Skill Decay and how it is interfereing with my game play.

The community has only documented a few minor effects of decay, and while none of it is very ground breaking, I would like to share with the community my thoughts at the moment.

Once R22 landed, I logged in and took a look at some of the great new features in game. With no visual representation of my adventure level, I felt that hunting wolves and other such creatures was a very meaningless task, so I didn't do much of it.

I haven't played in over a week right now, and I fully accept that decay will happen to "a max of two days". But what is stopping me from logging on right now is that I do not want to trigger that 2 day decay by logging in for a short gaming session, and then have the decay system start off another "max of two days" worth of decay. I feel like I must safeguard my skills, and save my "max of 2 days decay" for a meaningful gaming session.

 

I'm not concerned with skill decay. However, I do have a related concern about maxing out skills in a never ending race to a finish line that is always out of reach.

I would prefer there to be a pendulum effect on skills, and as they decay over time, they simply pull from skills I no longer wish to be using. For example, the starting skills I was given when I made my character. I don't care if those skills decay, in fact I'd prefer it as it feels like a blemish on my character progression. I would like the ability to designate which skills decay first and which skills decay last. I think that would go a long way in making me (and perhaps others) feel better about skill decay over all.

 

this brings a good point here, log in to check mesages, your vendor, and log out in less than five minutes - that will start the decay again, do that every few days, and you lose a lot of skill when, in my opinion, you should not.

maybe if you login and kill something. anything, even a little rabbit or deer or gnat or gbug. i.e. if you USE the skill system (even to craft an item), the timer starts again. but if you are hear to simply check up on the status of your lot or read a bulliten board...

 

Any objections to making skill decay kind of hidden/mysterious in a way that maybe losing alchemy would also lower a little cooking (alchemy of food) and blacksmithing (alchemy of metals) at the same time, and maybe some virtues ?

This way even if I followed a wiki to build my character, that would still leave some room for uncertainty which would discourage trying to min/max.

Of course people would map those interrelations in short order, but at least if the decay isn't simply written in their face people will start focusing on evolution and adaptation rather than pure mathematical concern which takes one out of immersion.

- So no indication in journal or anywhere that skills have decayed and dragged a few others skills down, but at the same time no indication that dedication to certain skill also enhance other skills.

- This "room" must be applied with independant math equations over the skill result so that it can also serve to justify critical success in some skills, this way a mage that would specialise only in fire magic could reduce the opponent fire resist each time he gets hit and noone would be all offended saying : its impossible the maths say its impossible aka metagaming which is acrid in the mouth of any gamemaster/roleplayer.

Your thoughts please...

 

my problem with skill decay is that i will never, and i mean never forget how to ride a bike well.

 

I think could be better for me to make harder to rise a skill for a while than to lost skill. Is like to lost future points, not already learned ones.

 

You also don't log off of the game and return later.

 

sometimes i do, i use to drink alot lol

 

Skill decay is only applied when you die or gain a skill improvement. That means, if you do anything else like checking the vendor, building your house or just chatting, than this doesn't apply your decay. You are still at your 2 days.

 

If you've reached the "maxed of two days" and log in and only spend 30mins of that 48 hours, your pool is now at 47.5 hours... to be capped (again) at 48 hours.

... it doesn't add another set of 2 days on top to 95.5 hours.

 

not enitrely true - i used to race bmx when i was a kid. now, i have no idea HOW to do any of those tricks that got me ahead inch by inch.. i can still ride a bike, fairly well, just not do any of the higher-end stuff.

thanks for the reminder, riya. i for some reason keep forgetting that one detail..

 

Moonshadow has a very good point, but see moonshadow if I become a hardened blacksmith, my fingers wouldn't be agile enough anymore to become a musician... maybe a drummer. Skill decay also needs to make sense... I often wonder why I'm repeating the same things over and over... is it worth it ? is ANYONE listening ?

You guys are again ignoring me as I'm just relaying Xorinite instructions, do you really want to deny their existance ? Cause I would really see a royal warrant to eliminate the very last one of them in an inquisition....

 

The decay I have seen happened after I used a specific skill. Not sure that just logging in resets this timer.

My understanding from my own observations is that if I dont use the skills that actually set the decay off (first time you use a skill when you play again) then the timer wont restart.

Clarification would help.

 

Interesting opening topic that probably needs a dev team response or coverage in the R22 post mortem.

 

I do not mind skill decay ( its like real life in such you need to practice to keep at the level of skill your at) I would however expect it to rise quickly to where you left off though.

 

Sorry but this a post that has NO substance- who has had ANY decay?

They even asked for some examples of Decay and I am pretty sure NOT one person has seen any decay like they think.

If the fear of decay keep you from playing - well that is just plain sad. The ONLY time you might even see decay ( as they stated) is about 30 days for 1 point. And then it really will only have any effects when you are higher levels HIGHER like 70+ At the lower levels any use if a skill will easily EASILY offset ANY decay. It is only at the highest levels of a skill will decay even have a chance at working.

the devs have said this over and OVER, it is just fear mongering and speculation by those that refuse to accept what they are told.

They have even said they are / work on a way to prevent this for players like soldier who get deployed over extended periods.

All the looking for the bad, without proof is just plain foolish.

 

I see your point.
I just can't be bothered. I really don't mind the two day decay.
That's nothing a few hours of slaying monsters can't fix.
I guess it come's down to your (and my) gaming attitude here.

Btw: I understood the system different.
Afaik the decay starts right after you killed the last monster(or tree). If you don't log on and actually earn exp after that your decay will run for max two days and is capped after that.
So logging on isn't going to help you.

 

I was at exactly 114 polearms and 103 deflection so I could gauge the decay rate first hand... not once did I see either skill drop down.

I think it comes down to perception and how competitive people are as I haven't cared one bit about losing even a few decimals of skill in pre-alpha nor am I worried about it after launch but I'm also not very competitive against anyone but myself.

I'll keep my character at 100... or 80... or 105 depending of the skill. If I lose 0.1 then I know I'll make it back whenever suits me. Even if I log on every two days to say hello for a year I'll still only lose what to me is minor skill that I'll just gain back. Still far superior to a hard cap in my eyes because I'd hate to hit 700 and not care about playing anymore because my advancement is capped.

 

Has this topic been added to the thread of questions for the Oct 6 video chat with Chris regarding combat and skills? The thread is in the Community Announcements Forum.

 

Perhaps not "forget", but it is, in fact, possible to unlearn how to ride a bike: