Given the current imbalance between the different stats in how important they are (strength is most important followed by dex or int depending followed by perception). I just came up with an idea to make intelligence a more important.
Basically, make the player unable to learn from skill books if the intelligence requirement for the book is more than 2 intelligence points above the intelligence of the player character. This would make sense as I don’t see someone with low intelligence somehow making sense of hard to understand books on their own even if they have some knowledge of the subject already.
Note that this doesn’t exclude skill gain through practical experience and training via NPC. So, a low int character can still learn high level skills by being thought them by others or by practising them on their own just not through reading a book.
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sound good,now found something to do with perception
I’d disagree with this. If Dave is a lvl 8 fabricator, with an int of 6, and you gave him an advanced machining book, he’s liable to be able to understand whats going on by virtue of this is already something he is very good at. It may take him longer to work his way through the big words, but I’d be hard pressed to justify that he just cannot in any way parse that book.
I do think the premise is also flawed, you’re assuming that the stats should be inherently balanced in some way. The fact is, Strength is most important in this apocalypse because this apocalypse requires you to beat a lot of things to death and carry around a lot of stuff to survive. Followed by being able to shoot straight. Nerfing a strong mans ability to read books does not buff the nerd, it just hurts the strong man, and doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
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Add to this, it’s already simulated by certain books taking longer (in some cases MUCH longer) to learn from if you lack the requirements in terms of intelligence. And the game is moving away from crafting gear to looting gear (in terms of quality) , so an additional nerf to learning is unnecessary.
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A low int character can still get useful knowledge from a book by using the recipes it contains and using those to train. But it seems unreasonable to me that someone would be able to get practical knowledge form a book solely by reading it if they weren’t smart enough. Even if they did have prior knowledge and experience of the subject at hand and no matter how long they read the book on their own.
But what do you have to back that assertion with. This whole premise is based on assumptions, the most fundamental of which is that higher levels of some skills require the reader to be of an exceptional intelligence.
There is lots of room for penalties to low int, if they can be justified, much as we already have them. But I have a hard time believing that an average int character couldn’t work their way through a complex biochemistry book with enough time and determination, because that goes against common understanding of learning just about anything. Being naturally smarter can make concepts easier and faster to grasp, especially complex ones, but short of illiteracy or clinical mental deficiency, nothing is going to stop them from eventually getting there themselves. Int does not reflect discipline, focus, or determination, which are the key aspects that will help someone push through learning a tough subject.
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I clearly start by pointing out the imbalance between the different stats and then propose a way to rectify that. I also point out that form a gameplay perspective you can still gain skills form books by using the recipes. I try to approach this primarily from a gameplay perspective with this change you can still gain high level skills from books as a low int character it is just going to require a larger investment of time but mainly resources trying to practice these skills.
Sure, but none of that has any bearing on whether the proposal makes sense. Arguing that I cannot learn from a book due to an int cutoff doesn’t really hold water. Your proposing a change that draws down a restriction that is not reflected in real life. Irrational mechanics for the sake of gameplay are still irrational.
You can still learn from the books by crafting the recipes inside them you just can’t learn the skills directly by just reading. I get that even someone with lower IQ could learn from an advanced book with enough determination and investment but that investment would have to come in the form of actually putting the things in the book into practice. Just reading the book wouldn’t be enough.
You can keep repeating the same point over and over again, without actually trying to address the issues with it, but its not gonna provide any rational explanation for why Mr 9 int can’t git gud and mr 10 int can when given the exact same book and all the time in the world to read it.
You do also realize that if this did make it in, it wouldn’t make int ‘more balanced’, right. It’d make int a “Take this or be forced to grind” stat. Unless skill grinding was something thats been automated in recently, your just removing the option of ‘find skill book’ from the list of ways to avoid manual tedious grinding.