This system will use a points based system for the acquisition of weapon skills, and the traits will be awarded as a type of superlative based on player skill.
Weapon Skills:
Blasters - All short- to medium-range weapons, including ship lasers.
Rifles - For sniper rifles and any other type of long-range weapons.
Traps - Mastery of all things a'splodey, snaggy, or shocky.
Melee - All close-combat weapons, including, but not limited to, clubs, knives, whips, chains, etc.
Unarmed - For the times when you cannot find a weapon. Encompasses any form of martial arts or other type of bare-handed combat.
Overall mastery of each skill will be determined by the player's allocation of points. Points will be awarded at the completion of any missions, training included, by a pre-specified amount, defaulting to two (2) if no amount is specified. All mercenaries will begin with twenty (20) points to spend as they see fit. The Varying levels of mastery will be determined by the amount of points a player has placed in a certain skill like this:
0-9 points: No skill - Player may use any weapons in the weapon group, but will not have any reputable skill in them. Any posts which include high amounts of skill with a weapon that the character has no experience in will be considered bull unless the player can give a reason for his actions to make sense.
10-19 points: Novice - Character has sufficient skill with a weapon, perhaps enough to do something crazy every once in a while and have people believe it really happened.
20-29 points: Adept - Character has earned the right to do almost anything with their weapons, perhaps even fight a jedi and win. The character is but one step away from being immortalized in the guild's records for their mastery of their weapons.
30 points: Master - A master is unrivaled in all fields of competition with their weapon. If they say they shot a fly on a wall three hundred meters away and behind a mountain with a broken blaster pistol, they did it, and you can go clean up the mess.
Because of the awesome power that belongs to masters, there will be a limit of three (3) master ranks for each character.
Traits are awards that will acknowledge a player's experience in playing a certain type of character. They cannot be bought with points, but must be earned in the field, during either missions or training sessions, and must have been acknowledged by their peers.
Commando - A behemoth of a soldier, capable of fighting hordes of enemies and still emerging without a scratch. This player has demonstrated exceptional skill in large-scale combat or dueling by defeating their enemy with vehemence and zest.
Assassin - A shadow of a shadow, this mercenary has demonstrated exceptional skill in silent eliminations, especially the eliminations of heavily guarded targets, and has not been discovered by the enemy.
Spy - Able to penetrate the enemy's fortifications using expert deception skills, the spy has proven capable of retrieving vital information, delivering threats, and fooling people into doing his bidding.
Engineer - Proficient in all things technical, the Engineer has proven his worth by demonstrating skill in the areas of hacking, piloting, or planning ingenious traps for the enemy.
Ranger - The ranger is a lone wolf, not needing even the basic commodities of civilization. A player rewarded the mark of ranger has shown skill in the areas of hunting, surviving harsh conditions (with plausible methods, of course), and escaping captivity/eluding the enemy utilizing superior knowledge of the terrain.
*major edit* I forgot to mention that the traits also have three levels, just like the skills, so that a player's style can be tracked. Each of the three levels works more or less the same as its predecessor, in that the players must have proven themselves AND must be recognized by their peers. Though it goes without saying that the required amount of prowess demonstrated must be significantly higher for each sequential award, otherwise the player is not growing.
New mercenaries do NOT start with a trait. They MUST be earned in the field in order to be valid. A player may claim to possess a trait due to their character's past as such-and-such, but their claims must be backed up with evidence of their own skill.
So enjoy the new skills, guys. Dezyrt and I worked hard on them for at least two weeks (lost track of time), so let's get as much use out of it as we can!
Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:00 pm