Let's bring these 'dead skills' back

edw3rdwood

Grandmaster
I've made some suggestions on how to pump some life into the "dead" skills in the game. It is a shame that we have several skills which are completely worthless and irrelevant to how the game is played today. With some discussion I'm sure we could bring out some cool ideas on how to make the game deeper using these currently-overlooked skills.

All of these proposals have been made with careful attention to actual effect in the game, and to player economy. I urge those who join the discussion to do the same and keep this constructive. The idea is to bolster and enhance the overall feel of the game, and validity of these skills, without making them change the actual gameplay too much.

Feedback and expanded ideas are definitely welcome:


-ARMS LORE-
Currently the only practical use for this skill is combining it with Wrestling to enable the disarm move. I said this in another thread, but -- what if it gave a higher success rate for crafters, or let them use 10% less materials?


-BEGGING-
Let players buy from NPC vendors at a discount, and sell at an increased rate. Maybe ~20% total at 100 skill. I imagine crafters might choose this to sell off excess wares, as they are merchants and are extra savvy in business dealings.


-CAMPING-
This is a big one. Making a player camp (which has a 30-second charge time) would increase player health, stamina, and mana recovery rate dramatically while also allowing bandages to heal targets completely in a single use.

The main draw is for tamers. Taming is almost always paired with magery, as pets are used as tanks and require constant healing; this would enable tamers who don't want to use magic the option to heal those high-HP pets with a single bandage.

Also, no mana would be consumed for any spells cast within 3-5 tiles of the camp. This would enable mages to heal/buff themselves and their pets, call their summons, etc all at once before heading out. Obviously, entering combat or being attacked would immediately break the camp and a new one would have to be created.

[This is a notable boost for summoners, who currently have to spend 50 mana to summon and thus are running with half their mana pool while the summon immediately begins to time out. This skill would give them an added benefit of being able to run with full mana.]


-COOKING-
With this I propose changing the way food/drink currently works in the game. Eating food should give temporary 5min buffs while staying well-hydrated would increase chance of skill gain. For example...

Eating 5 steaks gives you +3 STR
Eating 2 apples gives you +5 tactics/eval int skill
Eating 10 bread gives you +20 weight capacity
etc etc...
[Note: only one buff active at a time.]

Players could choose their favorite buff and run with that food item on them. Also, buying water pitchers from the vendor 1 by 1 is awful, it would be great if cooking-characters could create a water canteen that would hold 10 charges (which could either be put on your paperdoll or in your backpack). The canteen can only be filled from water sources in town/at your house. This adds some realism as drinking water does effectively increase skill gain in real life (har har), and is another fun thing to do as players "gear up" before heading out. I could also see opportunities for a liquor flask, that maybe lowers accuracy but increases critical hit chance or damage, something funny.


-TASTE IDENTIFICATION-
This would combine with the proposed Cooking changes. Build this into the crafting process somehow, maybe needed for "fine" cooked foods such as soups or gourmet meals (only cooks would need it, not regular players).


-FORENSIC EVALUATION-
Having 100 skill would increase your critical hit chance by 10%. As a skill, it implies you are able to read and study your enemy and perhaps figure out its weak spot, explaining the bonus. 10% is a big bonus but keep in mind most players would still choose other skills instead, only complete dexxers would consider it.


-HERDING-
Tie this in with the 'pack instinct' part of the game (which is currently not part of this server). If you are a full-on tamer, you can take Herding which allows you to get the pack instinct bonus for your pets. This would create two different tamer playstyles, further diversifying the player base.


-ITEM IDENTIFICATION-
In addition to identifying unknown items, this skill would also display item durability (which Arms Lore would no longer do) as well as display a comment on a weapon's attack speed. The damage for weapons is already pretty apparent just by its type, but something like 'I could attack very quickly with this' or 'This weapon would be slow and heavy to use' could be interesting. Mainly for players who like to stay within the game rather than constantly refer to wikis when choosing their equipment.
 
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aIck

Grandmaster
If only Forensic Evaluation allowed you to expose thieves who are permagrey to someone. They'd turn grey to everyone or just for the one using Forensics on him.
It could also be cool if you'd be able to use Forensics on innocent bystander/corpse to obtain some sort of proof if he was attacked recently. You could then use the proof (by giving it to a guard maybe? Just double clicking?) to turn the offender grey to everyone or just to you or something.

Dunno, it'd be nice if Forensic Evaluation could be used to fight against THE CRIME. That's what it was originally intended for... I guess?
 

Bunnky

Grandmaster
Also..
Get ready for it...
Give them all a high chance to succeed at 0 skill, just like tracking.

:) :)

Also spirit speak should work at 0.
 

SidX

Grandmaster
-COOKING-
With this I propose changing the way food/drink currently works in the game. Eating food should give temporary 5min buffs while staying well-hydrated would increase chance of skill gain. For example...

Eating 5 steaks gives you +3 STR
Eating 2 apples gives you +5 tactics/eval int skill
Eating 10 bread gives you +20 weight capacity
etc etc...
[Note: only one buff active at a time.]

Players could choose their favorite buff and run with that food item on them. Also, buying water pitchers from the vendor 1 by 1 is awful, it would be great if cooking-characters could create a water canteen that would hold 10 charges (which could either be put on your paperdoll or in your backpack). The canteen can only be filled from water sources in town/at your house. This adds some realism as drinking water does effectively increase skill gain in real life (har har), and is another fun thing to do as players "gear up" before heading out. I could also see opportunities for a liquor flask, that maybe lowers accuracy but increases critical hit chance or damage, something funny.
I love bringing these skills back into the game, and I think Cooking has a TON of potential. Food should be changed to really provide a benefit. Eating, like you said, could give STR bonuses or something, but also a skill gain chance increase of something like 0.1% or a higher chance to craft exceptional weapons/armor. Think about it, in real life we can focus and operate better on a full stomach. Why not here? :)

If eating provides benefits, perhaps the benefits would be slightly higher for those with Cooking skill. For example, a player who consumes food to the point they're "completely full" would receive a 0.1% skill gain chance bonus for a specified period of time. But those with Cooking skill would receive a greater benefit. Maybe something like:

20-29.9 Cooking: 1.25%
30-59.9 Cooking: 1.50%
60-99.9 Cooking: 1.75%
100.0 Cooking: 2%
 

Dellan

Grandmaster
Make food buyable only from player vendors, remove create food spell, give GM food some bonus - bit faster skill gain, maybe a slight chance increase to hit/cast, just slight. Of course every pvper would buy and eat them to get upper hand on others, who would buy them too, so they'd be even, but hey, it's new business opportunity!

Also, hell yea for alck's suggestion for forensics. I tried multiple ways how to find out if the other guy is perma, nothing works. No wonder there are dozens of thieves out there, but no cops, if they can't find out any other detail about them other than they're thieves.
 

Stormy

Expert
How about allowing arms lore to be used by disarm thieves the way it used to be. Stun that azz, disarm the weapon, steal it from the opponent's backpack and shamelessly whack him with his own weapon a time or two before making my effective escape ;) ... At Moongates even!!! Now that's Era appropriate ;)
 

halygon

Grandmaster
How about allowing arms lore to be used by disarm thieves the way it used to be. Stun that azz, disarm the weapon, steal it from the opponent's backpack and shamelessly whack him with his own weapon a time or two before making my effective escape ;) ... At Moongates even!!! Now that's Era appropriate ;)
It already is. Arms lore + wrestling = disarm
 

Easy_buddy

Journeyman
I have a completely unique and original idea that I totally came up with on my own:
GM Item ID could be used on a container and it'd ID everything in it.
 
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