"Easy to learn, hard to master" idea

General Discussion
1

Hi all.
I wanted to raise idea that came to me regarding the “Hard to master” you always say it is important and I thought that maybe there can be option to master character or skill.
I like the idea that by spending on attribute, perks gets unlocked for skills, and I have idea on how to get more perks for skills with the “Hard to master” concept.
Example for sorcerer:
If you kill 2 or more opponents with one meteor skill, you get to be “Novice” rank in meteor. That can, for example, grant slightly increase of damage.
If you hit more than 10 opponents with one meteor skill, you get to be “Veteran” rank in meteor. That can, for example, grant slightly increase the area of effect of meteor.
If you hit consecutive 20 meteors without missing, you get to be “Master” rank in meteor. That can, for example, add perk of “every X seconds, meteor which cannot miss falls on your most injured/healthy opponent”.
If you clear whole dungeon only with meteor skill and you don’t miss, you get to be “Grand Master” rank in meteor. That can, for example, give all fire skills X% more damage.

If you get all sorcerer skills to “Novice” rank, you get to be “Novice sorcerer” which can, for example, add slightly to your mana regeneration.

Or if you avoid getting hit by melee/ranged/magic 10 consecutive times with teleport skill, you get some rank and perk of “When getting hit by melee/ranged/magic attach, you have X% to auto-cast teleport to safety”

Or for rogue, if you clear dungeon without getting hit, you get to be some rank of rogue and get X% dodge change.

This way, if you really master skill/character, you can get benefit and “Hard to master” changes to “Hard to master, but you get rewarded for mastering it”.

I would love to hear what you think about this idea.

Thanks all for reading if you got this far :slight_smile:

2

Your idea has merit. It sounds similar to Destiny 2’s catalyst system that requires players to complete quests/tasks to unlock a weapon’s full potential. I like these kind of systems that add another reward/goal players.

One other thought, I do like the thought of rewarding players for mastering a skill similar to TES Oblivion. One important point though, is that players shouldn’t be able to master all skills. If they master one skill and then switch to another skill and master it, then the skill not being used would atrophy. Players could still freely swap their skills, but they would be rewarded for committing to a skill.

3

No, have you played diablo 2? There were things done to unlock skill points and people just found it to be another chore that they have to do.

5

I think your idea has potential.

6

That’s not a bad idea but rewarding part sounds gimmicky and hard to land a true balance for. Automatization of something shouldn’t be a reward for a long and exhausting grind. It has potential though.

7

I could see an endgame skill progression system designed around something like this where you have to complete challenges with certain skills to earn points toward further investing in those skills. That would really make committing to your build and identity a legitimate thing. I just think it might be hard to do that for every skill in the game, but who knows. Has some potential.

8

It’s like achivementes, but it actually gives you something. Right?

9

People will abuse this system in a party.
Those who wont be able to do that for some reason will be mad, as usual. So it won’t work. Basically it sounds like those hated Set Dungeons in D3, but in this case mandatory.

A player should never get “numerical rewards” for his skilful playing. Instead, his reward must be directly visible here and now. For example, if he is good at avoiding missles, his reward is that he is not hit by those missles. This is how it should be in action games.

10

Skills leveling up for fulfilling conditions of their use isn’t a unique idea to games and not one I’m against. And if I’m being honest, would further legitimize the presence of free respecs since there would still be some time needed to juice up swapped skills. I further favor this over skill points on level up because it eliminates the gamified concept of unnaturally limited learning potential. That said, however, the conditions for leveling up skills need to be reasonable and not fall into the trap of requiring (specialized) parties and/or hundreds of hours to do. Ways to vary or combine skills should also be a possibility under such systems.

On the other hand, grinding skill levels isn’t something I consider “masterful” on its own. Things like that is reserved more for not dying, not taking hits, beating a very difficult opponent you shouldn’t have been able to, proverbially using scissors to beat rock, etc… I’d also draw a line where such things shouldn’t be mandated of the player for progress and is instead something people to do for fun to challenge themselves.

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