Specialty Skills/Professions - Healer

[wichita]

There was actually some talk about a Master level during the early days of skill development. The idea was that it should be an extra level that is only attainable through training (in other words, you can't spawn as a Master).


I do not like the idea of having specialized skills or coded professions, for the reason suggested by Anti. Every character should have the opportunity to fulfill a role, whatever that role is, wether they suck at it or not. The point is, everyone should be allowed to try.


Having said all of that, I love the idea of improving the health system of the game, without making it more complicated. I would like to see us get healing through bed rest finished up and implemented, medicines to aid treating diseases, and things like that to make it possible to really play a functional health care provider.

Unfortunately, programming currently limits us to playing medicine men, rather than doctors.

[T-shirt]

I would like to see skill requisites for projects. Most should be available to any skill, like farming for potatoes, but some might be only available for skilled people, like manufacturing a stone quarry.

[psymann]

Would this work:

Have the extra skill level "Master" that you can only get to through practising the skill for a long time. So no newspawn can spawn higher than Expert, but an Expert with lots of practise can be a Master.

Then:

Have some projects which take an extra-ordinarily long time, but that a Master can do at 5x usual speed.

So:

Efficient cook would cook a set of grilled meat in 8 hours.
Expert cook might manage it in 6 hours.
Master cook might manage it in 5 hours.

That's for a standard cooking prodedure. But then you might have "advanced" or "special" cooking options. For example a Roast Dinner. This might require meat, potatoes, veg of some sort, and take 12 days.

Efficient cook would take 12 days.
Expert cook might take 9 days.
Master cook could complete in 8/5 days (8 days since master, but /5 since four times quicker since it's a Masterly Activity).

This would still allow anyone to do anything - if you really want to make a roast dinner but you're an awkward cook, then you can, and it'll only take the best part of a year (!), but only a master cook will make it with good value.


Similarly, a particular weapon might take 40 days to make, but a Master could make it in about 5.

psymann

[N-Aldwitch]

Would this work:

Have the extra skill level "Master" that you can only get to through practising the skill for a long time. So no newspawn can spawn higher than Expert, but an Expert with lots of practise can be a Master.

Then:

Have some projects which take an extra-ordinarily long time, but that a Master can do at 5x usual speed.

So:

Efficient cook would cook a set of grilled meat in 8 hours.
Expert cook might manage it in 6 hours.
Master cook might manage it in 5 hours.

That's for a standard cooking prodedure. But then you might have "advanced" or "special" cooking options. For example a Roast Dinner. This might require meat, potatoes, veg of some sort, and take 12 days.

Efficient cook would take 12 days.
Expert cook might take 9 days.
Master cook could complete in 8/5 days (8 days since master, but /5 since four times quicker since it's a Masterly Activity).

This would still allow anyone to do anything - if you really want to make a roast dinner but you're an awkward cook, then you can, and it'll only take the best part of a year (!), but only a master cook will make it with good value.


Similarly, a particular weapon might take 40 days to make, but a Master could make it in about 5.

psymann

This has already been suggested except as 'perfect'.

[psymann]

This has already been suggested except as 'perfect'.

Not in this thread it hasn't...

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.

I do not like the idea of having specialized skills or coded professions, for the reason suggested by Anti. Every character should have the opportunity to fulfill a role, whatever that role is, wether they suck at it or not. The point is, everyone should be allowed to try.

Both these I agree with.

Hence my suggestion - which is a combination of the "Master / Perfect" idea but with the noticeable addition of the Divide-By-Five feature.

Rather than a Master just doing everything a little better than an Expert (no fun for the Master), and rather than having some projects which only a Master can do (restrictive for the rest), this allows the best of both worlds.

Example:
So, making a mud hut. A Master can do it a bit quicker than anyone else.
But building an underground cavern (and it not falling in on itself and being useless) might require the skills of a master.

Numbers:
Mud hut: 8 days for someone efficient, maybe 5 days for a Master.
Underground cavern: 100 days for someone efficient, would be 62 days for a Master, but because it is a "specialist project", the Master can do it five times quicker - 62 /5 = 12.5 days.

So:
- Anyone can build the underground cavern if that's what their heart desires.
- But in practise, it will almost always be Masters called upon to build them, giving the Master a useful role.
- And if the Master dies off when 99% of the way through a project, some awkward guy can still finish it off.


So the idea is for those "specialised" projects to take a Very Long Time for a normal person, but still be possible, and for the role of a Master to make them economically viable.

psymann

[N-Aldwitch]

This has already been suggested except as 'perfect'.

Not in this thread it hasn't...

Lol, had to point out that I laughed at that.

[Sicofonte]

I have been looking for the "Perfect" thread and I can't find it.


About item quality biased by the craftsman's skill:
http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6601



I think a Master doesn't works faster. He just works better.

A Master Engineer will build in one year a bridge that will be there for centuries.
An Awkward Engineer will build in one year (or maybe six months) a bridge that will last until next hurricane.


We have a phrase: "Visteme despacio que tengo prisa", Dress me slow 'cause it's urgent. The good things are made meticulously, and Mr Hurry is a close friend of Mr Mistake.



So I'd suggest...

Masters can improve the skill level of others whilst working in the same project (incentive for cooperation)


An Expert working in a project will give 2 extra skill levels to the group working with him (one awkward char working with and expert will work as having efficient level, or two awkward characters as two inneficient, it's the same I think).

A MASTER working in a project will give 8 extra skill levels to the group working with him (two awkward chars working with him will work as having expert level, or four efficient chars as four experts, it's the same).





I do agree with more skill levels or changing the skill system to reflect the axiom that no one borns being a master (not even skillfull) in anything.


I do agree with item quality suggestion too.




Killer players in Role Playing Games always need skills and equipment' improvement. They continuosly need short-term objectives.

[sanchez]

I like Sicofonte's suggestion here. This seems, unlike children and slavery, a reasonable mechanised incentive to cooperation. 1) You practise a skill to gain Master status, and 2) your skill improves if you work with a Master.