Can't you get it much higher now though? You should have like 4X the learning speed you would have before, since MC level does reduce it. I guess if you only specced in to get 125, you can't, but 125's not that much. As far as the complaints, many players complained their character move too fast at 150+ athletics.
Fair points, obviously I can only speak to my own experience and not to the broader community experience. I can progress it higher for sure but to be at 125 and not to be able to run down fleeing looters is where that felt out of balance to me. I have a unit of skilled infantry men yet, despite out training, we are not able to run down a bunch of looters. Is there data available on community concerns so I can see where "I run too fast at 150" was in respect to all other player concerns? This change, to me, just seemed really arbitrary and I stick by my feeling that this is taking fun out of the game. If this game is aiming to be battle brothers, devoid of all fun but totally committed to its sense of realism fine, but that's not my impression of where the designers were aiming this game and I don't personally want this to turn into that type of game.Realistic but with enough fun to feel powerful without having to commit too much time to get there. Extreme power exists out there for the players that want to put in the effort to get to 300 but the player should not have to wait that long to start feeling powerful. So I have two game years in and have my skill to 125 but now cannot run down looters or impact the battlefield in any area that I didn't originally commit to. Not fun imo.
I need to add some additional thoughts here. It's also the manner in how these changes were implemented. Not a fan of devaluing the perks in principle. Make the perks feel worthwhile. To cut perk effects in 1/2 in this case is to devalue most of the perks in the athletic and other trees that had all their run speed effects cut in 1/2, again I think devaluing the whole perk system in the process.
At this late point in early access, to roll out changes that affect the on-foot user experience so drastically, I would advise greater communication to the community and greater assurances from the community that it actually wants to move in the direction you're planning on taking it before going ahead and making those changes. This change doesn't feel well thought through, granted I know this is beta so maybe this is exactly the type of feedback you're hoping to get but I am concerned with the lack of transparency with these kinds of decisions being made. I think there is room for improvement. Let me provide an example:
TW Community Manager:
>(receiving feedback from community on foot speed progression)
>Creates a poll to measure feedback and collect comments and user perspectives on changes
>Reports back to the community on what the poll revealed and some of the good points each side makes and proposes changes if changes are decided to be needed
> Community tests changes in beta and provides temperature check. We iterate in beta until the greater good/design goal has been achieved.
I think the above would provide a better model to introduce changes to existing features/functionality/system characteristics. That's not how changes are being managed now. I also struggle to understand how, in respect to priority, this change was made. There are numerous other areas of the game that require attention and should be prioritized over fine tuning game characteristics.
This is a great game and the entire TW team deserves congratulations on the product they have put together. I only offer my criticisms in good faith as someone who has logged more hours than I would care to share with any family member (and continue to) You guys don't owe me anything, I got my money out of the game and then some. But I see the company and dev team kind of struggle with communicating the direction and vision of the game while managing the expectations/satisfaction levels of the fan base and I really would love for your whole company and team to be beloved and respected for what you have provided the gaming community. I think it's special.