Affinities

[MrCakehat]

Ok so basically my idea is to have affinities unique to each character/person.
For example: at creation/recruit of a character/person, it would be randomised on what skill would be their affinity (A skill at which they can raise slightly faster than the rest).

And also to stop people from de-recruiting and then recruiting a new one, or restarting the game over and over again, you would make it so the affinity is hidden until they reach a certain level with that skill, then it would be revealed in some way. (maybe a star next to the skill name)

This adds a little bit of detail or slight realism, say someone in real life might not know they are good at crafting, mining etc. but when they try it, they find they are a natural or really enjoy it etc.

Thoughts?

[iSuck345]

I actually am confused, so I will just ask something that will make me more than a fail than Failbadon the Armless: are you reffering to lawfull good, chaotic evil, etc.?

[Scottlow]

No he means when you start out with a new character or recruit one they have a hidden skill(until a certain level) that they will be more proficient at such as katana, labour, science etc so it means they will raise it faster or do more damage with that skill type weapon.

[iSuck345]

Only if thoose are rare.

[Tolwrath]

I like the idea of affinities, though there's at least one issue with having them stay invisible for a while. You could seriously annoy people by revealing they've been raising the wrong skills on a character. Say you get a new character, you give them a katana and they start building dexterity and katana skill, but then the affinity reveals to be heavy weapons. Their time useing a katana is practically wasted.

It would definitely lead to people save-scumming, but would take longer than just re-hiring. If the affinities are determined randomly, rather than by a character's actions, then the player will need to be able to discern the affinity fairly quickly, or else it would become frustrating. Maybe like the affinity appears after gaining 3-5 skill points in that skill.

[jtgibson]

Personally, I think a system that would really work well here is Elona's "potential". Potential is simply a straight floating point multiplier to your rate of skill gain, and you can see your potential score from the very beginning. Every stat then has a randomised potential from 0.001 to 2.000+ (theoretically infinite, but practically limited) to measure how fast you learn that skill.

Skill training increases potential, while skill experience increases actual level -- however, potential decreases with each increase in skill, so you get diminishing returns on potential over time.

Since Kenshi currently exposes all stats, I say anything like this should be exposed as well. If Kenshi will eventually do number hiding, it might be nice to include a passive Awareness skill that -- when used to view the stats of any arbitrary actor in range -- gives a probability on a stat-by-stat basis of giving a clear impression on their stat levels. One could therefore just walk into a bar and "size up" the recruits, and once they see one they like could go ahead and recruit them.

[Clawdius Talonious]

I like the basic concept of affinities for some skills, but if this were implemented I'd want the characters to be upfront about it in the hiring screen and charge a bit more for their services, maybe start with a couple of points in that skill. I mean, I'm not talking about Infinite Wingwang prices or anything, but a few hundred more cats seems reasonable. "I've always been pretty good with Sabers" or what have you seems like an easy enough solution that would lend itself toward people still being able to build the kind of squad they want.

I also like the idea of being able to "teach" an affinity for those without one, it would provide more of a use for a dojo, although I'd expect you'd have to have a character who was quite good with that weapon type to train them to have an affinity with that weapon. Not entirely sure affinity would be the right word at that point, but still an interesting idea.

[CalPal]

I think this affinity system being unknown to the player would work if, in the very first seconds of the game, it kind of set up a "welcome to X land" post, where it talked about your surroundings and whatnot, but then subtly slips in something like "with a spring in your steps, you set off to make your place in the world!", which would give you the hint that maybe Athletics is your affinity. Another example would be something like "You stop to admire how beautiful some of these buildings look", which would mean your affinity would be as a builder.

If you were serious about wanting to see this in the game, it should be something subtle to tip you off, but easy enough to miss if you decide to just click X and get on with the game, which would be rather fitting for the feel of the game.

[Clawdius Talonious]

I'm more inclined to say that anything your starting character gets should be something you can pick, even though the game is not over when your starting character dies, if you want to have an affinity for heavy weapons or what not that choice should be offered to you. From then on out you'd have to decide, do I want to recruit this character who has an affinity for cheesemongering? I'm not even sure I'll have a dairy. Or you know, whatever.

[MrCakehat]

All these ideas are very good, much better than what I was thinking, I think I really like the idea of being hinted at what your affinity is, and also the person you are hiring hinting at what their specially is. I'm sure there is a much better way to implement this though.

[Bard]

I'd like to add to this that perhaps there can also be varying levels of affinity (good, talented, genius, etc) that of course would be hidden and that for says a slight affinity there would be no downside but say for the higher tiers of affinity there would be a (can't think of the correct word so ) anti-affinity in a skill so say they have an affinity for heavy weapons then perhaps they have an anti-affinity for the lighter weapons as they aren't so good at technique but more focused on power if you get what I mean.

Certainly this seems like a great idea. Though I do agree that not everyone should have an affinity (because not everyone does) and that for varying levels of affinity the chance of finding someone of the higher tiers is ridiculously rare (perhaps 0.05% for the highest or some such).

I do like the idea that there is a hint to the affinity but I do agree as well that it should be hidden (and I'd say for more like 10 skill levels than 3-5).

[Jake_j_a]

I like this idea and agree with Clawdius Talonious that the player should be able to choose the starting character's affinity. However, I will add that it should be balanced, so an affinity with say Katana's would have an equall lack in say Heavy weapons, or even all other weapons.
That said, I like the no-class type setting, so the effects of this affinity should be minimal.