9 replies to this topic

[Jergis]

-Howdy all. When reviewing old media floating around in the inter-webs, i found an old screenshot for 'Crusade' that showed an interface that gave some studying numbers. It appeared from the interface that the characters (at that time, likely a year or so ago) ability to study was not confined to one skill, but that one could study multiple skills at a time. I would assume this translates into a set number of study points per 24 hour period, and thus distributing points amongst several areas yields slower results than consolidation.

My question to the Alganon community: Do you think studying more than one tradeskill at a time is wise, viable, or suggested? Would you prefer the study points divided between combat and non-combat skills? And how much should practice factor in to skill increases when compared to studying?

I realize with more info comes more opportunity to comment, but was curious tonight what the initial community thoughts were here.

Good evening.

Jergis

[Syndic]

I still believe Tradeskills and Adventuring should remain totally seperate from each other in regards to character development. In that regards I'd say studying a trade should not interfere with adventuring progress and vice versa. Sure the 2 can be reliant n each other to a degree, adventurers want things made and crafter need resources from adventurers, that's what makes the world go round. That said the player should be able to create a character that can trade from beginning to end without ever having even chosen a adventure class, and vice versa. It still irks me that in EQ2 I had to choose an adventure class for my tradeskill alts, which according to the devs can not be changed because it is too core to the system of character creation.

Anyway back on coarse, studying has been said to dilute the thinner you spread your training among characters, I'd hazard a guess the same would be said for studying more than 1 on a single character, if it is possible.

I was lead to believe that studying would be at milestones in character development. So upon reaching skill 10 you could not increase to 11 until you had studied for a particular amount of time. If I got the gist right on that I would say that the studying will end up being the tiers in the game. If studying is required for every advance then I have it all wrong

Certainly an area I would like alot more info on.

I think character progression was the number 1 response to one of the first polls QOL had set up, for "what would you like to know about the most?" or something like that.

[Berek]

Indeed, how your character's progress in the game world is one of those burning questions that I always have when delving into a new MMOG. Since these games are often all about how your character develops in the world, the definition of your character usually centers around this progression system. The fun factor can very well be broken if the progression system is also broken.

[lara1]

Yeah congrats Jergis,this is a valid question.My opinion is studying more than one trade skill is wise.The studying factor keeps on increase your knowledge.
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lara

Home Based Business

[Dificeman]

Jergis in response to your question, I do not believe the answer is so simple. I believe that studying more than one skill at a time can have its advantages, however, if someone goes and starts studying 5 or 6 skills at once I think it starts to become a drawback. This is due to the time it would take them to complete the studying and thus hindering their in game time progression. Also some of us who have played MMO's a great lengths are more like to be savy per say as to what will benefit us versus someone who is brand new to MMO's and might spread thier skills our all over the place not knowing what they should be doing.

This ties into another post/discussion somewhere on the boards about how players may be able to gimp themselves out unintentionally. Like I said not a simple answer to your question. I believe multiple studies will have advantages to those of us with experience in MMO's and possibly some other games that were skill-based. I just hope folks come together to help put out simple beginner guides for those brand new to the genre to help keep them from wasting massive amounts of time.

[Berek]

For a number of reasons, we've decided to limit players to studying one study at a time, and focusing on making it easy for players to change to a new study (without losing progress in their current study) and to return to their previous study.

Since they do not lose progress in a study, they can, for example, study swordsmithing for one hour, then easily switch to studying bowmanship for an hour, then easily switch back to swordsmithing, and back to bowmanship again. All without losing any of the advancement they've gained.

[Syndic]

Sounds fair and less complicated than allowing 1 character to study multiple items and dividing their study time.

As long as there is somewhere you can easily find which character, what study and how long they've been studying no matter which character playing or where you are I'll be cool with that.

EQ2 used to have you could only sell on one character at a time, sometimes you didn't know which one the server chose to sell unless you actually went to a broker and checked, was quite annoying.

[Jergis]

-Tracking issues aside, looking forward to seeing how this is implemented. Although i liked the idea of scaling study power if you divided it up amongst numerous studies versus focusing your efforts in one field, the ease of switching from one study to another may be just as tactical as one envisions their avatar's progression and growth.

Jergis

[Syndic]

the ease of switching from one study to another may be just as tactical as one envisions their avatar's progression and growth.

I see the switching alot like in EVE in that if you know your going to be away from the computer a day or 2 and have less than that on the current study you'd switch to a long one to take full advantage of the away time. This would also come down to if there is queuing or a self continuation option in study. Self continuation being once I've finished studying Sword 1 I'd move straight into studying Sword 2.

I guess it comes down to if QOL wants the system to have user interaction as often as possible. Which I think I'd prefer.

[DeLang]

Glad to hear that you'll be turning the focus of your studies to shine on one area at a time. This seems congruent with the emphasis on raising one character at a time. Will help those new to the concept to interact with the mechanic more, make meaningful choices, learn the game better, and avoid the unintended or accidental dilution of progression by trickling one's study power into every available area. Will probably also help each player define themselves more uniquely in the world relative to everyone else.

Kinda the Buddhist meditation approach to skill growth. Only one object observed, unwaveringly, at a time.

Observing many simultaneously, without a single focus would be more like Advaita.