I’m planning to make a bunch of custom starting professions based on either fictional characters or plain old ‘stuff I’d like to see’. Can anyone experienced therein tell me the basic rules you follow to determine a class’ point value, given that I’m trying to balance them for vanilla? I can probably do it myself, but if you have experience I’d really appreciate other people’s views on balancing.
Once I’ve actually made the mod, I’ll probably make a thread for it.
No idea what the/if there is a set of steadfast rules for point cost in professions, but I always love seeing new profession mods.
I know there’s no steadfast ones, but any that other modders use when making them (or that the core game uses) would be helpful - I don’t want to make a mod people with a strong balance ethic will avoid ;-;
Some specific examples (sorry for double post):
In terms of stuff I’ve already implemented, I’ve got a ‘low’, a ‘mid’ and a ‘high’-tier profession each:
My ‘low’ is a busker - they start with basic civilian clothes (jeans and t-shirt, socks and sneakers), 1 in speaking and an acoustic guitar.
Unsure whether to give them 0 or +1 points at creation, as they’ve got almost no storage and the Rude Girl class (0 points) starts with pretty much the same stuff, only with a far more portable source of music.
My ‘mid’ is a gunslinger/wild west reenactor (think Wild West) - they start with general wild-west attire, so cowboy hat and boots, leather vest, longsleeved shirt, and a holster with a Single Action Army (with 5 shots and 30 spare ammo). They also start with 5 hanguns and 3 marksmanship.
At the moment, they’re at 3 points (Police Officers start with 2 fewer points in handguns, but have a better handgun (none of that annoying smoke) and the police officer trait and they’re worth 2 points).
My ‘high’ is a tester for the RM13 combat armour, but not a combat tester - they’re just an engineer, not even a higher-up. 2 skill in mechanics and electronics, but they start with the armour, fully charged (but no spare cells). That’s it, though, besides their underwear.
Tentatively 5 points due to the lack of other equipment and skills, but the armour is very good even unpowered so that may change.
Is this the sort of process I should go through to balance?