Something else to do with Karma.

[Morrolan]

While on the one hand, I would love to be able to avoid the grind...

I think it would be bad for the game to have any systemetized method for doing so.  Right now, everyone rolls the dice, and everyone takes their chances just the same.

[aside]I remember the days of keeping a percentage of your skills in your new class when you died.  This was back when we could still see our skill percentages, as well.  The people I felt it benefitted most were the people who would go out and create massive havoc, get killed, and then start ahead of everyone else for it...with none of the enemies that they had earned getting that powerful.[/aside]

I know how much the grind sucks.  Sometimes, I grit my teeth through it as much as anyone else (depending on class).  But, I believe it is necessary for the game.  The characters that develop from scratch are a bit more organic than those stiff, wooden ones we sometimes create ourselves.

Characters with a true history, influenced by other people, have a bit more depth and ring a little more true.  The grind is our sacrifice to make Armageddon a little more believable.

Morrolan

[a strange shadow]

The grind is our sacrifice to make Armageddon a little more believable.

Sums up my feelings on the matter.

[Drayab]

I am strongly against this. I do not want to see people getting skill buffs during chargen. Rank and high level of skill should be earned IG, not by some OOC construct. Also, wtf is with this 'grind' business? This is not WoW where you kill monsters to level up. In Armageddon, skill increases in the normal course of playing your character. If you are sick of sparring, go to the damn bar. You don't like spam hunting? Well, good, because you shouldn't be doing it.

[Fathi]

Though I wouldn't tie it to Karma, I'd be in favour of a system where people could app directly into a PC with mild increases to some of their skills, sort of like SOI's RPP system.

Armageddon is already hard as hell on anyone who doesn't have hours and hours a day, every day of the week, to dedicate to the game. Provided there was some sort of criteria on how these PCs were doled out and to whom, I think it could solve a lot of the frustrations that casual players end up developing.

I don't think players should be punished for not being able to play 30+ hours a week, but unfortunately, most of the code and the game's RP culture does just that.

On the other hand, the special app process can already handle this, to a degree. However, considering Dakurus' post on what special apps are and aren't likely to be accepted, I'd wonder what the success rate of people attempting to apply for skilled characters is.

[Synthesis]

It would be interesting if skill timers were so long that people who can play 12 hours a day wouldn't have any advantage.

If skill-increase timers were set to something like 24 or 48 hours, and the timer continued to run down while you were logged out, people who can only play 2-3 hours a week would be able to skill up just as fast as someone who puts in 10 hours a day.

Of course, you'd have to concomitantly increase the amount that skills can improve during each timer round.

Also, people who do nothing but train train train would still have an advantage...just possibly not quite so much.

[Eternal Strife]

From a RP standpoint, It can be severely jarring to have your character whom is in his late 30's and has been a mercenary his whole life, fighting it out, beat by some kid who has codely been in the game longer then you. From a player standpoint you know it as "Oh Boy! Another character to grind to even remotely compete with others who have codely spent more time playing" And no matter how much awesome RP you put in that countless sparring sessions, it's still a grind.
In fact, while I have no data to prove this, I think this may be one of the biggest problems with player retention of long-term players.

I don't see how allowing new PC's to go from cg to Byn Trooper or AoD Private or House DunkinDoughnuts Pastry Chef roles overcomes any of this problem though. The kid with 5 days played as a Recruit will still beat your late 30's mercenary who has just come in as a Trooper. There is still the grind to train up coded skills to become just as proficient a Trooper as the person who went though recruit training. Unless you mean that coming in at that position straight from CG with Karma includes skill bumps? You mentioned that as a tentative 'other' option though.. so please explain how being a 'Trooper' immediately instead of after a few weeks helps overcome the grind?

It proves a problem when you have players that are not familiar with the clan and its documentation (including the lore thats not documented). Some roles, such as the AOD, are very strict on documentation and one slip up could cause someone else and a few others. As well as having the staff chime in on your actions

[RogueGunslinger]

It would be interesting if skill timers were so long that people who can play 12 hours a day wouldn't have any advantage.

If skill-increase timers were set to something like 24 or 48 hours, and the timer continued to run down while you were logged out, people who can only play 2-3 hours a week would be able to skill up just as fast as someone who puts in 10 hours a day.

Of course, you'd have to concomitantly increase the amount that skills can improve during each timer round.

Also, people who do nothing but train train train would still have an advantage...just possibly not quite so much.

I believe it's set so you can go about a zalanthan day much like you would a real day. Training in the morning, lunch, lessons into he afternoon, and gaj time at night.

That said. I'd much rather have it like you said, as I'm a low playtimer.

[Posts for the Post God]

It would be interesting if skill timers were so long that people who can play 12 hours a day wouldn't have any advantage.

If skill-increase timers were set to something like 24 or 48 hours, and the timer continued to run down while you were logged out, people who can only play 2-3 hours a week would be able to skill up just as fast as someone who puts in 10 hours a day.

Of course, you'd have to concomitantly increase the amount that skills can improve during each timer round.

Also, people who do nothing but train train train would still have an advantage...just possibly not quite so much.

This is a very thoughtful idea and I hope staff at least consider it for Arm 2, since I doubt any changes to the skill system would occur in the current version.