Skill system overhaul.

[SynthesisAlpha]

As it stands right now, it is fairly easy for a player to purchase all the skills in the game within a few days of playing. After that, the only thing to do with LP is dump it into the combat stats or exploration/stealth. There are some serious imbalances in the math in both combat and the leaving/tracking of scents, but that's a story for another day.

What I'm suggesting is a method by which the LP/skill system could be altered, and by which characters could specialize, not just in their stat development and combat style of preference, but in each aspect of the game from farming to crafting, combat to cooking.

First, skills are divided into a number of subsets. Performing actions that gain LP would give LP to that skillset, as well as a small percentage of the total amount (5-10%?) to a general LP pool. Improving skills in a given category would require you to spend LP from that category or the general pool, or both. My suggestions for the subsets are as follows.

Melee combat -- covering both unarmed and melee attacks/defenses
Ranged combat -- including defending oneself from ranged attacks
Farming & Harvesting (includes butchering and skinning)
Food Preparation
Crafting & Construction
Lumberjacking & Mining (Includes clay and sand gathering)
Metalworking
Justice -- Ranging and the like
Black Arts
(Since ranging and thieving actions don't grant LP, having tracking or criminal acts turned on could divert a portion of gained LP into the pools for those skills)
(More categories added if new skills are introduced that do not fit one of the above)

Each category would have a number of skills, starting at 0, and increasing to 1 when a player buys a new skill. Once a skill is acquired, LP can be invested to raise those skills and improve player performance in that category.

For example, the Farming and Harvesting category could have the following skills, which would influence your character's performance in those areas :
Crop Planting - Reduces time for crops to grow
Crop Harvesting - Increases yield of harvests
Beekeeping & Sericulture - More honey and wax, increases radius of beehives, more eggs from moths and silk from cocoons
Animal Husbandry - Better yield from butchering & skinning (hopefully we'll be able to do more with farm animals in the future)

In other words, every player action in the game would be scalable. Some skills may reduce stamina drain, increase yield, make actions faster, increase the chances of success, etc. You spend most of your time farming, you improve your farming abilities. If you spend all day in the mines, you're better at mining then the farming character. Most importantly, if you want to get better at combat, you have to spend more time actually fighting things.

If a skilled cook made foods that gave more FEP, if a skilled crafter made armor with higher soak and HP, if a skilled lumberjack cut more trunks from a tree, and more blocks/boards from a trunk, if a skilled thief produced fewer scents that disappeared faster -- all of these things would contribute to a more varied community, a more interesting game, and much, much higher player longevity, since there would be so much more room for improvement in a character. It would encourage player communities instead of allowing everyone to do everything (yes, even nature/industry, since all you need is a full industry alt for mining and you're set).

This would require a major and complete overhaul of not only the skill/LP system, but also the combat system and in truth, how the outcome of every action in the game is determined to allow for the impact of character skills on everything. In the end, though, it would make for a much more varied and interesting game.

[Colbear]

I really like this idea. This will give crafters some sort of value, because right now, anyone can do anything, and the only thing is that some guys are better at combat than other guys. Someone who goes pure crafting has no actual VALUE, aside from in the "i can't be bothered to get these items" sense. I'd be happy to spend a lot of time cooking and farming, but only if it has a point -- ie, I can get better at said skills.

Right now, I don't have anything to do in this game -- I have the skills, I can make stuff, but... so what? I don't care really about being able to kill stronger animals, and I can't learn to make cooler stuff, so all I can maybe do is help other people get their consumable supply items, like bandages or food, but to what end?

It's boring and I'm bored.

[ActionHank]

Right now, I don't have anything to do in this game -- I have the skills, I can make stuff, but... so what? I don't care really about being able to kill stronger animals, and I can't learn to make cooler stuff, so all I can maybe do is help other people get their consumable supply items, like bandages or food, but to what end?

It's boring and I'm bored.

I agree with this. Everyone can become a master jack-of-all-trades except in combat which is mostly useless unless you want to get killed by "the good guys" who are so far ahead in combat skills (which is the only thing left to buy with LP) that it would take weeks or months to catch up.

[eql]

I like this idea, because it seems to be shying away from the UO style skill system, in the sense of putting things into relevant groups and the skills raising like that rather than each skill has its own points to raise.

or maybe i got it all wrong, its early ;]