Separate point pools for permanent and temporary benefits

[Senrain]

This thread was inspired by some ideas tossed around on the IRC.

Basically, during character creation there are several things to spend your points on. Permanent benefits like your attributes and traits, and temporary benefits like skills (Can decay) and professions (Gear that can be pretty easily obtained otherwise).

I find it rather silly to sacrifice points you could otherwise spend on attributes and traits on things that provide no lasting benefit and result in a weaker character.

So what I’m proposing is that skills/professions and attributes/traits have their own separate set of points to be spent, so you can buy temporary starting benefits without sacrificing the permanent benefits you could get otherwise. Putting a point into a skill probably shouldn’t raise it by two anymore due to having a separate pool of points.

So what do you guys think?

[Stevensonz]

I reckon if it does have separate points you should just be allowed to pick a profession and some points to invest in skills but other wise stats and traits would still be general points.

Might prolong some newbies 1st time game-time with better stats+traits as stats and traits are the most important than profession and skill.

[Senrain]

[quote=“Stevensonz, post:2, topic:1938”]I reckon if it does have separate points you should just be allowed to pick a profession and some points to invest in skills but other wise stats and traits would still be general points.

Might prolong some newbies 1st time game-time with better stats+traits as stats and traits are the most important than profession and skill.[/quote]

Well, picking a profession should still cost points, and reward points for negative professions. I imagine the point cost for professions might need to be revised should this be implemented to maintain balance.

[Bladerock]

The best solution would be to make attributes and traits just as fluid as skills and equipment.

There was a build that actually had mutations be fluid where every mutation could be gained and all mutations had equal chances to be lost when taking purifier. That was a very good step towards equaling the value between the four categories, but someone removed it later for whatever reason.

But, yeah, i mostly agree with separate pools as a good solution.

[darth_servo]

The way I view Professions is basically that you’re spending a point to get some starter gear.

With the addition of Skills to Professions, I’ve modified the JSON file in my game so that every Profession except Unemployed and Smoker also gives at least 1 level in a relevant skill (computers, mechanics, whatever) and costs 1 point. This seems fair since 1 point spent on Skills gives 2 levels in that skill – you are basically trading 1 level of skill for some decent starting gear. A couple of Professions with multiple skills and/or rarer starting gear cost 2 points.

Basically, in terms of point priorities, I am spending points on Professions and Skills strictly for flavor and/or the convenience factor of starting with some particular piece of gear.

Don’t forget, you can always increase the starting points available if you’re not happy with the limited pool you start with.

[Dzlan]

Or remove the skill rust… In the options cause it makes very little sense to me, the speed it rusts, especially how you forget things faster when you know more about it…
Nah, I just turn it off.

[KA101]

[quote=“Dzlan, post:6, topic:1938”]Or remove the skill rust… In the options cause it makes very little sense to me, the speed it rusts, especially how you forget things faster when you know more about it…
Nah, I just turn it off.[/quote]

Not so much as “forget faster” as “more to remember”. High-level skills imply a LOT of knowledge and good habits, and it’s tough to remember it all if you aren’t using it. Knowing that (say) jerking the Combat Knife a little to the left makes it much easier to yank free, and that aiming another two inches lower means not getting stuck in the ribs to begin with, might be forgotten if you switch to firearms for a while.

[Stevensonz]

skill rust as vanilla 0 is a bad concept though but setting it to 1 or 2 is good, for example education once you learn it it’s stock knowledge sure you might not remember it clearly after a while if you don’t practice it everyday/often so you need a little refresher but you won’t forget everything to 0 levels.

[KA101]

“High-level” skills, as I use the term, are 8+ or so. Schooling tops out around 6, and I’d consider that post-grad: you’ve effectively memorized the college textbook.