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Poll Level-Based or Career-Based Abilities?

Well i actually do like the tips all over the loading screens........i did actually learn something new from a few as i've been playing the later builds and stuff changes :yes

And thanks for the pointers etc, that will all be extremely handy when i get time to do things :D And while it might seem i was being down on the locked abilities thing, in principle it can work, just as the realistic skills thing works, i just ran into a few unfinished things (or bugs maybe as Pieter mentions) here and there and it felt a little too rough around the edges for comfort, if you know what i mean.

@Grey Roger it would have been either Beta 3.4 or 4 that i had that issue with the 'blocked' cannoneer ability tree, i'll do my best to find the situation again and stick it in the bug thread.

If it provides a clue the ability was a 1 point cost (pretty sure it was increased range) that was gold in colour, which i understand means it should be available for me to select, but it had no reasons on it's info screen (when you actually click ok to get it, and that normally shows any pre-requisite things etc) as to why the 'ok' was greyed out and non-selectable.

Pieter Boelen said:
My personal suggestion would be relatively simple:
- Have two separate modes, one being the current PotC system and one new and experimental one that is a sort of "Auto Skill System for Abilities"
- "Locked Perks" could then be remove from the current PotC system because having too many different things being able to lock your perks might end up being a bit too complicated
- The new system would have as many perks as possible be given to the player through specific gameplay actions/career promotions

Does that sound reasonable?
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Well one thing to consider would be a bit like the situation with the Open Sea Mod currently, that normally forces you to play in Iron Man mode (if i have that correct, or is it that when you select Iron Man mode you get the Open Sea mod by default?), so when you do go into the files to activate it for a regular type game, it can get a little confusing, especially in relation to explaining bugs/issues etc.

So by that i would not try to say tie it into the realistic skills gain system, as some people may love that but not love locked abilities, so flexibility to all these systems can be a great thing in terms of players getting to play the type of game of PotC they prefer, and to be fair to the Build Mod it has been excellent for this, maybe more so than any other mod i can think off, certainly one of it's strengths :yes
 
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Let's see if we can bring this discussion up again. As I believe I know pretty well how the ability system works and I'm still not happy with it either I would like to know how we can improve on it.

So some questions we need to ask are:

- Are all current abilities usefull or are some never used?
- Do we need any abilies to boost something or create a certain effect which we are still missing?
- Which abilities should be avaible from the start
- Should all abilies be avaible for everyone
- If some abilities shouldn't be avaible from the start how can you get them

Remember we can overhaul this system completly if we want. It could mess up things like goldbug (right @Jack Rackham ?) but we could then see how to fix this.

So how would you ideal ability system look?

I think mine would be something like this:
Abilities are linked to certain professions (some abilites can be linked to more professions). They have a rank like apprentice/journeyman/master/expert .
When you start the game you start with being an apprentice in 1 or X professions. By leveling certain skills you can become better in these professions. If you unlock the next rank for this profession you can enable the abilities for this profession.

There could also be some people who can train you in this profession.
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What i describe in my idea is actually possible to make.
 
Levis said:
- Are all current abilities usefull or are some never used?
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The original abilities are useful. I don't make much use of any of the newer ones such as "Cooking" unless a character already has all the original abilities associated with his post, and probably not even then because once he's maxed out, I'm likely to shift him to a different post so he can start earning points in another set of skills, and then use his ability points to get him the perks for that post.
- Do we need any abilies to boost something or create a certain effect which we are still missing?
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There are plenty already.
- Which abilities should be avaible from the start
- Should all abilies be avaible for everyone
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All abilities should be available, then it's the player's choice which ones he uses his ability points to buy.
Remember we can overhaul this system completly if we want. It could mess up things like goldbug (right @Jack Rackham ?) but we could then see how to fix this.
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Or we could just leave it working as it is now.
So how would you ideal ability system look?
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Pretty much as it is now, including the toggle on locked perks so I can disable them but people who like them can have them. The old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies, especially if "fixing" it is going to break someone's storyline.
 
Really the only thing I'd be interested in seeing here is a system like the one @Armada proposed, where you gain the abilities themselves through gameplay.
This would be quite an alternate approach to what we have now, so obviously would require a toggle.

This is also completely not important. It is quite fine with me as it is now and there are many other things I'd rather see tackled instead.
 
Aha, and I was wrong: there's a revolver in GoldBug with 6 shots so the perkGunfighter is used there too.
 
Jack Rackham said:
Aha, and I was wrong: there's a revolver in GoldBug with 6 shots so the perkGunfighter is used there too.
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I mean mostly the fact that you in your stories don't let peopel choose their own abilities but assign them when needed.
If the structure would change and some abilites might end up in other trees that could give problems (maybe).
 
Levis said:
I mean mostly the fact that you in your stories don't let peopel choose their own abilities but assign them when needed.
If the structure would change and some abilites might end up in other trees that could give problems (maybe).
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My first suggestion would be to not change this until after Build 14 has been completely finished.
If it is to be changed, have it permanently toggled off until it is fully working and feedback from testers confirms it is better than what we currently have.
 
I'm just brainstorming here. I think we could almost move this to build 15 brainstorming because I don't expect to be working on this anytime soon ...
unless its small tweaks
 
I mean mostly the fact that you in your stories don't let peopel choose their own abilities but assign them when needed.
If the structure would change and some abilites might end up in other trees that could give problems (maybe).
Click to expand...
One thing I can think of is when Howard Pyle learns abilities from some pirate captains. That could
of course stop the quest completely. The whole thing has to be rewritten.
 
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