Skill trees

[jrhod99]

Ok, so I previously posted about a game play idea I had and I thought I would start a topic to go more in depth. The idea was skill trees as you can see from the title. I'm thinking it would look something like this with more skills.

 

 

 

Farming 

[jrhod99]

Sorry I accidentally hit enter I will continue in this post

 

                                   Apothecary training

             Herb Growing

                                   Poison Knowledge

Farming                               

              Orchard Farming

 

 

                     Pole Fishing

Spear fishing

                     Net Fishing

 

 

I hope that gives you some idea of what it would be, my idea would allow for much customization by the players, the actually thing could have hundreds of base categories but really how many is up to the developer and what will work best with the game. I also feel that it shouldn't be you level up get a skill point and unlock one of these I think it would be better if you got a sort of skill experience as you continue in the game which can then be applied to one of these categories for benefits. After you put so much (Skill Experience) into the base skill then you can start upgrading the others giving more choice to the player. This could also include many other skills that you don't usually see in other skill trees such as flying or ship maintenance effecting how maneuverable or how fast you can repair your ship. And depending on how much Skill Experience you put into a category effects how many bonuses you get from it.

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

Hi Jared,

 

Skill trees are something already planned.

It will enable player characters to unlock possible activities and new gameplay.

The skills will be learned over time, whether your character is online or offline (think of it as a way of learning like in "Matrix", when Neo learns KungFu... but at a much slower pace).

 

We are looking to let the player character unlock main activities mastered at a basic level in a matter of minutes.

Some will take a few hours and other, more advanced gameplay features might require to have already some skills at an expert level to be unlocked.

 

One of our concerns here is also to avoid giving the feeling to new players that "old players are impossible to catch up with": old players will have the advantage to be specialized in various activities, but if a new player starts by specializing himself in one activity, he should be able to reach the same level (or nearly the same level) of expertise than a old player quickly.

 

Skill trees are a vast topic and it will probably be the subject of a DevBlog in the future.

[Michaelc]

I really like this about skill trees. This will be really unique for players and the game

[vylqun]

One of our concerns here is also to avoid giving the feeling to new players that "old players are impossible to catch up with"

 

How about giving players the ability to create "skillbooks" when they mastered a certain part of the skilltree, which improves the training speed for the person using it by 50% or something alike. That would give new players the chance to catch up while old players still have the benefit from selling those skillbooks.

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

Hi vylqun,

 

The idea is interesting but giving control to players over skill training might end with huge abuses:

- Groups of players will agree between them to research one different skill for each character.

- Then each of these players will create a Skill Book with increased learning speed from the skill he has just learnt and give him to each member of the group.

- In the end, the bigger the group will be, the faster all the members will have access to nearly all skills with improved speed, and that, right from the beginning. In the end it will just increased speed training for everyone and not just new players, destroying the original purpose.

[vylqun]

mh, yes, thats true, it would probably only work with a limit like 1 skillbook per week and then big guilds still have a head start.

[Toecutter]

Why not have everything usable from the start, but with the ability to increase its effectiveness by a fairly large amount with training, rather than saying that something cant be done, it could be done but badly, preventing new players from seeing the time between now and what they want to do and giving up

[Quinn23]

Skill trees have been used successfully in many games for a reason: They make sense and are effective. Plus, they mirror how we learn in real life. 

 

@Toecutter, I wouldn't want to have everything available at the beginning. It doesn't make logical sense, although I can see an arguement for it all being downloaded into our heads by out computer caretaker.

[Toecutter]

Skill trees have been used successfully in many games for a reason: They make sense and are effective. Plus, they mirror how we learn in real life. 

 

@Toecutter, I wouldn't want to have everything available at the beginning. It doesn't make logical sense, although I can see an arguement for it all being downloaded into our heads by out computer caretaker.

well I mean, you can go to the store and buy a guitar, strum on it and make sounds without any training, but you actually need to learn the chords to find it useful, is my point

[Quinn23]

well I mean, you can go to the store and buy a guitar, strum on it and make sounds without any training, but you actually need to learn the chords to find it useful, is my point

 

And that would be training a new skill. Being able to strum is not a skill. learning the chords and how to play is developing a skill.

[Anaximander]

And that would be training a new skill. Being able to strum is not a skill. learning the chords and how to play is developing a skill.

Well, darn me, we finally agree on something. Indeed, piloting is not requiring you to have a skill that allows you get into a cockpit. But training as a pilot in-game, will make you roll and turn in better rates. Same goes with guns.

 

 

I can equip a sniper rifle, but if I got no skills invested in that tree, I won't be any effective at all with it, my hits missing all the time or taking long times to lock-on to a person.