[quote=“Sean Mirrsen, post:8, topic:5547”]Well yes, but alleviating the need to grind is merely an additional concern. One for balancing, that needs more careful consideration than I am capable of by myself.[/quote]Sure, I understand. Just thought this might be a good place to throw out some suggestions for whoever is concerned, since the issue has come up.
[quote=“Sean Mirrsen, post:8, topic:5547”]This will, indeed, force the players to find and grind more difficult recipes.[/quote]I did say “in isolation”. I’m not saying this isn’t a good change (I think it is), I’m saying it’s not necessarily a good change on its own.
There’s also the problem that some skills don’t presently have a clear progression, or even any progression.
[quote=“Sean Mirrsen, post:8, topic:5547”]In my opinion, that’s perfectly realistic. Getting acquainted with the inner workings of progressively more and more complex electronics, for instance, will gradually increase the character’s electronics skill - just as, I would assume, it would do for a real-life person.[/quote]Well yes, to a certain extent. But building the same thing over and over for 3% of a skill level isn’t at all realistic or fun though.
So let an item give more experience, depending on its complexity and the amount of time it takes to complete. Give a large bonus the first time something is crafted, give the same amount of skill on failure (although I think the game already does this), and/or give diminishing returns on the experience given for each item (the hard cap is more or less the same thing though).
Building a complex item for an hour should give you an appreciable amount of skill, it’s not something you should need to do over and over.[quote=“Sean Mirrsen, post:8, topic:5547”]And bending and unbending a nail for five weeks straight should really under no circumstances give you better insight into the finer points of fletching and swordsmithery, in my opinion. :)[/quote]I agree 100%. I think any part of a game’s design with the word “grind” in it needs to be taken quietly out the back and shot in the head.
[quote=“Uneron, post:7, topic:5547”]There are already other methods in place for acquiring skill: reading books. By increasing your skill through reading you don’t need to grind at all. This here simply fixes all the exploits that allowed to increase skills in a too easy and boring manner, that is by performing the same action over and over (making hooks, boiling water, etc.).[/quote]Books are a form of grind themselves. The higher level ones can take days per level to read, days you spend doing the same things over and over. There’s functionally not that much difference, just slightly less RSI 
