Jump to content

Cosmetic items for skill specializations


wizardoftrash

Recommended Posts

IDEA: A way to visually identify what players are proficient in key skills, and inversely, a way to show the players around you what your specializations are.

 

Concept: Characters could have cosmetic items, or skins for their suit/tools, that are unlocked by reaching skill benchmarks in specific areas.

 

Fleshing it out: Each skill category (Piloting, guns, scanning, mining, refining, engineering, etc) could have a skill icon associated with said skill. At a certain benchmark, you unlock the ability to wear that icon on your character's suit, or on an article of clothing. This would tell the players around me at least one set of skills I'm proficient in for the purposes of forming loose teams, and also inform them at what level of proficiency I am in that skill.

 

The Engineering skill for example might have a Wrench icon associated with it. A soon as a player becomes proficient in Basic Engineering, they get access to the Wrench Icon as an accessory for their space suit, which would place it on your character's back and on the upper left-hand side of your chest. As a player progresses to Engineering Rank 2, that wrench icon changes to have a #2 incorporated in it, or a wrench with a stripe across it or something, showing the players around you that you have Rank 2 proficiency in the engineering skill.

 

A character could only have 1 skill icon equipped at a time, but they could switch between them. This would be useful for ORGS because they could use it to display who a ranking member is within an org. The Cheif Engineer for example might be the only player permitted to equip "Engineering Rank 4" because an org could decide to use that insignia to show who the ranking officer is at any given tame, same for military roles.

 

I see this as being especially useful though with players who are meeting each other for the first time in-game, and are divvying up tasks for a play session. If I volunteered to be our crew's scanner, I'd equip my Scanning rank insignia, the miner would equip mining, engineer would equip engineering etc. That way we know by looking at each other which one of us is supposed to do what, and players that want to join would know what skillsets we might be missing, or might be able to show us that they are better at scanning than I am for example by equipping their higher rank insignia. It might make cooperating on-the-fly more efficient.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To add to this idea, there could even be a construct-element that can project a skill-based icon as a hologram, or display it on a screen. That way when I get into my ship, it would display which skill roll I represent either on the ship's hull, or floating above my ship. This would make it easy to visually identify your teammates when they aren't out walking around especially if everyone is flying the same ship design.

 

Another thought would be to have an upper-tier of cosmetic item for the really high skill ranks. For example, someone who reaches a very high rank in Engineering might be able to equip a Helmate that resembles a hard-hat, or a character that reaches a high-rank hacking skill unlocks a helmate that resembles a tri-corn pirate hat. It would add a little bit of brag/swag to the system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No thanks, we don't need WoW legondary cosmetics.

 

EVE Online had a better idea.

You are skilled in Drones 5/5 and have skilled yourself in ECM 5/5? Congratulations, there are like 2 ships you can fly with those rquirements.

 

That's how you do it. When I see a person in a Bhalgorn, I can say "that guy has trained Nosferatus and Webs, I should stick the F out of his Webs reach or I will die a painful and - quite possibly - salty death". That in DU can be a specific armor variant, like Bhalgorns are Battleships in EVE, so theyre could be a "Bhalgorn" heavy armor in Du, that is visually identifiable and if noticed people will go "Shoot that Bhalgorn or they'll drain our energy!". Do you know what a Bhalgorn looks like? Of c yo udo ,you are an experienced space-marine of the Kek Empire, you are knowledgable, you don't need silly class icons and handholding. :D

 

Also, the game has  - literally - no classes... and you ask for class icons...

I mean, you can have people ACTIVELY look to the enemy's gear instead on the enemy's portrait to get an idea ofd what they pack. Guiy wears Engineer armor? They are - qquite likely - engineers. Do they wear an armor with a Red Cross on their left rat? Chances are ,they are the medic.

Also, here's the problem with "Class icons". In EVE, i play a very tricky ship class, a Stratios is what I fly. 

Stratios is the EVE answer to the question "how much of a piece of shite can you be when presented with the idea of playing unfairly" and "if you were a knave and a ruffian warlock, how would you torment your victims". The answer in another game, Elder Scrolls Online, is "Nightblade" as the class behind those two questions.

Now tell me, what's the class icon you'd put on a "class" like the Stratios, a medium sized ship (cruiser) which specialises in Drones and Energy Weapons BUT, nobody uses its weapon slots for damage, instead, using them to slot Energy Drain weaponry, which is not expected by many.

See, you can't put "classes" in a sandbox game, it's just not something that applies. You can have roles, like Tank, the DPS amd the Healer, the holy trinity and backbone of any MMO.

Example.
o
You are the lone scout of the Intergalactic Kek Empire, bound by honor to patrol the outter perimeter of the /a/ System, ever vigilant on your quest to vanquish the  Weaboo Scourge from the face of the world.

You notice the enemy, the Weaboos are many, they got them all, Ecchi, Chibi and even, Shonen types in the midst. Your duty asks you to sent at least their most valuable asset - their healer(s) - back to whatever anime fansite corner of the universe they spanwed in.

You ready yer sniper rifle, created by the Craftmaster of Fourchania,  with bullets firing /b/ powered rounds, able to destroy anything anime. You scout through your scope and you notice their leader. the knave is using a Heavy Armor, the Dreadnaught armor. Your mad skills - and use of the itnerwebs - let you know your sniper rifle won't harm the leader, so you move down the ranks.

You notice that in their midst, there are medium armor personel, who have weird weaponry holstered on their back. You know they use the Vampyr Medium Armor, which draisn enrgy from its victims using their specific positron rifles - these guys are not just any DPS, these guys, are Specialists, nto your commno infantry.

But then, you notice the familiar Medium Armor - let's call it Valkyrie - which has a large backpack for storeing energy cells and the familiar weapon associated with it, a beam weapon, that recharges allies' shields. That is the Logistics, the healer of the group, take him out, then call in for a backup, taking out the healer, will leave the group vulnerable to an easy kill.

 

You can try and take the healer out, you canm try and make them chase you to stop the backup forces from having live updates on their lcoation and thus leading thme to a trap. but your knowledge of the game trumps (we need a new verb for this verb :| ) the enemy.

The Kek Empire wins again over the Weaboo Scourge, Glory to the /b/ Nation.




See, on the above example, player experience, allows for good players to shine. Your exposure to the game world and - possibly - proper training from veterans of the game, made you a scout that could make the proper call and identify and bring up information to the backup you called..

With your thing, any newbie could be a scout and easily fooled. "Yeah, C.O. there are 500 Wrenches in that battaliion. Yeah, 500 Wrenches. It's gonna be an easy vicotroy, 500 Engineers, easy kill". Then you arrive and WHOOPS, 500 Heavy Armor behemoths wait for you.

You can't put labels in a game like DU. It's just no possible. The Logistics (healer) in the example, could be using a Vulkan MEdium Armor, that repairs armor isntead of repelenishing shield. 

When in EVE you call out what the enemy has you let the FC know "Guardians". Guardian is an Armor Repair "healer" ship. That immediatrely lets the Fleet Commander know bring out Kinetic weaponry, long range, we'll pummel them from distance". Then the scouts tell them "Guardians, Bhalgorn and Apocalypse". Those three ships make a certain fleet type. Or they might simply say "Sailboat fleet" which is a Shield + Speed fleet. Same can go for DU, you don't need WoW class icons.

With your example, they'd say "Healer, DPS and uh DPS!". That's just not efficient, while with the example I brought, people can say "we got 1 Valkyrie, 5 Vampyr and approximately 20 Dreadnaughts on the spot C.O. ". The example I given, conveys a metric flakton of information, an amount of information  the "wrech" can't convey.

As I said earlier, let the Armor be the class you "wear", not a blanket icon on a nameplate.

I for once, want to be known as a thief, instead of "oh, I haz I dagger Icon on my name , I iz rouge, fear me, I sneakz aroundz".

And finally, you can't even put "icons" for diplomats or 90% of the things you can do in the game that are not tied to skill training.


Cheers.

 

 

 

P.S. : The example in the energy drain is a notorious trick in EVE, where ships drain energy and feed it to the hleaer, who feeds the DPSers' shiedls ,who then obliterate the enemy.

P.S. #2 : Yes, EVE has a lot of flavour, a flavour NQ can take one step beyond.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last I heard, DU and eve were different games.

 

And yeah, DU doesn't have classes, and these aren't class icons, they are skill icons. You could simply choose not to equip them if you don't want an enemy using that info against you in-combat. My suggestion had nothing to do with combat, and everything to do with showing friendly players your qualifications or job in a specific run.

 

 

Mainly what I'm suggesting is a way for a player to look at a crowd, and know which players are looking for a mining job, or a scanning job, without relying on them being truthful about their skill numbers or looking at their stats. Or a way for a player to put on a skill cosmetic for the role they want to play on a mission so that the people around them know "dang, that guy is a gunner".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@wizardoftrash

EVE has the answer as well, biography tab, you have one, you put in your qualifications... or an excerpt of Fifty Shades of Grey... some people do that.

There are more ways than "put scout badge on" to show your qualifications and usually ,fame is earned within a group, not solo.

i.e. youi don't hire "Mike the Dank Merc" you hire Mike the Dank Merc's group, they hold the "franchise". If the Franchise holds a good repuation about top of the line mercs, Mike has rep and then the Bio-card displays "Mike the Dank Merc was part of the Franchise PMC from 2/7/2018 to 12/6/2021. Last position within Frtanchise PMC, was SQuad Leader"

Alteritantive, have  an "Ark-net database" that let's you know the person's credenmtials. Way simpler and less 50 Shades of Grey in people's bio-card.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, CaptainTwerkmotor said:

@wizardoftrash

EVE has the answer as well, biography tab, you have one, you put in your qualifications... or an excerpt of Fifty Shades of Grey... some people do that.

There are more ways than "put scout badge on" to show your qualifications and usually ,fame is earned within a group, not solo.

i.e. youi don't hire "Mike the Dank Merc" you hire Mike the Dank Merc's group, they hold the "franchise". If the Franchise holds a good repuation about top of the line mercs, Mike has rep and then the Bio-card displays "Mike the Dank Merc was part of the Franchise PMC from 2/7/2018 to 12/6/2021. Last position within Frtanchise PMC, was SQuad Leader"

Alteritantive, have  an "Ark-net database" that let's you know the person's credenmtials. Way simpler and less 50 Shades of Grey in people's bio-card.

Again, last I heard was that EVE and DU were different games. Just replying with "this other game doesn't have that" isn't really an argument that something is a bad idea lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, wizardoftrash said:

IDEA: A way to visually identify what players are proficient in key skills, and inversely, a way to show the players around you what your specializations are.

 

Concept: Characters could have cosmetic items, or skins for their suit/tools, that are unlocked by reaching skill benchmarks in specific areas.

 

Fleshing it out: Each skill category (Piloting, guns, scanning, mining, refining, engineering, etc) could have a skill icon associated with said skill. At a certain benchmark, you unlock the ability to wear that icon on your character's suit, or on an article of clothing. This would tell the players around me at least one set of skills I'm proficient in for the purposes of forming loose teams, and also inform them at what level of proficiency I am in that skill.

 

The Engineering skill for example might have a Wrench icon associated with it. A soon as a player becomes proficient in Basic Engineering, they get access to the Wrench Icon as an accessory for their space suit, which would place it on your character's back and on the upper left-hand side of your chest. As a player progresses to Engineering Rank 2, that wrench icon changes to have a #2 incorporated in it, or a wrench with a stripe across it or something, showing the players around you that you have Rank 2 proficiency in the engineering skill.

 

A character could only have 1 skill icon equipped at a time, but they could switch between them. This would be useful for ORGS because they could use it to display who a ranking member is within an org. The Cheif Engineer for example might be the only player permitted to equip "Engineering Rank 4" because an org could decide to use that insignia to show who the ranking officer is at any given tame, same for military roles.

 

I see this as being especially useful though with players who are meeting each other for the first time in-game, and are divvying up tasks for a play session. If I volunteered to be our crew's scanner, I'd equip my Scanning rank insignia, the miner would equip mining, engineer would equip engineering etc. That way we know by looking at each other which one of us is supposed to do what, and players that want to join would know what skillsets we might be missing, or might be able to show us that they are better at scanning than I am for example by equipping their higher rank insignia. It might make cooperating on-the-fly more efficient.

Hey WoT, I like this idea. +1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@mrjacobean

 

Cause you clearly become "master hacker" by earning a degree.


Thing is, if everyone is "master hacker" nobody is master hacker.

And, AGAIN, EVE ONline has the answer. Your "class" / ship has a mastery of skills associated with ti that everyone can see.

If I see ap erso nhas Golden on a shi;, that means they have all skills assocaited with the ship trained at max level, same can go with the Bio-card "arknet database" idea and a person's armor.

Just not silly arbitrary titles. WOW even added legendaries for everyone ,so nobody can feel left out. DU is not pwoer-fantasy., it should not be treated like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, CaptainTwerkmotor said:

Way too easy to be exploited.

Well you either know the other person has gone around to get 500 people who are paying a subscription for a game to say that they are good at ______ or they had 500 people who are paying a subscription voluntarily say that they are good at _______. 

 

I think you are going to run into the later more often.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Bitmouse said:

Well you either know the other person has gone around to get 500 people who are paying a subscription for a game to say that they are good at ______ or they had 500 people who are paying a subscription voluntarily say that they are good at _______. 

 

I think you are going to run into the later more often.

In EVE, people even forge "killmarks" to make a ship have more value, I don't think this simple "+1" system will be less of an exploitable feature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, CaptainTwerkmotor said:

In EVE, people even forge "killmarks" to make a ship have more value, I don't think this simple "+1" system will be less of an exploitable feature.

if it ends up being exploitable, then it would become a measure that people wouldn't pay much attention to. That doesn't mean its useless, that means it could be less useful. Plus if you limit it to max +1 per user, you'd have to basically beg people to +1 you. To add a little icing to it, you could set it up so that only people who are subbing (no free trails) can +1 somebody, so that way if someone is running alts to +1, they are paying for each of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, wizardoftrash said:

if it ends up being exploitable, then it would become a measure that people wouldn't pay much attention to. That doesn't mean its useless, that means it could be less useful. Plus if you limit it to max +1 per user, you'd have to basically beg people to +1 you. To add a little icing to it, you could set it up so that only people who are subbing (no free trails) can +1 somebody, so that way if someone is running alts to +1, they are paying for each of them.

Yeah, which is the issue the biocard solves. You look up an applicant's skills and you see "Wizard has trained he skills I want for my group and the job we do, Wizard is hirted".

Think of it as an in-game resume the idea of a biocard.

DU may not be EVE, but JC Baillie said they want EVE's metagame, not WoW's, so no silly class icons or l3g0nd4ry cosmetics or titles. 

Heck, EVE even allows you to set your own title xD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, CaptainTwerkmotor said:

Yeah, which is the issue the biocard solves. You look up an applicant's skills and you see "Wizard has trained he skills I want for my group and the job we do, Wizard is hirted".

Think of it as an in-game resume the idea of a biocard.

DU may not be EVE, but JC Baillie said they want EVE's metagame, not WoW's, so no silly class icons or l3g0nd4ry cosmetics or titles. 

Heck, EVE even allows you to set your own title xD

Would the bio card be automatic, and if so, could someone put false information on there or omit some previous actions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, mrjacobean said:

Would the bio card be automatic, and if so, could someone put false information on there or omit some previous actions?

I like the way yo uthink.

Short answer, why not, tha'ts what hacking is meant to do after all. MAke hackers able to forge their "resume" to remove the fact the4y got... hacking trained. Or what money they get from where.

DU is a sandbox, a feature should serve multiple purposes. Bio-card = social tool / resume, as well as an opportunity for mischief.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, mrjacobean said:

Would the bio card be automatic, and if so, could someone put false information on there or omit some previous actions?

I imagine it would be sorta like looking at someone's Character Sheet (to use a traditional RPG term there) and that's great if you are taking a nice long time to pick people out in a text window or something.

 

What I was suggesting was more walking to walking around with a sign or billboard saying "MiningLV3" so that a nearby player might spontaneously ask you to join up for a trip, and bingo, quick and simple cooperation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, wizardoftrash said:

What I was suggesting was more walking to walking around with a sign or billboard saying "MiningLV3" so that a nearby player might spontaneously ask you to join up for a trip, and bingo, quick and simple cooperation.

So, custom title (which you can put anything in) and a bio card that is your public character information. Sounds pretty good

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, wizardoftrash said:

I imagine it would be sorta like looking at someone's Character Sheet (to use a traditional RPG term there) and that's great if you are taking a nice long time to pick people out in a text window or something.

 

What I was suggesting was more walking to walking around with a sign or billboard saying "MiningLV3" so that a nearby player might spontaneously ask you to join up for a trip, and bingo, quick and simple cooperation.

Tha'ts just as obnoxious though as the guy linnking their DPS meter after every, single, trash pack in any MMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, mrjacobean said:

So, custom title (which you can put anything in) and a bio card that is your public character information. Sounds pretty good

ERRM, no, more like what I'm suggesting at the start of the topic: A cosmetic stamp you can wear, that you gain access to by actually having the skill at a high enough level (or I guess by spoofing it with a hacking skill. I'm in-favor of that sorta thing, sorta like an ID strambler or ID spoofer).

 

Plus hey, it would be confined to their avatar, so its not like it would clutter people's display.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, wizardoftrash said:

ERRM, no, more like what I'm suggesting at the start of the topic: A cosmetic stamp you can wear, that you gain access to by actually having the skill at a high enough level (or I guess by spoofing it with a hacking skill. I'm in-favor of that sorta thing, sorta like an ID strambler or ID spoofer).

 

Plus hey, it would be confined to their avatar, so its not like it would clutter people's display.

 

I would like an arm patch or something that goes onto your suit, something cosmetic that isn't overly flashy but is pretty easily identified once you're standing next to someone with one on. If they had patches or something, I would want them to be extremely difficult to get. The kind of thing you'd get when you finish training a skill that has a ton of pre-requisites and takes weeks or months to finish training up. 

 

If there's an analogy to this kind of system in Eve Online, it would be the skill certificates system:

certsblogimage1.png


Something purely cosmetic that players see when they check your profile, something that indicates that you are capable of doing XYZ without having to dig through all of your skills individually. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, yamamushi said:

 

I would like an arm patch or something that goes onto your suit, something cosmetic that isn't overly flashy but is pretty easily identified once you're standing next to someone with one on. If they had patches or something, I would want them to be extremely difficult to get. The kind of thing you'd get when you finish training a skill that has a ton of pre-requisites and takes weeks or months to finish training up. 

 

If there's an analogy to this kind of system in Eve Online, it would be the skill certificates system:

certsblogimage1.png


Something purely cosmetic that players see when they check your profile, something that indicates that you are capable of doing XYZ without having to dig through all of your skills individually. 

 

EXACTLY. a voluntary way to visually show a credential, so that a player can look at you and know instantly that you can do what they need. It would allow players to form a crew quickly and easily in-person without opening windows and sifting through text.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...