialization literally having two talents that's basically the equivalent of buying one sub upgrade seems really strange, feel like there could be more to this tree.

Medic's bloody business alien blood drop doesn't appear to function what so ever. Tested from crawlers to hammerheads. Likely fixed now.

I'd say more but I haven't done more extensive testing on this unstable, and ton are things are bound to change.

[UnhappyWithMyUsername]

I'd also like to add that limiting the talents to just 1 talent tree will probably feel punishing on small multiplayer crews as we have no influence on what the bots would choose for talents and to actually use them.
Making it a server option as to how many talent trees can be unlocked and setting the maximum level accordingly would resolve this issue and help small crews in that regard.

An alternative way would be reworking how you can interact with bots by letting someone with a possible new permission be able to select the talents for bots and have new orders like "craft secial item -> Exosuit" for example.

[MapleWheels]

I'd also like to add that limiting the talents to just 1 talent tree will probably feel punishing on small multiplayer crews as we have no influence on what the bots would choose for talents and to actually use them. Making it a server option as to how many talent trees can be unlocked and setting the maximum level accordingly would resolve this issue and help small crews in that regard.

An alternative way would be reworking how you can interact with bots by letting someone with a possible new permission be able to select the talents for bots and have new orders like "craft secial item -> Exosuit" for example.

To add to this, it messes with mods that address this, like "Merge Talent Trees", which is used by Crews of 3 or fewer. Bots in multiplayer are terrible because the AI in this game still needs work and unlike campaign, you cannot switch to the bot to manually control it when necessary.

Please do not force the use of bots in multiplayer, it makes for a terrible experience. Especially when the AI pathing nodes are problematic or the sub uses a very unconventional design.

[gear528]

I'd also like to add that limiting the talents to just 1 talent tree will probably feel punishing on small multiplayer crews as we have no influence on what the bots would choose for talents and to actually use them. Making it a server option as to how many talent trees can be unlocked and setting the maximum level accordingly would resolve this issue and help small crews in that regard.

An alternative way would be reworking how you can interact with bots by letting someone with a possible new permission be able to select the talents for bots and have new orders like "craft secial item -> Exosuit" for example.

I agree completely. Currently, I am playing with one sometimes two other friends in a campaign and I feel that being unable to utilize or switch to other roles using bots already limits our group enough when it comes to talents and their unlockable items.

[ubertpendragon]

v0.20.2.0 update

Class recap:

Captain:
Nutty T1 talents, with very strong effects that need nerfs. Gunslinger tree is still much, much weaker than Skipper which gives passive skills/bonuses to the entire crew and sub.

Security:
Overall the most solid class, good items, good passives, wouldn't change much.

Medic
Some of the weakest T1s combined with some of the strongest T2s in the game. Xenologist is good, Medic has some useless talents, Chemist items need tweaks as they're not good enough (Endocrine still in a league of its own).

Engineer
Overall balanced but has a lot of somewhat boring passives; any talent revolving around fuel rods suffers from fuel consumption being a non-factor (fuel is really easy to get). Batteries have the same issue to a lesser extent (thanks to new items). Physicist only exists for the PUCS

Mechanic
Mostly good talents, lots of utility via items, but some of these need rebalancing (exosuit, repair pack, scrap gun). Scrapper isn't really useful since the game generates a LOT of resources. BUT worse off since Tinker is gone. Tinker was fun. Make it return as T1/T2 talents

Assistant
Assistant feels confused. T1s are better than T2s. Many T2s feel like they belong on trees: Inspiring Tunes + Jack in the box are Clown talents. Revenge Squad is a Grayshirt talent. Petraptor is NOT a Grayshirt talent. Grayshirt tree as a whole is weak, Apprentice is by far the best tree since it gives you a whole free tree.

Top 5 Worst Talents:

1. Submarine of Things (double FPGAs)
Has no intrinsic value. Components can all be bought, you save a only handful of crafting materials, and as a T5 talent it's unlocked way too late, by then your sub is already wired and ready to go. This feels like a T1 talent at most, and if all it did was more FPGAs it would still be awful.

2. Steady Tune/Drunken Sailor
A tossup. Psychosis isn't a danger, and psychosis resistance doesn't completely block psychosis. If the talent actively removed psychosis it would at least have a use. Drunken Sailor has marginal utility but not not what you'd expect of a T5, and does not prevent taking damage from being high levels of drunk (which doesnt improve the effects)

3. Don't die on me)
Medics spawn with 40+ medical skill, the talent makes that 70, more than enough to always succeed your CPR checks. This talent brings absolutely nothing to the class.

4. La Resistance (35% opiate resistance)
A minor opiate is just bad on its own and should be merged with other talents (like Self-care) or get other resistances (Husk/Poison/Radiation)

5. Danger zone (volatile fulgurium)
You can't use volatile Fulgurium rods in conjunction with RFA without another engineer doing the other talent tree. Otherwise this only harms your team. Fuel durability is never an issue in the current system

[BiffW]

Submarine of Things (double FPGAs)
This could be more useful if there is something powerful comsumable items requiring fpga to craft.
For example: A railgun shell with proximity detection that many mods have.

[NichikaZ]

Can we straight up remove all talents related to exp gain? They're not strong, a must pick for "exp optimization" and become useless once you reach max level.

I do like the fact that there are more items available for crafting, but as many others have said, having them locked to 1 specialization hurts small crews (You can reroll but iirc there aren't any books anymore, so you can't get your skills back quick enough).

[ubertpendragon]

I tend to agree about xp although we'll have to play a campaign to see how fast you actually gain xp.
Talents that only give xp to yourself will eventually be useless once you reach the cap, 15% and 80 flat xp isn't much of a boost for losing out on another talent.

Mission specific talents also have some disparity; monster missions appear with much more regularity than escort. Some of these talents don't even give extra money (which keeps them relevant after capping)

+100% xp for Playing Catchup has the explicit purpose of leveling very fast if you join late in a campaign, talents that give xp to your team are always useful as it helps those same new players

Most importantly they're just kind of... boring? Having to repair 5 electrical systems you might compete with the rest of the crew to validate this xp.
Old talents at least asked you to, for example, deconstruct depleted fuel which is a limited resource, so you had a choice to make, use the resource or use it to boost your xp.

---

List of talents that only give xp (to yourself):

-Playing catchup (assistant) 100% all missions
-Nobody important dies (medic) 7.5%, all missions
-Protect and serve (security) 15%, escort mission
-Bootcamp (security) 35%, all missions
-Salvage crew (mechanic) 15%, wreck mission
-Station engineer (engineer) 30%, beacon mission

-Machine maniac (mechanic) 80, all missions
-Junction Junkie (engineer) 80, all missions
-War stories (security) 80, all missions

[BiffW]

Agree on this. Talents that only gives extra experience are the most boring ones for me.
But I still have to take them because leveling up is just too slow.
My idea is to associate experience gain to the faction reputation and remove all these boring talents for they might limit your talent selection.
For example: when your reputation is high with some faction, your crew gain extra exp when completing missions given by that faction. Make it a standalone featurea instead of a talent.

[MapleWheels]

Agree on this. Talents that only gives extra experience are the most boring ones for me. But I still have to take them because leveling up is just too slow. My idea is to associate experience gain to the faction reputation and remove all these boring talents for they might limit your talent selection. For example: when your reputation is high with some faction, your crew gain extra exp when completing missions given by that faction. Make it a standalone featurea instead of a talent.

Exactly, the problem fundamentally is that they're intended to be a way to access other talents quicker, at the cost of your endgame. The problem is that because there are LESS talents than before to explore (you cannot get every tree anymore), this caps out fast. It's basically only useful for pub matches where after you quit, you're not expecting to come back to complete the save.

I also hate the "specialization" (tree lockout) for small crews because this completely stops them from being able to take advantage of them (large crews just have multiple people of one job split their tree). This is a massive problem for mods because many mods lock items and effects behind talents as a form of progression locking. This basically means that some mods are unplayable for under 4-6 people.

Mods that increase play time (like Dynamic Europa, REALLYBIGMAP, etc.) completely cripple this change. You'll cap out and then feel like you're not getting stronger/new items anymore by biome 3.

I get the intention, and I think it's a good one, but this is completely unbalanced for varying crew sizes, with small crews (the ones needing the most help) getting shafted the hardest.

And if you just say "play with more people", good luck getting more than 4 people to commit to an extended campaign from beginning to end.

I guess the way around this is Endocrine Boosters (also locked behind a talent tree)?

[MACMAN2003]

i dislike how you get locked out of the other trees when you pick a talent tree
if there was an option to enable picking multiple trees like how there's an option to disable jovian radiation then i'd be okay with it

[Jvisti]

For reference: This feedback is all based on my experiences of playing as the sole engineer in a 3-5 player crew.

I like the general idea behind the changes but as others have pointed out I am a little worried about how this will affect smaller crew sizes in a more negative way compared to crews where you have the option of having multiples of one role. One way of solving this could be to have an option for how many talent trees you can specialize in when starting a campaign. This would allow members of larger crews to have a more specific role while allowing smaller groups to function where one member simply cannot focus on one task alone.

Also one concern specifically relating to small crews is the locking of handheld monitors behind one of the specializations for the mechanic and engineer. Obviously this would not be as much of an issue if we could have the option of choosing how many trees we can pick but I'm wondering if the monitor unlocking talents could be moved to the non-specialization rows so playing as the only mechanic / engineer in a crew you can still have the QoL from them without being forced into a talent tree. In my opinion trying to fill the role of electrical maintenance without a monitor is doable depending on the layout of the ship but not a very enjoyable experience.

[ubertpendragon]

V0.20.4.0 Feedback goes here

The top 5 remains the same for unchanged reasons, FPGAs by itself is still the worst talent in the game.

Assistant has an identity crisis.

• Assistant has the lowest amount of talents of any class, especially in T1/T2
• 2 Clown, 1 Grayshirt talent are in T2
  -Revenge squad should be swapped with Petraptor
• You could easily merge Inspiring Tunes with Chonky honks, and put Jack-in-the-box in the clown talent tree (or merge with water prankster). This leaves assistant with only 2 T2 talents
  -CLOWNS DO NOT LOOK LIKE CLOWNS UNDERWATER. You have to rely on the amazing but prohibiltively expensive Funbringer, there's no other option like a regular clown suit since Water Prankster lost pressure resistance
  -Apprentice/Graduation ceremony is still king, with the very overpowered Ceremonial Sword which is essentially a much, much stronger knife you can dual wield and craft tons of.

[six-pd]

Just though I'd put my two cents in. People have already voiced very clear opinions about Tinkering and Water Prankster, I wanted to add something about the captain.

It seems like many players I've talk to regard playing the captain as a chore, with his only merit being roleplay value. I think this is mostly due to a combination of being bound to the helm and how little involvement his talents give him, and while standing at the helm is probably not going anywhere, there's always the possibility of giving him other tools to play around with from time to time. In that, I think, this update fails to deliver.

One topic which was already touched upon are the EXP talents. The old captain talent tree had these in the form of medals, and while the necessity of rushing medal talents wasn't great, they did provide some engagement in managing how experience was given out to crewmates and added further roleplay elements to the class. The new captain tree has talents which provide experience for himself and skill gain and money for everyone, but they're all passive talents - they provide a benefit that's hardly tangible (especially since they, again, are an obvious first choice, meaning very little campaigns will be played without them) and seem more like a point to mark off the new game checklist before the captain can actually get to the fun stuff.

I am overall disappointed with how passive the new talents are. The new Skipper tree in particular, while providing amazing bonuses, reduces the captain to a very passive role, as the optimal way to play him would be to avoid all danger, since he gets no talents to keep himself safe, and give his crew bonuses through simply existing. As you can imagine, this is hardly engaging gameplay and most people forced into the role would have a very boring experience ahead of them. While the old system of giving out buffs through orders was clunky at times, again, it provided the captain with at least some decision making and engagement as he stood by the sonar looking for danger, all while his crew was out looting wrecks or destroying alien nests. Even if usually it amounted to clicking on the person currently panicking the most on the radio comms, and returning to staring at the sonar screen, wishing you were better equipped to join them in person.

The Gunslinger tree seems to be made worse despite already being the weakest, although the most fun at the same time. The Handcannon, even if not optimal, was still an exclusive weapon that felt like an actual reward for choosing the class. And while some changes in the tree, such as the Drunken Sailor (+ finally we get rum!) I find good, others confuse me - Quickdraw feels very weak compared to other combat focused trees, and Lone Wolf provides melee damage - not bad, but I'm not sure if it fits the theme. Still, despite being weak, I foresee myself taking it much more compared to skipper, simply because I enjoy being able to get involved with the crew more.

As far as I understand, the third tree is still in development. Personally, I'd love to see something that's directly related to the helm - maybe special abilities that only the captain could enjoy related to submarine control, such as panic breaks, ramming large creatures, smokescreens, improved sonar, target spotting, limited drone control while manning the drone turret, etc. But I'll be happy with anything that gives the captain a more active role, either in helping the crew or attending to his helm duties.

[MapleWheels]

To add on to this; what I would ultimately like to see out of captain are things that reward me for commanding the crew. For example, make the buffs given by issuing orders give different buffs based on what order it is. This means that I can switch the orders I give based on who is doing what in the moment. If I need Security/Engineer to step in for the Medic, being able to give medical skill with an emergency first aid order would be amazing.

The tl;dr feedback for ALL of the new talent trees: reward me for doing my job properly not just because I put the funny point into the skill I suddenly go BRR-.

[PurpleCrowbar]

As a captain player, this wholly sums up my thoughts on the update. Given that captain was already considered the most passive / boring role in the game I was pretty hyped for the talent rework as I thought it would be a prime opportunity to breathe new life into the class. While other classes got exosuits and the like for Christmas, Captain got:

1. A brutally underpowered combat tree
2. A hyper-passive 4th talent tree for the rest of your crew, with very little active / involved or personal benefit
3. 404: Tree not found

Worst part is, I don’t want to make my new player friends play as captain and be disappointed with the extremely short end of the stick that he received, but now I hardly want to play him because the other jobs got such great reworks (especially relative to captain). I would have hoped that given that captain is missing a talent tree the devs would have been more generous with the power level of the rest of his decreased talent pool, but evidently I was wrong. Disappointing

[AmazingZh]

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