Skills system

[Witardo]

I've reached a point where I need to know how to "limit" the skills, and would like to know what people think it's better, first off will explain what's this about:

In the game, each job has 3 tiers (F.E.: Soldier -> Sergeant -> Captain), and each job has 4 available skills at tier 1, gets 3 more available at Tier 2, and 2 more at Tier 3. You can choose up to 4 skills from all skills available at your current and lower Tiers, what skill you get is your decision (also chance of re-training) but what I'm asking for, is the "classification" (just giving it a name, not exactly that) of the skills, I hope the 2 systems are self-explanatory.

These are the 2 ways I've thought:

- Hotkey defines skill: Pretty easy to understand, examples would be: Q = Defensive, W = Short Cooldown, E = Passive, etc... The number of each "skill-type" would depend on the job.
Pros: Very player-friendly and fast-access hotkey controls.
Cons: This would mean close to 100% fixed roles and gameplay.

- Fully customization: Each skill would have different hotkeys, and you could choose any combination of the currently available skills.
Pros: Great customizacion to fit what role you want your hero to fit, inside what he can be.
Cons: Harder to get hotkeys and slightlly more complex gameplay, also if you die (or can't fight good enough) comes the chance of a "bad-build".

I would appreciate any kind of opinion about these 2 options, also great if someone gives any other good option. Feel free to ask anything you didn't understand, or anything I didn't explain enough (or did not at all).

 

[ubran]

umm.. What? Heroes change "class" over time, learning new skills, totalling 9 at tier 3; but beyond that, my guess is you want to only be able to use 4 of your 9 spells at a given time? I don't know enough about where you're keeping track of these 4 skills to really help you out..
1. When your hero levels up, what can you put points in? (stats, "talents", some other abilities besides class ablities?)
2. How are your skill organized into those tiers? spellbooks?
3. What kind of map is this for? You certainly don't want to have something that makes picking up your game so hard to play, you don't know how to defend yourself from thousands of mind-craving zombies, and being stuck to 4 skills negates some skill required in RPGs.
My best guess is that you want something similar to what I'm working on and making a demo for, which is only a few topics below yours my map's way

 

[Witardo]

umm.. What? Heroes change "class" over time, learning new skills, totalling 9 at tier 3; but beyond that, my guess is you want to only be able to use 4 of your 9 spells at a given time? I don't know enough about where you're keeping track of these 4 skills to really help you out...
1. When your hero levels up, what can you put points in? (stats, "talents", some other abilities besides class ablities?)

When hero levels up, he can spend skill points into "stats" (Constitution, Determination, Wisdom, etc...) and algo gets 1 wood, which can spend on his class trainer to learn a skill or level up a learned skill, having a max of 4 spells at same time.

2. How are your skill organized into those tiers? spellbooks?

No, they are in normal skills positions.

3. What kind of map is this for? You certainly don't want to have something that makes picking up your game so hard to play, you don't know how to defend yourself from thousands of mind-craving zombies, and being stuck to 4 skills negates some skill required in RPGs.
My best guess is that you want something similar to what I'm working on and making a demo for, which is only a few topics below yours my map's way

It's for a RPG, I have read your idea and it's very good, but I don't think that fits for me.

 

[Chizume]

Like in this game

 

[Witardo]

That game uses a very good system, but I'm not wanting to copy other maps. Anyways yeah, that's the basic idea about how skill grows.

But so far, nobody has given a "full" opinion, I'm more inclined to the Fully custom way for it just would prefer to be sure and that's why I'm asking.

 

[Chizume]

Every game copy each other more or less. My vote remains on the system in Abyss Gates. It is simple, good and similar to what you suggest.

 

[Witardo]

What you say is voting this:

- Hotkey defines skill: Pretty easy to understand, examples would be: Q = Defensive, W = Short Cooldown, E = Passive, etc... The number of each "skill-type" would depend on the job.
Pros: Very player-friendly and fast-access hotkey controls.
Cons: This would mean close to 100% fixed roles and gameplay.

Since the abyss gates system is a fixed combination, since each skill has 3 choices, though hero can change +/- their gameplay, is that what you mean?