Mad Skillz!

[secon]

While procrastinating I had some ideas, and while they might or might not be right for this game, I thought I'd throw them out there.

Imagine a classless system, where customization is the key.

Imagine you have a skill-tree with one slot for each 5 levels, and let's just say it tops off at 50. So you have 10 skill slots.

For each slot you have several different possible skills that you can put into it.
And the way you get skills to choose from can vary. You might have some base skills that you get to choose from the moment you reach the required level. Other skills might need to be bought, some might you might even have to quest for. Maybe even trade in a collection of powerful talismans for it.

Now the way it works is like this. And remember, these are all just examples to get the point across.


At level 5 you might choose one of the base skills.

+3 too all types of damage.


At level 10 you pick another base skill.

+6 to all types of damage.


At level 15 you pick yet another of the free skills.

+8 speed.
-2% gold.

However, you've got some gold now, and you noticed that in the other town you can buy a level 10 skill that gives +4 speed. And level 5 skill that gives +2 speed. There's also a level 15 skill with +8 speed, and no gold penalty, but you can't afford that. So you buy the new skills, and you now have the choice of switching out your old skills. Possibly for a cost, either gold or maybe in turns. 5 turns for level 5 skill, 10 for a level 10 skill... Other restrictions might also work, 1 skill swap per level, or per 24-hours.


Discuss.

[Tim]

First off, your suggestion is automatically void because you said 'skillz'.

Second (and in seriousness), it's a pretty interesting idea. I'll have to think about the logistics and possiblities with the idea, but it's definatley something to consider.

[secon]

And shortly after, you post a topic about character classes. Fine, I'll play your game.

You can have classes with this system as well. But instead of a character class being something you pick when you first start a character, a class is more like a job that you pick later in life. Different classes require certain skills, or certain minimum "stats", which you can get from skills.

You could even require the use of a certain talismans. For example, a warder would be required to use an armor that had a Warder Talisman on it. Or a Talisman of Bonding. This would allow you to give both benefits and drawbacks to classes.


Of course, this is mainly just mind-play for my benefit, and an actual system like this would probably be a nightmare to balance, unless you could come up with a points system for stats that makes allocating stats something easy to balance.

[Tim]

This system could be modified to play nicely with character classes. Character classes could have stat boosting skills and things like that, while all characters could also have skill slots like you described with skills that could be bought/earned. It could even be set up so certain skills are only available to certain classes (Aiel can't learn sword skills, only certain classes can use OP skills). So don't see my posting of character class suggestions as a no to this idea. I like the custumization that this would allow. My big concern with this is as you a said, being a nightmare to balance. Doesn't mean it's not possible though

[secon]

Oh it certainly could play nicely with classes. Either as a system where you pick a class from the start, or you develop into a class.

Really the benefits of such a system is customization, and freedom of choice.

Currently, if you play to level 40 as a ranged character, and you later find out you really like swords, you have to start over. And at that point, you're so far behind everyone else there's not much point.

A system like this would be much more forgiving when it comes to making mistakes, which can be very important for new players. But also allows the experienced players to toy around a bit more, instead of just picking the obvious choices down a clearly linear path.

I'm not sure how Craig did balancing, or if you have any ideas of how you will do it. But certainly the more choices you give people, the harder it will be to balance such a system out. At least without some fairly complex underlying system.

[Hugh Longshanks]

I like it, con. This has a lot of potential....And customization is always a plus.

In fact, I really don't have any suggestions on the subject, other than to say: keep thinking about it. I might have a couple ideas in the near future.

[secon]

Well, I'm not really sure there's anything else to say about it. Or to think about.

Unless someone comes up with some critisism for it.. hint hint.

I guess I could add that this also makes it a lot easier to add skills later on.
This, combined with my balancing system would make the game a lot more modular and easy to expand.

[secon]

I guess I should add that I did not mean that you would have 10 different attacks. The skills would simply be a way to get added bonuses.

And the attacks would instead come from the class you pick. With different bonuses for each attack, for each class.