The calm before the storm: Skill degrade

What would you propose for a skill cap, and what do you perceive would be the benefit to the game by instituting one? And also, assuming the benefit is real, would it still be worth the fallout that would inevitably occur when the hounds sniff out that "Portalarium is going back on their word that there would be no skill caps". Would it still be worth it, you think?

 

Give me some time driving ATM

 

Skill loss on death serves one single purpose. It is an attempt to level the playing field in PvP, plain and simple.
That is it's purpose, nothing else.

The rest of us be damn'd.....

Bad idea, very bad.

 

People keep complaing about skill decay. A lot. What the Devs are doing? I though this game were being build for players. Whats the Point of having 2+ chars in this game if we have skill decay? OMG. What the Devs are waiting to fix this? Some years of game to watch this butterfly effect and people saying: I TOLD YOU SO? Let me show you guys my example. Im a dentist and im at medic school... at some point i will have time to play SOTA only 1 day between 5-7 days... so everytime i will open the game i will have to farm back the lost exp? Are the Devs serious about this? IM FORCED TO PLAY this game almost every freaking couple days or i will lose my exp because i will have little time? Devs really want just a small part of really super hardcore gamers playing this game? IS THAT IT? Did you guys losed your minds? Dont tell me that was a @DarkStarr Or @Lord British idea... would you guys, please... please review this? This super innovative decay system you guys have will be a long time doom for sota!
I know i will lose exp only if i die but... its not like i will login to play sota to stay at low level areas forever...


Skillcap is really a nice thing i would love to see here to avoid all that storm... and im sure you guys already talked about using COTO to avoid decay... thats a p2w system and im sure most ppls wont like it

 

Hi @Arc- There are plenty of problems being pointed out, but luckily for us I don't think the one you are worried about is real.

The skill decay is an amount that accrues since the last time you die, up to an amount that is capped after 72 hours. So.. if you are logged out for days and days, or even weeks, there is only a maximum on the amount of experience points you could lose.

And even then... it only comes into effect when you die again, thus resetting the timer back to zero.

TL;DR If you log out with 20K xp and then log back in a month later, you will still have 20K xp. The first time you die, you could possibly lose some XP.. I'm not sure of the amount but I think like 1-2K. But even then- it is totally up to you to decide that. You could set your skills to "not training" in which case- if and when you died- instead of losing xp, an equal amount would be pulled from your existing skills, resulting in a small chance that one or more of your skill levels might drop by a point.

(Unless I'm mistaken, that is.)

 

Absolutely, in the context of REALLY slow gains at higher levels. My words speak for themselves you man-eating maniac!

 

It'll be called the 'Affinity to the Oracle' Potion.

Thanks, I'll be here all week. Try the Veal!

 

Do you not think this will affect level gating?

 

Hate me, but i like the skill decay.

 

Well. The world is really big. I bet some players will like the decay system.. In other hand a lot wont.

 

Not sure. Would help if I knew what "level gating" is? Your mesmerizing words confuse me O Cannibal.

 

If we never stop leveling then beginers will never catch up.

 

And if you play 5-10 hours a week?

 

While I'd be pretty much in favor of a skill cap, I don't really like the idea of using a single pool for both crafting and adventuring.

In SotA, it's currently impossible to harvest resources without fighting.

Playing a crafter-only character wouldn't be really sustainable. Even if you just buy resources instead of harvesting, you wouldn't have the required experience to improve your crafting skills.

As far I understand, the crafting skills are separated from the adventuring skills, because while you need both of them, the skills can evolve independently.

 

I guess I differ a bit on that. I wish they would eliminate the separation between the crafting tree and the adventure tree. In addition I would like skill caps. I do not believe that everyone should be able to do everything. Give enough in the skill cap to cap out the crafting talents. Then cap it. The adventuring could be then balanced on that level. Then you would have to choose on where you put your skill points and spend your exp points. MAKE MEANINGFUL DECISIONS

 

What do you perceive would be the benefit to the game by instituting a skill cap?
I believe that skill caps would help the game the game by allowing people to achieve a solid goal. I also believe that the skill points should be limited in order for people to use the skills they value most. I also believe the adventure/crafting skill trees should be merged. Again, not everyone should be able to do everything. The benefits of this are that there is a final level playground for everyone, and it will promote individual unique playstyles.
People will have to make meaninful choices on to what is important to them.

What would you propose for a skill cap? I would set the skill cap at what ever skill is necessary for one to be a pure crafter.
That would be the bar. I might set it a bit lower because as I stated no one should be able to do anything. But some where around there.

And also, assuming the benefit is real, would it still be worth the fallout that would inevitably occur when the hounds sniff out that "Portalarium is going back on their word that there would be no skill caps". Would it still be worth it, you think?
Port has IMO gone back on its word a few times already. It has changed and it has evolved. If you want me to go into detail I would rather you pm me for the answers as I do not want a flame war in this thread.

 

In this case like UO, the hard core player will have a dozen alts spec'ed differently. Im actually 100% of with this.

 

I want a reason to use my alts. I love creating characters who are all good at different things. If my 1 character can do it all, then there is no reason to create an alt. Gameplay will grow boring if I have no other characters to work and no goals to achieve. I'm hoping either leveling is made harder, or caps are placed to make gameplay not over so fast. I want to play this game for years.

 

...mumbles stuff about millennials and entitlement and EZ buttons and click-to-win playstyle...

Many (most?) games care more about income and profits than making a good game. Just because McDonalds serves a lot of people doesnt mean its a good place to eat!

I like the idea of quests and other secondary goals which may need to be accomplished before certain levels in skills can be reached

I dont like this because it results in archetypal builds (UO: very few skills actually get trained, most are used by zero players, and there are really only 4-5 archetypal builds. very little variance in how people spend skills). I also dont like this because it makes it more expensive to experiment, and it also lessens the chance someone creates really innovative combinations of skills. The game (SotA) is also too early to be able to tell what that cap should really be - we may find out that 1000 points is way too low, for example.

oof, thats brutal. Id log off and play UO for an hour, then log back in lol. I like the idea of "rez sick" (skill and stat decrease) where you need to find a healer to cure, or it takes a long time to wear off gradually. Perhaps food can come into play here too.

Im not fond of power hour, as it creates this feeling of "I cant step away afk to tend to my puppy! I must keep grinding for 12 more minutes to capitalize on this!" I wouldnt really argue to hard against a PH though. I am totally against halfing exp though, that just sounds like Im being encouraged to only play 1 hour a day.

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I just think when you die, you gotta go get your corpse and loot it . That will make you real good at not-dying after that happens once or twice.

I still play UO regularly, probably 4-5 hours a week. Ive died one time this summer (couldnt see the 3rd mage in the room in the mage tower!). It was brutally painful. But thats just it - I died one time, period, in the last 4 months or so of playing UO. The game encourages me to become excellent at not-dying.

 

If anything, tell everyone to set the skills they don't want to lose to maintain and train. After that, they can continue as usual.

Those who's been cheating to get mad XP, just brace yourself because the skill decay is coming to ya!