» Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:34 pm My brother and I were bouncing ideas off of eachother recently, he had come up with a way he thought the stat/skill (attribute/skill, whatev) setup could be improved for a possible TES V. Now don't get me wrong, I think Fallout and Oblivion are basically the 2 best games that have come out in ages. I am a content freak, the more stuff I can have, do and see in a game the more I like it; Fallout and Oblivion are two of the few recent games that do not dissapoint in this department. However in both cases I felt the stat/skill setup could use improvement. Anyway, as my brother and I bounced ideas back and forth, lightning struck my brain, and I came up with what I think would be a very good skill/stat setup for TES V.
So this is basically my idea for the stats/skills, with explanation for why I made certain changes to TES IV's setup below.
Now, the actual names I have chosen for some skills/stats, I chose because I couldn't think of a better word. Some names, IE weapon force, parry, time magic, marksman etc etc are not exactly accurate as to what I have in mind. So please bear with me and keep an open mind.
Also, to avoid too much confusion (hah!)
The Format is as follows:
Specialization Category (IE Combat, Stealth, Magic)
role STAT - perk, perk
etc etc.
role is how the stat and perks within that stat are utilized in the game world, between damage (dmg) world interaction (wrld) and defense/survivability (def)
A character at the beginning of the game would have to choose 3 perks to become his main perks (the benefits of the perk are greater for those who select it as their main perk) the governing stats of the perks selected receive say a +5 stat bonus. 2 perks belonging to the same stat may be selected.
Anyway here it is:
Physical (Combat, in TES IV) stats
dmg STRENGTH - Weapon Force, Athletics
wrld AGILITY - Acrobatics, Speed
def STAMINA - Armor, Block
Sensory (Stealth, in TES IV) stats
dmg PRECISION - Marksman, Traps
wrld PERSONALITY (CHARISMA, since PER would be taken by perception) - Speechcraft, Barter
def PERCEPTION - Stealth, Detect
Magic stats
dmg INTELLIGENCE - Destuction, Conjuration
wrld WISDOM - Time Magic, Mysticism
def SPIRIT - Restoration, Alteration
And finally, the 10th attribute would be LUCK, with no skills/perk associated.
I'm sure you noticed no specific weapon skills (my version of marksman applies to both ranged and melee accuracy, and crit chance) nor proffession skills. Don't worry, I don't want them gone, just separated from being governed by the stats. I did this because for example, being very strong doesn't make me better with a sword over a bow, it makes me able to hit you harder with a melee weapon, or draw the string of a bow back farther to increase the power behind my shot.
I added time magic to create 6th magic perk, (I thought the spells belonging to illusion could be spread between Alteration and Mysticism, but illusion can stay if desired) and also a cool feature for the next game. Slow down individual enemies, or groups of enemies. Speed yourself up (bullet time kinda deal) etc. I'd also like to see traps come into use in TES V. characters could set up various traps to do damage to enemies, or hold them in place. This also gives the rogue/thief characters of TES world an opportunity to dish out a little more damage, and still avoid direct combat.
Rather than having combat/stealth/magic specializations (basically the equivalent of saying Warrior/Rogue/Mage) be the governing characteristics of the stats/attributes associated with them, I thought Physical/Sensory/Magic was more fitting. I chose these because I like the idea of having the 3 overall stat categories (specializations) represent the body parts in use. Below I will explain why I chose each category
PHYSICAL - In my opinion, STR, AGI and STA are all stats that deal with a characters physical prowess, and warriors in the classic sense rely on their physical prowess in order to be effective.
SENSORY - When it comes to the stealth specialization in Oblivion, I felt most skills in that category had little to do with stealth really, other than sneak. Also stealth doesn't necessarily represent all types for rogue-ish characters. So I switched it to Sensory, and chose perception, precision, and personality as the stats(I know, personality is not a sense, but it still works IMO). I think it fitting that a rogue relies on his senses above all else to accomplish the task at hand.
MAGIC - same as oblivion, save for the stats.
As for the stats/attributes, what I wanted to do was create a way for all 3 categories to have 3 stats within them, and each stat and its two perks in each category represent the role of either Damage, World Interaction or Defense/Survivability. This was to make it balanced across each category. For example, the 3 Damage stats; STR, PRE and INT. INT has both destruction and conjuration under it, as both are skills utilized to damage an opponent (for the most part). Precision has both marksman, and traps. STR is the more difficult one. I chose Weapon force and athletics to represent the potential for strength to alter the amount of damage you can do. Athletics being based around a characters ability to string together combos effectively and continuously. Defensive/Survivability Stats/Perks would be based around reducing incoming damage, healing damage done, or perhaps escaping a battle completely when outnumbered or out fought by dissapearing w/ magic or stealth. You might ask how sneak or detect could reduce damage, detect could provide advanced warning of incoming hits, allowing ur character to absorb the impact and take less damage. With speechcraft you could hurl insults, demoralizing your enemies making them do less damage, or perhaps convice someone to be the meat shield for you.
I will explain World interaction in more detail below.
Now the skills, or perks as I'll refer to them in this case. I don't like the idea of having my overall damage with a specific weapon rely on 1 stat alone. An Agile swordsman is as much a threat as a strong one. So rather than having the stats govern skills, I thought the stats should govern perks. For example, a perk of being strong is that you can apply more force to each strike with whatever weapon you are using. A perk of being precise, is that though you may not be able to hit hard, you can place a blow directly where it would do the most damage (marksman) or you could place a trap just right so that when it goes off, it will achieve its maximum potential (traps in this case, is not the skill... rather the ability to use traps well, this also applies to the magic perks)
Some might ask then, what is the purpose of having a skill for sword, or axe etc. if my crit chance and max damage aren't affected by skill? the answer is the skills determine your effectivness with a specific weapon by allowing a skilled weapon used to use a wider array of moves with his weapon. For example, a sword user at 0-10 skill would basically only have 1 or 2 slashes, whereas a 90-100 skill would be able to use many different weapon techniques to achieve victory. IE combo chaining, special moves etc. This would be true with all skills. A 0-10 skill destruction mage can set some stuff on fire, and cause people pain, whereas a 90-100 skill destruction mage could use spells that blow up like nukes, or shoot massive streams of flame.
In this case, a perk would not require points to be spent in order to improve it. Improving the base stat is what provides the benefit to the perk. Instead, a character would chose which perk will be main, and sub. The main-perk would receive slightly increased benefits than the sub-perk from its governing stat. This makes leveling much less complicated in my opinion. When I level (experienced being gained through killing monsters, fallout 3 style) I am given say 10 pts to spend on my stats. If I choose strength, I will have a higher maximum damage, if I choose precision, I will have a higher crit chance/chance to hit. As far as the magic stats and perks go... I dunno, I guess being intelligent lets you blow stuff up with greater ease... and being a spiritual man makes you better able to heal the wounds of another... haha I'm not sure guys, but the mage stats/perks gotta be in there somewhere, and that was the best I came up with. Skills could still increase based on use (or training), but would have to be capped based on character level, so a level one can say achieve a maximum of 10 skill, and a level 30 or 50 or W/E max would be 100. This would prevent a level 1 character from being a master swordsman or w/e at the beginning of the game. Perks in the sense of Fallout 3 could still exist as well, just call them talent, or feats or whatev.
Lastly, World Interaction. World Interaction refers to a characters ability to interact with portions of the environment. For Example, my world interaction stats Agility, Personality and Wisdom have perks that could allow characters to utilize their skills in order to reach an area or achieve a goal that someone else wouldn't be able to. A better example, is a dungeon which has a main path that any character of any skillset can take to the end. However, an agile person with acrobatics as his main perk, could maybe jump to a ledge that those without agility could not reach, or with speed as his main could speedily run under a closing gate. A person with alot of personality (charisma) with speechcraft (speechcraft again not being the skill, but ones ability to utilise it well) as his main perk, could perhaps through his linguistic expertise understand ancient writings etc, allowing him to complete tasks, or speak certain words that allow access to an area that someone else could not reach. This applies for all world interaction stats / perks. Time magic could stop or slow time long enough, maybe reverse time in certain locations etc to reach a previously unreachable area. Barter could be utilized outside of dungeons etc, trading with merchants for good that are accessible to no-one else, like keys to secret rooms. Mysticism could be used to move large objects, or sense things that others cant allowing access blah blah etc etc. Anyway, these world interaction skills allow characters who utilize them to experience many dungeons etc from a different point of view. It isn't likely that a warrior style character will have a high enough wisdom stat to reach areas that time or mysticism mages can. It also makes for a more individual experience based on what class you have chosen, rather than being a warrior, mage or rogue and doing basically the exact same stuff you did on your first playthrough.
Just a few Class Make-Ups, having selected 3 stats, and a main perk for each
Stealthy Assasin - AGI, Acrobatics - PRE, Marksman - PER, Sneak
Hit n Run Assassin - STR, Weapon Force - PRE, Marksman - AGI, Speed
Rogue - PRE, Traps - PER, Sneak - AGI, Acrobatics
Warrior - STR, Weapon Force - AGI, Speed - STA block
Berserker - STR Weap Force - PRE Marksman - AGI speed or acrobatics
Tank - STA, Armor - STA Block - PER Detect
etc etc
Skills suggestions for TES V using this setup
Blade, Blunt (maces), Chop (axes), Sweep (polearms/spears etc), Dual Wield, Shield, Lockpick, Pickpocket (this skill could replace barter as a perk, and the benefits of barter could be gained through speechcraft) Craft Trap/Weapon/Armor/Potion (blacksmithing, alchemy), skinning, mining, herbalism, Fishing, Gardening, Animal Taming, Magic (Destruction, Resto etc) Tracking, Bows, Throw, Detect Trap.
Anyway that's all. Hope you like the idea, and have some changes and improvements to suggest as well. Thanks for reading if you did.
