Quoting: macksting
I'm curious, though. Is this operation irreversible?
Not really. Don't worry too much, no effects are actually being removed from the game- some skills/talents are getting folded together, but it will all still be there. If, after playing the new version, it is generally decided that the changes were a bad idea then the only recourse will be to revert back to an earlier source version.
I've decided to go with the hidden skill mechanism for Athletics/Concentration/Vitality- the skills are there, they're known by all characters, but the only way to improve them now is through use. There's a separate skill called Toughness which takes over the function of Resistance and also provides a small HP bonus (half that of Vitality), so if you want a character with lots of HP out of the gate that option is still open.
When the new version is released, there will be bugs. I used magic numbers for skill/talent indicies far too much in the source code, when I should have been using named constants. The newer sections (where I do use named constants) have been a breeze to convert. The older areas have been kind of messy. It's almost inevitable that I've missed some magic numbers (which will now correspond to different, or possibly even nonexistant, skills) and maybe some archaic strangeness (skill rolls made with RollStep(SkillValue) instead of the SkillRoll function, for instance).
Since I want to get the program running again as soon as possible, I've commented out any sections that are going to need major work. So far the only things that needed to be commented out have been PC repair and cyberdisfunction. I'll get those back in working order once everything else compiles.
Quoting: Onisuzume
Most of it should be pretty much a "copy&paste" matter, right?
It depends. Some things certainly could be, while others would likely cause problems.
ETA- Once I got past the "deep" units, everything else went far more smoothly than expected. The program now compiles smoothly. All that's left to do is reactivate the bits which were commented out and to update the data files.
I've been having second thoughts over one of the deleted skills- Flirtation. What's my interplanetary gigolo going to do now? For the time being all previous uses of Flirtation in the series files have been converted to Conversation. I'm not entirely sure what to do about the dancing application of the skill...
Anyhow, let me tell you about some ideas for reworking the rumor system. As part of this skill reduction I want to remove Conversation from the mandatory skill list and instead make it something that diplomats and negotiators will specialize in. How about if instead of always using Conversation when seeking rumors, a random information-gathering tactic were chosen based on the PC's skills? Depending on what the PC knows, the tactic could be Conversation (works pretty much as now), Intimidation (scare NPCs into revealing stuff), Shopping (a short dialog will come up in which the PC can bribe the NPC for rumors), Insight (the PC will ask probing questions), et cetera... The differences between most of these methods would be mostly cosmetic, unless there were a price to the tactic in which case it would generate more rumors than usual.
Another change would be that once heard, a rumor would be removed from the rumor list and added to a memo list. Not the main memo list, but probably a new memo type.
