Virtuoso base skill unlocks pointless/unviable?

[Germanic Tigress]

I was sorta wondering if there was a level cap given how similar this game is in terms of mechanics to other games of the same style. When I saw it was 33 I was honestly frightened because skill bonuses only apply if the base value hits that point. That means you only get 330 skill points in total, plus whatever base you get from your base stats assuming you don't take any flaws. Honestly seems like some really janky balance considering that there's "leveled" enemies and leveled weapons while also having many optional flaws that outright destroy your stats in return for very mediocre perks that sometimes don't even outweigh the price of getting them.

Looking through the viruoso skills some of them seem alright to downright awesome, and some of them would have great synergy! But you need to pour (depending on base stats) 13-15 levels into getting them. That just doesn't seem right for a game that really wants you to have more than one way to solve a problem at your disposal. I know gear and item mods can solve or help with some of those problems, but then you still end up missing out on a lot of really good low level base skill unlocks. I just don't understand the design philosophy here. It's clearly meant to prevent you from becoming the godly OP character most RPGs allow which is fine, but then why even bother having virtuoso base skill unlocks that are completely inefficient to attempt unlocking? It just doesn't feel right at all.

Let's look at blocking. Most people have agreed from my reading and research it is mostly useless for even melee characters. Yet at 100 block, you get a 100% bonus damage against any enemy you block. This sounds pretty great against the beefcake melee enemies that take more than a couple hits to kill. Against range this is utterly useless. If the game had shields maybe it'd be better against range since you could block a few shots from the range and done within a decent window, would count for the debuff. Then we have the virtuoso base skill unlock which causes attackers to take damage instead when perfect blocking. Again, useless against range but sounds alright against melee. I definitely wouldn't mind having such a thing on a melee beefcake character, but it requires me to spend almost half of all my levels just to get this single thing.

Some of these virtuoso perks look fun, but do not feel worthwhile to spend so much time getting. Others have some synergy with each other, but you would never dare spend that many points on just two trees with the limited points.

Even many Master trees are just not worth going for...

Another question. When I put points into skills after 50, why am I not getting more skills for that area? So Melee skills after 50, should actually count as 2 levels to that skill per 1 skill point, since before 50, each skill point spent in melee was worth 2 level ups, 1 for 1 handed and 1 for 2 handed. Similarly, ranged points should count as 3, since you have 3 skills in the ranged skills. Either that or make it so leveling up those skills costs the respective amount per 1. So leveling handguns up past 50 would cost .33 of a skill point and leveling up 1-handed melee would cost .5 of a skill point. Suddenly it would be viable to actually put points into trees up to 100+ while also allowing your character to be a little more diverse in skill like they should be after so much experience at level 33.

I know many will disagree, but please actually state why. I haven't finished the game yet and it does seem a bit short overall, but I still think the system does not match the genre or choices. If anything the game seems to almost encourage killing everyone you can't negotiate with due to low dialogue skill or exclusively talking your way out of everything on the opposite end of the spectrum. But that's just it, the game doesn't seem to want you to specialize into anything, and barely rewards you in some trees for actually specializing. Specializing in utility trees is nearly if not completely useless.

[sinsorrow1]

I guess they wanted to increase the replayability. If you can complete everything with one character in your first playthrough, you will lose interest after the first completion.

I agree with you, still waiting for someone with modding experience to make a mod which increases perk points per level. Or a new game+ option.

[lieutenantkirtar]

They probably just didn't want you to be a master of everything. You are made to choose early on if you want to be a melee or ranged fighter, then later on you specialize into a specific type of weapon.

Same thing with everything else, except you have your companion skills to add to your own skills for opening that 150 lockpick door or hacking that 150 computer. You still miss out on the extra abilities though if you don't dedicate your skill points to them.

But all of that is kinda a moot point since you can reset your skill points whenever you want on your ship.