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Hawkey
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A thought just occurred to me as a way to make Familiars more useful! Maybe the Bond should be bidirectional. After all, it's described as causing Familiars to become inordinately intelligent and healthy for their species type. Just as half of a Familiar's skill is added to the Wizard during skill checks, perhaps half of a Wizard's skill should be added to a Familiar during skill checks. Only to the standard limit of the Bond Level, of course.

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The way the Sphinx works is that it basically talks about the things it has seen and done over the centuries, not unlike an old man reminiscing about the past. That is why you get to pick 1 topic, while the Sphinx chooses the other two topics, provided you are smart enough to be a good conversation partner. People who have led long and interesting lives can make good talk out of just about anything. I feel that is good grounds for learning, if you are willing to ask the Sphinx the right questions and listen carefully.

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Thre's two things that still bugs me after hours of play : the way parent skills are calculated, and the skills that should be "cross-skill".

 

First some maths : I hate to have a parent skill at 0 when one of the sub skills is at 10 and another is at 5. Or when I have a subskill at 10 and no other and the parent skill at 0. It's really frustrating when I just can't get a third subskill. It just needs too much time to get a decent level in the parent skill.

 

Some easy way to change that : the parent skill gets +1 when one of the 3 best subskills gets at level 2, 5 and 9. The parent skill gets the final +1 when you have 3 subskills at 10. So a skill with two subskills at 10 would be at 6, a skill with only one subskill at 10 would be at 3.

There's other ways to deal with that. But I hate seeing those skills at 0 when they don't have enough subskills to be different from 0. Someone with 10 in climb shouldn't have 0 in explore.

 

Cross-skills : maybe some skills could be attached with different parent skills. For instance the animal husbandry could be with zoology AND its actual parent skill. That would lead to more subskills per skill, and thus avoiding parent skills with 0 even when they have subskills with a high level.

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Suggestion: If you ever get a subskill to 10, you should immediately become aware of all other subskills in the parent skill. Possibly earlier for some topics. For instance, any 'Theory of <Skill>' subskill should give the other subskills in a parent skill at a low level, perhaps at level 3 or 4.

 

This is true everywhere excepting perhaps Theory of Arithmetic. Anyone who has been through a math course can know how painful it is to get from theory to practice sometimes. So Theory of Arithmetic should unlock every other subskill at Theory of Arithmetic 3, save for Applications of Arithmetic, which shouldn't be unlocked until... 7 or 8.

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VC and 89157Z;

 

Parent Skills, and their relationships with Sub-Skills, are implemented in this way to encourage you to search out and explore. Overall, it's a good suggestion that Theory (for instance) will lead you to the other Sub-Skills, but some of the Parent groupings are much more diverse. We might institute that for the Class Skills, though- we'll consider it. :)

 

As for having a Skill at 10, but the Parent is still 0- that, too, is by design: although you are very good at your specialty, that does not necessarily translate to success in Parents, which are much more multi-disciplinary. I think the way that will address your frustration is to create a new Action that allows you to choose a Parent Skill that you know, and then Informs about a Random Sub-Skill. That might still get you a Skill you know, but the odds are much better it's the one you want. :)

 

We'll see if we can get that in for DLC 2.

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Ideally that should probably be set per-skill. Metallurgy can be imagined to unlock the entire set of Forge subskills pretty quickly (probably getting Armorer last), but what will Courage unlock? I can see it unlocking Metallurgy, but I'm not sure about any of the others. Weaponsmithing, maybe. Meanwhile, Jeweler seems like it would never unlock Courage or or Weaponsmith (on its own), but you can imagine it unlocking Metallurgy early and Armorer eventually.

 

The suggestion of 'definitely at 10' for normal skills and 'definitely at 4' for theory skills is sort of a meta-catch that requires less effort to implement but still saves a bit of frustration. How much of this the devs would implement is based on how long their attention span is for adding a new trait to every single skill in the game, checking which other skills those skills could inform you of...

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VC and 89157Z;

 

Parent Skills, and their relationships with Sub-Skills, are implemented in this way to encourage you to search out and explore. Overall, it's a good suggestion that Theory (for instance) will lead you to the other Sub-Skills, but some of the Parent groupings are much more diverse. We might institute that for the Class Skills, though- we'll consider it. :)

 

As for having a Skill at 10, but the Parent is still 0- that, too, is by design: although you are very good at your specialty, that does not necessarily translate to success in Parents, which are much more multi-disciplinary. I think the way that will address your frustration is to create a new Action that allows you to choose a Parent Skill that you know, and then Informs about a Random Sub-Skill. That might still get you a Skill you know, but the odds are much better it's the one you want. :)

 

We'll see if we can get that in for DLC 2.

Hum, that idea is good. That action need to be accessible from start. And I must disagree with the fact that beeing expert doesn't translate at being good in parent skill. If I have a 10 in climb I know a little about exploring. I'm not on par with another student that would have no subskills from explore. It just seems unfair. And sometimes it's really hard to get new subskill.

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Sounds good to me: You can't master one aspect of a topic without dabbling in other aspects, nor can you become familiar with Theory without recognizing the parts that make it up.

 

Ah, by the way, I think the Exam scores could be handled better by having each class order the scores from highest to lowest, and to give indications to what house each student belongs to and their relationship with the player, like shown below. Gold is to indicate the Player, Green is for those in the player's Clique, Red for a Hostile Student, and Blue for whoever belongs to the same College.

 

Astrology Mid-Terms, taught by Kate Badcrumble

 

120: Piffler Skillins of the College X has passed and qualifies for advanced glamour classes, has acquired the Medal of Glamour, and Scholarship.

116: Rumplestiltskin of the College X (Using text would be the quick and easy way to notify of College, but small heraldry Shields offer visualization.)

109: Cinderella

91 : Jack "Bean" Stalk

67 : Gretel

12 : Hansel

0 : Sabin Stargem of College Vernin couldn't participate due to Suspension.

0 : Paul Bunyan of College X couldn't attend due to Injury.

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There's a difference between : "you can't master one aspect of a topic without dabbling in other aspects" and "you're stuck at 0 even if you master some aspects". Why not allowing something like : if you have less than 3 subskills you can be at 1 or 2 if you have good subskills ?

In my mind the best solution would be to calculate the mean of the 3 best skills. And if you have less than 3 subskills, then just add zeros to the calculation. Always rounded down. So with only one subskill at 10 the parent skill would still be at 3 (which is nowhere mastering it)

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An option to choose a Skill and gain a subskill would be absolutely fantastic. Maybe I could learn lockpicking, finally! :)

 

 

For later years, might it be possible for there to be electives to learn maybe swordplay and also martial arts/unarmed besides wrestling? The sorcerer with a sword is an old hat in Western Fantasy stories, as is the marital artist who uses elemental attacks and healing (Avatar is coming to mind, suddenly- the show on Nick, not the weird movie). A magic academy seems like one of the better places to learn combat skills, if nothing else- seems they have a pretty good infirmary deal going on. XD And as the old saying goes, no matter how powerful the wizard, a knife in the back will totally cramp their style.

 

(Er, that's depressing.)

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Hum, that idea is good. That action need to be accessible from start.

I think this kind of action should require some knowledge of something related to the skill, even if it's small, like a co-subskill advanced to some level. Most people don't realize what's possible until they have some introduction to the ideas close to it.

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As for having a Skill at 10, but the Parent is still 0- that, too, is by design: although you are very good at your specialty, that does not necessarily translate to success in Parents, which are much more multi-disciplinary. I think the way that will address your frustration is to create a new Action that allows you to choose a Parent Skill that you know, and then Informs about a Random Sub-Skill.

 

I am happy with the way it was designed and as it is now. I don't have any problems with a subskill being at 10 and a Parent at zero because the others aren't yet available to me. That's part of the challenge and what makes the game interesting to me.

 

Which brings me to a more general point : the fact is that we hear less often from people who are happy and who don't want some basic game dynamics made different. There is already an unintended consequence of some actions that allows us to study for a class we are not enrolled in. I understand this will most probably not be corrected. I can live with that and just not use those actions so I play more the way the game was designed. That's easy to do.

 

An option that informs me of a Subskill I feel would be different though. It changes the dynamic of the game.

 

Anyways, what I want to convey is that I have bought the game and started to play it in a certain way, designed strategies accordingly. I would not like my experience to be altered after installing a patch I would have no choice to install -- because at the same time it corrects other things that actually don't work as intended. I would not want having to make a list of things I have to play around to preserve the same experience as before either.

 

All I am saying is just be careful please. People who would have designed the game otherwise and who are not happy with this and that choice of game design, maybe can make their own games using the mod tools. Or maybe those special features should be available in an optional patch. I don't know, I know little about how these things work.

 

Obviously I respect other people's opinions and recognize they have every right to make all the suggestions they want. I'm just saying this because I've had my gaming experience altered in a way I really didn't like (other games), because of changes made after the release and that some more casual players than me wanted. That's not fun and very frustrating as well. I feel it's better when it's done in a way that can be optional, and especially when the change comes almost two months after the release.

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Danae;

 

Thank you very much for the feedback: not to worry, you won't see a dramatic shift here. In terms of Informing Sub-Skills, we plan to create an 'investigation' Action that will enable you to target a specific Parent group for study, so you can acquire the Sub-Skills more easily, but this will not dramatically change your experience- it may enhance it, if there is a cool Skill you are after. What we do not plan to do is decrease the amount of exploration that you need to do to learn about the world, the Skills and the diverse options available to you.

 

Edit: For Danae's point.

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Speaking in general, players often want a game altered in a way so reaching their goals is much easier and faster. That is actually what I am concerned about, because then I lose interest. Granted everyone is different. I like the basic game design as it is now but obviously I trust your judgement because you know it best. Thanks for your reply.

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Speaking in general, players often want a game altered in a way so reaching their goals is much easier. That is actually what I am concerned about, because then I lose interest. Granted everyone is different. I'll trust your judgement then. Thanks for your reply.

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I'd think discovering subskills would be a very reasonable result of doing research on a parent skill, wouldn't it?

 

Side note! I just now figured out why my character who never showed the slightest interest in forge skills keeps getting forge events! It is because courage is a forge skill and you keep earing courage through events. Funky. I know someone, somewhere was just defending courage being a forge skill on the basis that forges are scary but by that logic it coud fit under anything including botany given the number of man-eating plants in this world! And if it were under a different group there wouldn't be such visible wonkiness. Because I must have had at least half a dozen forge events for this character so far and he's never so much as glanced at a hammer. At least I know why it keeps happening now.

 

BTW for my money glass blowing is much, much scarier than forge work. And yes, I've done both. :)

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