With the release of the new and re-imagined skills/knowledge system, I'm sure we all have thoughts to share. I'll put a few of mine below, and please share things that you notice as well!
Some of my thoughts:
Interesting to see papermaking under woodworking. Should we expect that Elyrian paper is primarily easily-destroyed pulpwood, rather than the more resilient linen/cotton blends or papyrus that have been invented in Terran history?
I love seeing Brewing/Distilling, Cooking, and Alchemy all together, as indeed they are in the life that we know. The fundamentals of cooking are in chemistry, and lessons learned in one use the same principals as in the other.
Interesting to see Pharmacology split into a completely different tree from Alchemy. Many people (myself included) assumed that these would be more closely related.
Having Architecture and Cartography under the same general skillset might make military engineers happy. Understanding a map is key to properly siting fortifications, and it's cool to see that concept here.
Join the (NA-W) County of Kalevasuo, explore the harvestable, craftable world, research alchemical concoctions, develop tools of warfare and test them on the battlefield!
Thank you Snipehunter. That is really cool way to be able to break out specializations for smithing actually(I am even more pumped to be a smith)!
Will some techniques be able to be multi-skill? Are they taught? Do they require practice to master? Will some techniques require a certain skill level, or as I am understanding it: are skills more of a modifying bonus?
Posted By FruityWelsh at 05:38 AM - Wed Jul 25 2018
Thank you Snipehunter. That is really cool way to be able to break out specializations for smithing actually(I am even more pumped to be a smith)!
Will some techniques be able to be multi-skill? Are they taught? Do they require practice to master? Will some techniques require a certain skill level, or as I am understanding it: are skills more of a modifying bonus?
Ah, actually, "yes" -- Generally speaking, skills act as more of a modifying bonus. However, you have to establish a familiarity with techniques to use them without risks of something going wrong, and initially learning each technique requires a certain level of skill.
Though that said, many techniques are "ways to skin a cat" -- that is there are techniques that produce the same result, save the properties they impart on the thing being crafted and the ease of using them. So even if you lack the skill for the real advanced techniques, chances are there's a technique that can produce an equivalent result at the cost of more labor and different properties being imparted to the object.
Hope that helps! :)
Posted By Maulvorn at 08:14 AM - Wed Jul 18 2018
I am honestly hyped big time by this.
You and me both. I like the way the guile and combat trees were laid out. I know it's a WIP but it still hypes me up too and even helps me visualize what skills I might cross train to create my ideal role.
Inquiry by Case Study
So a still-lingering question that I've already asked but still haven't felt satisfied with the answer - it's in regards to the skill system and the freedom of action that it will support in a MEOW. Will the game be taking us a tour of the crafting sequences and animations that SBS meticulously designed or are they simply making mechanics for how we can interact with the world and how it will respond. The release of the new skill flower finally and the dev journals are doubling down on the idea that players will have as much free reign as possible in regards to their own playstyle. I love the vision and committment. So instead of asking I'll use the new details to give a case.
Case
I'm a researcher. I want to study the effects of plants - their toxicity, their therapeutic effects, potency, latency, variables involved in route of administration, etc.,. I have gathered a wide assortment of plants and other reagents. 1) How will the mechanics of the game facilitate me learning that?
I need to study effects on organic life. Consuming these trials myself would be toxic to my health and possibly waste my spark. And no one would volunteer to be a test subject for the same reason. And making prisoners or captives a forced subject would probably not be an appealing idea; considering SBS was bombarded with complaints about prisoners losing play time, actively draining their spark would be a no-no. Most obvious conclusion would be to find a model animal - maybe that animal was your target of research anyway. 2) What game mechanic will be employed?
Mechanic A There is a subset skill of some field of academia that will allow for specifically this setup. Tools such as caged and syringes and the like will be an in-game construction that is suggested for this particular use.
Mechanic B There is no specific skill for this and it is solely through trial and error that you can achieve this setup. You'd need to have proficiency in animal care, knowledge, and trapping to obtain, care for and obtain recognizable results; you'd need to have proficiency in pharmacology, cooking, alchemy, anatomy, etc., to produce a product and be able to freely choose a route of administration but accurately reselect a specific one.
This type of mechanic would theoretically allow players the ingenuity to create new playable 'classes' and play styles simply by combining coincidental mechanics. Not necessarily pre-designed by the devs but allowed and functional simply because they don't break the game and work within the world laws. (Example: cooking with the meat of an animal that was raised on a alchemical diet of supplements - not even GMOs, just the effects of that chemical buildup in the meat and whatever debuffs. Maybe the debuffs/buffs aren't carried over once the animal is no longer a carcass and is just a slab of meat - trained combatants are needed to incapacitate the animal or give it a bleeding state to then cook the creature live and whole. Idk, I'm just making this up as I go.)
Follow-up: Skill Leveling Within Professions
I suspect that people will say the option would be Mechanic B. If so, my next question would be on a topic touched upon in the recent dev journals about skills - professions. More specifically, the idea that professions are distinct from skills and that professions are the culmination of several areas of expertise. Since the devs mentioned that multi-skilling would only take direct penalty from the obvious time limitations on a life, are they saying that multi-skill professions are viable? And if they are, are they going to be supported in any way by the system? Given any equitable or comparable (and this is all hypothetical) game buffs/boons given to single skill leveling. (The only buff I know of is the skill ramps between generations. Just asking.)
Important, General Skill Mechanic Follow-up
Will skill progression grant rewards that can be evolved with the mastery of other skills? Either with or without direct game mechanics.
Example: will sufficient mastery in math-based academia, music, and anatomy allow you to acknowledge The Golden Ratio. Will that grant any boons to your actions, like higher ability to impart knowledge from those trees? Or being able to more easily identify unknown structures and organisms? Or being able to deal better combat damage or pick herbs better or mine ore better by understanding some abstract knowledge of the composition of the world? Would that step your soul/spark closer towards awakening to magic? Or a realm of the arcane inferior to but akin to magic?
Idk, just asking
Posted By Huntsmaster at
CoE skills, as of 0.4.0
With the release of the new and re-imagined skills/knowledge system, I'm sure we all have thoughts to share. I'll put a few of mine below, and please share things that you notice as well!
Some of my thoughts:
Crafting
Woodworking
Interesting to see papermaking under woodworking. Should we expect that Elyrian paper is primarily easily-destroyed pulpwood, rather than the more resilient linen/cotton blends or papyrus that have been invented in Terran history?
Chemistry
I love seeing Brewing/Distilling, Cooking, and Alchemy all together, as indeed they are in the life that we know. The fundamentals of cooking are in chemistry, and lessons learned in one use the same principals as in the other.
Lore
Medicine
Interesting to see Pharmacology split into a completely different tree from Alchemy. Many people (myself included) assumed that these would be more closely related.
Scribing
Having Architecture and Cartography under the same general skillset might make military engineers happy. Understanding a map is key to properly siting fortifications, and it's cool to see that concept here.
What are you curious about, excited by, or leery of, in the skills system as it stands today?
As I asked in the post about the skills: * Where is the gossip system? * Where has the art forgery gone? (Has player-created art been removed?)
I think this is a cheap shortcut that circumvents what was promised to us.
Cutting corners and grinning.
Posted By Skull Splitter at 10:23 AM - Sat Jul 28 2018
I think this is a cheap shortcut that circumvents what was promised to us.
Cutting corners and grinning.
Is there an aspect in particular you want to discuss about the skill flower change? I would actually like to hear more insight about about the skill system, but with your comment, I am just left with more questions.
If you let us know specifics, we could discuss.
Well it’s just my speculation, I’m not sure I’d be successful in explaining it
I'm looking at dual wielding at the moment and remembering a question from the Q&A about left- and right-handedness in the game. Caspian basically said that there weren't going to be any use/skill penalties for using one hand over the other to wield a weapon, which makes me wonder how dual wielding will perform at lower proficiency. Presumably, your combat skill with a weapon will improve your accuracy in hitting the area on the opponent you target (or hitting them at all, early on), availability of more difficult manouvres and the like. If a player's highly proficient in one-handed swords and uses two of them, would the high skill with the weapons offset the low skill in dual wield? On the other hand, if a player has high dual wielding but low skill with the weapon/s they're using, what would be the impact on combat performance?
To touch Divinity, one must be prepared to brave Reality.
LOVE THE SKILL FLOWER SO MANY THINGS TO CHOOSE FROM TO MAKE A GREAT GAMING EXPERIENCE AMAZING JOB DEVELOPERS!! YOU HAVE MY SUPPORT
https://chroniclesofelyria.com/forum/topic/23614/riftwoods-new-website-and-forum-page
Someone recently said this
and I was wondering if there was merit to it or more information that could be shared.
Posted By Chronic at 5:38 PM - Wed May 22 2019
Someone recently said this
That's not quite right. The skill flower is alive and well, but we are spending a lot of time to make sure that each "skill" is treated appropriately and that does mean that in many cases skills are treated differently in the game from each other.
Some skills function very much like classical RPG skills: As the number goes up, so does your character's facility at using that skill. However, for other skills gaining skill doesn't so much change how "good" you are at the skill as it does allow you access to more options. For example, getting better with your sword skill doesn't mean you'll be automatically better in a sword fight, but it does mean you can learn more martial styles and work to gain mastery of the martial styles you already have which greatly enhances the options you have in a fight over someone with less skill. That person with a lower sword skill can skill kill with a quickness if you're no good at fighting while they're the greatest with combat, though. They'll just do so with fewer cool moves and less opportunity to vary their style while it happens.
tl;dr: It is true that skills are undergoing refinement and in some cases overhaul, but the skill flower is still here.
Hope that helps! :)
I like how the example with the sword skill work. Everyone who have ever trained Martial Arts know the a whitebelt student may always beat a blackbelt if the blackbelt is a lesser fighter.
The blackbelt may have a access to more variation and techniques, but that does never automaticly mean victory.
Posted By Snipehunter at 11:29 PM - Wed May 22 2019
Posted By Chronic at 5:38 PM - Wed May 22 2019
Someone recently said this
That's not quite right. The skill flower is alive and well, but we are spending a lot of time to make sure that each "skill" is treated appropriately and that does mean that in many cases skills are treated differently in the game from each other.
Some skills function very much like classical RPG skills: As the number goes up, so does your character's facility at using that skill. However, for other skills gaining skill doesn't so much change how "good" you are at the skill as it does allow you access to more options. For example, getting better with your sword skill doesn't mean you'll be automatically better in a sword fight, but it does mean you can learn more martial styles and work to gain mastery of the martial styles you already have which greatly enhances the options you have in a fight over someone with less skill. That person with a lower sword skill can skill kill with a quickness if you're no good at fighting while they're the greatest with combat, though. They'll just do so with fewer cool moves and less opportunity to vary their style while it happens.
tl;dr: It is true that skills are undergoing refinement and in some cases overhaul, but the skill flower is still here.
Hope that helps! :)
Spot on, thanks!