Hypothetical Skill Advancement

Just had an interesting idea I thought I'd share. This one is how to change skill advancement to be XP based without redesigning the entire system from the ground up.

Putting points into a skill unlocks a glyph you can then use in your combat deck. Investing more points unlocks how many of that glyph you have. It also allows you to invest in more advance skills.

Well think of each level of investment as a percentage of skill mastery. If a particular skill has 10 levels to invest in.. than each level is worth 10% mastery right?

So.. step one is to unlock the base glyph of every skill at 0% mastery. You then gain experience through using that skill which applies to your mastery of said skill. When you hit 10%.. (what in this example would be the first level of point investment) the next glyph(s) are unlocked at 0% and you can now start using them. So on and so forth.. I think everyone can see where this is going.

This idea is to convert point advancement to learn by doing advancement while leaving the rest of the system in tact.

You could hybrid this a little by still keeping some points per level.. but have each point be worth 10% xp and not have as many per level. In this way you could still pay for actual training to a lesser degree per level.

This system would also allow for possible skill decay options which would eliminate the need for respec. All while keeping the current skill trees and glyphs intact. Best of both worlds.

 

I do not like skill decay, but I like where you going with this. I would prefer system like that.

 

A few additional thoughts..

Maintaining diminishing returns:
So with diminishing returns.. beyond a certain level you get fewer and fewer skill points per level. They way I see it by adding a learn by doing option to the skill system, all skill points would be universally reduced. Now how this concept applies to skill xp might go something like so..

With diminishing returns we effectively have a soft cap on skill points. So we do the same with skill xp. Whatever you expect the upper limit of skills per average player to be.. that amounts to a total of X skill xp. Any skill xp gained beyond that will incur a penalty making it increasingly harder to raise skills based on however much total skill xp that you have.

When spending skill points with this idea, what you're essentially doing is converting points to XP. Which would then apply towards the soft cap.

Ok now right there we have a limited means of going beyond the soft cap by not training and saving up points for the trainer. That could be an acceptable trick but if it's not than you simple put a cap on skill points OR.. a fairer option might be to apply the xp penalty when converting points to xp.

Now we need to address why the respec option is currently necessary. The current system requires it because it's a classless system and players need to have the option to explore all skills. This is a design goal that has not been negotiable since Kickstarter. This is where skill decay comes in.

Skill decay would be difficult to implement under the current system. We're dealing with whole numbers that have significant impact on skills and the amount of points needed for each skill advancement is not universal. But by converting skill points to skill xp as a % of skill mastery.. we overcome this problem. Decay would effect the individual skill's mastery level or xp pool depending on how you look at it.

Players could have the option to lock skills so they don't decay.. or not. This would allow them to explore all skills and control their skill advancement rates (by lowering the xp penalties if they're over the soft cap) . Respec wouldn't be necessary.

 

Well, as I just posted.. I like an option to lock skills to prevent decay if that's what players want. One of the reasons I'm fond of this idea is that it's flexible and gives the players control over how they want to manage their skills.

 

This system sounds like guild wars system, im not sure if i like it better than just building skill by working skill.

 

But this system allows you to do that. You could do that exclusively and never visit a trainer if that's what you wanted to do.

 

Wouldnt that cut back on how many special moves we have? maybe im just not understanding it? Heres what im thinking you are saying, so i get 10 pts to unlock one skill in that skill as we have it now there are roughly 5 or more special things we can do, example, pole arm - pull target skewer leg sweep. so in order to ipen up pole arms i will need 10 points, once i get ten points, the only thing ill have it the first skill on pole arms, in order to get another skill i need 10 more pts, now i have 2 skills in pole arms etc... If that is what your saying, i dont like it! i like having a couple skills in my particular skill tree, so im not always just leg sweeping someone all the time, thats pretty boring! i like having the option of other skills in that tree as well

 

No that's not at all what I'm saying.

I was trying to use a skill with 10 investment levels as an example. Like how right now under the current system you can invest so many times in a certain skill. What I'm suggesting in terms of using the trainer.. is that when you invest in a skill.. those points are converted to skill xp.

If that particular skill requires 10 points to master right now.. then we could think of each point as being worth 10% of THAT skill. That's how much you would gain with the trainer.

If a particular skill needed 50 points now.. it would only be 2%.. it would vary like that depending on how they wanted to balance each individual skill's advancement. As right now different skills require a different amount of points to level up to mastery.

The basic concept I'm getting at here is keeping trainers but converting their points into skill xp. That way you can still pay a trainer to help you skill up and we wouldn't need to trash the existing system and start from the ground up.

You would always gain skill xp through use.. like I think most of us would prefer. So in theory you could master any particular skill just by continued use.

Now, right now you have to invest in skills in order to unlock most advanced skills. The change I'm suggesting here is that those advanced skills be unlocked by reaching a certain level of mastery in a skill rather than through point investment through the trainer.

Does that help clear everything up?

 

I think so i'll need to think on it, it sounds like a good idea!

 

I think this is a very interesting idea. the more you use an unlocked glyph the more proficient you are in that skill, sounds great.

 

I would like to think that this would also address the Dev's concerns about an xp based system being more difficult to balance. Since they can still think of balancing progression of each skill in terms of points.

 

not A bad idea.

my take on it is to convert the existing system to a renown/reputation system and include two opposite alignments to specify which path your character leads (good evil).

Then give player a alternate method(s) to continue their characters development through both skill use and specialization.


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