Move most professions to an "Extra Professions" mod

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

If you’ve looked at the experimental build lately, you might have noticed that the list of professions to choose from has gotten a bit bloated. It wasn’t exactly svelte previously, what with having one of every athlete and one of every addict, but it’s starting to get to ridiculous levels. Very few of the items in related groups of professions have anything to really distinguish them from each other. It’s choice without distinction.

You can now be a man of the cloth:
[ul][] Priest
[] Imam
[] Rabbit
[] Kannushi
[] Guru
[] Preacher[/ul]

(all walk into a bar…)

You can be a student:
[ul][] Elementary Student
[] Poor Student
[] Juvenile Delinquent
[] A/V Club Member
[] Preppy Student
[] Science Club Member
[] Skater Boy
[] Student
[] Survivalist Jr.
[] Teacher
[*] Gym Teacher[/ul]

Then there’s the old standbys: the athletes (now with Dodgeball Player!), the addicts, the single-profession characters, the pop culture references, the frankly pointless characters (Clown, Lost Submissive), the finely graded scales of cop and soldier professions… it’s all a bit too kitchen sinkey.

Choice is not a bad thing. But clutter is. Especially clutter that’s only meant to fill in the gaps. Very much so when that kind of clutter is one of the first things a new player sees.

I’d like to gauge your opinions on moving most of these off into an “Extra Professions” mod. If you want to roleplay, or want some variety, or seek a new challenge, include the mod and try out something new. Otherwise, you can pick from a list of default characters which should be short but comprehensive.

The professions that are left behind should be the useful ones, meant for convenient starts, or offer the player a different way to experience the game.

For example, in my opinion either Survivalist or Bionic Prepper (but not both) should make the cut, because one of this game’s strong points is that you really can just piss off to the wilderness and live off nature, and both of these professions emphasize that. Beekeeper, however, probably should not.

What professions would make your short list?

2

All of them.

Profession mods are for stuff that’s overpowered or out of theme, not stuff that people don’t like.

I regret that I’ve not had time to implement the school-start scenario (scenarios, by comparison, are a reasonable way to restrict professions, and that would put the school-kid professions in their intended spot) but with any luck I’ll find some in the next few days. Though there’s a shitload of stuff I need to implement, and not nearly enough time for it. >_<

3

Every one.

Back in my day we could only chose between Scoundrel, Tailor, Mechanic an Unemployed. And we liked it that way!

4

Moving them to a mod is a little much, but Derpular’s core point is a good one. The list is pretty long and disorganized with no apparent way to search it, making finding what one wants a hassle. It’d be nice to clean that up a bit and at least allow alphabetical sorting, and possibly adding some sort of nesting UI so the player would pick Student and get a list of Elementary, Poor, etc. to choose from.

Short of that UI overhaul, I think the ‘new player is presented with clutter’ problem would be most satisfactorily solved by a Scenario. Sort of the inverse of the ‘Challenge’ scenarios, one that explicitly states it’s the same as Evacuee with only a few iconic professions, suitable for new players who want to get on with it (though not quite as on with it as just hitting Play Now!, I guess).

5

Instead of limiting maybe they need more fleshing?
Like a “profession skill” to EACH so that there are other reasons to pick a profession besides the discount skills, gear and bionics you get?

6

They actually are suggested starts if you want either to start in an easy way or in a hard way. They are there for new players. I think they should stay. A search option would be good, though. Or having them in some kind of openable spoilers for organization.

7

I think a nesting UI/sorting would be a better alternative to mod-locking everything.

8

a nesting ui would be great:

survivor (default start)
athlete -> football player
           baseball player
           basketball player
child -> student (default)
         honor student
         skater boy
         survivalist jr.
9

+1 to Kevin’s idea, IMO this would pretty much solve the problem of having too many professions that similar to each other, several broad categories will be more tidy and manageable. Also having alphabet order will definitely help too.

10

I just came here to post what Kevin already posted.