Knowledge, Skill & Character Advancement

[Detomah]

Can I gain “levels?”
We plan to replace the "leveling" system with one that is skill based in nature and multifaceted in application. Our system uses a list of skills grouped into knowledge categories. These skills and knowledge categories combine into various professions to guide advancement. Thus if you practice using musical instruments and get proficient in them, you will see that your rating as an Entertainer has increased.

What is the skill system like?
We are developing an extensive skill hierarchy tree. The number of skills that your character can gain will number in the hundreds. Whether you want to concentrate on melee combat, casting magic spells, sneaking in the shadows, entertaining crowds, or obtaining and selling merchandise, you are sure to find some skills to your liking. Can you master them all? Probably not... But, if you want a variety, you are sure to be pleased.

How do I keep track of how my character has advanced?
You will be able to keep track of your character's advancement using either in-game dialogs. Your progression in a given profession will be displayed relative to your guild, city and the world so that you can determine where you stand. In addition to this, there will be a character advancement journal available in XML format that the game will write out to your hard drive for your own use.

Are there character classes in Ages of Athiria?
There are no character classes in Ages of Athiria. Your character is defined by his/her skills, relationships, and accomplishments.

How does the skill tree hierarchy work?
Our skill tree hierarchy is a bit more complex that simply a skill tree typically seen in RPGs to date. It's broken down into two components, Knowledge and Skills. url=http://www.agesofathiria.com/newsletters/newsletter12.htm]Newsletter Volume 12[/url] explains the system in much greater detail.

Will there be a skill cap?
Knowledge isn't capped. Characters may accumulate knowledge continually over time. Skills are currently capped at a total number. This total number of skill rankings will fluctuate over the development of the game so it is hard to say what the exact number is at this time.

What type of skill resolution system does the game use?
A resisted skill testing system is one in which your character rolls a skill and counts successes against some target number to determine a degree of success. Whatever your character is trying to do determines how that success is resisted and a similar skill roll is made to offset your character's degree of success. Newsletter Volume 10 explains the system in much greater detail.

Why did you design a resisted skill system?
While we had many reasons for doing so, one of the underlying design philosophies we have is that players should be able to participate in many levels of the game for nearly all of their lives. This means that shortly after a new character is created, he/she will be able to participate in many aspects of the game. It also means that the power gap between an average veteran and an average new character will not be as large as other games.

How does a resisted skill system accomplish this power balance without making newbies too powerful or veterans weaklings?
As a player character increases in skill, they are capable of completing more complex tasks simply by the fact that they have a greater number of potential successes. Each point in skill represents one chance to roll a success against some target number. The more skill points one has, the more likely they are going to roll more successes though there is no guarantee on the degree of success against any given target number. Someone that is low skilled could take advantage of environmental modifiers and situational modifiers to tip the test in their favor.

What is the range of values for knowledge and skills?
Knowledge is soft capped with a range of 0 to 100 where 0 indicates that your character has no understanding of the topic and 100 indicates a masterful understanding. It is possible to gain knowledge ranks above 100. Any 101+ ranking may activate a technological discovery that could change the world. (ie Ocean Seamenship, Alloy metalworking...) Skills range from 0 to 25 where 0 indicates no skill and 25 indicates a masterful level of skill.

How does a character gain knowledge rankings?
Knowledge rankings are gained through study or passed down by other characters of higher ranking through teaching. Books can be found all over Athiria and it is expected that Player Run Cities will build great libraries that one can travel to research and learn.

How does a character gain skill rankings?
Skill rankings are earned through usage of a skill. From Newsletter Volume 12 : "Skill gain is governed by the relative difficulty of the task being performed versus the current skill rating that the character has resulting in a bell-curved approach to gaining skill. As with knowledge, beating on unskilled opponents will not raise your swordplay very high and will eventually result in no gain at all. Likewise, facing a dragon with a rank 1 sword skill and winning will not make someone anything more than a lucky newbie."