Topic

Skill tree suggestion

I just started playing on Friday and since I've had a busy weekend, I haven't had the chance to play the game itself much but I have had the opportunity to click on lots of skills to learn.  I've already learnt 13 skills and will learn a handful more before I get a chance to jump back in to the game. It just doesn't seem right. While in real life, someone could sit in a library, pick random books for a while and learn some skills in stuff without actually doing them. However, it doesn't make sense from a game play perspective.

I can see that you have wanted to make the early skills really easy and quick to pick up to ease players in to the skill tree and to make players feel proud about how much they have learnt. However, adding some more basic requirements to the skill tree won't add to the time, nor much to the difficulty of learning skills. For example, I don't see why I would have Animal Kinship V without having touched an animal outside of the tutorial section. Where adding a basic requirement such as "Pet 5 animals" (or whatever appropriate number) to Animal Kinship II and so on up the tree, would provide a greater sense of accomplishment while not forcing players to do something outside of normal play patterns at low levels. It will also provide an opportunity to include more "Achievements" which players lap up in droves. Such as "One with the animals" when a player "Pets 5 animals" etc.

Also, why is Smelting I a Level 2 skill, when the other requirement for it is Refining I; and the two requirements for Refining I are Element Handling and Mining I, both Level 3 skills?

Posted 14 months ago by Urutsini Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • yeah I have found it kind of strange how you can learn like 80% of the skills in the game without ever actually playing.  I like being able to set it and go do something else IRL, but it does seem a bit silly.

    and yes, some of the prereqs are screwy like the smelting one
    Posted 14 months ago by djbeema Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree, it is great to set a skill to learn and either continue playing or go do other stuff. But I think all the skills (apart from AK1, SA1, LGT1 & EZC1) really do need some basic gameplay requirements as well. The framework is already in place with some of the higher level skills.
    Posted 14 months ago by Urutsini Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Realism does not equate to good game design. I much prefer this method, and many of the advanced skills do have in-game requirements already.
    Posted 14 months ago by Toksyuryel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Also, it'd be nice if the skills page refreshed, or automatically displayed new skills to learn after finishing a skill.
    Posted 14 months ago by Urutsini Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Skill queuing? I think there's a greasemonkey script for that.
    Posted 14 months ago by The Black Chicken Subscriber! | Permalink
  • No, not skill queueing. Just displaying them. When I first went to the skills page, I started clicking on skills to learn. Of course, after certain skills are learnt then more become available. However, they don't show automatically. You have to refresh the page manually to see them. I only realised this after noticing I had the requirements to learn certain skills in the skill tree and they weren't showing as learnable.

    Anyway, back to my original post. I now know 28 of the 98 skills in the game. That's almost a third of the skills without even playing past the tutorial. That's not "Bad gameplay" that's "No gameplay", it's not a question of realism.
    Posted 14 months ago by Urutsini Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Don't worry. It slows down a LOT.
    Posted 14 months ago by Lucille Ball Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I do agree, there ought to be more to learning a skill than clicking a timer.   There also ought to be more to speeding up a skill than donating to shrines.
    Posted 14 months ago by Jewel Stoned Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, it slows down a lot, and you'll have a bunch of in game quests to catch up on once you get back into the game.  Each skill achieved has a quest attached.  If they attach such requirements, it should just be simple things that are likely to be already accomplished if you've been playing.  Like "Has petted at least 5 Piggies", instead of "Pet 5 Piggies."

    I like being able to check on my skills out of game and starting new ones.  Since I like quests and have felt that this game is a little quest light for my tastes, I have actually spent a few days not logging in, so that I'll have more than one quest available to me when I do log in.  More stuff to make me feel like there's stuff I need to do rather than wander around aimlessly.  I want more small easy quests to keep me busy while I'm working on the larger quests that will take longer, I need to be able to change tracks or feel like I can get other things accomplished while I'm working on the Marathons like "Get 997 favor and then spend it on a skill."
    Posted 14 months ago by Azurite Subscriber! | Permalink
  • >"Has petted at least 5 Piggies", instead of "Pet 5 Piggies."

    Yep, I agree. That's why I suggest "Pet 5 Piggies" be an achievement. So that at the time you pet your fifth piggie in the game regardless of when or where it happens, you get a permanent achievement badge. And another achievement when you "Pet or Nibble 15 Piggies" for example. And use each badge for the next higher level of "Animal Kinship". And the same sort of things for the other skills.

    As long as the requirements of each low-level acheivement is no higher than normal play over the time it takes to learn the appropriate skill, it's not going to make much of a difference to the play and will prevent the feeling I'm experiencing of not really doing anything while still having a heap of skills. I'm aware that the skills slow down a lot as you get higher but that isn't really a solution. This has the secondary bonus of adding more achievements to the game which collectors love.
    Posted 14 months ago by Urutsini Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't mind the learning system.  True you might be able to get a bunch of skills quickly, but this slows down a lot unless you play.  First you have to get over the favor hurdles, then after you fill up your brain you start learning slower and slower.

    The current system lets casual players still progress and active players progress faster, if they so desire.  Also, just because you know a skill, you still have to unlock things like recipes through quests or achievements.
    Posted 14 months ago by Jojin Subscriber! | Permalink