I'm going to dump these threads here for references.
https://willard.network/forums/threads/on-the-topic-of-skills.842/
https://willard.network/forums/threads/the-wn-skills-system-expansion.897/#post-5910
-Now for my actual post-
Here is your issue with skills. Every skill available incentivises grinding because it hard locks a reward until you reach a specific skill. Let's take medicine as a example:
*You can not use a medical kit unless you reach 20 medicine.
Here is your second issue with skills, every skill with the exception of speed and guns revolves around itemization in the script. The only way to raise crafting is to obtain more script items, the only way to raise bartering is to buy more script items and the only way to raise medicine is to use script items. It's a very itemized system and this is why the system cases annoyances.
-Now, I am going to talk about the fundamentals of why you guys made such a system.-
You are quite frankly conditioned to only think about systems through other systems which you've had experience with. In order to break this- I am going to explain why the systems below exist and thus' why you've made a mistake in implementation.
The Skill system from the Elder Scroll Series
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This skill system is designed for a game which is a
Action Role-playing Game ,
What is a Action Role-Playing Game (ARPG)?
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In short, you're using a system that doesn't sync well with your other gameplay systems. A roleplay servers main theme isn't hacking through a sewer or killing things but instead on the roleplay itself. Not only that, but when it's come to combat ever since the inception of Garrysmod, it's never been Real-Time-Combat unless S2K has been declared which I personally despise.
Now, I think it's important to state this: Many of you people don't even know where roleplay came from, your closest reference to such things are things that were designed in a frame to not be role-playable but more of a action experience. Hell, Fallout 3 is most of your goto systems when it comes to a skill system.
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Believe it or not, but this system is more reminicant of a older system but it's still designed for ARPG's. The prime difference here is that it allows a player the freedom to assign skill points but it still misses the formula that you need for a
Roleplay server. You guys took from the fallout series the action point system that came from Fallout 1/2. This system is useful, but for other reasons.
Let's talk about combat for a brief moment.
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Above is the fallout 1/2 skill system, most people pay attention to the skills on the far right, the far left and bottom. But no one I assume has paid attention to what truly matters as it's the outcome of combat being the statistical information in the centre. This is where things get interesting because this is where we get closer to home and start finding our roots into a Roleplay game of old.
Each stat there represents something vital about your character, in fallout's case it's how effective your Armor is, how many actions you can perform in the middle of TBC. Your carry weight (How strong your character is.) How hard your character punches, how much you are naturally resistant to poison or radiation. How fast your sequence is (Sequence = Reflex to act before anyone else can.), how fast you naturally heal over time and finally your critical strike chance. There is something else here that everyone doesn't seem to respect but it's actually the Hit Point system and the level system. Both exist for a reason and people should take the time to consider that.
As we move back onto skills, I want you guys to take note that the skills arent represented as raw values but as percentages. The skill system in fallout 1/2 did not limit what you could do in a action, it only changed/modified how successful you would be in a action with bonus's and penalties involving said actions.
An example!
If a player wishes to hotwire a care, the developer of the scene believes this task to be moderate in difficulty and so he provides the player a success threshold of 60%. If the player manages to beat 60% in his skill or a roll, he is able to hotwire the vehicle. The player then makes a 1D100 roll in order to try and succeed.
Something interesting about the Fallout 1/2 system is that skills go beyond 100% and all the way upto 300%. This is because you can critically succeed in a spectacular way when doing something. There isnt a hard fail or a hard success. If I reload a M1 Garand, I have afew chances of things happen. I have a chance of getting Garand Thumb where my thumb is stuck in the chamber. I have a chance of reloading the Garand properly, I have a chance of reloading the Garand so quick and effectively that I am able to fire quicker then the guy who intends to fire back at me can. These are but simple additional conditions that the previous systems lack in terms of success or failure and thus' what Willard subsequently lacks in terms of character uniqueness.
Back to Basics!
One fundamental aspect to these RPG games you guys have played is the fact that a developer has sat there and had to hand-craft every storyline quest just for you to play. Here is but a few examples of what I am talking about.
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The developers of such systems and games intend for you to go on a adventure of a minimum of 59 quests just to max out your characters stats, now do some basic cognitive function and you'll realize that Fallout 3 has 13 skills, all of these skills will be maxed out by your 59th quest and are intended to reach 100 points in order to max them out. This is important cause if we take a look over at Willard Networks, you are only allowed to select 3 skills and their max skill rating is 50. Even with bad administrative quality when it comes to events and event amount, we've got a number of people very close to 50 already.
You need to bare in mind that the ARPG system was designed for this sort of questing system which isn't the same as what Willard has, Willard doesn't have automated quests or pre-programmed quest lines for the player and nor' should it ever. That'd ruin the point- so it baffles me why the direction was to making a ARPG system and the answer I've found is because it's the only system you know and have played.
This is why you're failing.
So lets get down to reality, we have a system that requires administrators to make events and be the arbitor of how character actions succeed/fail- the system you guys have chosen do not reflect that. You know what system does though?
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Pay special attention to the description of what TRPG is and find the correlations- this is where you've missed the mark and what you need to find. Now get out there and do some research!
Because we can't have god do all the work!
