» Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:28 am So here are my suggestions and rationales for them:
* New SPECIALS:
The Old ones are Strenght, Perception, Endurance,Charisma,Intelligence, Agility,Luck
While it is unlikely that new attributes would be brought in because of the established position of the acronym S.P.E.C.I.A.L., I would like to suggest some new things.
From Oblivion and Skyrim we have the attributes of Willpower, Speed and Personality. These can be integrated to the SPECIAL system in the following way; Willpower and its effects come from Intelligence, Speed is the same as Agility and Personality is the same as Charisma.
Dexterity can be viewed as Agility.
I believe that the limit of the SPECIALS should be more than 10. For example, The GECK limits all creatures to being only level 10 of each attribute. However there are many creatures that would have a much higher level of those attributes. If level 10 is considered the maximum level for a human, then a supermutant might very well have a Strenght of 20 for example and a droid or a robot could have similarly higher values.
So, I suggest that the limit on SPECIALS be lifted and any limits based on species, race or class be made moddable, so we can freely set the attributes to whatever we like. In Oblivion for example the base levels of many attributes are in the range of 30-40. The same should be possible in Fallout.
Skills:
I would like to see new skills and most of all, have the skill upper value limit of 100 lifted, so skills can reach values like 200 or 500 or 1000 for example. The upper limits of skills should be moddable, so mod makers can change the limits of skills.
Here are some examples of how a skill over the level of 100 would work:
Guns skill: levels 1-100 affect aiming and sight wobble. With 100 skill you aim almost perfectly. Skill over the level 100 affects the damage you do, so you do bonus damage as your skill goes over 100.
Repair skill: 1-100 affects your skill in repairing things. Over 100 the skill gives you abilities like repairing destroyed robots and reprogramming them to fight for you or some other bonus effect.
Hand-to-Hand skill: skill level affects the damage you do and advanced levels give you advanced attacks, for example at level 200 your character can do martial arts kicks and punches of different styles, like Tae Kwon Do, or Jiu Jitsu etc.
Similar effects that come into play only after reaching SUPER levels like 200 could be invented for other skills as well or simply make the skill level requirements harder, such as a very hard lock requiring a lockpick skill of 200 instead of 100.
Skill effects should be moddable to as high a degree as possible and it should be possible to create NEW skills by modding.
Also there should be tasks that require MULTIPLE skills at once. For example, repairing a gun would require repair and guns skills.
Here are some suggestions for new skills:
* Athletics: affects movement speed, jump height etc.
* First Aid: This would be tied to a new effect, BLEEDING. If the character is hit, he starts to bleed and lose hit points, with First Aid skill you can stop the bleeding. Also if the character is hit badly or a limb crippled, the character goes into "agony" (this effect is present in ARMA 2) being unable to do anything, until he receives first aid or morphine. First aid could also help stop the effects of poison. Also a new effect would be that injuries get WORSE over time if not treated as in real life. For example a wound might get infected and the character gets DISEASE and starts to lose hit points. First Aid helps to stop the injuries from getting worse or getting infected.
*Chemistry and Pharmacology: this skill affects your skill in making medicines, drugs, alcohol etc. Making complex medicines should be a skill of its own as it is not easy to cook up some fancy new drug.
* Foraging: Affects your chances of finding usable plants and ingredients in the wasteland. For this to work there should be different kinds of plants scattered out in the wasteland, like in Oblivion and Skyrim, so you can forage plants from time to time. For example, if you come across a growth of wheat, you have a chance of finding a useful ingredient (wheat) depending on the time of the year and your foraging skill. Also it could be possible to go into "foraging mode", a bit like sleeping, you designate a time how long you wish to forage and the game calculates what you find depending on your skill and other factors.
* Light armor or "improvised armor": affects your skill in using different kinds of light and improvised armor (this idea from Oblivion), affects movement speed, action point regeneration speed etc. while wearing this type of armor.
* Heavy armor: your skill in using power armor, different kinds of advanced combat armor etc. NOTE: Also the task of repairing different types of armors should be a calculation of both your repair skill and your armor skill. (you need to know the armor type before you can repair it)
*Gunsmith: your skill in repairing and maintaining guns. Alternatively the repair of guns should be a combination of your repair and guns skills. This skill could also be used to manufacture guns from parts.
*Biology: your knowhow on the creatures of the wasteland, grants a bonus to damage when fighting wildlife. Combined with chemistry or pharmacology, this skill would allow you to manufacture anti-venoms to counteract poisons.
* Electronics: your skill in repairing broken computers and other electronics
*Computers: your skill in hacking computer terminals and performing other tasks with computers.
* Forgery: your skill in creating forged money or other stuff of that sort. A criminal skill.
* Throwing: affects your throwing accuracy and range
* Camouflage: your skill in reducing your visibility by camouflage
*Pickpocket: skill in stealing without getting caught. With advanced levels this skill could allow you to frame someone else for the deed
Guns skill divided into the following:
*Pistol: shooting a pistol is very different from shooting a rifle.
*Rifle: Your skill in shooting assault rifles and all sorts of other rifle class weapons
Melee weapon skill divided into the following:
Blunt: all sorts of smashing weapons
Blade: Slashing and thrusting attacks with bladed weapons
Thrust: this skill for spears and other thrusting weapons
.etc. etc.
There are some of my suggestions. I will write more later.
