07/04/06, RPG Vault Peek #24 - Skill System

[dark-M]

here we go:


http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/716/716421p1.html


and happy 4th of july to all Americans!

[Ashindir]

Awesome! :D

[Derosian]

Excellent! Really, can't wait!

Although I still wonder if there is a summoning spell.

[Villa]

Skill decay will set in at a slow rate for unused skills at an expert level. There are also skill trees that open up new skill categories that lead to further specialization.
That is quite an interesting feature.
Not sure if it will have any significant impact though, since you are hardly likely to train a skill up to a very high 'level' if you do not intend to use it much.

Spells progress the same way as skills, through use, so taking the Tornado spell as an example, the more you use, it the more powerful a tornado you'll be able to unleash on your enemies.
I would hope that other factors increase the damge of your spells, such as your intelligence or some other stat, or some kind of 'spell power' line/skill that effects all err 'air' based spells or something.

This is quite an interesting update.
It pretty much confirms that the game will be heavily utilising and improving upon Ultima Online's skill-based system (Which we all pretty much knew anyway I suppose), but it sounds good never the less to hear it stated officially once again.

One of the better updates I've seen for sure.

[Parabola]

Bleh would be nice to hear something about seiges, or anything new for that matter.

[AOD_Quin]

So now there are over 1000 skills in game. Awesome.

[Ghostface]

nice one!
i want to see an alfar screen sometime please :rolleyes:

[Taurohta]

Skill decay!!! yay!

[NewRage]

So now there are over 1000 skills in game. Awesome.

Skills and spells, which was the plan from the get go (says 500 of each in the FAQ).

[Settra]

Nice read..

Tho I didnt like the, skills decay over time if not used...
I remember in UO when skills did that..pain in the ass..

[AOD_Quin]

Skills and spells, which was the plan from the get go (says 500 of each in the FAQ).
Geez Quin learn to :faq: .

:p My mistake

[Ashindir]

Skill decay!!! yay!

Aye! You best be training if you want to keep your skills up.

[Squatch]

Movin' over to the news.

Real happy to have some info about skills.

[Darkmatter]

Great stuff :)

[Sarmatian]

They really do a great job with textures imo.

Also looks like the girl has a tatoo, unless that is a necklace.

[MightyDar]

it was a good read.

[Virtra]

Yummy... and the screenshots are pretty good as well. But damn is that woman fugly. Anyway, glad to hear that they hit their 1000 skill goal, and skill decay seems very interesting... at least it appears to be well implemented. Keep it up devs.

[Lukeh]

Good info for the most part, the human woman is ugly as hell but graphically im satisfied with the screenshots.

[MorkDaOrc]

Good update, I hope they don't make skill decay to powerful :ohno:

[r4nge]

These features are the main reason i'm such a fanboy. Darkfall is our only hope. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[LanMandragon]

Thank you!

I am glad the women isn't a 100 pound hottie, and the 4th screenshot looks amazingly beautiful and alive. The fountains in the background, the flowers, the grass. WoW.

[Veantur]

i want to see now at least one alfar pic

[Njordung]

Really nice this was acctually some intresting piece of information indeed, thanks. I really like that some(many?) of the skills really affect the gameplay and is a part of the game mechanics, it isn

[Mennovh]

Sweet finally a word about skills. Even though ti wasnt much, i liked the update quite a bit.

[Platon2x]

Good read, but I fail to see the point in skill decay.

First of all, who get to expert level in a skill and dont use it? and if someone does get expert in a skill and dont use it, who will that hurt?

For me skill decay seems like a waste of development time.

[paade]

nice, nothing new really, but nice nonetheless.

one "huge" mistake in every horse pic so far: the saddle is too behind on the horse.

[Joe B]

Orks riding a Death Pig and a Dwarven Garmir; one is doing a battle taunt

Which one is doing a battle taunt?

[SuperVlieg]

Which one is doing a battle taunt?
The one behind,.... u blind ?

:(

Looks awesome tho, WEEEHAWWW

[Slyder]

For me its a huge sigh of relief, the skill system is the #1 reason ill play darkfall (unlimited pvp being #2), and all-in-all it hasnt been talked about much recently. Great update, and ill take skill decay over classes any day, any time.

[Spikey]

Nice, but not as if we didn't know why before....

[Duni]

So much ... News .... Pics .... Must ... Must have ... Darkfall .... NOW .. .GAH!

[lipe[cpc]]

Nice update.

Is the bow "glued" to the back of the woman in the third screenshot? :ninja:

[JimLad]

Hoorayy taunts! :)
Not a die hard fan of game fluff, but taunts are always nice to have in rpgs.
That Ork is like 'YEAHHH, I NABBED A GARMIR!'

Those are the shineyest horse shots so far too.
These screens keep getting better and better, I can't wait to see the next gameplay video with these sort of graphics.

[Metal Wolf]

awsome, though no info about the skill cap.

And it apeares that there is some form of mana system still in wonder how that will work with the regents.

Ps. thats a "homely" not "comely" girl. glad to see they still arn't going the Dark elf playboy way of the modles

[Osirus]

good read

[Khael[SUN]]

Good read, but I fail to see the point in skill decay.

First of all, who get to expert level in a skill and dont use it? and if someone does get expert in a skill and dont use it, who will that hurt?

For me skill decay seems like a waste of development time.

Someone who revalues his/her playstyle, and maybe want to replace current skills with other skills. There is a max to your overall "skillpool" so you might have to let some skills decay to get room for new ones, at one point.

[Nalira]

everyone is saying its nice to see that the female character model is not a whore... however, maybe those female character models are what the developers think of as "sexy"...:ohno:

[Legolas]

Good read ! not great news tho. but little is good to!
And very nice screens!

[kehmesis]

Woah, skill decay's in. That's news.

[Sack]

Skill decay!!! yay!

Why Yay? I will have to take a "wait and see" approach, but I hate the idea of losing points that took me awhileto gain. If you get something to expert it will have taken you some time to get those last few points Im thinking. So I would not want to part with them. What if you go on a 2 week vacation? So... what is the planned skill decay time for non use?

[Lionking1Cyan]

What the heck about skill's decaying?!?!
Can anybody explain that?

[Shaar]

Nice update. A couple of skills revealed there, thats nice. Oh and don't worry about skill decay too much. I bet it's in effect when you are online, so if you don't play at all for a month nothing happens.

[Havoc-FA]

Hoorayy taunts! :)
Not a die hard fan of game fluff, but taunts are always nice to have in rpgs.
That Ork is like 'YEAHHH, I NABBED A GARMIR!'

Id like to point out that some newer titles have had taunt useable on players that causes you to force their target to you (player peeler). Now, understandably in DF you have to aim, but if it say, spun you character to that opponent or something that was even very subtle. Other games using this have royally over powered it, cause group combat to have everyone AE taunted in circles from one player to the next, accomplishing nothing. IMO they should allow you to pull the attention of a single player at the cost of them getting a damage boost against you for the duration of them being locked on you.

As for the QnA ~ ehn. Same news told a different way, nice pics though. I really like the skill decay, and for those of you who don't understand how it would effect anything here is a summary, and a metaphor...are you ready? here it comes:

Firstly, skill decay makes sense because it only works at expert levels. Shooting fire from your hands is not like riding a bike, you have to constantly practice to be the number one pyro in the land; skill decay, in the rp aspect basically forces you to practice to keep your skills at the top tier.
Also you can use your skill decay to your advantage, if you hit that cap, and by cap I mean the point where only Asian Farmers are going to get another skill point, you can let something that maybe wasnt a good idea drop down to semi level something else.
Lastly, the best part of skill decay, it owns zergs. If you constantly zerg, and ESPECIALLY if you're a little PvEmosexual you will not be using a wide variety of your skills (such as defensive procs, reactives, support things...etc) and really only have your focus DD maxed at all times. This will also make it obvious who is the "nub" healer when all they have is a heal maxed and all their support skills (cc mainly) is not anywhere near the top due to them only have used heals.

All in all, I hope skill decay is not only in but absolutely viscious, use it or lose it!

[Mhorham]

Another update already!! Nice little read and the screen shots look SWEEET!!!

[Trazodone]

dont think the decay would be much of a problem. if it decays slowly without use, at the expert level, i wouldnt be to scared. obviously the expert skills are the ones you use alot. i dont think you'd lose a point in sword becouse you didnt swing at anything in the past couple hours.

will just have to see how slow "slow" is

[Sack]

Id like to point out that some newer titles have had taunt useable on players that causes you to force their target to you (player peeler). Now, understandably in DF you have to aim, but if it say, spun you character to that opponent or something that was even very subtle. Other games using this have royally over powered it, cause group combat to have everyone AE taunted in circles from one player to the next, accomplishing nothing. IMO they should allow you to pull the attention of a single player at the cost of them getting a damage boost against you for the duration of them being locked on you.

As for the QnA ~ ehn. Same news told a different way, nice pics though. I really like the skill decay, and for those of you who don't understand how it would effect anything here is a summary, and a metaphor...are you ready? here it comes:

Firstly, skill decay makes sense because it only works at expert levels. Shooting fire from your hands is not like riding a bike, you have to constantly practice to be the number one pyro in the land; skill decay, in the rp aspect basically forces you to practice to keep your skills at the top tier.
Also you can use your skill decay to your advantage, if you hit that cap, and by cap I mean the point where only Asian Farmers are going to get another skill point, you can let something that maybe wasnt a good idea drop down to semi level something else.
Lastly, the best part of skill decay, it owns zergs. If you constantly zerg, and ESPECIALLY if you're a little PvEmosexual you will not be using a wide variety of your skills (such as defensive procs, reactives, support things...etc) and really only have your focus DD maxed at all times. This will also make it obvious who is the "nub" healer when all they have is a heal maxed and all their support skills (cc mainly) is not anywhere near the top due to them only have used heals.

All in all, I hope skill decay is not only in but absolutely viscious, use it or lose it!

Not arguing with you here, but I dont think you make a good point... at least I dont think you are making a clear enough point for fence sitters, or people like me who are not understanding the negative ramifications of not having skill decay. Anybody want to take some time and make a strong logical argument as to why it should be in? Havoc's just didnt click with me.

[Mnemonyss]

So what's to keep a user from taking advantage of the leveling system for skills and basically botting a specific spell/attack or combination of them?

As far as the above post:

Not arguing with you here, but I dont think you make a good point... at least I dont think you are making a clear enough point for fence sitters, or people like me who are not understanding the negative ramifications of not having skill decay. Anybody want to take some time and make a strong logical argument as to why it should be in? Havoc's just didnt click with me.


It's RTS - just like in real life, if you don't use something for a while, the knowledge of how to use it will be a bit rusty at first, and practice will bring back your sharpness. This can prove a fantastic feature for those heavily into RP'ing.
It will also provide a challenge. Like" So you think you are the best? How long can you keep it?"

[uniqueuser]

Id like to point out that some newer titles have had taunt useable on players that causes you to force their target to you (player peeler). Now, understandably in DF you have to aim, but if it say, spun you character to that opponent or something that was even very subtle. Other games using this have royally over powered it, cause group combat to have everyone AE taunted in circles from one player to the next, accomplishing nothing. IMO they should allow you to pull the attention of a single player at the cost of them getting a damage boost against you for the duration of them being locked on you.

Odds are what the screenshot depicts as a taunt is nothing more than a visual emote.

[Nuada]

Nice stuff

[Sack]

It's RTS - just like in real life, if you don't use something for a while, the knowledge of how to use it will be a bit rusty at first, and practice will bring back your sharpness. This can prove a fantastic feature for those heavily into RP'ing.
It will also provide a challenge. Like" So you think you are the best? How long can you keep it?"

From a challenge perspective I see what your saying. Personally I hope that the decay is not too rapid. If I feel like mining for a couple of days, and I have 100/100 sword, I dont want to see decay in that sword skill. A couple of days of play should, and hopefully wont affect it. I guess I can understand if you dont use the skill for a week or so if it starts to decay..

Ic there is a thread about this in General:

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=506262#post506262

Guess Ill be reading there about this concept.

[Necrash]

Truly amazing!!

[Necrash]

From a challenge perspective I see what your saying. Personally I hope that the decay is not too rapid. If I feel like mining for a couple of days, and I have 100/100 sword, I dont want to see decay in that sword skill. A couple of days of play should, and hopefully wont affect it. I guess I can understand if you dont use the skill for a week or so if it starts to decay..

Ic there is a thread about this in General:

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=506262#post506262

Guess Ill be reading there about this concept.
I dont think they will make skill decay count when you are off line that would be dumb!! and penalty to casual player devs are not stupid, or well I hope they didnt have a brain fart on this one.

[Snog]

Lol they've got balls to show screenies that looks like that.

[Wisperer]

A comely rider aboard a sturdy mount

Comely? i think they misstyped and ment Homely.

It was a good read and i liked the info on the skills.

One question i have tho is the armor able to be tinted?
I dont mean a bright solid red color but different from the solid bright metal color?

[Asmodeus]

Comely? i think they misstyped and ment Homely.

It was a good read and i liked the info on the skills.

One question i have tho is the armor able to be tinted?
I dont mean a bright solid red color but different from the solid bright metal color?
Yes i believe so, Read Warcry questions they state that dyes will be in for player customization

[Caskillkiller]

Nice read..

Tho I didnt like the, skills decay over time if not used...
I remember in UO when skills did that..pain in the ass..


QFT.

Hopefully they give players the option to lock skills and set them to raise or lower like UO did.

[Caskillkiller]

Not arguing with you here, but I dont think you make a good point... at least I dont think you are making a clear enough point for fence sitters, or people like me who are not understanding the negative ramifications of not having skill decay. Anybody want to take some time and make a strong logical argument as to why it should be in? Havoc's just didnt click with me.


Skill decay is good like this. Say when you first start off and you have this skill. At first, you think its real kick ass, but then, later on, you decide, Naw, this skill sucks now. with skill decay, when you stop using that skill, it goes down. As it goes down, it counts less and less towards your overall soft skill cap. When that one skill reaches 0, youve gained back the skill points from it and it will be easier to learn a new skill in its place.

That as best as I can describe it.

[Airius Droc]

Skill decay

Rock on.

[doma]

I want to see other races. Like alfar and such.
Nice update tho.

[troyforever]

Would be nice if they give a little more information about the skill decay.

For example of reaching the max skill cap of your character ( like 700 ) , or 7 skills maxed, if you want to learn another skill you will need the decay of one that you max out. How will that work? Hope that works like UO skill system that you can lock down the skills that you max out or reach the points that you want, and if you want to drop one skill you just put it to go down and start to learn another one...

[Shadow Walker2020]

So, they are allowing for taunts in game. Interesting. The rest looks good too.

[Ultimo]

well we are starting to see some of the in depth features. this is a good sign :)

[Airius Droc]

Based on what little we read about "skill decay" it sounds to me as though this will only apply to skills at "expert" level, whatever that is. Making Darkfall a high end class system, to some degree. I.E. if you're not a Wizard then you're not going to be using expert level wizard type spells. If you're not a Warrior then you're not going to be using expert level warrior skills.

Very smart, if you ask me. Which of course no one did. :)

[Sack]

Skill decay is good like this. Say when you first start off and you have this skill. At first, you think its real kick ass, but then, later on, you decide, Naw, this skill sucks now. with skill decay, when you stop using that skill, it goes down. As it goes down, it counts less and less towards your overall soft skill cap. When that one skill reaches 0, youve gained back the skill points from it and it will be easier to learn a new skill in its place.

That as best as I can describe it.

Okay... I know about that kind of skill decay. That has been intended since the beginning, and I am not aware that they were ever going to deviate from that. Let's call that intentional skill decay. The skill decay that I am not so sure about is an unintentional skill decay as described in the article. That is what I am interested in reading opinions on. I am curious as to why people like unintentional skill decay.

[nazual]

Nice update. Love the pics :D

[boby]

Spells progress the same way as skills, through use, so taking the Tornado spell as an example, the more you use, it the more powerful a tornado you'll be able to unleash on your enemies.

so nice :eek:

[Gunther TheBlack]

Yep, one of my favorite updates so far, finally some info that is new to me :D

[Adapt]

The human woman - she looks like she's wearing too much makeup. :rolleyes:

[myrath]

All in all sounding good; I'm sceptic about skill decay because of bad memories... (Say I GM my smithing, go touring on PVP combat for some time and find my smithing significantly lowered).

But I'm sure they find a good balance.
I always hated losing my precious 100 ranking in UO. (Before they introduced the skill-locks etc..).

Counting down :P

[Maglubiyet]

Good update best part was hearing some spell names. Also the pics are hawt can't wait to run this game on my own comp.

[siegfried.it]

i find the last two screenshots much too bloomy
almost like shining neon colors
i hope its really just a bloom filter that can turned off :confused:

[Porthios]

Spells progress the same way as skills, through use, so taking the Tornado spell as an example, the more you use, it the more powerful a tornado you'll be able to unleash on your enemies.

Automatically DF's most badass skill feature ever!!!

Skill decay will set in at a slow rate for unused skills at an expert level.

2nd most badass skill feature.

[Zerikin Loukbel]

Sweeet, and happy belated 4th.

[Bigbone]

Yummy... and the screenshots are pretty good as well. But damn is that woman fugly. Anyway, glad to hear that they hit their 1000 skill goal, and skill decay seems very interesting... at least it appears to be well implemented. Keep it up devs.

When did SP get picky about their women?

I agree this update was great, cant wait till beta!!

[huenikad]

its good the skill decay only happens once its expert lvl

I wonder what that lvl is?

hope they tell us some time soon

ah well

[Figrix Voidstar]

most excellent!

lovin these updates ;)

[ZeRoSaN]

hurry hurry i can't w8.

[Salazar[SG]]

Finally atleast a little info on skills

More indepth articles on the subject please

GJ

[Spellmaker]

I like Skill decay reason why is because ...

when you first start out and you choose the uber skill of "Basket Weaving" and Max it out at 100 then months down the road you max out 12 more skills but want to max out Posion Blade but cant due to the Skill cap ( More skills maxed out longer it takes to Max others ) So you let your Uber Basket Weaving Die so you can upgrade Posion Blade faster without the Skill Cap now.... Understand what im trying to say ?

O Maybe you jsut realise that Basket Weaving isnt for you and want to get rid of it so you SS dont show you make hand Purses for Orks for 2 months straight instead of PVPing

[reece]

i like the screenshots. for me its everytime nice to see how realistic everything looks.
the textures and colors are very well choosen. i see the love in mapping, especially concerning size of walls, houses, streets etc... (grats to the mappers for awesome work)

everytime i see screenshots of darkfall i wonder why ppl like comic-art so much. sure its not comparable to hl2-engine but realistic textures and colors make it look ten times better than f.e. unreal tournament, wow, swg, q3/4, doom3, tabula rasa.....




p.s. TORNADOS!!!!!

[reece]

i dont like that they are talking about free customization but somehow forget that racial traits may be important and rerolling (in this case choosing another race) may be necessary.

[Elro]

Well you can't have everything. Don't know how you could start out human and then 'become' a dwarf after a while. It doesn't seem there will be THAT many variables between the races and I'm sure they will attempt to balance so that no one race can totally dominate.

[PaleOne]

hmmm

Skill progression=skill use = macroing in most games..

I wonder if it will matter..

Pale

[Rik]

Now THAT was a good update!

Thanx.

[Valthonis]

meh

[Kriegskind]

Dwarf in fullplate = Anchor

Skill or not hah!

Just a thought from some games I have seen with skills meaning everything in PvP. Sword 100 vs Dodge 100/Parry 100/Evasion 100 = *MISS* Let the stacking begin.

[losinglife]

sounds delicious

[Raekwon]

Well you can't have everything. Don't know how you could start out human and then 'become' a dwarf after a while.
...or a Mahirim for that matter...

*A human mage runs into the alchemy room of the castle where the Alfar's God Melek does his experiments after he had been spotted by some guards when his invisi. spell wore off.*

*He sees a vial marked "The dexterity of a wolf" and takes a swig hoping with its speed enhancement he can escape the guards.*

*The human mage suddenly begins to convulse and foam at the mouth; falling to the ground, letting his magical silken mage robes actually get dirty for the first time... they begin to rip and hair starts to grow in special places.*

*Michael Jackson's "Thriller" begins to play in the background...*

[JaHOEvah]

How can this game be sooooo awesome?

skill decay ftw

[doma]

How can this game be sooooo awesome?

skill decay ftw

Everything can be awesome on paper ;)

[Gamemaster]

I think this looks great, I can't wait for the Warcry update tommorow.

[LanMandragon]

I think this looks great, I can't wait for the Warcry update tommorow.

We might even get warcry and combine.

[gtechie]

We might even get warcry and combine.

what, it's not up yet? WHERE IS IT? :ohno:

[Love]

damn, great news, i can't wait until it starts :(

AWESOME

[LanMandragon]

what, it's not up yet? WHERE IS IT? :ohno:

I DUNNO!!!:ohno: :ohno: :ohno:

patience my young padawan

[shock223]

I DUNNO!!!:ohno: :ohno: :ohno:

patience my young padawan


why haven't you nawed you fingers off yet?

they probely post tonightish

[m1st_m1st]

:rolleyes: :ohno: :ohno: greate game :)