Use based skills

I feel like the starting area should not be as much about fighting creatures above you to get through it as teaching you a bit about the game and story. Many games have a tutorial area that has you do things in the game, chop wood and get ore for them etc. Usually it's a bit boring if you already know, but will help in the use based system to get us started, and won't be rich in resources of any high value, but starting stuff. I'm sure the team has plans for us. Of course in this game it would be interesting and not boring

 

My problem with skill decay, is, it will decay even when you are off line, now THAT SUX..... that I do not like, period. I don't play every day, if I did, I would get burned out really fast.... and I don't want to be on the computer every day when there's so much to do in RL.... I play games to have fun and to take a break from RL now and then.... sometimes I can play for hrs on end every day, sometimes I stay away from the computer for days.... I don't want to be penalized for not playing the game EVERY Single DAY just to avoid decay .....

 

yea I am curious about this too ... I for one like playing multiple chars, I usually build a pure ranger/archer type for 1 char and a healer/tank type for a 2nd char and a crafter for the 3rd ... I also bought into some of the pledges that offered 3 char slots for that reason, with the use base system with the decay thingy for not being online How does that effect my other chars? Does that mean I have to log each one on every day and progress them so they don't loose the exp. they gained? I have to play them all the time just to keep them up (maintain them) .... I don't like this ....

 

As was noted, you do not need to log in every day, and skill decay is capped very low. If you are offline for three days or three weeks, you get the same amount of decay.

I'm worried that that cap might still be too much for someone to maintain a grandmaster if they are not a hardcore, multi-hours per day player, but I'll wait to see what it is like in R21 before getting into it.

I think the easiest way would be to tie all of the characters on the account together; if any are played it prevents decay on the others. However, we don't know if decay is pre-skill or global; can I stave off my grandmaster craftman's skill from deteriorating while I adventure? If not, then we need easy ways to get back to town, or I have to use two characters and play both of them at different times; both can hurt casual players.

 

We might know this to be the case but it is not a design goal to make the road to independence easier. If the devs don't want everyone to be able to max everything then allowing them to do so is contrary to design goals. They'll want something in place to keep that from happening.

 

Also remember decay only kicks in either when you die or when you raise skills. Add the very also rate of decay with the 2 day cap and it's not much of a penalty for not logging in.

 

Issues with this will come up when you look at it in the single player side, if you can't max out different skills what is the option for that player? I get the issues online wanting the different skills people to be important...but at the same time there has to be a mechanism for the single player to get items made by other crafters if they need them. This isn't as bad on SPO but SPoffline it is a deal breaker.

 

I've pointed this out earlier but it would be a simple matter to turn skill decay and any other restrictions off for offline play. In fact there's no reason not to.

 

That's a good idea. To be honest I'm not seeing this game as a big draw for offline play(may come as a shock for some of you).

 

I swear, this subject confirms my opinion that there is a large group of people who do not want anyone to excel and support their logic with references to cheating. In real life perhaps we should put weight belts on basketball players according to their ability and training so that everyone has a chance to go pro.

 

In multiplayer it could be seen as a balance issue... Think about it, there are some players that practically live online. Within a week of launch, those players will all be running around with "maxed out" characters and loot - not only is that unfair to the "casual" majority of players (and I use this term loosely, "casual" could be used to describe practically any player with a job, school, children, significant other, or whatever they commute to irl) who want to discover and experience the multiplayer story in a party without having to "zerg" - because their hardcore guild has done everything like 50 times already (this was a big problem especially with DDO), but additionally, the devs will become over burdened trying to come up with new content to challenge and occupy these "super-players" (who are also usually the loudest voices of a player base). I always hated that about MMO's - regular players can't really compete because of that 1% who plays 24/7, hogging up all the rare resources, boss monsters, loot etc. Maybe SotA will not turn out like this, since it's not a "true" MMO, but for some it is still a concern. Time will tell.

 

maxing out all of the skills, and the consequences, was a point you brought up. i am not saying all skills SHOULD be allowd to get to the max. i was merely commenting on what you said, what kind of economy would we have if we could.

if the game design is not to have all max skills, cool beans.

my entire problem is the decay. i will not play a game that has experience/skill decay. it makes zero sense to me. i don't play everyday and i do not want to play a game that will agrivate me when i log in two day later aand see my skills have lost exp.

 

You can't mix online and offline characters.

If someone maxes an offline character (or hacks their save game or anything like that) they can't take that character online.

 

Big fan of use based skill progression. Very excited and looking forward to it.

 

I expect to become a grandmaster in a skill to be a long process, anywhere to 6 months to a year! But with chris´s current plan on giving players the ability to level up all skills but not all to grandmaster because of the skill decay. Instead of leveling up all the skills, if i chose to only focus in a few skills and got them to gm after many months. Id be pretty p´ed off if i seen it drop to 98 and have to gain that last 2 skill points all over again! Makes no sense with the fact we have 3 characters and not just the one to focus on...

I agree, To me having a economy that is thriving is a major game feature! Having a player that can achieve so much on his lonesome, and not have to rely on other players from time to time is a game killer! Especially if all the top tier gear and items are all man made people will just make there own and done..

 

I was speaking of online mode.

 

After reading this weeks Update of the Avatar, I'm even less happy about this.

 

explain?

 

What I don't like about what I've read is how non-intuitive it sounds. Regular leveling systems are simple and easy to grasp. Pure use-based, even though I dislike them, are very easy to grasp. But this system? Reminds me of the pain that is Eldar Scrolls Oblivion (or Morrowind) that required all kinds of weird behaviors to maximize the benefits of your experience.

 

Remember in the early days of UO, how you would work real hard to maximize certain skills and then some jerk would come along and light a camp fire? Yeah.