Can we Please get a choice as to what our Characters Start with for R23 and future??

I have mixed feelings.

On one hand, its no big deal. As an experienced player, knowing the outcome of the question choices, I answer the questions as needed to get the starting skills I want. Piece of cake, although that may be gaming the system.

On the other hand, and this is way more important, we need to see it through the lens of a new player. New players are being asked to make a choice. Will they feel like they are getting stuck with a mage when they wanted a warrior if they make the 'wrong' choice? RG has said that he is not keen on the design of games that require a player to make a character class choice not knowing about the choice they are making and then being stuck with it. But, from a new player's perspective, SOTA might be asking them to do something WORSE - it is asking them to not pick a class, but instead answer a few questions and let the game pick it for them!!! How can that possibly be better, giving up even more control? That, understandably, could be a totally new player's view.

It will not be until later that new players realize the skill system is adaptable and, at most, they have lost an hour or two answering the questions 'incorrectly' for their play style. So I'm back to - no big deal. But the new player confusion we hear about it will never end.

 

I would like to start with 10 points of heal and light, and focus. Pick up a weapon in tutorial, and level to 10 on the training dummy. Pick up a cloth, leather, or plate chest piece, and get 10 points in that tree (there needs to be a leather, medium, armor tree). This would be enough to complete the tutorial. Go to Novia along the virtue quest lines, and have a quest that gets some additional weapon, or magic skill starts. As well as providing some gold for training some skills of choice.

Keep the virtue quests, as integral to the world. Put simple choices in front of characters at the start for character, and build creation choices.