Skills must be practiced to maintain skill level

[JesterOI]

NOT losing your actual skill level. Your Skill Level is just your max skill. General Concept: Effectiveness slowly decreases over time without use, but returns fairly quickly with usage or practice.

http://goo.gl/mod/z5Zl

Thoughts?

[Key Pyr]

Sounds like a hassle to me. I've always been annoyed by constant degradation that has to be cared for, like durability on items. At least when it's poorly implemented.

If every individual skill of every individual character in my 4-8 man party degrades over time I'll go nuts, and I am not even OCD.

[Gabriel77Dan]

I absolutely loathe that idea.
I don't care if it's realistic, it would be annoying as hell for gameplay.
And what exactly happens if you get Lockpick up to a good level and then wait a while and all that's left is the toughest locks? How exactly are you supposed to get the skill up then?

I don't want my skills to become a chore to keep in balance.

[bagelobo]

I think it's a bad idea to take away things that characters have earned through their in-game trials, experiences, etc. Character development/advancement is one of the core mechanics of RPGs, and the degradation of skills or other character features is counter to this.

Specifically though, skill degradation will probably lead to players grinding skills to maintain their levels, rather than using them as needed. Also, I highly doubt all skills will be equally available to practice, so some will inevitably be harder to maintain.

[Brother None]

This does not sound like a manageable idea. Also, please DO NOT just post google moderator suggestions to start a thread. Flesh out your argument when posting them to the forums.

[undecaf]

NOT losing your actual skill level. Your Skill Level is just your max skill. General Concept: Effectiveness slowly decreases over time without use, but returns fairly quickly with usage or practice.

http://goo.gl/mod/z5Zl

Thoughts?

Not fond of the idea. Too much of a "realism aspect", and generally wouldn't - imo - result in good gameplay as it encourages constant grinding of every used skill. I generally like micromanagement but I think this goes a bit too far (not to mention that I don't like the whole concept of learn as you do).

[paultakeda]

I agree with others in that I disagree with the OP.

[mina86]

-1.

I strongly believe that aiming at perfect realism does not result in good gameplay. There is a point where added complexity adds no value and results in annoyance. I feel this idea crosses the line (the same as equipment breakage annoys me in F3).

[Azriel]

A fast way to send the game to the recycle bin. People want fun, not infuriating chores to do.

[geezer]

It's not realistic anyway. Let's be careful with the strawmanning. I like the idea of the turn based combat being realistic, but I don't see how this idea would add anything positive to the game. And it smells too much like Bethesda.

[Roger Wilco]

unrealistic and not fun.

Unless the time-frame of this game is going to span 25 years, why would your skills degrade?

If I'm a marksman, I'm not going to forget how if I don't shoot for a week, a month or even 6 months. Avoiding combat in this game for more than that time-span is unlikely.

If I've learned how to pick locks, I could probably go years without actually doing it and still retain that skill.

I took piano lessens as a kid and I never play anymore. I don't own a piano. I'm 36 now and if/when I happen across a piano I can still play just as well as I used to. I probably don't play more than once every year or two.

[Drool]

Cripes. I don't like my equipment degrading. The last thing I want is my skills to degrade. What's next? Spending 20 minutes having each party member doing push-ups to keep their Strength at max potential? A Soduko mini-game for IQ?

[Psychochink_]

Not a fan of this idea

[KentAble]

This might apply to more cerebral skills like science or medicine (where continuing education will not only expand your professional knowledge but support the economy at the same time) but life and death situations tend to focus your attention really quick so you tend to not forget which end of your gun to point at the guys advancing menacingly. So if it must happen, make it simple to manage and limited to skills that common sense will tell you might degrade without significant use.

[Signal]

General Concept: Effectiveness slowly decreases over time without use
Thoughts?

NO!

[jurbanek]

I'm against skill degradation over time, I think that's a pain and tedious. Id vote for a food preparation mini game or a start a fire mini game before that.

[DETJOHNKIMBLE]

GTA: San Andreas had this mechanic with the look of the character (work out to stay muscular, eat to lose weight/gain weight), and it was pretty ridiculous. It's also kind of like the GTA IV "friend" mechanic where Roman kept calling you to go bowling and my OCD would kick in and I didn't finish the game on the first playthrough because I got stuck with that because I didn't want to let down my cousin and hear his disappointed voice.

So, those are some clear examples of this *not* working for me for trivial things, and if I had to do it with core skills I would probably not want to play this game once, let alone multiple times, let alone recommend it to anyone.

[TiLT]

I don't agree with the original post. The general idea most good games subscribe to is to reward players, not punish them. This falls squarely into the punishment category.

[Wanderer]

Sounds like a hassle to me. I've always been annoyed by constant degradation that has to be cared for, like durability on items. At least when it's poorly implemented.

If every individual skill of every individual character in my 4-8 man party degrades over time I'll go nuts, and I am not even OCD.

Good point.