Ideas for acquiring new skills/abilities, unique characters and horizontal progression independt of

Stiler

We all understand how most rpgs work when it comes to learning new skills or abilities.

You whack away at some things, hit a new level (Ding!) and then you choose a new skill. It's been done, there's no real surprises and the act of gaining new skils themselves doesn't add to the actual game in any way.  You know what to expect, what's coming and that's that.

I have thought of this before, and suggested it in many other game forums from time to time, and it seems to generate some good interest so I figured I'd post it here.

What if you learn new skills , and also can learn new receipies (for crafters and such) not from simply gaining a level or skilling up, but by actually FINDING them throughout the world?

Obviously for game's sake you would still get access to "basic" abilities/skills, such as a warrior being able to have access to a limited amount of combat abilities and things. You know, basic slashes, thrust, etc. So you can still do combat and fight as normal. Crafters still get basci receipies for generic armour/weapons, structures in general.

However what if the world was filled with ways for players to find, and learn new skills/receipies? Where you might logically come across such things.

For example,  talking to npc's, Books (this could be one of the main ways), Within the enviornment itself (IE a dungeon, a place of magical power, etc).

I will give some examples of what I mean.

Lets say a mage for example, comes into a dusty old inn. Inside of this Inn is a bookcase, and there are a few books that a player can read. Now when you read this book, it talks about a mystical mage of days long ago, about his power and a unique spell he had learned over time and became known for using. It mentions where he used to live long ago.

Now the player can choose (if he wants) to travel to that area the book mentioned, and when there he can try to find where that mage lived, and upon finding  the mages old house he discovers the mages spellbook hidden inside somewhere, and when he reads it it grants him the ability to now have access to that specific spell.

Another example for a warrior type:

Imagine you are merely exploring the lands, you come across an old man, just a random npc who's wandering around out in the wilderness, not in a city or a pre determined specific "location." you talk to him and learn of his backstory, once a great soldier in the kingdoms army. Throughout his lifetime he gained knowledge , passed down from combat masters long since dead. He offers to teach it to you, and upon doing so you learn a new combat ability/move.

Crafter example:

Similar to the mage example, you are reading a book, it mentions about a once great knight fallen long ago in battle. It mentions how he was known for wearing his specially crafted armour, adorned with unique markings and a design which set him apart on the battlefield and struck fear into his enemies. It gives clues to where he was buried. You can then travel to the area it mentions (using the clues) and upon discovering the tomb of the fallen knight you also find him buried in his armour. Now instead of "taking" the armour (as players might expect) you instead are granted the ability to (since you're a crafter) make said armour,  you gaint he receipe for that unique armour skin for that type of armour, and now you can make armour that looks like it and sell to other players.

Another example (for structures) imagine that you are travelling , just exploring the world, and you come across some old decrepit ruins, taken over by nature from a by gone era. Upon exploring these ruins, an dthis strucutre, you see how the people that made it built it (IE in game "terms" the player bascially walks around the structure looking at certain things, such as support beams and other architectural points of interest for that structure) and once you've looked it over, you then can build it yourself, provided you have the right supplies that is needed for it and everything.

These kinds of things can be both pre determined and also random (to keep it fresh, and from being spoiled by "guides" and such) and it can add to the overlal feeling of the world, the discovery of things and allow players a type of customization unseen in any game as far as skills go.

It would allow for more of a horizitional progression vs vertical, sine the skills/receipieswouldn't have to be "level" based or such and moreso based on simply luck, exploring, coming across them.

It also can add "lore" to the game world, giving backstories, history, etc and it doesn't have to be tied in with "PVE" at all, rather just gained from exploring, reading books, and other actions that can be part of the world with RVR as the main focus.

It also rewards players who do other actions, from reading books of lore within the game (this is something Skyrim did, there were "hidden" quests you could find within books if you read some of them, I actually posted this idea on the Skyrim boards long ago but not sure if any of the developers saw it or not).

Just wondering what people would think of it? Would you like to gain skills/receipes like this?

 

BowbowDAoC

The idea isn't bad, but i can see some issues tho, although nothing that couldnt be fixed, but could some troubles.

1 - The "level" of the spell/skill gained via this method : It could be a pain if oyu had to talk to all NPCs, look at all the books at "every level" to make sure to have access to a new ability/skill. otherwise it could grant access to high level stuff even if you are low level.

2 - randomising it would be extremely hard, unless you make it with a few choises only for the game system to manage where you gonna find "the next step"

And there's something else that my mind cannot grasp atm and it bugs me.

Stiler

Originally posted by BowbowDAoC

The idea isn't bad, but i can see some issues tho, although nothing that couldnt be fixed, but could some troubles.

1 - The "level" of the spell/skill gained via this method : It could be a pain if oyu had to talk to all NPCs, look at all the books at "every level" to make sure to have access to a new ability/skill. otherwise it could grant access to high level stuff even if you are low level.

2 - randomising it would be extremely hard, unless you make it with a few choises only for the game system to manage where you gonna find "the next step"

And there's something else that my mind cannot grasp atm and it bugs me.

1. Taht's why I said, it's not based on level. Depending on the combat system it can be balanced in many different ways.

From what we have heard of CU it's going toward a more skill based direciton (IE use a sword, get better). So the skills you gain can have their atrributes lowered/gained depending on your skills.

For example, lets say as a warrior you learn a new skill, a combat move that allows you to side-step and counter someone. Now the "damage" that this does can be dependent on your skill in swordsmanship. So say, from swordmanship 1-20, it does 80 dmg, from 21-40, 100dmg, and so on and so fourth. This allows the skills you gain to still increase and allows for peo[ple to gain said skills at anytime, not dependent on a strict "skill/lv" requirment.

2. When i speak of Randomising I mean the location where you can find such things. Such as the "books" the game server can simply change them up, having the npc's wander over the lands (and not just stand in a specific spot), have the books move around to logical places (IE Inee's, libraries, houses, and other places you'd find books, even in player built structures), bascially the game server just "changes" the books every so often, putting diffenret ones here and there, so there's no specific "this book is found at x,y location." Not everything would have to be randomed, it'd just be nice (imo) if some were so it was more of a luck thing to find and exploration based, rather then something you can just read an internet guide for or watch a youtuve video to find.