Skills and stuff

[jack1974]

I'm still doing planning about the game. Currently I have this idea, there will be 8 non-combat skills for all characters, like the first game:
Charisma
Science
Stealth
Engineering
Psionic
Sabotage
Survival
Culture
and like in the first game, some characters will begin with higher value/specialized in one field. Like Rumi obviously in Psionic, and so on. Differently from the first game there won't be big values 0-200, more like 1-20 or perhaps even smaller like 1-10. Then in the main plot there will be skill checks, but not % based (which inevitably leads to save scumming!) but more like Cursed Lands where there's a minimum value to pass the check.

Regarding combat skills, I am planning to have like 4 skills for each of the 4 classes = 16 class skills
Then, each character will have another 4 skills, unique to each one. There will be 9 characters (Lisa/Joshua included) = 36 more skills, 4 unique for each character

So not that many, but still more than the first game which had 12 skills total (both combat and non combat) shared with all characters Of course enemies might have other skills too.

I'll be working on defining the skills and building a prototype in the next months to test the battles and get feedback.

[Troyen]

Depending on how often you need to use the skills, you may be able to cut down/merge a couple of the non-combat ones. For example, Sabotage could be part of Engineering and Stealth part of Survival.

My personal preference is to have fewer skills but more uses for them rather than a bunch of skills you only get to use 2-3 times per game. Especially in the first game, it was expensive to pump up one of the non-combat skills and only rarely were you able to benefit from it or was it needed for the story (with the exception of Survival, which I think gave you an in-combat regen bonus that I used to great effect). Ideally, it'd be cool to have the option to use each of them closer to a dozen times throughout the game (even if this means you had to pick between skills, like in the first game).

Even with 9 characters allowing you to specialize, you still have to grind up the other members of your party to level up their non-combat skills, so the more opportunities you have to use non-combat skills, the less it feels like a leveling attribute tax.

[jack1974]

Currently I have 8 non-combat skills so I could have 1 character specialize on each one. If I reduce it, it should still be a number like 4 so I could have two starting skill specializations each character, like:
Rumi: Psionic +++ Science +
Tom: Charisma +++ Engineering +
and so on. So yes the other possibility could be 4. I agree that's better less skills but more use, it's the same philosophy I'm using in combat. Though of course for combat is a bit different and more complex to implement

[Franka]

I've always wanted my character to be a Culture specialist...



Epic RPG incoming!

[jack1974]

Obviously that would be the most useful skill! Knowing how two boragrub mate will be essential to save Planet Stronghold!

[SimonStardust]

Obviously that would be the most useful skill! Knowing how two boragrub mate will be essential to save Planet Stronghold!

If dealing with a boragrub infestation, this kind of knowledge could be essential indeed! Knowing how they mate could make it easier to find a way how to stop them from mating.

[jack1974]

Indeed!!
For now I'm keeping 8 skills, even if player fail the skill checks they can still go on in the story (it would probably do like Cursed Lands, have a fight or a tougher situation than if you passed the check).
I need to write some of the various story/side missions to see how much often the skills are used. If they're not used much, I think I could scale down from those 8 to 4, like:
Science (Science+Engineering)
Stealth (Stealth+Sabotage)
Psionic (Psionic+Charisma)
Knowledge (Survival+Culture)

[Arcanalogia]

Indeed!!
Psionic (Psionic+Charisma)
Knowledge (Survival+Culture)

CHARISMA and CULTURE makes a better pair. Psionic should be completely independent and survival sabotage and stealth can all become a single specialization.

[jack1974]

Yes maybe you're right

[grey_duck]

You could consider keeping the 8 skills and allowing some skill checks to have a backup.

I.E. Oh, noes, someone set us up the bomb! On a 10-point scale:
- Sabotage can disable a bomb with a 3 (if you can plant a bomb, you can deactivate it)
- Engineering can defuse the bomb with a 4 (if you can build a bomb you can dismantle it)
- Science can defuse the bomb with a 7 (you understand the theory behind everything, if not the exact workings)
- Stealth (or maybe survival) can carefully, slowly, steadily carry the bomb to a place it can be detonated safely with a skill of 10.

Then people can still go crazy diversifying their team, but not have to worry that going into a mission without an engineer will get them killed or whatever.