Hey all, This is a mechanic that I've been mulling around in my head for the past few years and just wanted to start a discussion on this type of skill advancement for well RPG or some such. Really, if I think about it this mechanic could be used in a wide variety of situations within the gaming world. The key premise of the mechanic is that whatever you do as a "profession" will aid in your ability to perform other non-profession tasks. I will admit that originally when thinking about this I was contemplating an Elder Scrolls or MMO type game. But, that would really only be limiting the scope. As well was during my "pie in the sky" days =P Examples I had originally come up with were (which is where the RPG elements come in): Blacksmithing - Increases strength of one-handed weapon strikes Tailoring - Increases speed of casting Tracker - Increases stealth Etc, pretty much the sky is the limit. I've always been interested to see if it would be possible to create a system by which you could have an entire community constructed completely by players which would provide benefits for doing so. But as said above /discuss =P

Break them down further, and they'll make more sense. However, beware that you'll eventually end up with 100+ "skills", which dictate your ability to participate in a given profession. Some skills overlap, and you'll have to figure out your own solution to handling the overlap.

Blacksmithing:
+ General Strength
+ General Dexterity
+ Hard metals Knowledge (bronze, iron)
+ Masonry Knowledge
+ Furnace operation
+ Metal tool making
+ Blade making
+ Hammer making

Plus one of the following specialty disciplines...
Equestrian Blacksmith:
+ Animal Knowledge
+ Bridle making
+ Armor making
+ Wheel making

Artisan Blacksmith:
+ Wood carving (for molds)
+ Fine metals knowledge (pewter, tin, copper)
+ Fine Strength
+ Fine Dexterity

(etc)

That's essentially what I was looking at. I was just posting general ideas =P

I'm not personally going to be using this mechanic any day soon. I have a few friends who have started up their own make shift company out of University. But, personally was just throwing the idea out there.

Essentially, the way I was going to handle the skill cap idea was similar to how things happen in real life. If you concentrate on something too much (ie. bulking up in workout) you start to become weaker in other areas (ie. slower and less flexible).

The original hope was to equalize everything out to an extent where you could be versitle and master of none or very specialized at a task and purpose. I have the numbers somewhere with a heck of a lot more detail (I got distracted during a few classes in university =P)

Again, I will admit to the MMO idea originally. The hope had been for a wide scale PvP system where the world was for the most part constructed by the players rather than the developers.

As a mechanic its simple enough that a reasonable abstraction could be implamented in any number of games. I don't see why it would need a MMO type game structure to be effective.

You could try something like this with a FPS mod just to test its effect and balanceing issues.
The more a player looks around, the more overly sensitive the mouse can become. the less they look around the less sensitive the mouse becomes. The more players run the faster they become, but the less able they are to navigate and the noiser thier footsteps. the more they walk, the better they are to navigate tight ropes and the like, but thier lack of speed is a disadvantage in open areas. the more they use a particular weapon the faster they can reload it or the quicker/deadlier they become with it. the more they stick to shadows the less visable they become. All you would need to do is keep track of those stats and adjust values accordingly.

The general idea being that in a death match you might end up with players whom have become overly specialised...A fast player that darts all around the map that is highly proficient with a shotgun verses a slow invisable player whom is able to sneak around performing stealth kills with a crowbar. One player can't see the other, and the other player has great difficulty in reaching his opponet. It would be interesting to see something like that in play, and far less costly than trying to build up a MMO frame work just to test it out.

Quote:Original post by MSW
As a mechanic its simple enough that a reasonable abstraction could be implamented in any number of games. I don't see why it would need a MMO type game structure to be effective.

You could try something like this with a FPS mod just to test its effect and balanceing issues.
The more a player looks around, the more overly sensitive the mouse can become. the less they look around the less sensitive the mouse becomes. The more players run the faster they become, but the less able they are to navigate and the noiser thier footsteps. the more they walk, the better they are to navigate tight ropes and the like, but thier lack of speed is a disadvantage in open areas. the more they use a particular weapon the faster they can reload it or the quicker/deadlier they become with it. the more they stick to shadows the less visable they become. All you would need to do is keep track of those stats and adjust values accordingly.

The general idea being that in a death match you might end up with players whom have become overly specialised...A fast player that darts all around the map that is highly proficient with a shotgun verses a slow invisable player whom is able to sneak around performing stealth kills with a crowbar. One player can't see the other, and the other player has great difficulty in reaching his opponet. It would be interesting to see something like that in play, and far less costly than trying to build up a MMO frame work just to test it out.

Oh I agree... I had just had the idea while in my "Pie in the Sky" phase as I said. It can be used in any of these ways. And, I would love to see it happen.

Quote:Original post by Captain Griffen
I'm failing to see how this differs from Morrowind/Oblivion, where, eg: archery => higher agility => better at athletics.

If it is similar that was not the intent. If I recall from what others have told me though (and this was actually quite recently =P) is that it works on a 10 point leveling system where if you improve 10 points in key areas you increase level. And these are stated by a preferred class? The system I propose was mainly aimed at using tendencies or professions to increase ones ability to fight, etc.

Quote:Original post by Terlenth
Oh I agree... I had just had the idea while in my "Pie in the Sky" phase as I said. It can be used in any of these ways. And, I would love to see it happen.

Cool. Its just my knee-jerk reaction when MMO gets tossed into a discussion.

Quote:Original post by MSW

Quote:Original post by Terlenth
Oh I agree... I had just had the idea while in my "Pie in the Sky" phase as I said. It can be used in any of these ways. And, I would love to see it happen.

Cool. Its just my knee-jerk reaction when MMO gets tossed into a discussion.

Oh I completely understand, my specialty at University ended up being database/network communication so I know how tedious a task the MMO can actually be. I tend to be more of a visionary in a lot of cases, come up with ideas and flesh them out but sort of store them away for later dates... =P