PC My own view on the skills/attribute trees (small change proposal)

[Jost Amman]

The other day I was looking at the skill tree and I thought there were some skills that IMO could work better if assigned to a different attribute.

Examples:

Salvage Operations should be under the Fortitude attribute, since dismantling something (I've had some non-professional experience there) is not much about perception, since you basically get whatever parts you need after you disassemble everything, but is much more about stamina, since it's a lot of sweat and work to strip down something.

Instead, The Hunter is much more appropriate IMO under Perception, since you need to look at the good cuts and then notice what parts of the animal are good or bad to extract.

I think also that Charismatic Nature, which is now an MP only skill, should have a use also in single player.

An example of a possible way to use CN in SP is to have it affect how animals react to you.

Example (in SP):

"You are an inspiration to your allies, increasing their combat prowess. Your charisma also extends to animals. Small animals perceive you less a threat, and some predators will instead be more careful as you project an Alpha vibe on them."

Lvl.1 Small animals like chickens and rabbits will let you get closer before running away.

Lvl.2 Coyotes and snakes will not attack you unless you get much closer to them.

Lvl.3 Wolves will perceive you as an Alpha pack leader, will only attack when much closer than "normal".

Lvl.4 You can behave so that Mountain Lions don't easily see you as prey anymore... until you get closer!

Lvl.5 You understand how to "respect" Bears to not easily upset them, you get a lesser chance to be attacked.

Now, about the other two skills that I think should be switched...

Grease Monkey, should move under Fortitude since doing the mechanic is hard work, and you need a lot of stamina to wrench, dismantle and assemble stuff.

At the same time, Healing Factor should go under Intellect because knowing the right things to take (either food or medicine) to get a healing boost is about having a good knowledge and understanding of how the body works, so you need to be smart and knowledgeable.

That's it! Hope you guys give me some feedback on my view, and hopefully it makes sense to you too.

Thanks 

 

[Niil945]

Healing Factor isn't about treating wounds, it's about natural recovery rate from wounds. Just like some people heal naturally fast and seem resilient against certain types of  injuries. Int already has Physician which increases the affect of bandages and first aid kits. I think the butchering skill from fort is more the whole farmer theme. Perception has the tracking of animals but not the butchering. Maybe it will become more useful when they add bandits. Whether salvage fits fortitude more isn't really the issue, I see it as a game balance thing. Fort already has farming and there are only so many gathering skills to spread around. While I understand your desire for Charismatic Nature to be useful in single player (I'm in the same camp) that bonus doesn't really appeal to me in any way and I certainly wouldn't take it in a solo game if that's all it did. I'd much rather they add trap xp sharing to it, frame it as group tactics to lead or draw things into traps, whatever... so that Int builds can use traps in group play and not get too far ahead xp-wise. I've only ever taken it once back in like A17 when I first started playing and when I realized how short the range was and that it didn't do anything at all for me I never picked it up again.

 

[Jost Amman]

Healing Factor isn't about treating wounds, it's about natural recovery rate from wounds. Just like some people heal naturally fast and seem resilient against certain types of  injuries.

I know, I'm not a beginner on this game lol, my reasoning is that you have to study/know a lot of things about vitamins, stimulants and so on to get the benefits from that skill, so it's more about INT to me.

Perception has the tracking of animals but not the butchering. Maybe it will become more useful when they add bandits.

I mean, if I move Salvage Operations to FOR I have to give one skill back to PER, and IMO The Hunter is ok there (for the reasons I have described previously).

Whether salvage fits fortitude more isn't really the issue, I see it as a game balance thing. Fort already has farming and there are only so many gathering skills to spread around.

Hmm... hadn't considered that.

But if, like I said, you put The Hunter under PER and Salvage Operations under FOR, the net sum is still the same, both PER and FOR would still have some harvesting skills.

Farming IMO is more of a long term skill, so I don't consider it a harvesting skill per se.

While I understand your desire for Charismatic Nature to be useful in single player (I'm in the same camp) that bonus doesn't really appeal to me in any way and I certainly wouldn't take it in a solo game if that's all it did. I'd much rather they add trap xp sharing to it, frame it as group tactics to lead or draw things into traps, whatever... so that Int builds can use traps in group play and not get too far ahead xp-wise. I've only ever taken it once back in like A17 when I first started playing and when I realized how short the range was and that it didn't do anything at all for me I never picked it up again.

Well, I gave just one possible example of how they could adapt CN to SP remaining faithful to the meaning of the skill.

They can come up with something better, for sure. The point is, currently in SP that skill is like a "black hole" inside the INT skill tree.

 

[Niil945]

I know, I'm not a beginner on this game lol, my reasoning is that you have to study/know a lot of things about vitamins, stimulants and so on to get the benefits from that skill, so it's more about INT to me.

INT already has that exact ability you're talking about with Physician. But it also doesn't make sense. Think of it like this, does Wolverine have to be a doctor to regenerate? The fluff text describes the person as a mutant with inhuman self healing ability due to the radiation so I'm just picking something I consider comparable. Or pick anyone who has a strong immune system and heals quickly in real life. They don't have to know how it works for it to work or supplement it with vitamins and stimulants, it's innate. 

But if, like I said, you put The Hunter under PER and Salvage Operations under FOR, the net sum is still the same, both PER and FOR would still have some harvesting skills.

That narrows the capabilities of PER regardless if the numbers are the same. Disregarding the A20 changes to farming that I very much dislike, LotL isn't just good for in base farming. It's good for wild plants too. And I think that because it's not as strong of a gathering skill as say mining/wood gathering is that's why it also has butchering. But they're two sides of the same coin which goes well together. PER losing salvaging and gaining butchering is a big loss of utility for the attribute and it gives FORT a very potent gathering skill with a secondary that's good too even if it is annoying to do atm. Particularly since meat is usually not the limiting factor when cooking. In the end, I think it's an unbalanced swap which is extremely beneficial for FORT as I don't see those skills as having equal value.

The point is, currently in SP that skill is like a "black hole" inside the INT skill tree.

I mean that's true, something is better than nothing. But honestly I think the skill is a black hole whether we're talking SP or MP. Animals aren't enough of a factor for reduced agro range to salvage the skill for me. Though the whole charismatic thing does make sense with that being the skill that has an impact on wildlife. 

I do think we'll see some changes coming to skills but I have no idea what they're going to do, thinking of when they implement the new clothing/armor system and bandits. AGI and STR will probably need some adjustment in the least. Maybe we'll even see PER get some useful tracking with bandits or perhaps Charismatic Nature will gain some use with bandit factions or if they implement hiring guards or something.