» Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:06 pm I like the idea of perks, but the implementation is really only half-baked. As a lot of people have pointed out already, by the time you get a perk, half the time its no longer useful. The way perks are doled out has to match the pace of the rest of the game.
It also has to match the available content. They could have easily invented an interesting and worthwhile Speech tree...but they'd also have to implement occassions to use it. The lockpicking perks (novice, apprentice, etc., locks) would have been useful if the mini-game was much harder. So much harder that players felt that the perks were a worthwhile investment. Hemming and hawing only waters the game down to the point where little challenge meets little utility.
When they designed the game, they should have asked themselves: what if I'm a player and I want to focus on developing this one skill exclusively? Is there enough content to justify me devoting a whole character to it? Once the content is there, it becomes much easier to design perks that take advantage of the content. A lot of the problem with creating perks for the existing skill trees is that there isn't enough content of the right type in the game to find ways to use it.
Take the Speech example: I can easily think of several different character types that would make this skill the main skill in their repetoire if the content allowed it. How about a rogue who uses deceit and disguises to infiltrate enemy locations? There are two perks right there: a perk to improve your chances of lying successfully, and a perk to improve the quality of your disguises. Those are specific things that a character can be good at or not good at that allow the player to differentiate his or her character. They also make sense and don't feel like filler. I'd love to be able to put on bandit gear, walk into a bandit fort, and smooth talk my way past all the other bandits (using Lying/Disguise checks) all the way to the chief for an easy execution. How is having those two Speech perks in any way worse than having combat perks in this case? If anything, they seem overpowered. Unfortunately, you can't implement them because the content isn't there. I'm sure I could easily come up with a dozen similar perks for Speech.
So the implementation of the perk trees feels half-baked in part because there isn't enough content (enough different ways of doing things) to support the architecture. Why can't my pickpocket steal stuff from people in broad daylight without having to sneak? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's actually how pickpockets work. It's called distraction. Why not make that a perk? You could easily come up with a list of several hundred perks to refill all the trees in a way that is interesting and balanced, but without the content and game mechanics it will be impossible to implement.
It also has to match the available content. They could have easily invented an interesting and worthwhile Speech tree...but they'd also have to implement occassions to use it. The lockpicking perks (novice, apprentice, etc., locks) would have been useful if the mini-game was much harder. So much harder that players felt that the perks were a worthwhile investment. Hemming and hawing only waters the game down to the point where little challenge meets little utility.
When they designed the game, they should have asked themselves: what if I'm a player and I want to focus on developing this one skill exclusively? Is there enough content to justify me devoting a whole character to it? Once the content is there, it becomes much easier to design perks that take advantage of the content. A lot of the problem with creating perks for the existing skill trees is that there isn't enough content of the right type in the game to find ways to use it.
Take the Speech example: I can easily think of several different character types that would make this skill the main skill in their repetoire if the content allowed it. How about a rogue who uses deceit and disguises to infiltrate enemy locations? There are two perks right there: a perk to improve your chances of lying successfully, and a perk to improve the quality of your disguises. Those are specific things that a character can be good at or not good at that allow the player to differentiate his or her character. They also make sense and don't feel like filler. I'd love to be able to put on bandit gear, walk into a bandit fort, and smooth talk my way past all the other bandits (using Lying/Disguise checks) all the way to the chief for an easy execution. How is having those two Speech perks in any way worse than having combat perks in this case? If anything, they seem overpowered. Unfortunately, you can't implement them because the content isn't there. I'm sure I could easily come up with a dozen similar perks for Speech.
So the implementation of the perk trees feels half-baked in part because there isn't enough content (enough different ways of doing things) to support the architecture. Why can't my pickpocket steal stuff from people in broad daylight without having to sneak? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's actually how pickpockets work. It's called distraction. Why not make that a perk? You could easily come up with a list of several hundred perks to refill all the trees in a way that is interesting and balanced, but without the content and game mechanics it will be impossible to implement.
