The Big Skills Update

[LeftClick 40]

Max number of total level ups is 275. All skills cap at 100.

[jessbot 3]

I don't like the community points i think it should all be based on what the players decide and do in character and in game. Rewarding players with points dosn't fit in the lore. Community Points is a no for me it would ruin the roleplay ingame. i mean in real life there not a area that says you neeed so many points to get into a wildland. I maybe a differnt sever that isn't roleplay but a roleplay sever shouldn't have points its dosen't fit with the lore. Well this is my oponion if you can find away that dosent ristricked plaers from going anywhere in the wilds im fine with it. sorry for the spelling errors.

My former forum name is jessbot just changed it.

[Cracker 4570]

The skills are working out awesome! Thanks LotC Team!

I'm just curious, are racial traits being added any time soon?

[jessbot 3]

The skills are working out awesome! Thanks LotC Team!

I'm just curious, are racial traits being added any time soon?

I am also wondering if racial traits will be added soon.

[Amagous 4]

There is going to be a riot if skills aren't released on time.

O shi-----

The Aegian Riots...... Aegis would burn like britain T_T

O wait, we don't blame all our violence on Grand Theft Auto 4 which we've censored to hell and back and actually helps people get out their violence.

Silly me.

[Friar 0]

Wow this looks extremely nice, keep up the great work, skills were added pretty well if you ask me!

[Lago 2572]

The skills system looks pretty good, but this part which limits tool, weapon and armour use is illogical, makes little to no sense inuniverse and has a fundamental flaw even if it is maintained.

A better sword is not harder to wield. Diamond swords are meant to be sharper and more powerful than iron ones, which are better than bricks on sticks (stone swords) which are better than actual sticks (wooden ones). Plus, you are only informed that 'your skill level is too low' when you use it!

Having the skill requirement also undermines the common mechanic of equipment AND skill improving your character. How much damage you can do depends on both how good your sword and how well you use it. A mediocre swordsman with a brilliant sword should be able to stand up to a brilliant swordsman with a poor sword. But no! Because a mediocre swordsman is now restricted to fighting with unwieldly sticks and stone cluns, which should be far harder to wield than a perfectly balanced sword.

Now I have to go to the skills city and grind away with a wooden club until my character's skill sheet reflects what he was two days ago before skills, which detracts from the RP. Had I not found out after asking about skills that my diamond sword and iron armour was now useless, I would have lost everything to the first weakling mob that jumped on the path. Weapon skills should affect the damage, rather than stopping you from using your sword at all.

Likewise, pickaxes. It's how fast you can mine which should be affected by the skill level, not what pickaxe you can use! A sharper, harder pick can smash harder objects in the hands of any pickaxe user, but the less adept one will need to take more care, and thus take longer!

I'm sorry, but the new skills system has ruined the RP for me for a couple of days due to this glaring and infuriating oversight.

[Availer 681]

You've obviously misunderstood the concept of the skills system and are using silly not very persuasive arguments.

We are unable to fully stimulate the difference between peoples level of skill in real life to peoples level in skill in a very limited gaming enviroment. As in real life, an idiot swordsman who uses a very sharp and powerful sword is most likely to hurt himself than hurt other people causing little damage to his enemies. He doesn't have the skill or efficiency to use that weapon in a good manner or a positive manner, therefore he would require more training to use these weapons.

The skill systems allows people to CHOOSE how the life of their character should be led. If the skill system did not limit peoples ability to use specific quality weapons and tools then there would be no reason to add it. It allows people to concentrate on one specific profession and become a professional of it. They begin to lead their local community at that specific skills therefore creating more community infusion as swordsman will go to blacksmiths for repairs, blacksmiths to miners for ores and they will look to swordsmen for protection. This greatly improved the community RP effect and therefore negates the annoying self sufficiency that comes with Minecraft. People now have a REASON to TRADE, COMMUNICATE and PLAY TOGETHER. Rather than just going off to the wilderness playing a bit, finding it boring and going off to another server without exploring the true quality of Aegis.

The skill system ENRICHES the RP, adds another dimension to the way Minecraft will be played. If you think it's ruining the RP then you are in a sense really powergaming, having access to abilities your character shouldnt have. At least now you can EARN those abilities. It's not an oversight, the skill system was discussed and thought about deeply by a dedicated development team. We also took in the ideas of the community as a whole.

[Lago 2572]

A skills system is beneficial to the RP, yes, but parts of it encourage grinding instead of RP, there's a whole grinding city for nether's sake! It makes the game like the original version of Haven and Hearth, where all you do is spend hours gaining small amounts EXP so you can actually do anything.

It undermines the concept of better equipment is better than worse equipment. A low level swordsman with iron is more powerful than a low level swordsman with stone, except now the low level swordsman has to use stone! Why even bother having different types of sword?

And if the counterargument is that higher weapons are harder to use, that's wrong! A balanced sword would easier to use than a sharpened rock club with a wooden handle. Diamond swords are not lightsabers.

Also, why does a character's skill at unarmed combat affect their armour? You could easily be able to carry a large weight, but be next to useless in a fistfight.

If the idea is to enrich the RP experience by showing a character's limitations, then why do all characters start blank, regardless of their backstories? An exiled dwarf having worked as a mercenary will start as a decent swordsman, If the idea is to give characters their limitations and make them different from each other, they should have a quite large amount of starting skill points to assign, depending on their story. A travelling mercenary returning to his home city should start with some sword skill, rather than being bested by a blacksmith who happened to run into a few mobs while mining.

As to your point about the need for different people to specialise in different areas for the world to function as desired, that is achieved by the skills cap. Nobody can master everything, but it is still an RP server, and thus the focus should be on the RP, not on walking around the woods stabbing zombies and losing all your stuff to three pigmen.

Or, the short version: in my opinion:

~Sword skill should increase damage and not control what types of sword you can wield.

~Pickaxe skill should increase speed and not dictate what types of pickaxe you can use.

~Armour should not be tied to unarmed combat skill, and less armour skill should slow you andor reduce your damage, it makes no sense to reduce the defensive effect of the armour.

~Skills should not start blank if they are meant to differentiate character abilities; there should be a large amount of starting skill points (probably about 1/4 to 1/3 of the total skill points possible to obtain).

I'm not demanding that anyone do anything, I'm simply frustrated at how the new skills system is heavily impairing my enjoyment of the server by making it feel less about RP and more like a PvP MMO.

[Decks of the Black Axe 3]

So far, the grinding seems to be moderate at worst, and it is only annoying because it has changed what we could do yesterday, into something we have to grind a little bit to be able to do now. It won't take more than a day or two for you to get to your diamond stuff if you really need it.

But think about it from the perspective of a new player to the server... then it makes perfect sense, and fits into the RP element as best as you can with a limited system.

Also, keep in mind that this is Beta, and that many things will likely be tweaked as we go, and the end result will be a better experience for all.

(Trust me, having to find some wood so that I could use my basic stone tools WAS annoying... but it took me all of ten minutes to get to the stone tools, so I think we'll be ok.)

[Lago 2572]

But it's an RP server. You should never have to end up grinding skills. It's not enjoyable and, while skills benefit RP, the grinding aspect detracts from it.

[Decks of the Black Axe 3]

And lago,

you've got one part of your argument that doesn't quite fit into the lore. And I can understand why, because on our apps, we're required to give a detailed bio...

But in fitting with the Lore of Aegis... when we first enter the server, we are born in the cloud temple. So, we are fresh, and have no history of being a sword wielding mercenary...

So really, I think you are suppose to look at it like this: when you are creating your bio, that is the story that you intend to tell. But when you enter the game, it hasn't been told. You are fresh and must start at the beginning. Slightly before the interesting parts.

[Decks of the Black Axe 3]

I agree you should not have to grind skills... but I think the only reason it FEELS like grinding is because we are established on the server. If you had just started on the server, I don't feel like it would feel like grinding... more like learning. And so far, in my experience, it is not a very hard grind.

(with mining, it feels natural... with axe mastery, the progression feels natural. Granted, on something like farming, I did feel like I was grinding, because I would never plant random saplings over and over... but it didn't take long, and the skill system works better for some skills than others. Again, I think it will be tweaked with time to be a more consistent RP leveling system.)

[Lago 2572]

Born into the Cloud Temple, go out into the world, go to skills city, spend three hours killing zombies so you don't die of the first highwayman to see you who's spent ten hours killing zombies. You should have starting skill points if the system is meant to differentiate characters by means other than how many hours they've ground which skill for.

Plus, it's unfair on new players, who can easily get killed by the first hostile person to find them with no chance of fighting back. If the aim of skills is not to alienate new players, then why give them such a massive hurdle to jump?

[Decks of the Black Axe 3]

I just don't see it being that big of a hurdle, sorry. Shouldn't someone who's been killing zombies for a month be able to easily handle someone who's been killing them for an hour?

anyways, i don't want to hijack this thread, so I'm just going to say I can see where you are coming from, but I disagree.