1. Structure: Does your system involve classes or pre-determined archetypes?
My system would have classes, but the more important thing from my point of view is my system is based around roles:
DPS
Tank
Healer
Buffer
Debuffer
Crowd Control
I generally like the approach you're taking, especially the idea of classes directly filling a specific combat role. The real difficulty with this type approach is the buffer and debuffer roles. If they become a stand-alone class (or several), this type of play is very dull for a large number of people. Even if the system requires active buffs/debuffs, there are numerous players that will simply balk at those tasks. And let's not even mention the 2 hour Virtue or 3 hour KEI that essentially work against the need for buffers in the group setting.
Combining multiple roles into a single class also tends to cause problems. The EQ1 cleric class was essentially a combination of tank (damage absorption), healer (doh), and buffer (+HP related buffs). Once EQ evolved beyond the early years, the cleric became a superior solo class.
One observation about the 'roles => classes' approach: this is generally built around a group of characters fighting a single opponent. I'm not sure the standard roles really work in games with a truly unique approach (10 on 10). Maybe, but it might be highly dependent on the specifics of the combat system. (collision detection).
Thanks for the feedback!
My inspiration for the roles comes directly from LotRO which, in my opinion, has had the best combat system I've ever experienced. It only really came alive in group settings due to the interdependence between classes.
To begin with, what you described happened: the loremaster (cc/debuff/pet), burglar (debuff/cc/dps) and captain (buffer/jack-of-all) were all extremely underused classes. Their DPS components pretty much sucked, so leveling was slow and painful, plus a lot of casuals didn't really understand the complexity of using all the support skills so it wasn't fun.
However, within a few years Turbine seriously improved the DPS aspects of the classes. You had to spec for it, which in turn made you worse at support, but it made leveling more enjoyable. The loremaster, for example, ended up being amazing at burst AoE damage. You would still never take it for a DPS spot in a raid, but it could be adequate DPS in 6man dungeons.
That is why I stipulated that all roles would be able to achieve 80% of the DPS of a pure DPS class if specced for it: to open up the classes to more people and make leveling more enjoyable. Once you get people hooked, they will eventually learn the subtler side of support classes.
As for the combat system, I have a very definite idea of what I want. It does indeed include collision detection, as well as a whole new way to handle tanking. I've also seen this role definition work very well in pvp for 24vs24 man raids and the roles are still extremely useful and needed.
Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman
- 20 Active Skills is a lot (two full traditional hotbars) and 60 skills is too many, especially if they are limited by Class.
As I said, combat depth is one of my primary goals. This is going to sound boastful, but I'm an intelligent guy and I get a lot of my enjoyment from working out combat systems and beating other people / the game via intelligent thinking.
If you reduce the number of active skills, you limit the potential depth of the system. To be honest, I think 20 is too few. My favourite combat system was LotRO. I played a captain (buffer). I had roughly 45 active skills, then a further 10-15 skillslots taken up with things like potions, food etc. My main rotation only used 6 skills, so everything else was situational / group focused.
It meant every single fight was a constant decision making process. Do I buff the tank for more parry, or the champion for more dps? Do I throw a heal at that person, or someone else? Do I need to blow my survival cooldown, or do I trust the healer?
All classes were like this. Some, like DPS, had more complex rotations and less situational / group skills, but all classes had depth. This resulted in success / failure being determined by player skill (ability to make the right decisions) rather than gear scores or DPS numbers.
These are a bit too uneven from a gameplay perspective. DPS dishes out damage and has an active role in encounters with trackable metrics. Tanks mitigate damage and protect allies, both active roles in encounters with trackable metrics. Healers keep allies alive by healing injuries/restoring health, an active role with trackable metrics. However, Buffers and Debuffers enhance the other three roles, playing a passive role without trackable metrics. Crowd Control on the other hand controls the flow of the fight and is critical for certain strategies, and can have a sort of trackable metric (total CC time), but is a bit contrived as a standalone role.
I don't care about trackable metrics and I would try to disable any way of tracking things like DPS / threat in my game as they are anathema to a community-focused game.
However, these 6 roles exist in lotro and worked extremely well. It is all about options. I hate enrage timers, so would never have them in my game, which means DPS scores don't matter in the traditional sense.
What happened in LotRO was the 3 support roles offered up alternative tactics. So, you could "brute force" a dungeon by going in with tank, healer and 4 dps (or tank, 2 healers and 3 dps). This worked but lacked grace - if you started running into problems you lacked the ability to get out of it.
Or, you start mixing in support roles. If you bring a buffer, you have less DPS but more health, more evasion, better burst dps, some off heals maybe. It slows it down, but makes it safer. Or, bring a debuffer - if the mobs are doing less damage, there is less pressure on healers. Or bring a CCer - keep those adds out of the fight entirely.
In LotRO, the combat system was designed so well that really talented individuals could complete nearly all content (including raids) without key classes. As a captain (buffer), I have main-healed 6man dungeons, something only made possible by having great CC and debuffers. Hell, I've done 6mans with 6 captains, or 6 loremasters, or 6 burglars.
Something I haven't discussed so far is resource management. It relates to combat, rather than skills, but may shed some light on my thinking. In games like WAR, SW:TOR etc, everybody develops a resource neutral rotation. You can churn it out infinitely and always have resources. That, to me, is boring and removes depth. LotRO had limited resources. There was no such thing as a resource-neutral rotation. My captain, for example, would typically run out of power within 60second of a fight if I was going full blast, or 90 seconds standard. However, various skills and classes could restore power or increase regeneration. This is part of the reason why classes were so interdependant - my captain increase base power + regen. Loremasters could drain and distribute power from enemies. Burglars could start "fellowship manouvers" which could also return power. These things increased the importance of support roles and vastly changed the tactics of fights.
Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman
- Your progression system utilizes objectives-based progression with horizontal "scaling" instead of experience, leveling, and vertical scaling. Your reasoning behind this is that it reduces monotony and increased the available options for progressing in the game. However, your examples of "kill 1000 of X" to obtain X skill is actually more monotonous and repetitive than your average experience system, as in experience systems you gain experience from a variety of combat and non-combat tasks in the world. Think of experience as a homogenization of your system, making it more freeform. What your system does is it colors the experiences the player makes by assigning them to specific skills, giving a purpose to the actions a player takes in the game.
Think of your system from the perspective of someone who wants to get really really good at a single facet of gameplay, lets say they want to be the best Archer in the game (Min/Max) and so they choose the archer class and want to obtain/learn all of the best (they have done their homework) Archer skills available. What this player will do is track each and every progression for each ability (regardless of whether it is tracked in Engine) and knock them out one at a time, systematically. This basically puts the player on a sort of rail system.
Furthermore, your system potentially forces players to branch out from their specialization to acquire necessary skills from other game modes. This does a few things that I don't like: it mandates a playstyle (counters the RP nature of a game) to acquire potentially necessary abilities and it adds a mixture of players into dedicated game modes that are there just for "progression". This reminds me of players joining battlegrounds in WoW just to get PVP gear so that they could raid in it, as it was easier to obtain than and get your iLVL up with.
It is more the fundamental principle that I am concerned with. The specifics would need to be iterated over many times to get the right balance. Killing 1000 of anything probably seems monotonous, but I personally prefer stuff like that to simply grinding quests.
As with all things, iteration is the key. If I'm putting a skill unlock behind PvP that was intended to only be useful for PvPers but is actually great for everyone, then it needs a rethink. Likewise, putting something badass at the end of a raid will piss off pvpers and casuals as they won't want to raid. It will be a fine balancing act, but definitely doable.
As for your archer example, I disagree. That is the player themselves putting them on a rail system and there is nothing I can do about that. My system still gives them the choice to progress in whatever way they want. So, archer no1 might decide to do all the solo stuff first, then the group stuff, then the pvp stuff, so that is the rail they've chosen. Archer no2 might decide to just do whatever they feel like, so they do a bit of pvp first and progress there, then join a mate for some dungeon running, then back to pvp, then a bit of questing before logging off.
Ultimately, both archers would have to do the same activities to reach perfection, but the order in which they do things in my system is completely within their control so they hopefully won't feel forced.
Also, as mentioned, I am in favour of encouraging people to try other activities. The key to success is ensuring that each activity has some sort of fun involved. So, PvP, non-pvpers hate the ganking, hate the stomping and hate the toxicity. So, remove the power gaps. Make it consensual. That stops the ganking and stomping. Then, add in all the "nice" pvers and the toxicity gets drowned out by the "normal" people.
Perhaps this statement was directed toward your posted skill system, but setting certainly has a large effect on a skill system. It specifically affects the nature of the attributes, abilities, progression, and other skill system mechanics. A space game like EVE online would not marry as well to a traditional fantasy MMORPG skill system with hotbars, health and mana, attributes, and talents as it does to its current skill system. The setting is perhaps the most important part of the game when defining the actual abilities (read: actions a player can make in the game), such as using guns, grenades, magical attacks, turrets, etc. In fact the whole idea of the Trinity begins to fall apart in certain settings, why would there be a person "Tanking" and "Healing" in a Wild West themed MMORPG?
Fair comment, the setting does play a part, but in my experience you can apply any combat system to any setting. But, I can easily envisage traditional tab-targetting working in a space game, and I can picture a healer (doc / sawbones) and tank (loud mouthed gunslinger) working in a wild west setting.
You want a class-based game, horizontal progression, and deep specialization. How do you plan on achieving these goals when classes have approximately 60 skills to acquire (classes will blur together) that focus on combat and are contained within branching and potentially linear progression lines?
Overall I think this is a well thought-out system. I disagree with some of your fundamental design decisions, but I think you married your ideas well together. Don't take my criticism too harshly, as I am playing Devil's Advocate for the sake of helping you fine tune your ideas or defend them whilst adding clarity to the discussion.
When talking about skills, I do admittedly think about combat skills only.
I have plans for the socialisation part, crafting, building and stuff, but they don't fall into my design for skill progression. As a rough outline, players would pick and choose 3 things for their character:
Combat Class
Crafting Class
Socialisation
So, combat is everything I've already discussed in this thread. Crafting requires a whole other discussion, but essentially everyone can pick a single crafting class. Then you have socialising stuff. This could be group focused (like entertainer / musician from SWG), or something like image designer. I may not restrict it as I want to include hobbies in there too, for example, I would want a card game like the final fantasy ones that you could collect and play in game and earn rankings over time, take part in ingame tournaments etc. Also want fishing, racing (horses) etc. I've not really thought in too much depth about specifics of what I call "fluff" activities as they are less critical than getting the core activities right.
Thanks for taking the time to respond in depth!
Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman
As I said, combat depth is one of my primary goals. This is going to sound boastful, but I'm an intelligent guy and I get a lot of my enjoyment from working out combat systems and beating other people / the game via intelligent thinking.
If you reduce the number of active skills, you limit the potential depth of the system. To be honest, I think 20 is too few. My favourite combat system was LotRO. I played a captain (buffer). I had roughly 45 active skills, then a further 10-15 skillslots taken up with things like potions, food etc. My main rotation only used 6 skills, so everything else was situational / group focused.
It meant every single fight was a constant decision making process. Do I buff the tank for more parry, or the champion for more dps? Do I throw a heal at that person, or someone else? Do I need to blow my survival cooldown, or do I trust the healer?
All classes were like this. Some, like DPS, had more complex rotations and less situational / group skills, but all classes had depth. This resulted in success / failure being determined by player skill (ability to make the right decisions) rather than gear scores or DPS numbers.
I personally believe that the same level of depth can be had from a game with few skills as a game with many skills. The depth of a MOBA combat, for instance, in terms of interaction between players (read: PVP) is just as prevalent as the depth of MMORPG PVP combat, and most MOBAS have a max of 6 skills. Granted MOBAs often offer dozens of champions, which is comparable to dozens of builds. I suppose you could potentially get 60 skills per class, I just don't see that you would have that much variance between skills within a class and I doubt you would be able to keep class skills from blurring together between classes. I may be wrong on this front, I would just have to see an actual example, listing out the abilities and their effects before I believe it. I'm from Missouri, the Show-Me state...so naturally I'm going to request proof of concept.
Furthermore, having 45 active skills that you have to manage takes away from the immersion of the game, instead of watching your character's animations and interactions with the gameworld you end up watching your action bars.
I don't care about trackable metrics and I would try to disable any way of tracking things like DPS / threat in my game as they are anathema to a community-focused game.
However, these 6 roles exist in lotro and worked extremely well. It is all about options. I hate enrage timers, so would never have them in my game, which means DPS scores don't matter in the traditional sense.
What happened in LotRO was the 3 support roles offered up alternative tactics. So, you could "brute force" a dungeon by going in with tank, healer and 4 dps (or tank, 2 healers and 3 dps). This worked but lacked grace - if you started running into problems you lacked the ability to get out of it.
Or, you start mixing in support roles. If you bring a buffer, you have less DPS but more health, more evasion, better burst dps, some off heals maybe. It slows it down, but makes it safer. Or, bring a debuffer - if the mobs are doing less damage, there is less pressure on healers. Or bring a CCer - keep those adds out of the fight entirely.
In LotRO, the combat system was designed so well that really talented individuals could complete nearly all content (including raids) without key classes. As a captain (buffer), I have main-healed 6man dungeons, something only made possible by having great CC and debuffers. Hell, I've done 6mans with 6 captains, or 6 loremasters, or 6 burglars.
Something I haven't discussed so far is resource management. It relates to combat, rather than skills, but may shed some light on my thinking. In games like WAR, SW:TOR etc, everybody develops a resource neutral rotation. You can churn it out infinitely and always have resources. That, to me, is boring and removes depth. LotRO had limited resources. There was no such thing as a resource-neutral rotation. My captain, for example, would typically run out of power within 60second of a fight if I was going full blast, or 90 seconds standard. However, various skills and classes could restore power or increase regeneration. This is part of the reason why classes were so interdependant - my captain increase base power + regen. Loremasters could drain and distribute power from enemies. Burglars could start "fellowship manouvers" which could also return power. These things increased the importance of support roles and vastly changed the tactics of fights.
You may not care about trackable metrics, but players do, especially in the sort of game that you have in mind (group-based content--potentially with boss encounters?). Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to prevent metric tracking.
I was not aware that there were support roles such as Buffer/Debuffer in LOTRO, as I never took the opportunity to try that game out (was to enamored by Vanilla WoW/Burning Crusade). If you say they worked well and were engaging, then I will give it to you. Personally they do not sound that exciting to me, but then again it really all comes down to implementation. There are plenty of champions in League of Legends that are primarily viable for their buffing/debuffing qualities (Sona comes to mind), so I can see these being standalone roles now.
You contradict yourself in giving a nod to LotRO. If, as you say, the game was well-developed and you take inspiration from their roles, then why do you indicate the existence of key classes? If key classes exist, then Buffer/Debuffer are possibly non-key classes, which means they are inferior and fringe (read: not competitive).
Resource management is something I feel that I neglected to include in the attribute question, as it plays a pivotal role in the expression of the skill system, as it is implemented in gameplay.
You may not care about trackable metrics, but players do, especially in the sort of game that you have in mind (group-based content--potentially with boss encounters?). Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to prevent metric tracking.
I was not aware that there were support roles such as Buffer/Debuffer in LOTRO, as I never took the opportunity to try that game out (was to enamored by Vanilla WoW/Burning Crusade). If you say they worked well and were engaging, then I will give it to you. Personally they do not sound that exciting to me, but then again it really all comes down to implementation. There are plenty of champions in League of Legends that are primarily viable for their buffing/debuffing qualities (Sona comes to mind), so I can see these being standalone roles now.
You contradict yourself in giving a nod to LotRO. If, as you say, the game was well-developed and you take inspiration from their roles, then why do you indicate the existence of key classes? If key classes exist, then Buffer/Debuffer are possibly non-key classes, which means they are inferior and fringe (read: not competitive).
Resource management is something I feel that I neglected to include in the attribute question, as it plays a pivotal role in the expression of the skill system, as it is implemented in gameplay.
So, LotRO never introduced modding in an official way, so there were never any accurate DPS or threat meters. For the 5 years I played the game, there were no trackable metrics for any class. The only metric was success or failure.
This was then combined with a lack of things like enrage timers, which negates the need for minimum amounts of DPS, as well as the resource management which almost acts as a soft enrage mechanic.
So, if you went tank, healer and 4 dps into a standard dungeon, your group DPS would be very high so encounters are quicker, but without a captain (buffer), everyone is a bit squishier so more prone to dying, without a loremaster (cc/debuffer) you are forced to take on all adds at once and can't debuff, making the healers life harder, and without a burglar (debuff/cc) you have similar problems. Plus all 3 support classes also make resource management easier.
The reason I mention key classes is because nearly all content was designed around having tank, healer, dps and support in every 6 man group. Balanced groups were always the easiest to tackle content with, typically 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 dps, 1 support + 1 free choice. But, with the whole skill / combat design, you could overcome group deficiencies through more tactical play. So, if you are lacking a tank, you can use a champion or captain to tank by making sure loremaster and burg are specced for strong debuffing / CC. It may take longer to do, but you can still do it.
One of my favourite examples is a 6 man dungeon called Sammath Gul from LotRO. With an average group, the dungeon would take 1h30 to complete (tank, healer, captain, 2dps, lm/burg). On our server, we ran a speed run competition. In my guild, we managed 17minutes but server fastest was 13 minutes. Our setup was 2x champion (melee aoe dps), 2x burglar (specced for dps / debuff), 1x minstrel (healer), 1x captain (specced for off-healing / buffs). So, no tank.
It worked because between 2 burgs and captain, we buffed group DPS by about 35% and group health by about 20%. The 2 burgs and 2 champions actually output more dps than 4 straight dps classes. The burglars could set off fellowship manouvers (special coordinated attacks) which could be used to restore health and power in emergencies, or more damage. The captain could off-heal when needed and used special skills to increase healing and damage on one of the champs.
I don't know whether their combat system / class system came about accidentally or on purpose, but Turbine really did a fantastic job of making sure every single class could make valid contributions to every fight, allowing a lot of freedom in tactics and group makeup. For easy content, sure, sticking with the trinity was easiest and usually quickest, but as soon as any challenge kicked in, the support classes kicked ass.
Without actually knowing the game, it is hard to grasp the purpose of them all. But, read down the list and you'll see a great variety of melee attacks, buffs, debuffs, heals and tanky stuff.
A good example from the captain, in terms of situational skills, is the "brother" mechanic.
A captain can designate one member of the group as their brother. You can choose 3 versions of the initial buff: shield brother, song brother and blade brother. So, you constantly monitor the fight to decide who is your brother. Generally start with it on the tank, but if tanking is easy, shove it on a dps to increase damage, or shove it on a healer to increase heals + power restoration.
You then have a followup skill: inspire. Its effects change based on what version of "brother" you have but it essentially buffs your brother. So, if I have shield brother on the tank, using inspire will restore health. If I have blade brother on, inspire will increase damage by 25%. If I have song brother on, inspire will restore power. With resource management, you couldn't have these buffs running 100% of the time.
So, just using this one example, I, as a captain, have to constantly monitor the fight and all players in my group to decide who to buff and when. This is combat depth: making meaningful decisions. If I buff the wrong person at the wrong time, it's a waste of my resources and could cause a wipe. Once you add in all the other buffs, off-heals and dps skills, combat as a captain is a constant decision making process. Apart from the easiest content, a captain never just stands there and rattles off a rotation. The same is true for all other classes in the game, though admittedly the support classes have the most depth.
This is why I'm in favour of lots of skills. If I only had 10 active skills then the decision making required is minimal - the game essentially forces you down a set path of what skills to use. This is especially true as most games just use "selfish" skills for the most part - standard attack/heal/threat skills that don't require decisions, just a good rotation. In SW:TOR, for example, my jedi shadow had maybe 25-30 active skills, but the majority were selfish and only a few were situational. So, I had a complex (but not deep) rotation of about 15 skills, but if the shit hit the fan I only had a choice of 3 situational skills to help turn the tide. Doesn't require much skill to pick 1 of 3 skills.
Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman
Imagine a game world where players have to hunt down the skills they want their characters to have. Where the initial skill for all players would be just a Punch and a Kick and, for everything else, they would need to learn from interacting with the world and questing.
There would be no preset classes and all skills would not be fully disclosed upon the start of the game (your Skill Book would have just 'Punch' and 'Kick' in it).
Developing skills should be an integral part of the story and the world around you. You start the game without knowing what you don't know (like in real life) but by reading books in game and talking to NPCs, you start adding skills to your Skill Book. If you just learned the existence of a skill from something/someone who cannot teach you that skill, the skill would appear greyed out in the Skill Book, acknowledged but not really usable.
To learn new skills, players would need to find masters (NPCs) in the world and either pay them money or run one or more quests for them so you can learn the version 1 of that skill. This would apply to all skills in the game: active and passive skills, magic, melee, healing, tanking, crafting, movement, and so on.
Some skills might be learned from Books, but most would need to be via masters/teachers or interacting with the world. Books and NPCs can give hints on how to find a master for that skill or how to learn it.
All players could potentially learn and develop all skills in the game (if they hunt for them), but only a limited number can be equipped and used at any point in time.
The world would have hundreds of skills to find and learn. Each with their own background story, big or small. Each skill would have its own XP bar and could level up, growing in power with use (indicating that the character gets more 'practice' in using it, like in real life). Skills would be grouped by School, and each school would provide some kind of special utility. School of Fire would be strong in DoT skills while School of Light would be strong in Healing skills, for example.
Each School should also contain a 'Mindset' skill which would allow the player to activate it to get a bonus with skills from that school. Players can only activate one Mindset at a time and can only swap mindsets out of combat. This would allow some level of specialization, while still giving the player the option of using almost any skill in their action bar. Another option to motivate specialization could be: if the player equips more than one skill of the same School, they would earn a bonus on all skills of that school/type. The more skills equipped of the same school, the bigger the bonus. The Mindset can be something earned automatically simply by the number of skills of the same school you have equipped.
Some super powerful skills (Tornado, for example) could only be used if you were under that School's Mindset.
Some skills will be prerequisites to other skills. Fireball, for example, could only be learned if the player has learnt Spark.
Different regions of the world could have different skill types to learn. To learn skills of the School of Ice, for example, you would need to travel to a snowy area and visit tribes that work with Ice. Skills could have synergies/combos with other skills, from the same School and from other Schools.
The easier skills, such as Sword Fighting or Magical Light can be learned from common NPCs in academies in most cities, but more powerful skills, like Meteor or Tornado would need to be learned from NPCs in remote/difficult areas and going through harder/longer quests or quest lines. Dungeons could hide unique masters or bosses which might be a source of a new skill.
Imagine that, for learning the Fireball skill, you would need to visit a village of fire mages in the desert, find the master in the Fireball art and run a few errands for him, which would actually be tasks that have some relationship with Fire or meaningful connection to that skill (fighting fire-breathing lizards or challenge 5 different NPCs in the area while using different Fire skills). The master or NPCs would give you different tips on how to 'concentrate the heat in you' and 'feel the fire'. When all are defeated/completed, you go back to the master and he/she 'puts it all together' teaching you the Fireball lvl 1 skill. This skill then pops in your Skill Book, so you can add to your action bar or hotkey.
Some skills could only be obtained by going up in rank in certain NPC guilds or when you reach certain level of affiliation to a faction. The master of that faction/guild could then teach you that skill when you achieved that new rank.
You could also get some skills from fighting mobs that have that skill (your character would be learning it from 'observation'). Say, for example, you fight several bandits who Shield Bash you. If you have learned the basic Shield (prerequisite) skill and fight enough mobs who Shield Bash you, you eventually learn it.
In this game, players would rely both on in-game hints to find skills as well as on the community/internet to learn about secret, fun or powerful skills and how to get them. Future versions of the game can launch a bunch of new skills, from new skills schools, with related quests, areas and NPCs, and people would get back into the game to hunt for those.
Just imagine when you see another player use a fancy skill in battle that you didn't know about, this would be a conversation starter: "Where have you learned it? Where do I get this skill?". You would just have to have it. Players could also be incentivised to help other players get that skill by getting extra XP in that specific skill when they complete the same skill quest while they have a player without that skill in the same party. Skills could also be randomly learned from fighting a considerable time alongside other players in the same party, if they use that skill many times and your character has enough level and prerequisites in that skill school.
We should be able to respec out of combat at any time to use any of the skills we acquired in the world. We should also be able to save builds for easy swapping when out of combat.
The world could have different mobs or entire regions weaker to some skill Schools and it would be fun to think strategically and adapt my build to tackle different zones and encounters. This system would also enable the player to adapt to different groups and play with different friends, being able to be more useful in different situations.
The player should still have stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, Charisma, etc.), and the effectiveness of each skill would partially be based on the corresponding stat as well as the skill level.
Even as the game would not have any 'hard' pre-set classes, the game could still have different races, with different starting stats, but all skills would be acquirable from the game world, by all players. (Although there could be some race-specific skills, acquirable from race-specific quests).
In RPGs (single player or MMOs), what most attracts me is the feeling of character growth. Getting new skills, new mounts, new gear, and becoming more powerful. Being able to do more, reach farther, kill bigger mobs with every hour I spend in the game. In real life, self-development takes years, it is frustrating and very hard. In games, developing yourself takes minutes and you get constant direction and positive feedback. If you can turn the whole game into a hunt into self-development, where you can hunt for better skills in the world, following stories related to those skills, and the masters behind them, they will mean something to you. And there will be a good reason for your friends and the community to help you, in showing you how to get their cool new skills while levelling up themselves in it. Maybe some skills would need two or more players to be acquired or even used (those would be powerful boss-fighting skills).
This skill system can work in any setting and in both action as well as tab targeting games, but I initially imagined it in fantasy/action oriented.
We need a new one of these design challenges threads
I want to help design and develop a PvE-focused, solo-friendly, sandpark MMO which combines crafting, monster hunting, and story. So PM me if you are starting one.
We should be able to respec out of combat at any time to use any of the skills we acquired in the world. We should also be able to save builds for easy swapping when out of combat.
The world could have different mobs or entire regions weaker to some skill Schools and it would be fun to think strategically and adapt my build to tackle different zones and encounters. This system would also enable the player to adapt to different groups and play with different friends, being able to be more useful in different situations.
The player should still have stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, Charisma, etc.), and the effectiveness of each skill would partially be based on the corresponding stat as well as the skill level.
Even as the game would not have any 'hard' pre-set classes, the game could still have different races, with different starting stats, but all skills would be acquirable from the game world, by all players. (Although there could be some race-specific skills, acquirable from race-specific quests).
In RPGs (single player or MMOs), what most attracts me is the feeling of character growth. Getting new skills, new mounts, new gear, and becoming more powerful. Being able to do more, reach farther, kill bigger mobs with every hour I spend in the game. In real life, self-development takes years, it is frustrating and very hard. In games, developing yourself takes minutes and you get constant direction and positive feedback. If you can turn the whole game into a hunt into self-development, where you can hunt for better skills in the world, following stories related to those skills, and the masters behind them, they will mean something to you. And there will be a good reason for your friends and the community to help you, in showing you how to get their cool new skills while levelling up themselves in it. Maybe some skills would need two or more players to be acquired or even used (those would be powerful boss-fighting skills).
This skill system can work in any setting and in both action as well as tab targeting games, but I initially imagined it in fantasy/action oriented.
What do you think about it?
It's a very Guild Wars 1 approach. Not precisely it, but extremely similar.
1. Structure: Does your system involve classes or pre-determined archetypes?
Certain character background choices made during the character creation process help set you up with solid starting builds that revolve around certain archetypes. However you can learn any skill and eventually customize your build however you desire.
2. Stats: Does your system utilize attributes or stat-points?
Probably not. You simply know or don't know skills that can be slotted into your gear. Some passives may give abilities similar the bonuses you would get from attributes in other games, but your entire build is pretty swappable on the fly. In lore this explained by your ancestry. Almost all your exceptional feats come from the power contained in your blood. If you are very strong it's because you are magically enhancing yourself to be so. Fast same deal. Able to cast powerful spells, same deal. Your innate stats don't matter nearly as much as how you are currently allocating your magical powers. Gems in your gear is the focus which you use to manifest your powers. So swapping out gear matters a lot.
3. Progression: Does your system utilize levels? If not, how do players progress?
Through various methods player learn new skills over time. Implementing new learned skills into your build means accepting certain drawbacks or replacing other skills however. The power progression in terms of characters is flat.
The only way to become "stronger" is through getting better gear. All gear is temporary though. It wears down overtime and eventually needs repairs comparable to the cost of just making it again. It is also straight up lost upon death, and could be lootable by other players in certain circumstances.
So essentially there is no way to permanently become stronger. The power progression is pretty flat.
4. Setting: What is the setting of your skill system (science fiction, fantasy, occult etc.)?
A high fantasy setting. In this setting the role of phoenixes is a bit customized to the setting. They are a shapeshifter race with the ability to take the form of other creatures, and even breed with them. Phoenixes have disappeared from the world before the start of the game and their bloodlines were thought to have died out, but certain events have begun to awaken great powers in all those with even the slightest traces of phoenix blood in their lineage. You are one such individual who's powers have awoken granting you access to magical powers that can enhance your physical abilities, allow you to cast spells few others could ever manage to control, and even allow you to be reborn when you die like your phoenix ancestors. The technology level of the setting is something I'm currently considering. Magic had been much weaker in the world for many centuries prior to the awakening of the phoenix blooded.
This would either be a very traditional high fantasy setting with bows, swords, spears, etc. with no usage of gunpowder or, a very gunpowder heavy setting in which engines have not yet been invented. In the gunpowder setting one of the first expansions would be a "New World" expansion in which Native American type races would be introduced in a fantasy setting and there would also be more time period appropriate issues in the Old World section of the game such as strong presence Gothic Horror and lot of competition between Monarchies and nations beginning to embrace a form of government rising in popularity known as Republics.
5. Balance: Is your system limited (characters can only obtain a certain subset of skills) or limitless (can obtain all skills)?
The ability to use character skills is largely tied to gear. Gear has slots for skills on it, and certain types of gear is required to use certain skills. For instance to pick a lock you need a lockpick. Stealth mechanics are tied to your armor etc.
Characters can carry an absolutely massive amount of gear on them, allowing them to switch around weapons more easily and have a bag of tricks for almost any situation. Gear can be burdensome though, giving massive penalties to movement, dexterity, the speed of weapon swapping and in more extreme cases accuracy and attack speed.
A lightly geared character will find themselves very effective at the things they are geared for but limited in what they can do. A heavily geared character will find themselves able to do many things but less efficient at everything.
Comments
My inspiration for the roles comes directly from LotRO which, in my opinion, has had the best combat system I've ever experienced. It only really came alive in group settings due to the interdependence between classes.
To begin with, what you described happened: the loremaster (cc/debuff/pet), burglar (debuff/cc/dps) and captain (buffer/jack-of-all) were all extremely underused classes. Their DPS components pretty much sucked, so leveling was slow and painful, plus a lot of casuals didn't really understand the complexity of using all the support skills so it wasn't fun.
However, within a few years Turbine seriously improved the DPS aspects of the classes. You had to spec for it, which in turn made you worse at support, but it made leveling more enjoyable. The loremaster, for example, ended up being amazing at burst AoE damage. You would still never take it for a DPS spot in a raid, but it could be adequate DPS in 6man dungeons.
That is why I stipulated that all roles would be able to achieve 80% of the DPS of a pure DPS class if specced for it: to open up the classes to more people and make leveling more enjoyable. Once you get people hooked, they will eventually learn the subtler side of support classes.
As for the combat system, I have a very definite idea of what I want. It does indeed include collision detection, as well as a whole new way to handle tanking. I've also seen this role definition work very well in pvp for 24vs24 man raids and the roles are still extremely useful and needed.
If you reduce the number of active skills, you limit the potential depth of the system. To be honest, I think 20 is too few. My favourite combat system was LotRO. I played a captain (buffer). I had roughly 45 active skills, then a further 10-15 skillslots taken up with things like potions, food etc. My main rotation only used 6 skills, so everything else was situational / group focused.
It meant every single fight was a constant decision making process. Do I buff the tank for more parry, or the champion for more dps? Do I throw a heal at that person, or someone else? Do I need to blow my survival cooldown, or do I trust the healer?
All classes were like this. Some, like DPS, had more complex rotations and less situational / group skills, but all classes had depth. This resulted in success / failure being determined by player skill (ability to make the right decisions) rather than gear scores or DPS numbers.
I don't care about trackable metrics and I would try to disable any way of tracking things like DPS / threat in my game as they are anathema to a community-focused game.
However, these 6 roles exist in lotro and worked extremely well. It is all about options. I hate enrage timers, so would never have them in my game, which means DPS scores don't matter in the traditional sense.
What happened in LotRO was the 3 support roles offered up alternative tactics. So, you could "brute force" a dungeon by going in with tank, healer and 4 dps (or tank, 2 healers and 3 dps). This worked but lacked grace - if you started running into problems you lacked the ability to get out of it.
Or, you start mixing in support roles. If you bring a buffer, you have less DPS but more health, more evasion, better burst dps, some off heals maybe. It slows it down, but makes it safer. Or, bring a debuffer - if the mobs are doing less damage, there is less pressure on healers. Or bring a CCer - keep those adds out of the fight entirely.
In LotRO, the combat system was designed so well that really talented individuals could complete nearly all content (including raids) without key classes. As a captain (buffer), I have main-healed 6man dungeons, something only made possible by having great CC and debuffers. Hell, I've done 6mans with 6 captains, or 6 loremasters, or 6 burglars.
Something I haven't discussed so far is resource management. It relates to combat, rather than skills, but may shed some light on my thinking. In games like WAR, SW:TOR etc, everybody develops a resource neutral rotation. You can churn it out infinitely and always have resources. That, to me, is boring and removes depth. LotRO had limited resources. There was no such thing as a resource-neutral rotation. My captain, for example, would typically run out of power within 60second of a fight if I was going full blast, or 90 seconds standard. However, various skills and classes could restore power or increase regeneration. This is part of the reason why classes were so interdependant - my captain increase base power + regen. Loremasters could drain and distribute power from enemies. Burglars could start "fellowship manouvers" which could also return power. These things increased the importance of support roles and vastly changed the tactics of fights.
It is more the fundamental principle that I am concerned with. The specifics would need to be iterated over many times to get the right balance. Killing 1000 of anything probably seems monotonous, but I personally prefer stuff like that to simply grinding quests.
As with all things, iteration is the key. If I'm putting a skill unlock behind PvP that was intended to only be useful for PvPers but is actually great for everyone, then it needs a rethink. Likewise, putting something badass at the end of a raid will piss off pvpers and casuals as they won't want to raid. It will be a fine balancing act, but definitely doable.
As for your archer example, I disagree. That is the player themselves putting them on a rail system and there is nothing I can do about that. My system still gives them the choice to progress in whatever way they want. So, archer no1 might decide to do all the solo stuff first, then the group stuff, then the pvp stuff, so that is the rail they've chosen. Archer no2 might decide to just do whatever they feel like, so they do a bit of pvp first and progress there, then join a mate for some dungeon running, then back to pvp, then a bit of questing before logging off.
Ultimately, both archers would have to do the same activities to reach perfection, but the order in which they do things in my system is completely within their control so they hopefully won't feel forced.
Also, as mentioned, I am in favour of encouraging people to try other activities. The key to success is ensuring that each activity has some sort of fun involved. So, PvP, non-pvpers hate the ganking, hate the stomping and hate the toxicity. So, remove the power gaps. Make it consensual. That stops the ganking and stomping. Then, add in all the "nice" pvers and the toxicity gets drowned out by the "normal" people.
A diverse community is a better community.
Fair comment, the setting does play a part, but in my experience you can apply any combat system to any setting. But, I can easily envisage traditional tab-targetting working in a space game, and I can picture a healer (doc / sawbones) and tank (loud mouthed gunslinger) working in a wild west setting.
When talking about skills, I do admittedly think about combat skills only.
I have plans for the socialisation part, crafting, building and stuff, but they don't fall into my design for skill progression. As a rough outline, players would pick and choose 3 things for their character:
- Combat Class
- Crafting Class
- Socialisation
So, combat is everything I've already discussed in this thread. Crafting requires a whole other discussion, but essentially everyone can pick a single crafting class. Then you have socialising stuff. This could be group focused (like entertainer / musician from SWG), or something like image designer. I may not restrict it as I want to include hobbies in there too, for example, I would want a card game like the final fantasy ones that you could collect and play in game and earn rankings over time, take part in ingame tournaments etc. Also want fishing, racing (horses) etc. I've not really thought in too much depth about specifics of what I call "fluff" activities as they are less critical than getting the core activities right.Thanks for taking the time to respond in depth!
Furthermore, having 45 active skills that you have to manage takes away from the immersion of the game, instead of watching your character's animations and interactions with the gameworld you end up watching your action bars.
You may not care about trackable metrics, but players do, especially in the sort of game that you have in mind (group-based content--potentially with boss encounters?). Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to prevent metric tracking.
I was not aware that there were support roles such as Buffer/Debuffer in LOTRO, as I never took the opportunity to try that game out (was to enamored by Vanilla WoW/Burning Crusade). If you say they worked well and were engaging, then I will give it to you. Personally they do not sound that exciting to me, but then again it really all comes down to implementation. There are plenty of champions in League of Legends that are primarily viable for their buffing/debuffing qualities (Sona comes to mind), so I can see these being standalone roles now.
You contradict yourself in giving a nod to LotRO. If, as you say, the game was well-developed and you take inspiration from their roles, then why do you indicate the existence of key classes? If key classes exist, then Buffer/Debuffer are possibly non-key classes, which means they are inferior and fringe (read: not competitive).
Resource management is something I feel that I neglected to include in the attribute question, as it plays a pivotal role in the expression of the skill system, as it is implemented in gameplay.
This was then combined with a lack of things like enrage timers, which negates the need for minimum amounts of DPS, as well as the resource management which almost acts as a soft enrage mechanic.
So, if you went tank, healer and 4 dps into a standard dungeon, your group DPS would be very high so encounters are quicker, but without a captain (buffer), everyone is a bit squishier so more prone to dying, without a loremaster (cc/debuffer) you are forced to take on all adds at once and can't debuff, making the healers life harder, and without a burglar (debuff/cc) you have similar problems. Plus all 3 support classes also make resource management easier.
The reason I mention key classes is because nearly all content was designed around having tank, healer, dps and support in every 6 man group. Balanced groups were always the easiest to tackle content with, typically 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 dps, 1 support + 1 free choice. But, with the whole skill / combat design, you could overcome group deficiencies through more tactical play. So, if you are lacking a tank, you can use a champion or captain to tank by making sure loremaster and burg are specced for strong debuffing / CC. It may take longer to do, but you can still do it.
One of my favourite examples is a 6 man dungeon called Sammath Gul from LotRO. With an average group, the dungeon would take 1h30 to complete (tank, healer, captain, 2dps, lm/burg). On our server, we ran a speed run competition. In my guild, we managed 17minutes but server fastest was 13 minutes. Our setup was 2x champion (melee aoe dps), 2x burglar (specced for dps / debuff), 1x minstrel (healer), 1x captain (specced for off-healing / buffs). So, no tank.
It worked because between 2 burgs and captain, we buffed group DPS by about 35% and group health by about 20%. The 2 burgs and 2 champions actually output more dps than 4 straight dps classes. The burglars could set off fellowship manouvers (special coordinated attacks) which could be used to restore health and power in emergencies, or more damage. The captain could off-heal when needed and used special skills to increase healing and damage on one of the champs.
I don't know whether their combat system / class system came about accidentally or on purpose, but Turbine really did a fantastic job of making sure every single class could make valid contributions to every fight, allowing a lot of freedom in tactics and group makeup. For easy content, sure, sticking with the trinity was easiest and usually quickest, but as soon as any challenge kicked in, the support classes kicked ass.
Here is a link to all the captain skills: https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Captain_Skills
Without actually knowing the game, it is hard to grasp the purpose of them all. But, read down the list and you'll see a great variety of melee attacks, buffs, debuffs, heals and tanky stuff.
A good example from the captain, in terms of situational skills, is the "brother" mechanic.
A captain can designate one member of the group as their brother. You can choose 3 versions of the initial buff: shield brother, song brother and blade brother. So, you constantly monitor the fight to decide who is your brother. Generally start with it on the tank, but if tanking is easy, shove it on a dps to increase damage, or shove it on a healer to increase heals + power restoration.
You then have a followup skill: inspire. Its effects change based on what version of "brother" you have but it essentially buffs your brother. So, if I have shield brother on the tank, using inspire will restore health. If I have blade brother on, inspire will increase damage by 25%. If I have song brother on, inspire will restore power. With resource management, you couldn't have these buffs running 100% of the time.
So, just using this one example, I, as a captain, have to constantly monitor the fight and all players in my group to decide who to buff and when. This is combat depth: making meaningful decisions. If I buff the wrong person at the wrong time, it's a waste of my resources and could cause a wipe. Once you add in all the other buffs, off-heals and dps skills, combat as a captain is a constant decision making process. Apart from the easiest content, a captain never just stands there and rattles off a rotation. The same is true for all other classes in the game, though admittedly the support classes have the most depth.
This is why I'm in favour of lots of skills. If I only had 10 active skills then the decision making required is minimal - the game essentially forces you down a set path of what skills to use. This is especially true as most games just use "selfish" skills for the most part - standard attack/heal/threat skills that don't require decisions, just a good rotation. In SW:TOR, for example, my jedi shadow had maybe 25-30 active skills, but the majority were selfish and only a few were situational. So, I had a complex (but not deep) rotation of about 15 skills, but if the shit hit the fan I only had a choice of 3 situational skills to help turn the tide. Doesn't require much skill to pick 1 of 3 skills.
A World of Skills
Imagine a game world where players have to hunt down the skills they want their characters to have. Where the initial skill for all players would be just a Punch and a Kick and, for everything else, they would need to learn from interacting with the world and questing.
There would be no preset classes and all skills would not be fully disclosed upon the start of the game (your Skill Book would have just 'Punch' and 'Kick' in it).
Developing skills should be an integral part of the story and the world around you. You start the game without knowing what you don't know (like in real life) but by reading books in game and talking to NPCs, you start adding skills to your Skill Book. If you just learned the existence of a skill from something/someone who cannot teach you that skill, the skill would appear greyed out in the Skill Book, acknowledged but not really usable.
To learn new skills, players would need to find masters (NPCs) in the world and either pay them money or run one or more quests for them so you can learn the version 1 of that skill. This would apply to all skills in the game: active and passive skills, magic, melee, healing, tanking, crafting, movement, and so on.
Some skills might be learned from Books, but most would need to be via masters/teachers or interacting with the world. Books and NPCs can give hints on how to find a master for that skill or how to learn it.
All players could potentially learn and develop all skills in the game (if they hunt for them), but only a limited number can be equipped and used at any point in time.
The world would have hundreds of skills to find and learn. Each with their own background story, big or small. Each skill would have its own XP bar and could level up, growing in power with use (indicating that the character gets more 'practice' in using it, like in real life). Skills would be grouped by School, and each school would provide some kind of special utility. School of Fire would be strong in DoT skills while School of Light would be strong in Healing skills, for example.
Each School should also contain a 'Mindset' skill which would allow the player to activate it to get a bonus with skills from that school. Players can only activate one Mindset at a time and can only swap mindsets out of combat. This would allow some level of specialization, while still giving the player the option of using almost any skill in their action bar. Another option to motivate specialization could be: if the player equips more than one skill of the same School, they would earn a bonus on all skills of that school/type. The more skills equipped of the same school, the bigger the bonus. The Mindset can be something earned automatically simply by the number of skills of the same school you have equipped.
Some super powerful skills (Tornado, for example) could only be used if you were under that School's Mindset.
Some skills will be prerequisites to other skills. Fireball, for example, could only be learned if the player has learnt Spark.
Different regions of the world could have different skill types to learn. To learn skills of the School of Ice, for example, you would need to travel to a snowy area and visit tribes that work with Ice. Skills could have synergies/combos with other skills, from the same School and from other Schools.
The easier skills, such as Sword Fighting or Magical Light can be learned from common NPCs in academies in most cities, but more powerful skills, like Meteor or Tornado would need to be learned from NPCs in remote/difficult areas and going through harder/longer quests or quest lines. Dungeons could hide unique masters or bosses which might be a source of a new skill.
Imagine that, for learning the Fireball skill, you would need to visit a village of fire mages in the desert, find the master in the Fireball art and run a few errands for him, which would actually be tasks that have some relationship with Fire or meaningful connection to that skill (fighting fire-breathing lizards or challenge 5 different NPCs in the area while using different Fire skills). The master or NPCs would give you different tips on how to 'concentrate the heat in you' and 'feel the fire'. When all are defeated/completed, you go back to the master and he/she 'puts it all together' teaching you the Fireball lvl 1 skill. This skill then pops in your Skill Book, so you can add to your action bar or hotkey.
Some skills could only be obtained by going up in rank in certain NPC guilds or when you reach certain level of affiliation to a faction. The master of that faction/guild could then teach you that skill when you achieved that new rank.
You could also get some skills from fighting mobs that have that skill (your character would be learning it from 'observation'). Say, for example, you fight several bandits who Shield Bash you. If you have learned the basic Shield (prerequisite) skill and fight enough mobs who Shield Bash you, you eventually learn it.
In this game, players would rely both on in-game hints to find skills as well as on the community/internet to learn about secret, fun or powerful skills and how to get them. Future versions of the game can launch a bunch of new skills, from new skills schools, with related quests, areas and NPCs, and people would get back into the game to hunt for those.
Just imagine when you see another player use a fancy skill in battle that you didn't know about, this would be a conversation starter: "Where have you learned it? Where do I get this skill?". You would just have to have it. Players could also be incentivised to help other players get that skill by getting extra XP in that specific skill when they complete the same skill quest while they have a player without that skill in the same party. Skills could also be randomly learned from fighting a considerable time alongside other players in the same party, if they use that skill many times and your character has enough level and prerequisites in that skill school.
(continue in part 2...)
A World of Skills
(...continued from part 1)
We should be able to respec out of combat at any time to use any of the skills we acquired in the world. We should also be able to save builds for easy swapping when out of combat.
The world could have different mobs or entire regions weaker to some skill Schools and it would be fun to think strategically and adapt my build to tackle different zones and encounters. This system would also enable the player to adapt to different groups and play with different friends, being able to be more useful in different situations.
The player should still have stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, Charisma, etc.), and the effectiveness of each skill would partially be based on the corresponding stat as well as the skill level.
Even as the game would not have any 'hard' pre-set classes, the game could still have different races, with different starting stats, but all skills would be acquirable from the game world, by all players. (Although there could be some race-specific skills, acquirable from race-specific quests).
In RPGs (single player or MMOs), what most attracts me is the feeling of character growth. Getting new skills, new mounts, new gear, and becoming more powerful. Being able to do more, reach farther, kill bigger mobs with every hour I spend in the game. In real life, self-development takes years, it is frustrating and very hard. In games, developing yourself takes minutes and you get constant direction and positive feedback. If you can turn the whole game into a hunt into self-development, where you can hunt for better skills in the world, following stories related to those skills, and the masters behind them, they will mean something to you. And there will be a good reason for your friends and the community to help you, in showing you how to get their cool new skills while levelling up themselves in it. Maybe some skills would need two or more players to be acquired or even used (those would be powerful boss-fighting skills).
This skill system can work in any setting and in both action as well as tab targeting games, but I initially imagined it in fantasy/action oriented.
What do you think about it?
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Certain character background choices made during the character creation process help set you up with solid starting builds that revolve around certain archetypes. However you can learn any skill and eventually customize your build however you desire.
2. Stats: Does your system utilize attributes or stat-points?
Probably not. You simply know or don't know skills that can be slotted into your gear. Some passives may give abilities similar the bonuses you would get from attributes in other games, but your entire build is pretty swappable on the fly.
In lore this explained by your ancestry. Almost all your exceptional feats come from the power contained in your blood. If you are very strong it's because you are magically enhancing yourself to be so. Fast same deal. Able to cast powerful spells, same deal. Your innate stats don't matter nearly as much as how you are currently allocating your magical powers.
Gems in your gear is the focus which you use to manifest your powers. So swapping out gear matters a lot.
3. Progression: Does your system utilize levels? If not, how do players progress?
Through various methods player learn new skills over time. Implementing new learned skills into your build means accepting certain drawbacks or replacing other skills however. The power progression in terms of characters is flat.
The only way to become "stronger" is through getting better gear. All gear is temporary though. It wears down overtime and eventually needs repairs comparable to the cost of just making it again. It is also straight up lost upon death, and could be lootable by other players in certain circumstances.
So essentially there is no way to permanently become stronger. The power progression is pretty flat.
4. Setting: What is the setting of your skill system (science fiction, fantasy, occult etc.)?
A high fantasy setting. In this setting the role of phoenixes is a bit customized to the setting. They are a shapeshifter race with the ability to take the form of other creatures, and even breed with them. Phoenixes have disappeared from the world before the start of the game and their bloodlines were thought to have died out, but certain events have begun to awaken great powers in all those with even the slightest traces of phoenix blood in their lineage. You are one such individual who's powers have awoken granting you access to magical powers that can enhance your physical abilities, allow you to cast spells few others could ever manage to control, and even allow you to be reborn when you die like your phoenix ancestors.
The technology level of the setting is something I'm currently considering. Magic had been much weaker in the world for many centuries prior to the awakening of the phoenix blooded.
This would either be a very traditional high fantasy setting with bows, swords, spears, etc. with no usage of gunpowder or, a very gunpowder heavy setting in which engines have not yet been invented. In the gunpowder setting one of the first expansions would be a "New World" expansion in which Native American type races would be introduced in a fantasy setting and there would also be more time period appropriate issues in the Old World section of the game such as strong presence Gothic Horror and lot of competition between Monarchies and nations beginning to embrace a form of government rising in popularity known as Republics.
5. Balance: Is your system limited (characters can only obtain a certain subset of skills) or limitless (can obtain all skills)?
The ability to use character skills is largely tied to gear. Gear has slots for skills on it, and certain types of gear is required to use certain skills. For instance to pick a lock you need a lockpick. Stealth mechanics are tied to your armor etc.
Characters can carry an absolutely massive amount of gear on them, allowing them to switch around weapons more easily and have a bag of tricks for almost any situation. Gear can be burdensome though, giving massive penalties to movement, dexterity, the speed of weapon swapping and in more extreme cases accuracy and attack speed.
A lightly geared character will find themselves very effective at the things they are geared for but limited in what they can do. A heavily geared character will find themselves able to do many things but less efficient at everything.