Topic

Improving Better Learning skill tree

I just learned Better Learning 5 (BL5), and it doesn't seem to have been even close to worth it. I posted full details of this experience in http://beta.glitch.com/forum/general/1973/, but figured that the topic of ideas for how to improve this skill tree should be placed here instead of the general forum thread. There were lots of other people in the general forum who also posted results showing that the Better Learning skill tree is not producing results that are worth the effort.

My experience of the times it would take to learn Mining III:
Knowing BL3 and 67 skills total: 1 d,   0 h, 27 m, 32 s
Knowing BL4 and 68 skills total:        22 h,   3 m,   9 s
Knowing BL5 and 70 skills total: 1 d,   2 h,   1 m, 11 s

Whoa! Something's totally wrong here! My time to learn Mining III increased by 1.5 hours over what it would have been if I never learned BL4 or BL5 (plus one other measly extra skill).

It seems to me that this is either a bug, or the better learning skills are counting towards a hefty penalty for learning more skills, in such a way that their beneficial effects can be more than canceled out.

Here are my ideas on how to improve this:

Either raise the threshold for the "too many skill" penalty to something higher than 32? for BL5 (that many skills is nothing in this huge skill tree that will only be getting bigger), or allow for reduced penalty for higher numbers of skill learned: Example: If you know BL5, you get no penalty at less than 32 skills learned. At less than 40, you get 10% penalty. At less than 50, you get 20% penalty, etc., etc.

Also: DON"T make the BL skills count towards the "too many skill" penalty! That makes learning them totally counter-productive.

Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • +1
    The skill times still seem a little wonky, and I think the devs would do good to tweak the algorithms just a bit if the Better Learning tree is actually supposed to be worth something. Also, Better Learning V takes an absurd amount of time to learn (the longest out of any of my current skills), so it should have an actually decent reward. I'm currently learning it, but only because I had no other skills that were quite as long to learn at the end of the last test.
    Posted 20 months ago by Jhennauchan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Agreed.... it does appear the BL skills themselves are counting towards the total with very little long term benefit. In effect, it provides an *increase* in learning times. At BL 5 you're still seeing a net increase of 5% overall, rather than any sort of decrease. The only advantage of BL at this point is to extend the penalty threshold. No matter how I look at the math, something in the latest tweak breaks the intended mechanics.
    Posted 20 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just spent 30 minutes trying to work the math to see if the benefits work farther down the road. If BL5 is your 70th skill, I am curious if it works out that skill 80 or 90 blah blah blah work out so that it makes up for it. I suspect this is the case.
    But I failed on the math of my theoretical skill set that were all 100 min base skils... because I got bored.
    Question though: Am I right to assume that the BL bouses (20% for BL5) come off AFTER the added time for amount of skills? Or does it come off the BASE time to learn the skill?
    Posted 20 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The BL time comes off the base, but let me take a second to clarify for everyone.... BL 5 doesn't provide an *additional* 20%... it provides an 8% reduction for a total accumulated reduction of 20%.

    Here's the scenario that's troubling a few of us.... if you learn Better Learning any time after the threshold kicks in, you're actually *lengthening* your learning times.... because the Better Learning skills themselves count towards the penalty. Even with a -8% reduction, the 5% compounding penalty makes every successive skill longer.
    Posted 20 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ah yes. Now I see. I had assume it wasn't accumulative... but I forgot the fact that you have 5 skills adding a compounded 5%. Erm. Yes. 
    Posted 20 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Math is driving me nuts. *delete post* Anyway, BL5 always reduces.  Its 8% reduction is larger than the penalty.
    Posted 20 months ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Something changed since yesterday--now it's showing that Mining III will take 22 h 26 m 42 s for me to learn... yesterday it was saying 1 d 2 h 0 m 51 s... Not sure what happened, but the new number is closer to what I would have expected after learning BL5 plus one other skill (time to learn = 22 h 3 m 9 s before that).
    Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • They changed how the BL set works yesterday.  Some people's skills instantly finished when the change was implemented.  I guess I can be a bit more honest, now. ;)  You didn't actually find a problem at all, but hey, I'll take the change and run with it!
    Posted 20 months ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink