Need help from creative people

[Lightstalker]

I'm making a system where players can choose
their own custom skills for their Heroes and I
need a way to organize those skills IN-GAME
(and NOT in WE) so that beginners and veterans
alike can easily find the skills they need* or want
to use.

*some skills will require you to have learnt another
or multiple other skills.

I've thought of a few ideas to organize skills, but
I don't find any of them that good which is why
I need your help finding something better. +REP
will be given. Anyway, here are my ideas:

*skills will be made as items purchaseable from
a building.

1. Organize buildings (where skills will be sold at)
according to type: one-cast,
channeling, active, auto-cast, and passive.
Con: players will have to jump around trying to
find requirements to spells or the next one, etc.
Also, how do I classify the skills within a building?
Example: I have 12 passive skills in a passive
building. Do I just add them randomly or what?

2. Organize skills according to theme: fire, ice,
curses, etc. Con: some skills fit in multiple
categories and others won't fit in any. I also
think it limits room for expansion (but I could
be wrong). It will also require me to combine
buildings (e.g.; Ice & Fire Skills, etc.) to save
space.

3. Organize building to make it look like a skill
tree. E.g.; I would have a AxY row of buildings,
with the first row being level 1 skills, 2nd one being
level 2 skills (which require a level 1 skill) and the third
one requiring a level 2 skill, etc. The last row will be skills
with any requirement. Example: "Any fire skill".
Cons: How do I organize the skills within a building? Also,
won't it cause players to jump around to find
requirements and everything too much?

I need feedback, ideas on organizing buildings and skills, or ideas on how to improve the ideas I listed, etc.

+Rep will be given and any help will be much appreciated!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Trillium]

as i'm not too good at triggering, i may be istaken, but i suppose that can be perfectly done with multiboard, so it will look like Diablo 2/3 skill tree or WoW talent tree.

 

[Lightstalker]

You mean choosing your skills via a multiboard instead of buying items?

 

[Trillium]

yep. it looks better imho.
as for skill organizing, it depends on a hero, really. or you gonna have 1 hero for everything?

 

[Lightstalker]

yep. it looks better imho.
as for skill organizing, it depends on a hero, really. or you gonna have 1 hero for everything?

No. You'll be able to choose your Hero. Each Hero will have a different model, be melee or ranged, and have different starting attributes, but all of them will be able to learn any skill they want.

EDIT: So really, skill organizing can't depend on Hero

EDIT2: Still need help here!

 

[redscores]

Such stuff is not good, because you could give a necromancer model a critical strike spell for example... and that defeats the theme-concept of heroes.

 

[Blaxor]

You could give the shops a long range so they can reach the hero without the hero moving. But custom skills can be a bit fail. (see redscores post)

 

[Pharaoh_]

I suggest when a unit is created, hide for the owner of that unit the buildings with the skills that wouldn't fit the theme of the unit, so that it won't take any physical skills if it's a caster, but only a building with magic will appear. If i were you, i would have two buildings, one that has magic skills and the other with physical ones. Once a unit is created, like i said, show the proper building for the owner of it. Then, in the first row have all the damage spells. In the second row all the curses (buffs/debuffs), in the third all the passive ones and in the fourth the ultimates (?). You can also have an item in these shops to extend the limited interface slots of the shop and have a new one for more spells, you can have an idea here: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/pastebin.php?id=5lsyu8 , Orc_Tamer's Unlimited Hero Selection system. You can replace that with items that work like your spells; i uploaded it, cause i am not able of finding it within the Spells Section. Credits to Orc_Tamer.

 

[Lolaroids]

Hey y'all,

This sounds alot like Custom Hero Arena and such. The fault with this kind of game is that most of the time there's one spell/skill set that's alot stronger then other spell sets. Before worrying about this system I'd first make sure the game is (near) perfectly balanced.

Best regards,
Lolaroids

 

[Hijax]

Lolaroids is right. The problem with custom making heroes is you risk running into situations where some of the abilities are crazy powerful combined. so you should make sure that doesnt happens.

 

[mnn90]

UI System

What about making a trainer, like in WoW.
If you click the trainer, you will open a dialog where you will be able to choose between "learn skills", or "goodbye".
And if you click learn skills, there will open a window
like in WoW, you can choose which skill name in middle, the describtion to the right, of the choosen ability/spell.
New spells and Abilities could be given as reward too. Like if you complete a hard solo quest or something.

I know it will be hard to make, but it's just a idea =P

 

[best_player_88]

i suggest u to use spell book that upgrade itself acording to whatever they chosen

 

[Super-Sheep]

Organize spell on heroes. Like, Mountain King would sell Stormbolt, Thunder Clap, Bash and Avatar while Sorceress would sell Slow, Invisiblity and Polymorph. Ofcourse there will be spells that fit to none, so you have to create one or two junk yards.

 

[Michael Jackson]

Give each hero 4 abilities: "[HOTKEY OF ABILITY], [HOTKEY OF ABILITY], [HOTKEY OF ABILITY], [HOTKEY OF ABILITY] then they can spend their skill points on [HOA1], [HOA2], etc, then using a trigger, you put the level of the ability one up.