User:Devorac/Mad Science Laboratory

Expert Skills v0.1

Timestamp: Devorac 21:37, 29 April 2010 (BST)

Type: New Skills

Scope: Everyone banging their heads against the granite ceiling

Description: Most everyone knows that the game burnout hits at level 41 (43 for zombies) when all skills have been earned, personally I think there should be more to work towards, (other than the tic-tac-toe of defending/destroying suburbs and buildings in the war against zombies/harmanz) a bit more to achieve. Unfortunately there are numerous problems with introducing any new skills into the game, the biggest goes something like this: "All the old players will suddenly get a buff out of nowhere.". That concern is quite legitimate, and previous means of circumventing it (reducing everyone who has 41-43 levels XP to zero, setting an XP ceiling) have been met with hostility and usually something involving EP size. This brings us to my proposal... Expert Skills, or proficiency, whatever you want to call it. What this means is that for most actions there is an additional skill that cannot be purchased with XP, it must be earned through repetition. These are skills for people who do what they do really well, you won't get these for blowing two lvl 1 zombies in half with a shotgun (120 XP) or healing 5 10HP lvl 1 survivors back to full health (100-200XP, 20-40 FAKs). For instance I think that to achieve an expert skill level with FAKs you should have to use about 2200 of them. Yes, twenty-two-hundred. Work out the AP math of that and it is two solid months of AP usage. Two solid months doing nothing but FAK people. Yeah that's a lot but I want these skills to be really cool things that you can be proud of, not just milestones. On the skill tree theses would show up as a third area after zombie skills labeled Expert Skills. The skills themselves are cool things that you will be happy to have, but the won't break the game. This is a current list of all the expert skills, I'll try to keep it as balanced between zombie and survivor skills as I can. Survivor Frugal Doctor (0/2200 First-Aid Kits Administered) Not yet Achieved 5% chance that a FAK will not be used up when healing a patient. Waste Not, Want Not. Junkyard Jackal (2543/2200 Hits with Improvised Weapons) Achieved! +10% chance to hit with all improvised weapons, 10% chance to deal +1 damage when striking as well. I don't know what this is, but I bet it'll hurt when it hits you. Toughness (2349/6000 Damage taken as a Survivor) Not yet Achieved 15% chance to soak a single point of damage from any source. I'd be lying if I said this didn't sting like all get out. Zombie Masticate (0/2200 Survivors Bitten) Not yet Achieved* Zombie bite accuracy increases by an extra 10%, additionally there is a 20% chance that the zombie will not use an AP when biting. These buffs will only work when the zombie has a grip on it's target. OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM Iron Grasp (0/2200 Survivors Gripped**) Not Yet Achieved Accuracy bonus for tangling grasp increased to 15%, chance for Survivor to slip grasp reduced by 15%. Oh God I think he's got me, oh sh- *crunch* Scar Tissue (281/6000 Damage taken as a Zombie) Not Yet Achieved HP Maximum as a Zombie raised by an additional 10 points. Stacks with body-building, or rotting flesh. Goddamnit! These bitches just won't die! Additionally I'm thinking of adding a single additional special expert skill for each class to make things a bit more unique. Example: Battlefield Surgery Required Class: Medic Pre-requisite Expert Skill: Frugal Doctor The Character can perform surgery everywhere except in dark buildings. Bite down on this... try to relax. These skills are hidden as a second tier skill underneath their pre-requisite expert skill, effectively hiding them until the first tier expert skill is earned. Now I'm thinking that this extra skill is automatically given once you earn it's pre-requisite, after all there is only one per character class and it is meant to amplify your base class. I*This may seem over-powered and it may indeed replace grasp, but I really think the Uber zombies should be, well Uber. I**Counts each time you re-grip, crushes don't count. Okay. thoughts?