[MUD-Dev] Skill defaulting

[Marian Griffith]

On Tue 01 Aug, Ryan "BC|Uller" Myers wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mordengaard" <mordengaard at redhotant.com>
> To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Sent: Monday, July 31, 2000 3:31 PM

> My only worry about this is the level of specialization that's appropriate.
> Also, I think it could be possible for MUDs/MOOs with class systems - you
> could have a set of basic skills (athletics, swimming, the etiquette skills,
> and some of the lower-specialization skills like general
> handguns/rifles/etc), and only allow certain classes to advance it to higher
> levels or thinner specializations.  i.e. street samurai would either be the
> only ones who could learn Assault Rifles, or they'd learn it at a lesser
> cost / lower level than the rest of the classes.  Speaking of easier costs,
> this could fit to the base skills also - for example, a decker could learn
> Matrix Etiquette faster than a mage.

Would it not make more sense to say that for a character to -be- a street
samurai it -requires- that skill with assault rifles?  When done properly
the skills that belong to a certain profession  (I would not want to call
it a class anymore)  are a coherent set that works together well -for the
job that professional is supposed to do-. I.e. a street samurai would not
need this skill matrix etiquette,  because they never get into a position
where -they- need it.  If they would  they should hire a decker, in whose
skill set it does belong, to do the job.

You would need to have a lot of underlying skills  that the players never
see, and never realise they are learning, but that are making the initial
learning of a radically new skill much harder. I.e. before you can become
proficient with this assault rifle you need to develop all kinds of skill
and abilities,  like concentration, dexterity,  hand-eye coordination and
what more.  Then you get to the point of skill  that is specific for your
chosen weapon.  E.g. maintenance,  aiming characteristics and things like
that.  All these skills build up when you first learn to use your assault
rifle. If you then later switch to another weapon those hidden skills are
already present and you can learn to use that new weapon much faster, and
you already have  a certain proficiency with it,  without having fired it
before. If on the other hand you switch to an entirely different skillset
like that of a decker. You are lacking all the required hidden skills and
have to build those up from scratch, making it very slow (costly) for you
to gain a certain proficiency.  With only a limited amount of skillpoints
(or time) to spend on teaching your character this would make it impossi-
ble to create characters that are good at everything. More likely you get
characters that are good at nothing.

For a system like this to work,  you would need to give players immediate
access to most,  if not all,  skills that belong to a certain profession.
Ideally even within a certain profession  the total skillset would be too
large for a single character to learn everything. Forcing players to spe-
cialise  even within a certain profession  (though  they would be able to
use skills that they did not explicitely train, only at a lower ability)


Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey




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