Starting skill level adjustment

[Barzalene]

If only it could be based on your average online times.

[manonfire]

Entitled kids!

#obamasamerica

#scrablivesmatter

[Dresan]

One of the problems with current skills is that journeyman sneak/hide are still practically useless. Unless you have mastered skills, which could sometimes take as much as 10 days of play time, you can't really depend on them which is kinda lame.

Sometimes I wonder how the game the game had less grind and classes could actually  do things such as sneak/hide/steal effectively right out of the box without having to play 2-3 months before being able to try petty stuff.

[FantasyWriter]

Special app skill bumps. Current Karma+3.
I played an older, skill-bumped pickpocket a while back (first sneaky PC I ever enjoyed).
I was pretty damn pleased with the results.  You should try it sometime.

[Alesan]

Special app skill bumps. Current Karma+3.
I played an older, skill-bumped pickpocket a while back (first sneaky PC I ever enjoyed).
I was pretty damn pleased with the results.  You should try it sometime.

If you have no karma, is this even possible at all?

[Dresan]

If you have no karma you can still get a bump of 3, but only three times a year.

However skill bumps is limited, and having played a max pickpocket, and lost a wonderful character concept to it(which i still regret),  I wouldn't waste my 3 per limit special app on boosting any of those skills personally.  Again though, that is my humble opinion, clearly FW has had different results.

Having used it already, I do have to agree with fantasy writer that it is great despite having to wait longer for it to be approved. Especially when you put it into combat, but then again I personally don't like joining clans in order to find people to spar with. At the end of the day, skill bumps don't really address the issue though. This is because skill bumps even with high decent karma are still limited use and there are a lot of skill on the skill tree which suck until you master them, much more then two or three.

Again it takes two to four months to get a character to be good and strong enough to do interesting things with them, and by that time I don't want to risk my character on small but interesting things that might make me loose all the progress. I try to save them up for something big. The same can be said if I have invested a ext-guild/skill-bump into the character.  The end result is a more boring game, and static world.   

[Alesan]

It's the same thing in any game, sadly. Every new character is a useless blank slate to one extent or another. There'd be no point to progress if you were capable right out of the box. Though I agree it can be depressing and discouraging to have to settle into the grind before a character concept becomes feasible.

[FantasyWriter]

Special app skill bumps. Current Karma+3.
I played an older, skill-bumped pickpocket a while back (first sneaky PC I ever enjoyed).
I was pretty damn pleased with the results.  You should try it sometime.

If you have no karma, is this even possible at all?

You can app for three skill bumps of your choice with no karma.
Extended subguild special apps and skill bump special apps, unlike normal ones, generally take less than two weeks. Most of mine have been in under a week.

[FantasyWriter]

Here's the staff post explaining the process, Alesan.

http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,48618.0.html

Also... I want to date your avatar.

[Old Kank]

One of the problems with current skills is that journeyman sneak/hide are still practically useless. Unless you have mastered skills, which could sometimes take as much as 10 days of play time, you can't really depend on them which is kinda lame.

This is true of a lot of skills on Arm.  I think sneak, hide and climb are the worst offenders, because their failures tend to be absolute.  If I had a magic coding wand, that's what I would fix.  Most skills need varying degrees of failure, similar to ride.  "You try and shadow the tall, muscular man west, but feel eyes upon you and stop!"  Or: "You stealthily move west, but are forced to wait for a passing guard." <insert delay>  Or: "You carefully climb west.  You have trouble finding purchase here!  You carefully slide down."

[Alesan]

Also... I want to date your avatar.

[NemesisX]

I like to have to gain skills. One reason is because you get that sense of accomplishment from going from apprentice to master. Another is that you get attached to the character. Last thing we need is everyone coming out of the gates as a uber magicker or warrior supreme deciding to be raider killing everyone. I also know that you can ask for skill bumps via the resource tool for those of us who want that uber skill stat. I think it should be monitored. Again, this game is about the RP not about skills.

[nauta]

I like to have to gain skills. One reason is because you get that sense of accomplishment from going from apprentice to master. Another is that you get attached to the character. Last thing we need is everyone coming out of the gates as a uber magicker or warrior supreme deciding to be raider killing everyone. I also know that you can ask for skill bumps via the resource tool for those of us who want that uber skill stat. I think it should be monitored. Again, this game is about the RP not about skills.

I think the CGP skill bumps option finds the right balance. 

NemesisX makes a good point, on the one hand - and just to add, there is accomplishment in outliving those you started with, and knowing that the new ones - for the most part - coming in will have to prove themselves before they get into a position of coded power to muss things up.

On the other hand, every once in a while, it is nice to have someone come in out of chargen with a badass character they could use to muss things up.  Because, yeah, more muss!  Longer-lived characters tend to play things cautiously, which means there's less muss, and throw-away PCs used to muss things up tend to be short-lived because no coded power.

[jhunter]

I know that skill bumps kind of address this, I just wish that the new character creation system was implemented so I could just log in and go through the whole process including extended subguilds and skill bumps without having to have staff assistance.

[FantasyWriter]

That is the plan.  They gave the options to use through the special app system until the code can be finished to let us do it through chargen.

[jhunter]

Right. I get that. I am just saying that I wish it was in place already.

[FantasyWriter]

Cool, just wanted to make sure you (and everyone else in the thread) knew that was the original plan. As someone who likes spec apps, I wish it would get done as wells so that I didn't have to use up my spec app slots when I wanted a skill bump or extended sub.