The dev blogs from Stars Reach that highlight game features continue to roll forth, and the latest one touches on a topic that is near and dear to any MMORPG fan’s heart: character advancement, which is going to be handled in the sandbox with a skill tree system.
The post begins by stating that this skill tree and associated advancement system will ensure players “gain experience by being useful” – i.e., XP is earned when players “do something that’s useful to yourself or others, or incurs risk.” Given examples here include a ranger character earning XP when a camp they build is used by themselves and others, or a blacksmith earning XP when their created weapons are used in combat. There’s also mention of a possible dancer tree or more straightforward examples such as weapon use gaining associated tree advancement.
As for skill trees themselves, there’s no given number beyond “a lot,” but every skill tree does have a tool associated with it, while unlocked nodes grant expected bonuses as well as root nodes that branch out into different areas or unlock specials that can be equipped.
The major caveats to the system include the fact that only two specials can be used at a time, that those specials are specific to tools and not the character (meaning changing specials requires a new tool to be bought or crafted), and that there is a maximum number of skills “in practice” that can be used; skills that were unlocked but aren’t used enter a state of atrophy that limits capabilities but retains benefits, and they don’t go away entirely but will have to be retrained for an unspecified length of time.
As for where this system is right now, the devs at Playable Worlds are at the phase where the first couple of skill trees will be playable in the next set of pre-alpha playtests, with more to roll out later.
