lazerblade01
New member
Back in the day, books were sought after. In multiplayer games, people would trade books for gear or food. Books created a barter system out of necessity. Their removal, though obvious and inevitable, was still a sad thing to see.
In A14 and prior, you could read books more than once, and gain points in associated skills if you already knew the recipe for said book. This gave books continuous value. In earlier alphas, paper was far more rare, so even scrapping books for 20 paper was valid.
I'd like to see the return of books, but coupled with an alternative - either more books sold at traders (although there was a time when we didn't have traders and we were fine with that, because in multiplayer the traders were the players), or books offering a faster method to unlocking perks / recipes.
A separation of attributes and skills / perks, with separate points for each path, and having books boost attributes as a prerequisite for skills, would be more in line with common RPG mechanics. Explanation below.
One of the most desired abilities in early game is to create iron anything. Other than scrap iron, this requires forged iron. Thus the forge is the key to iron tools, better blocks, better armor (potentially), better transportation, and better weapons. Locking the forge behind a specific level AND a specific attribute AND a specific skill (perk) means it's triple-gated. Offering a book to unlock the forge means you've essentially eliminated 2 of those gates, but left the only gate up to RNGesus.
As an alternative, with the separation of attribute and skill points, you could essentially require an intelligence of 5, a strength of 5, and a crafting skill of 3 in order to unlock the forge - BUT, you could allow books to mitigate the requirements to a degree. A book on crafting skill could boost that skill to the required level. Another book could increase intelligence, and a third book (on exercise, diet, building muscle mass, or whatever) could increase strength. You could then leave the forge double-gated - a level requirement and a skill / perk requirement. There could even be a book that reduces the level requirement by 1. It would need to be a one-time-only book, and specific to a skill / perk (forge), but having it available would promote looting for those seeking to reserve points.
So, essentially, each time you gained a level you'd have an attribute point to spend (or 2, depending on what the maximum for each attribute was), and a skill / perk point to spend (or 2, again depending on the cost of skills / perks). Skills / perks could be enhanced by the "learn by doing" system of gaining XP specific to what you're doing (all of those skills that have a cap of 100), which would enhance further whatever it is you're doing (crafting skill would enhance quality of crafted items, melee skill would enhance melee damage, endurance skill would enhance stamina regen, etc...). This would essentially place all purchasable (via points) enhancements into 3 separate groups, providing more logical progression while at the same time providing multiple avenues for character development.
So, yes, I'd like to see books return, but not as an easy way to unlock skills / perks, but rather as an alternative way to reach those goals while providing more options to how a player wants to get there.
In A14 and prior, you could read books more than once, and gain points in associated skills if you already knew the recipe for said book. This gave books continuous value. In earlier alphas, paper was far more rare, so even scrapping books for 20 paper was valid.
I'd like to see the return of books, but coupled with an alternative - either more books sold at traders (although there was a time when we didn't have traders and we were fine with that, because in multiplayer the traders were the players), or books offering a faster method to unlocking perks / recipes.
A separation of attributes and skills / perks, with separate points for each path, and having books boost attributes as a prerequisite for skills, would be more in line with common RPG mechanics. Explanation below.
One of the most desired abilities in early game is to create iron anything. Other than scrap iron, this requires forged iron. Thus the forge is the key to iron tools, better blocks, better armor (potentially), better transportation, and better weapons. Locking the forge behind a specific level AND a specific attribute AND a specific skill (perk) means it's triple-gated. Offering a book to unlock the forge means you've essentially eliminated 2 of those gates, but left the only gate up to RNGesus.
As an alternative, with the separation of attribute and skill points, you could essentially require an intelligence of 5, a strength of 5, and a crafting skill of 3 in order to unlock the forge - BUT, you could allow books to mitigate the requirements to a degree. A book on crafting skill could boost that skill to the required level. Another book could increase intelligence, and a third book (on exercise, diet, building muscle mass, or whatever) could increase strength. You could then leave the forge double-gated - a level requirement and a skill / perk requirement. There could even be a book that reduces the level requirement by 1. It would need to be a one-time-only book, and specific to a skill / perk (forge), but having it available would promote looting for those seeking to reserve points.
So, essentially, each time you gained a level you'd have an attribute point to spend (or 2, depending on what the maximum for each attribute was), and a skill / perk point to spend (or 2, again depending on the cost of skills / perks). Skills / perks could be enhanced by the "learn by doing" system of gaining XP specific to what you're doing (all of those skills that have a cap of 100), which would enhance further whatever it is you're doing (crafting skill would enhance quality of crafted items, melee skill would enhance melee damage, endurance skill would enhance stamina regen, etc...). This would essentially place all purchasable (via points) enhancements into 3 separate groups, providing more logical progression while at the same time providing multiple avenues for character development.
So, yes, I'd like to see books return, but not as an easy way to unlock skills / perks, but rather as an alternative way to reach those goals while providing more options to how a player wants to get there.
