Milestones

[Tyyni]

Currently, the skill training is set up great for testing, however when it comes to gameplay, I think milestones need to be reached before simply clicking to learn a new skill.

For instance, in Horse management.

Let's say you mastered Horse Management I

You must reach a milestone to open up Horse Management II and that milestone is based on Horse Management.

example:
You must own at least 1 horse and keep it at 100% health/hunger/etc for 2 days.
Once that is complete, the next skill opens up.

See what I'm saying?

[larissar]

I get what you are saying. Add in more pre requisites for courses based upon more than just another course. Hmm let me think that through. I do like this idea though

[Nate]

I do like it. What would you suggest as a prerequisite for the +.1 per level to attribute skills? Like speed, intelligence, what have you. It isn't really accurate to say you have to train up to a certain level in a discipline since those attributes indirectly affect disciplines. I suppose the prerequisite could be needing to actually use the skill a certain number of times. But then I suppose we have to ask if it's really necessary or if it will just add another thing to balance and make it harder for new players to really get into the game. A problem I had with Howrse was that I was so limited until I jumped through a bunch of hoops. Everyone is already gonna have to spend time and increasing amounts of money on the skills.

I do still like it, but the more I think about it the more it feels like hoop-jumping which gets real old real quick. Given the time and money restrictions on advancement, I'm not sure there really needs to be more requirements. From an economy standpoint I don't want there to be! Money circulation is a huge thing and I don't want to hinder than any more that absolutely necessary.

Edit: I do my thinking on paper. Sorry. I apparently think it's a good idea in principle, just not in practice.

More Edit: I do kind of like the idea of more comprehensive course requirements, possibly linked to the player skills (charisma, patience, and whatnot). Like putting a requirement that you must have a certain amount of patience already to start another level in something that requires it, patience that you can't get only from the previous levels.

For instance, all of the +0.1 to attributes courses increase patience, but it's absurd to think that a trainer in real life could just start training a horse to increase its balance or tempo without already having a certain amount of patience. It makes sense that a trainer would need at least some skill in something like Training Techniques in order to start picking out one thing to work on like balance or speed. Same principle as having to learn how to make wheels before you can make chariots. It also doesn't involve as much perceived hoop jumping because there would always be AT LEAST one skill available to improve. Of course, I'm not sure of the effect of experience on learning skills. It could invalidate the entire idea if it acts as sort of a restriction, like if you need to have a certain amount of experience to work on difficulty level 2+ skills. Then it would be really the same thing as what Tyyni suggested, but without the balancing issues. Mostly without the balancing issues, anyway. They wouldn't be as bad.

[larissar]

I do plan on having an 'Accomplishments' section which could be similar to the Milestones but without effecting the courses. Accomplishments are little goals such as you've suggested (perfect health for x days, etc.) which give rewards and experience based on their difficulty.

[Nate]

Oh my gooooooood HWO is an xbox live game :p The accomplishment will be great. I can't decide if I would personally prefer that people are required to be more well rounded in their skills or if they could specialize to the extreme. 'Course, we haven't seen all of the skills yet. It might be that the higher levels of the skills do more than one thing rather than just more of one thing. Basic Horse Management gets you +1 horse, Intermediate gets you +2, but what if Advanced gets you +3 and + something else, like base health or morale or something? That would be forcing some well-roundedness without being overt about it because you need all those other levels to actually get there. The only skills so far that I would link based on realism would be Training Techniques and [insert attribute here] Training. It just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to be able to do the latter without some skill in the former.

[larissar]

Never used Xbox live but I guess if it works for them it can work for us too right

I've been thinking about multiple pre-requisite courses as a few already have this but they aren't programmed in. I have to figure out how to I want to adjust the script to allow for that.

Also multiple bonuses are totally do-able.

I think what I'll do is post the entire course book in a topic and we can tweak them all from there.