Poll - should we have skill decay?

Here's a question for anybody who wants to answer:

If you were at the battlefront and you had to choose between 2 warriors to fight by your side - you can only choose one.

All you know about these 2 warriors is this:

Warrior 1 is GM fighter who has been decorating his home for the last six months and never fighting, but is in good condition.
Warrior 2 is GM fighter who has been fighting daily for 6 months and is in good condition.

Which Warrior would you choose ?
Oh, and why....

 

I'd choose Warrior #1 because decorators are FABULOUS and I like well-rounded people. And after we dominate on the battlefield we can sit on a comfy couch in his house, drink a beer, and tell war stories.

 

I would choose number 1 because I've read enough fantasy novels to know that the grand master weapon person in the story that has a humble day job is really a nigh unstoppable god like killing machine just waiting for the young hero to come along so he can teach him everything he knows.

Plus the other guy would be exhausted from non-stop fighting and as anyone who has ever served in military during war time can tell you, you get battle fatigue and can't do the same thing non-stop.

 

Erm.. I choose #1, because I like Budner's reasons and agree with them.
I also like to root for the underdog.

But you make a great point, and I do like skill decay. I think it's the best thing since movement-based focus-drain! ;-D

 

So far, no data.... hmmm
But I got a good chuckle out of the Budman's retort...

 

Tristan J. one problem is that they are supposedly changing the way decay works starting next release. The current gripe based on how it HAS been working is justified and has significant data to back it up, which is why it's being adjusted. Until we see the next version of it though, there isn't any data to confirm if those of us who detest it are justified beyond the way we currently feel about it. And most of us who don't like it, don't like being penalized when playing a game or being unable to grind 24/7.

 

The data is extremely, massively difficult to come by.

Since you know (already indirectly) how much XP go from pool to skill, but you do NOT know how much XP are lost on decay, there's no way to say how much decay you're experiencing.

You lack hard numbers (as in "welcome back, since your last login you lost 100 on Blades, 200 on Flame Fist and 150 on Double Slash"), so I don't know what kind of evidence besides "a slightly shorter, maybe a couple of pixels, tiny green line" we could provide as feedback.

 

Actually, it isn't.........

Actually, there is.......

Here's some actual data on our current skill decay:

A week into R23 (almost 3 months ago) I locked Strength of Earth at 11 and never used it after that.
Yesterday I unlocked it and tracked how much it took to get back to gaining again.
It took 4 uses of the skill and a total of 12 xp's from my pool to begin gaining again.

A week into R23 (almost 3 months ago) I locked Immolation at 25 and never used it after that.
Yesterday I unlocked it and tracked how much it took to get back to gaining again.
It took 12 uses of the skill and a total of 48 xp's from my pool to begin gaining again.

2 months ago I locked Death Ray at 73 and never used it after that.
Yesterday I unlocked it and tracked how much it took to get back to gaining again.
It took 55 uses of the skill and a total of 13,250 xp's from my pool to begin gaining again.

A little over a month ago I locked Stone Fist at 101 and used it as a primary attack every day.
Yesterday I unlocked it and tracked how much it took to get back to gaining again.
It took 350 uses of the skill and a total of 123,191 xp's from my pool to begin gaining again.

Keep in mind that when you lock any skill, you KEEP THE CURRENT LEVEL OF POWER FOR THAT SKILL.
If you're 10 or 100 in any skill when you lock it, you STAY at 10 or 100 in terms of skill effectiveness.

After seeing EXACTLY how much "in the hole" I was for all the examples above, I don't have a serious problem with any aspect of skill decay with one notable exception.
If you lock a skill AND USE IT A LOT, then you should NOT suffer skill decay - or it should be extremely minimal at most.

So, for everyone who's been screaming about skill decay - methinks thou dost protest too much.

Besides, Chris already said it was going to be better moving into R26.
I'm not worried - are you?

 

So we know that it totally fails to prevent someone from getting grandmaster in a ton of skills. Good to know. So mainly it's in there to annoy casuals. Awesome.

 

You have apparently missed reading the post directly above yours, which clearly shows that even the current decay (which is to be reduced) is not a big deal for "casuals"....

 

This is my point.

It's totally fuzzy what "begin gaining again" means. The bar was empty and you started seeing the first green pixel?

You can do that trick for the "hole". But if you are halfway from 101 to 102, and your green bar "shrinks a little", how do you provide data on that "a little"?

You only provided data about recovering from the hole - already announced as being fixed, and actually reducing the level instead of putting you "into the negative".

How can you provide decent feedback with such imprecise data?

Btw, 123K are an INSANE amount of XP for anyone not a full-time grinder like you or Themo.

 

Yea, the real issue with stuff like skill decay is that it seems like it's extremely punishing for more casual players in a way that doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, it makes sense if owning a huge plot of land in a major city requires a certain amount of upkeep, because it'd be silly if it was owned by an inactive player for all time. But skills? Those should always be a "At your own pace" kind of thing, they don't take away opportunities from someone who might be working harder.

 

Not worried, it is just a decoration simulator with a side of combat after all.

I think it is fine, plus the people that can't be hardcore grinders but want to will just bot, sadly.

 

Warrior 1, duh, because not only do I want my companion fresh and ready for a fight, but I also want his/her fashionable and fabulous advice on how to decorate my home!

 

Some form of decay is somewhat required if you're trying to avoid players from reaching an inevitable hard cap.

For a game like SotA, I think it makes sense.

Warrior 2 because the player of Warrior 1 is most likely rusty at playing in combat situations. The character stats have nothing to do with the decision.