Simple change: currently I am reluctant to take proffesions because they cost points and dont really compare to the long term benefits of stats.
instead, why not reduce the cost of all benefical traits so the currently cost=1 ones cost 0 and only the good ones cost 1, and only the ones that introduce a disadvantage like smoking cost -1
This way you make a choice between lots of equal options that cost nothing, or choose to invest or not to invest, instead of only choosing not to invest when trying to make an optimal character.
The thing is that professions do provide an advantage. Most professions do provide skill books that can function as the equivalent as a point or two spent in their equivalent skills, as well as the tools needed to utilize those skills. Personally I think they are pretty nice off as they are.
Yes, but my proposal is that all players start with this advantage for free - the choice is between which advantage to start with - otheriwse I will be starting unemployed until the end of time.
You do realize you could always just go into the options and increase the starting point total by a little bit right? That would allow you to start with a different profession if you wanted to, while still keeping the basic balance tenant of “gives advantage = costs points”.
suprisingly enough, yes I am aware. I am also aware I could just insert my own proffesions.
What I am suggesting is that, in the interest of still encouraging diverse start options for all players, partcularly those who like to min/max their characters using the regular number of start points on the main branch, why not rebalance professions so the default cost is 0 instead of 1. This would make players more likely to have a profession other than unemployed if they are playing with the intention of surviving more than 3 days.
Having a proffesion currently means starting with lower stats. proffesion is just gear, which is temporary - ergo, its not optimal to have a proffesion. For someone playing to survive, this makes the proffesion window a no-brainer rather than a window of interesting choices.
[quote=“Mr_Lolz, post:1, topic:1605”]Simple change: currently I am reluctant to take proffesions because they cost points and dont really compare to the long term benefits of stats.
instead, why not reduce the cost of all benefical traits so the currently cost=1 ones cost 0 and only the good ones cost 1, and only the ones that introduce a disadvantage like smoking cost -1
This way you make a choice between lots of equal options that cost nothing, or choose to invest or not to invest, instead of only choosing not to invest when trying to make an optimal character.[/quote]
But if you’re going to min-max anyway, you’ll take the smoker profession to get that extra point and try to ride out the withdrawal. Also, temporary advantages aren’t temporary if you wouldn’t survive without them. While it’s unlikely starting with a wrench and mechanics manual will make that difference, it just might.
As an analogy, when I first started playing League of Legends, I bought armor penetration runes because they scale the best, offering a flat % increase in damage (the % depends on your target’s armor, but not on your own stats), whereas the alternative 15 or so attack damage is minuscule when your endgame total is 300+. But without that early damage, you’re at a huge disadvantage and will likely never make it to endgame where armor penetration is better. Better scaling and late-game potential is meaningless if you never get there.
Ultimately, this is a roguelike. It doesn’t have to be balanced or even remotely fair. Not every character build will have the same endgame potential or early game survival ability, and that’s perfectly fine. Characters with weak potential can be fun in their own right. Maybe not so much right now, but if the game had an endgame goal you might feel differently. Winning the game as a “yeek sorcerer” is more fun than winning as an “alchemist” with 5000 hp.
I think I mentioned this before, but I suggest that chargen points be segregated to two pools, one which is only spent to traits/stats and the other which is only allowed to be spent skills/professions. This would actually inspire me to put points in skill or professions.
I honestly never choose a profession just because I don’t really see the benefit, it’s only a small beginning of game bonus and to me honestly I’d rather take dodge, or mechanics.
Anyways IRL I’m just tech support, I got nothing that will help me with zombie survival with my job profession. Other than a stack of zombie based games/movies I got squat.
Attributes cannot be permanently increased or decreased beyond character creation.
Most starting traits cannot be obtained or lost after character creation (Those that can are through gambling)
Skills can fairly easily be increased or decreased after character creation (To the point you can specifically choose which ones).
All the gear in starting professions can be found in droves all over the place with the minimal effort of visitng a few houses or finding a few dead people. Multiple sets, even.
In other words:
1 point in an attribute > 1 point on a trait >>> 1 point on a skill >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 1 point on a profession
Character generation is currently very poorly balanced, with a strong bias towards attributes.
As a similar example, let’s take pathfinder or any similar edition of D&D: You can have a +2 to one skill, +2 to an attribute or a club. Which one would you choose? The +2 to a skill will make checks with that single skill easier, the +2 to an attribute will give you +1 to a bunch of related skills and affect many other things that are based on attributes (such as attacks, or special abilities) a club can be found anywhere or bought for a small amount of money. Which is the best investment? Sure as heck isn’t the club!
League of Legends isn’t really comparable because the players you’re fighting are getting stronger constantly, and short-term strength can be exercised to deny your enemies’ their own development. That’s mostly not the case in Cataclysm, so there’s no incentive to take short-term advantages besides impatience.