Specialty Skills/Professions - Healer

[kinvoya]

I'm interested in some changes that would add more fun type (AOT war/work type of activity) to Cantr. Thus, I think it would be great if some chars got specialty skills or actual professions that could make it possible for them to earn a living from thier work.

I have several ideas for different occupations but I'm going to put them all in different threads so that the merits of each one can be discussed without confusion. Anyone with their own ideas about a specialty occupation is welcome to follow this format. Unless it is completely shot down I'll add new threads as I have time and think of them.

Note that a char could just ignore this special skill if he/she doesn't want to perform it. Also, hopefully, there would be a minimum of profession shopping. I think that if only 1 out of 25 spawnings had a random specialty profession it would be rare enough to discourage this. It would be really nice if this feature could also be given to established chars in the same random and rare fashion (just a dream, I know!)

Here's the way it would work: A char with a rare specialty skill would have an extra button on their events page which would allow them to perform this skill. Perhaps it would make them fairly tired each time so they couldn't do it constantly. Some buttons might have a drop down menu to enable the char to use or make specialty items.

Hope this is not too impossible to implement.

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Professional Healer:

Would be able to heal wounds at, say, 10% per session. A healer would also be an expert Gardener in order to tend an herb garden for healing plants. I don't know much about how apothacary tables and pouches work but the Healer should also be expert at using these.

A dropdown menu would show every form of food, herb, potion, etc. that can be used for healing. The Healer would get a higher use value from administering them to another char than if the injured character ate or took it themselves.

The Healer could then charge for these valuable services or give them away as s/he chooses.

[formerly known as hf]

I very much like this idea, anything's better than every character being a Jill of all trades as it is now.

As for implementation, it'd be nice (as I've said before) for skills to count for much more than time taken. The quality of produce, and even the options available for construction, should be linked to skill level. An uber-skill level should mean uber-clothing (or weapons etc.)

As for healing, I welcome anything that changes the frankly absurd healing system of Cantr.

[Crosshair]

I like all of this... great idea, Kin!

[Dreamhand]

Two thumbs up!!! A healing skill makes perfect sense in the context of the game and would add yet another dimension to role-play AND another "career path" for dedicated players.

Make it so!

[Crosshair]

Would it not be a bad idea for such blessed people to be able to train others in the skill? a proper education system would be established...
Medical Schools, Academies of... etc....

[kinvoya]

That would, indeed, be very wonderful! I hope we get some feedback from programmers soon about whether any of this is even remotely possible. I have a bunch more ideas for occupations but I don't want to flood the place with threads until I know if there is a point to it.

Here are some more I thought of:

Chef - Makes speciaty foods which are super nutricious and light
Shipwright - Can build special boats of all sizes
Captain/Navigator - Can somehow find their way at sea better/faster
Horticulturalist - Can grow special plants for the chef and healer
Moonshiner - Can make alcohol
Carpenter - Can build special houses and furniture (including coffins)
Animal Wrangler - Can domesticate animals
Mercenary/Assasin - Super strong, super attack and defense. Can hit a person more than once per day with minimal tiredness. Can kill with one blow under the right circumstances.
Locksmith - Can open locked doors without a key (needs tools) and break or install locks in one hour.
Mortician/Gravedigger - Can dress dead bodies. Can bury people so that they have a visible grave with a headstone. Also, can bury people in a coffin along with items. S/he can dig the coffin back up to retrieve the items. Coffins with loot but no body can also be buried in fake graves
Trainers - To improve strength, fighting ability, etc. faster

Please don't discuss these here. PM me if you want me to start a thread about anything in particular.

[N-Aldwitch]

But you'd need to train in that profession, otherwise you may as well just change the name to 'Priest', and add in another profession called 'Mage'.. etcetera..

[Nosajimiki]

I kind of like specialized occupations, but I think since skills themselves are pretty random, and a lot of people don't like being as predetirmened as they already are, proffesions should be chosen. I think if you were able to take any expert skill and "research" it (a very long, 2-4 year project that unlocks the special ability) It would put some of the player choise back into his own career. You could only have one profession.

[kinvoya]

Indeed, research might be a better way to do it but the char would have to make a major investment in it to become a professional. I would say 20 Cantr years. This way a char would have to be at least 40 years old to be such a skilled person which makes much more sense that a 20 yo having this kind of skill. Otherwise the game would get flooded and the skills would become less special and valuable.

So a char would have to start out as an expert in a certain field. Maybe instead of Healer s/he could be called an Herbalist. The expertise needed would be in gardening. An expert gardener would need to spend 20 years on a project called studying/researching/learning. They could stop and start this project but could not work on anything else at the same time. So unless they found a sponsor of some sort it would take more than 20 years to complete their training. In the case of the Herbalist the training could take place in any herb garden.

[Zanthos]

maybe getting a profession would require certain prerequesites, such as skillful or greater as a gardener for healer.

I do like the idea of official professions, but i fear that adding them makes this game just a little more similar to other games of this genra (if thats spelt right ;p)

[Frits]

Good ideas!
Notes: When a char farms or digs for twenty years he'd gain a massive skillincrease so wouldn't this apply here as well?
It reminds me of another idea that was discussed involving inventions that took about 20 years and a special set of resources and allowed the char to set up projects noone else could. Like better ships, machines for drilling or harvesting, clothes, chemical products, better weapons and shields etc.

[Nakranoth]

Except for one thing... you get better and become professional through Doing what it is you're practicing much faster than studying non-existant books... now if there were a skill level above expert that would allow for extra super-perks and you couldn't spawn with the skill this high... then your 40-50 year old "expertly" cook just may become a "perfectly" cook and have access to some more obscure and rewarding dishes... that would only be workable by a perfect cook...

[new.vogue.nightmare]

Ooh, I like the "perfectly" idea... It would definitely be nice for an expert's hard work and dedication to mastery of their craft pay off in the form of abilities that can't be matched by a lucky newspawn.

[Antichrist_Online]

A level that can only be achieved through work - Ok that's not to bad.
Professions that restrict skills - NO NO NO. Kills all flexiblity in a chracter.

Maybe if certain linked skills acted together behind the scenes but no outward choices for the player, otherwise it will turn cantr into yet another rpg with a pile of unwanted classes. Somewhat similar to Seko's idea of behind the scenes characteristics but with a bonus randomly applied. Weapon making for example could be given a 10% bonus of the tool making skill. Though these would be invisible values.

[kinvoya]

Professions that restrict skills - NO NO NO. Kills all flexiblity in a chracter.

I don't understand what you mean by this. Are you commenting on my original idea? If so, I don't see how any skills are restricted if the char is especially skilled in one area. S/he would still be able to do everything else. As I mentioned, if the professional skill were assigned at spawning the char could just ignore it if s/he didn't want to go in that direction just as a talented musician in rl might not persue music as a profession.

If the professional skill is achieved through training then the char would have chosen to invest in that area.