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Stabilis -> Skill Tiers is a Flawed Idea (10/6/2013 15:18:21)
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As the title says, the use of tiers in skill trees is a full of holes, this is because:
- tiers determine the "assumed power" or efficiency of a skill, imbalancing skills within the same skill tree
- tiers needlessly eat skill points used to achieve skills in different locations of the skill tree
- tiers and prerequisites make a skill tree more complex than it needs to be
There are some things that I like about skill tiers in particular, these are:
- skill tiers open up the skill tree as you grow
- skill tiers add order to the skill tree
I have a solution to the 3 mentioned flaws in skill tiers, here it is:
- skill tiers no longer represent the "power" of skills
- skill points can be allotted without paying into requisite skills
- skill tiers make skills available as the character level increases, simple
- players have 100% control over the skill level of every skill they currently possess
For example, in the following image representation, the player's character level is 1. They get full access to the beginner's set of skills. This means that for the few skills that they have, they can change the skill level of them to any value up to the max... a skill level of 10:
IMAGE1
Just to show a different example, this is the skill tree of someone who is is max level, level 36, with all skill tiers and skills available:
IMAGE2
As you can see, with all skill tiers unlocked, the player has total control of the skill levels of the skills they unlocked. If they wanted to, they could maximize the skill levels of all of their skills. Energy cost is usually the drawback. Sometimes it is the skill requirement.
For each tier, there is going to be a level requirement. We could keep the current level requirements, or we could split the skill tree equally, like tier 2 is level 10, tier 3 is level 20, and tier 4 is level 30. Passive skills ruin balance in this system, and should not be available in the tiers. They should grow separately with the character... if we even keep them.
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