The Skill System

[Dark Shadows]

Mr. GM,

I understand you have not coded the skill system into the game yet, but could you at least just keep them listed in the text field as all the other game versions did? Many of us enjoyed playing with them around as aids for getting things done in Special Actions or a bonus in a combat situation. Plus it was fun to look for some skills and then going through the effort in the train in them. We could use this stop-gap to have them until you worked out a proper game system mechanic for them. We shouldn't lose time that we could be working on them in-game, while you figure out how to do it all. That could take 6 months or a year to work it all out.

Example (10) point skill startup setup for an Independent clan:

Leader: CMD-2, STR-1, CST-1, SGE-1
      F1: TAC-1
      F2: CTA-1
      F3: CTA-1, SCT-1, TRK-1 

Maybe the clan finds an NPC that can train in PCB-1, and he has all his characters train in PCB-1. He uses a SA each turn to continue his training in the skill to then add PCB-1 to all his characters with his clan and ends up with the following skill list.

Leader: CMD-2, STR-1, CST-1, SGE-1, PCB-1
      F1: TAC-1. PCB-1
      F2: CTA-1, PCB-1
      F3: CTA-1, SCT-1, TRK-1 , PCB-1


These skills help to define a character like maybe I do a SA stating that the F3 leads the Scout unit and they look into any unusual encounter or situation and investigate it as they SCOUT /0.

[Davin]

I'd rather embed such things into the code when starting with them.  The coding isn't as difficult as it might sound, giving a running system first, but I feel a need to work out underlying designs and reasoning before adding them to the game system.  I'd rather not rely entirely on "they way it was done before" without a good feel for how and what I'd like to use them for and fit them into the new game system.

[DreamWeaver]

Ok with the Skill System, Davin will in the future after the basic game get's up and running try to code the Skill System. Up until this time the Skill System has not even existed in the real code.

I am guess ing the syntax for training in a skill will be something like:

[TRAIN] [SKILL] [CHARACTER] [LDR/F1/F2/F3] [SKILL] [LEVEL]

So lets say for an example you want the clan Leader to train in the skill of PREACH - PRE-3 then you would do the following order:

[TRAIN] {SKILL] [CHARACTER] [LDR] [PRE] [3]

This way the system would update the Leaders skill listing...thus it takes (6) turns/cycles to train in a single skill level with a Instructor, that normally you would need to use a Special Action to locate. I guess he could come up with a Order Syntax to locate a Instructor as well in a pop center but it should be left open to to also find someone to teach skills that is not located in a pop center somewhere too.'

Now as you train and run this order to train each cycle, maybe this order might have a action point value of 25 to 100 points for each time you run it. And as I said in the past it would take (6) Turns/Cycles to gain another level of a skill. It had a increase something like this:

PRE-2.15, PRE-2.30, PRE-2.45, PRE-2.60, PRE-2.80, PRE-3.0 Thus taking (6) turns/cycles to complete, finishing of the 6th turn.

It should also be pointed out in the past any character could only learn one skill or train in a single skill at a time. Also it was a always assumed that if you had a Level2 skill that you could teach someone else in Level-1 skill. Now I always felt being a Technology Instructor myself, it makes more sense That someone needs to be 2 levels higher to teach someone in a skill. Thus a person with PRE-3, would be able to teach others in PRE-1.  So if a LDR had PRE-3, and he wanted to train his three followers in PRE-1 it should be allowed, and yes it still takes (6) turns/cycles for each of them to learn the skill at the same time together.

I also always felt that Level-3 skill should mean normally skilled, Level-5 skill should be advanced skilled, level -7 skill should be a master skilled, Level-9 skilled should be extremely skilled with new discovery in the skill. What all that means is up to Davin to work out, maybe it gives the character gain some additional bonus or something when using those skills somehow.

Now Davin wants to make everything included in the code, but sometimes these skills are for pur roleplaying ability and should remain suck. To do away from that makes the game a paper 2d lion and will make it boring to play. You can't code everything, and if you take away the roleplaying aspect of the game and make it all a 2d wargame than this game will be dead on arrival.