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- 28/02/2015
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The changes below won't invalidate your old saves, and in the case of skills your points will be refunded, so you'll be able to reallocate them.
1. Skills
This improvement will be live in the next beta. Current skill system presents a number of issues:
-Inflation: There's already >100% skill values on low level characters, and soon I'd be having high number difficulties going for -100% or more. I want to avoid the constant use of such high numbers, becoming meaningless.
-Savescumming: I am not against some randomness in the system, it is fun to get lucky against terrible odds from time to time, but the current system is too prone to savescumming.
-Limited progression: At level 8 you can already have a skill maxed.
The new system
Just like now, on each skill you'll purchase Ranks with your Skill Points. However, this will not generate a total % for your skill, instead the Rank will be directly compared to the check Difficulty, to get a success chance (see table below).
Each skill also has a bonus; traits that are above 4 will grant a bonus (around 15% with high traits). Talents, items and racial modifiers can make it go higher.
The exact values may be revised or adjusted, but you can see where we're going here. There's still some randomness, and you can still try some super-hard checks, but skills ranks are now more relevant and assigning one over another will indeed open or close possible choices in your game, which was the intended use.
This system should have far less shill checks in the 20-60% range; if your character has the right ranks (equalling difficulty or going above), you'll likely be seeing 70% - 100% success chances, and if he is not, very low chances, or autofails.
Ranks will still be limited to 10, but there will be Expert Ranks (11+), available in the mid and late game through Advanced Careers, quests, etc.
2. Resistances
In the current version, elemental resistances (meant to mitigate certain damage) are mixed with % resistances (meant to avoid effects). The system is not to my satisfaction for a number of reasons, and over the next versions will be gradually modified as follows:
Elemental protection / vulnerability
Fire protection, Cold Protection, etc will no longer work with a percentage. Instead characters will have a Protection value that will work similarly to Armor, providing a fixed amount of damage points that the character will mitigate. But unlike armor, this value will be used per round, and provide no further protection until the character's turn begins again.
Example: A character has 4 Fire Protection. She receives an attack from a Pyrochiton dealing 3 fire damage. She completely ignores the fire damage (1 Fire Protection remains unused). She then receives a second attack, and can onle reduce 1 fire damage from it. Until her next turn begins, she would be unprotected from fire damage.
The opposite of Protection is Vulnerability. It will double the points of damage received from that damage type, up to the value of the vulnerability. For instance, a Batrax with a Fire Vulnerability of 4 receiving an attack for 5 fire damage, would receive 9 damage instead. Unlike protection, vulnerability is applied to every attack received, not per round.
Resistances
The game will still include three percentage-based resistances:
Mind will remain unchanged, used to resist mental attacks and (when implemented), fear. Base chance is equal to half your current willpower.
Vitality is a new resist meant for resisting poisons, diseases and other health-related effects including some spells. It's equal to half the current Health Points.
Spirit is another new resist that has a fixed value based in traits, and will be used for certain magical effects.
1. Skills
This improvement will be live in the next beta. Current skill system presents a number of issues:
-Inflation: There's already >100% skill values on low level characters, and soon I'd be having high number difficulties going for -100% or more. I want to avoid the constant use of such high numbers, becoming meaningless.
-Savescumming: I am not against some randomness in the system, it is fun to get lucky against terrible odds from time to time, but the current system is too prone to savescumming.
-Limited progression: At level 8 you can already have a skill maxed.
The new system
Just like now, on each skill you'll purchase Ranks with your Skill Points. However, this will not generate a total % for your skill, instead the Rank will be directly compared to the check Difficulty, to get a success chance (see table below).
Each skill also has a bonus; traits that are above 4 will grant a bonus (around 15% with high traits). Talents, items and racial modifiers can make it go higher.
| Skill Rank vs Difficulty | Success Chance |
|---|---|
| Skill Rank is 2+ points higher than Difficulty | Automatic Success |
| Skill Rank is 1 point higher than Difficulty | 75% + Bonus |
| Equal | 50% + Bonus |
| Difficulty is 1 point higher than Skill Rank | 0% + Bonus |
| Difficulty is 2+ points higher than Skill Rank | Automatic Failure |
The exact values may be revised or adjusted, but you can see where we're going here. There's still some randomness, and you can still try some super-hard checks, but skills ranks are now more relevant and assigning one over another will indeed open or close possible choices in your game, which was the intended use.
This system should have far less shill checks in the 20-60% range; if your character has the right ranks (equalling difficulty or going above), you'll likely be seeing 70% - 100% success chances, and if he is not, very low chances, or autofails.
Ranks will still be limited to 10, but there will be Expert Ranks (11+), available in the mid and late game through Advanced Careers, quests, etc.
2. Resistances
In the current version, elemental resistances (meant to mitigate certain damage) are mixed with % resistances (meant to avoid effects). The system is not to my satisfaction for a number of reasons, and over the next versions will be gradually modified as follows:
Elemental protection / vulnerability
Fire protection, Cold Protection, etc will no longer work with a percentage. Instead characters will have a Protection value that will work similarly to Armor, providing a fixed amount of damage points that the character will mitigate. But unlike armor, this value will be used per round, and provide no further protection until the character's turn begins again.
Example: A character has 4 Fire Protection. She receives an attack from a Pyrochiton dealing 3 fire damage. She completely ignores the fire damage (1 Fire Protection remains unused). She then receives a second attack, and can onle reduce 1 fire damage from it. Until her next turn begins, she would be unprotected from fire damage.
The opposite of Protection is Vulnerability. It will double the points of damage received from that damage type, up to the value of the vulnerability. For instance, a Batrax with a Fire Vulnerability of 4 receiving an attack for 5 fire damage, would receive 9 damage instead. Unlike protection, vulnerability is applied to every attack received, not per round.
Resistances
The game will still include three percentage-based resistances:
Mind will remain unchanged, used to resist mental attacks and (when implemented), fear. Base chance is equal to half your current willpower.
Vitality is a new resist meant for resisting poisons, diseases and other health-related effects including some spells. It's equal to half the current Health Points.
Spirit is another new resist that has a fixed value based in traits, and will be used for certain magical effects.