Shattered Kingdoms

I've always found it strange that some skills/spells are so simple to master while others are nearly impossible, and that it doesn't necessarily scale with the power of said skill/spell. It seems to me that most skills/spells which are actually used by the char ought to naturally master by the time they're done levelling. Some master way before that now, some never. Seems a lot of it depends on the mechanics of said skill/spell. Whatever tweaks can be made to make skill/spell improvement more even across the board, I'm in favor of.

Is skill/spell improvement something that gets reviewed for equity by the powers that be? Just curious.

Peace,
Bux

I'm not in particular favor of making skills easier to master.

It becomes too easy and then boring not to have to work at something, furthermore, I like the fact there are variables in the game due to not all skills/spells being perfect.

Makes for a more dynamic environment, if the players want that little bit more bonus, then they can take the extra mile.

I don't see why everyone needs to come rolling out with a level 50, all mastered character in 2 weeks.

Anything to slow the delete/recreation of characters I'm all for!

I suppose my point, at least, was that skill improvement ought to scale more evenly across various skills, or be scaled to the power of said skill. Whether they're mastered or superb at the end of levelling doesn't really matter to me. But I'd like my chars to become reasonably proficient in all the skills he uses while levelling, by the time he's done levelling.

New GM every 2 weeks sucks, but so does hundred hours of grinding, whether it be levelling or practicing skills. There's a middle ground, which I think SK is actually getting closer to in recent years, in my opinion. Highly subjective, I realize.

Peace,
Bux

I play a deep-elf merc, and I just hit mentor. I've mastered sword, spear, axe, flail, whip, bash, dirt kicking, kick, etc, and I've got just about everything else except for rallying cry and the mentor skills at superb. My int is smart, although modding it up to brilliant only takes about twenty minutes in the salvarian caverns. I think I've got about a hundred and fifty hours on him, maybe less.

The thing is, he's a fighting class, and almost every one of those skills was a total -bitch-. I think that the only ones I enjoying mastering were kick, sword, and spear. That's with a deep-elf, the smartest, fastest learning class there is, and fighting skills, which are pretty much the easiest skills to grind, with the obvious exception of writing.

I think that the shittier weapons, like whip, mace, and maybe staff, should be given a boost. Everyone who can masters sword, spear, or axe first thing. Flail is usually in there next, because of its usefullness against swashies. Whip is pretty much only used by perfectionists like me and classes like bards. Mace is pretty much the dominion of priests and warlocks. Staff is for newbies like STFU_KTHX who think it makes them look cool.

But wait a minute--maces were actually USEFUL weapons in combat. You take a three-foot stick with a metal weight on the end and hit somebody with it, odds are that it's going to knock the living hell out of his armor, and he's probably not going to walk away unscathed either, especially if you hit him on the head. Splat.
Whips aren't exactly crap, either. While they're not as effective as hitting somebody with a sharp or heavy (or both) object, they're very painful, fairly easy to hit with, and people -really- don't want to get hit with them. I mean, imagine somebody swinging a ten-foot bullwhip at your face. You're probably going to stop and try to duck. Their only disadvantage is the fact that heavy armor renders them totally useless.
Same deal with staves. I'm not going to argue in favor of them, I'm just going to point to the big lightsaber fight at the end of episode 1. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if anybody in star trek uses staves. Or swords.

I really do think that these weapons should be given a boost of some kind. If you're wearing armor made out of anything less than mithril, a mace IS going to bash the hell out of you. If you're wearing light armor, a whip WILL knock the living snarklewafflebunnies out of you, and staves are probably the easiest things to block a hit with in the world, other than, maybe, like, a shield. I think that if you give these weapons the according boosts, you really will see an increased diversity of weapon styles on the mud. Myself, I just wanna see a giant with a huge-ass mace beating the living [REDACTED] out of everybody, Sauron-style.

Putting aside that useless drivel posted directly above, I just have to say Bux, that why should skills improve at the same rate as levels?

You may as well just directly link the two. You've reached level 38! Your skills have been improved!

The purpose of skill grinding is to make something else to work for and to work on mastering, outside of normal mobile grinding. They separate those who want to work to perfect their characters versus those who don't. The same can be said for enchanting or leveling.

Perhaps it is just me, but I see this as an evil necessity. Doesn't mean I enjoy it at all.

I'm not promoting making them instantly masterable. It just will make it a little more bearable, and you will still have to use those skills or spells to actually master them.



This is irrelevant. The ability to master skills and spells has no bearing on whether or not someone is going to delete and create a new character.

Furthermore, who are we to tell someone else what they can and cannot do for their own enjoyment?

Easier you make skillsets to master, the easier it is to level. Which, in turn, makes it easier for people to have high turn over rates on characters. Be surprised how much difference it makes mastering 3rd attack faster, or shield block or spell or skill in general.



Well, this game is a form of enjoyment. Dulrik has the right to say what we can and can not do for this form of enjoyment. *shrugs*

And Dulrik has never been picky about the rate at which players create and delete their characters.

That's not even a problem, to be honest.

If you improve with mistakes this is what will happen with the skills. Training a weapon skill will go from a hundred hour job to a ten hour job.. A slight increase in skills improve speed would be nice. However having thought about this a little there is already a major improvement in weapon and skill training of apprentice and lower fighting skills via mentors. Perhaps a group skill training bonus so when you are grouped your more likely to improve at skills watching others often helps you find mistakes in your own techniques.

That's stupid, and have you any idea what you are saying?

You would have to work for 10 hours just to master a weapon skill as opposed to 100 hours in your theoretical model? I'd take the 10 hours in a heartbeat, but it would still take a long time to master something.