Tweaking the skill system.

[Crucifix]

It occurs to me that my character has done an awful lot of stuff through his career as a cavalier. Through sheer practice alone, shopping should be around level 8 by now, the untaken mech fighting around level 3. Even ranged combat (astonishingly, as the character has never used a gun), is close to level 1, just by general adventuring, yet he will perform worse with his 7000 experience in shopping than someone who has spent 1 skill point then never shopped again.

As a serious alternative to consider, rather than limit the number of skills by knowledge, why not soft-cap the maximum levels of skills dependent on their controlling stats?

Not only would this stop Knowledge from being mandatory, it would make a whole lot more sense, and we could bring back the old (and in my opinion better, since it actually gave a motivation to boost my skills) method of increasing stats dependent on advancement of related skills, though for character development flexibility, I'd suggest a"free" training in a single stat every 5000 experience as you do now on top of those from increasing skills, even with this in place, the skill system will automatically self-regulate.


For example:

Each 1 Charm allows 2 skill levels total, of the four charm dependent skills.
Every ~5 skill levels allows training charm by 1.

So starting with 10 Charm means your character could reach a maximum of 20 skill levels in charm skills, for example:

5 Conversation, 7 Perform, 2 Shopping, 6 Taunt.

By reaching these levels, you can boost your charm four times, to get 14 charm (costing a total of 5000 Exp no less).  This would allow them to get even higher, to 28 skills. With the extra 8 skills, this means 1 more stat training, so 15 Charm, and 30 total skill levels. Getting 30 means 16 charm and 32 skill levels....

And that's when things get harder, since in order to train Charm (assuming no bonuses from Cybertech/Talents at the moment), you need 35 skill levels, and you've hit the soft cap.

Soft cap is just as it is now, 115 XP to raise for the first 2 points over the cap (so for 32-34 it's 115, then 35-36 it's 140, 37-38 165, 39-40 190.... And so on, but this cap only applies to the skills for the stat in question.

And best of all, people who are good at things will naturally have more aptitude for them than those who have no ability in them (as opposed to the charm 1 performer with 37 points in Perform).

To summarise:

Starting with a 15 in a stat would allow 30 skill levels:

30 skill levels = +6 = 21 Stat = 42 skill levels = +2 =23 Stat = 46 skill levels = +1 = 24 Stat = 48 skill levels.

Two levels have to be learned at 115% cost to get 25 in the stat, and then you're into gradually increasing soft-cap limits.

Starting with a 10 in a stat would allow 20 skill levels:

20 skill levels = +4 = 14 Stat = 28 skill levels = +1 = 15 Stat = 30 skill levels = +1 = 16 Stat = 32 skill levels.

Two levels have to be learned at 115% cost and 1 at 140% cost to get to 17 in the stat, and then you're into gradually increasing soft-cap costs.

Starting with a 5 in a stat would allow 10 skill levels:

10 skill levels = +2 = 7 Stat = 14 skill levels = +0

One level has to be learned at 115% cost to get 15 in a stat, and then you're into gradually increasing soft-cap limits.

Starting with 1 in a stat would allow 2 skill levels:

Two levels have to be learned at 115% cost and 1 at 140% cost to get to 17 in the stat, and then you're into the increasing soft-cap cost.

Pros:
* Stops Knowledge from being the ultimate stat.
* Stops a blind and deaf person from grabbing 100 skill points in Ranged Combat to render their low Per stat redundant without severe experience investment.
* Rather than a limitted genius (which is what the current system gives, you will be world class in several skills and completely incapable of most others), characters will grow naturally and slow down levelling naturally.
* Allows more skills to be included for a more complex system if desired. Heavy and Small arms using different stats and different skills wasn't a bad thing and was logically consistent.

Potential Abuse:

It is possible to twink somewhat with this system. A savvy player who knows what level of skills they need can get the absolute minimum in a stat for the optimum amount, then spend their time intentionally focussing on a single skill to the exclusion of all others. This said, the game already punishes such activity with exponential costs.

[Crucifix]

Part 2 of the issue: Rewarding synergy.

Suppose someone wants to make a Shaolin Space Monk.

They will pack in Mysticism, Martial Arts, Armed Combat (let's pretend the two are split as they were previously), Dodge, and presumably Conversation, to teach their flock.

Given 20 points for skills, this means they will have ~4 points to go into each ability, which goes roughly: 1, 1, 2 for each, leaving them with 3 in each skill.

Meanwhile, another character is built optimally, giving themselves Conversation, Dodge, and Armed Combat (with 2 points in Mysticism for the exp bonus from that one shrine in that one place). With the same 20 points, they have: 1, 1, 2, 3, leaving them with 4 in Armed Combat, Dodge and ~Conversation.

Now, the game being the way it is, having a well-rounded Monk with both melee skills is a total waste - you'll fight unarmed maybe twice ever, armed combat is and will always be better, and you could have spent those Body-stat skill points on something else. Effectively playing a well-rounded character is punished, roleplaying is punished.

The solution I would propose is synergy talents.

Essentially these would be a free "talent" (as the simplest way of handling it as close to the existing system as possible). If you have 5 points in X - Martial Artist for example, then you receive a +1 bonus in another skill, perhaps several other skills. If you have 10 points, you receive a further +1 bonus and so on.

This also helps maintain "expected" skill levels with the above proposition's skill capping.

For example:
5 points in 1st skill > +1 bonus in 2nd skill's rolls

Reflex
Mecha Gunnery > Mecha Artillery
Mecha Piloting
Mecha Weapons > Mecha Fighting
Small Arms > Heavy Artillery

Body
Armed Combat > Martial Arts
Martial Arts > Dodge, Armed Combat, Spot Weakness (living target only)
Toughness > Athletics, Concentration
Athletics > Toughness, Initiative

Speed
Dodge
Initiative
Mecha Fighting > Mecha Piloting
Stealth > Awareness

Perception
Awareness > Stealth
Heavy Weapons > Small Arms
Insight > Awareness, Spot Weakness, Shopping
Spot Weakness
Mecha Artillery > Mecha Guns

Craft
Code Breaking > Electronic Warfare
Electronic Warfare
Repair > Mecha Engineering
Survival > Stealth, Toughness, Stamina, Awareness,

Ego
Cybertech > Medicine
Intimidation > Taunt
Mysticism > Martial Arts, Concentration, Conversation
Concentration > Mysticism, Repair, Medicine

Knowledge
Biotechnology > Medicine, Science, Cybertech
Mecha Engineering > Repair, Spot Weakness (Mecha Only?)
Medicine > Spot Weakness (living only), Biotechnology, Cybertech,
Science > Biotechnology, Medicine, Cybertech

Charm
Conversation > Taunt, Intimidate
Performance > Concentration, Taunt, Intimidate,
Shopping > Conversation, Insight
Taunt > Intimidate, Conversation

At 5 points, this is compensation for not specialising (since for the same Exp investment you could have just got an extra few points in the skill), but at ten points in a skill, a +1 bonus from 5 in another skill works out cheaper and lends itself to a more rounded, "real" character (and gives weak skills an easy boost).

This also alleviates a possible downfall of the above suggestion - the mechanical uselessness of the generalist. Where someone making the absolute most of the system could sink all their reflex points into Mecha Pilotting and get 20 in the skill, another player could put 5 into each of the other three skills as well, meaning they had a much harder time than the specialist.

With a synergy bonus system, a mecha specialist could cover all five mecha skills and pick up a series of bonuses that would alleviate the later exp penalty, whilst still allowing the specialist to have an advantage of their own.

Disclaimer: All Skills and figures mentioned in this thread are perfectly changeable to fit balance considerations, they are provided as examples and for demonstration of concept only.

[Crucifix]

Talents:

Naturally with a generalised approach quite easily allowing a person to cover a few points in every skill, this means that certain talents are no longer worthwhile.

Jack of All Trades: Ignore 2 points from each skill when calculating maximum skill levels.

Here, rather than being a terrible talent (which it is, a 2 point bonus in an untrained skill means stat bonuses only, and stat growth was hacked down along with skills), JoaT is an 8 point boost to each stat's cap, so long as you generalise.

Jacks would have a much easier time snaring synergy bonuses, turning their wide range of knowledge to their advantage.

Savant: Ignore the points from your highest skill when calculating maximum skill levels.

Here, being a savant rewards specialisation. If you have 12 in Mecha Pilotting, 6 in Mecha Gunnery and 6 in Small Arms, you only need 12 Reflex to manage it, and could increase Mecha Pilotting indefinitely without incurring a penalty. If you did incur a penalty however, you'd have to pay its increased cost to boost Pilotting.
Meanwhile, if you also had 11 in Conversation, 5 in Shopping and 8 in Taunt, you would need the full 24 charm to avoid a penalty, since conversation wasn't the highest skill (but if you struggled through to 13 in conversation, you'd lose benefits for Piloting. Draws choose the highest skill, alphabetically, in the list, so Athletics would be the go-to default here.

[Crucifix]

Talents for all!
Currently, the number of available, worthwhile talents is fairly low, leading to a lot of people with the same talents. Ideally, there would be enough valuable talents around that anyone looking at them would be sad at not being able to take some they really wanted.

Awareness
  Sixth Sense: You have eyes in the back of your head (Your field of vision is 360 degrees).
Armed Combat
  Riposte: Whenever you successfully parry an attack, you perform an immediate attack with the parrying weapon.
  Bruiser: The heavier a weapon is, the more powerful your swing. (+1 DC per weight unit of a weapon, so long as you have a free hand available).
Athletics
  Sprint: You are a trained runner, you may roll Athletics to avoid losing SP whilst sprinting, and move twice as fast whilst running.
Code Breaking
  Hacker: You can attempt to crack the loyalty subroutines of hostile robots (melee range reprogramming attempt, much as dominate animal).
Concentration
  Focused: If you use a skill that requires MP, if your Concentration score is higher than that skill you gain a +1 bonus to the roll, so long as you have MP.
Conversation
  Taunt: You excel in inciting and distracting others. (May taunt using your conversation skill).
Dodge
  Acrobatics
  Defensive Roll: You are especially adept at evasion. (May roll dodge twice against Line, Scatter, and Blast weapons and choose the more favourable result)
Electronic Warfare
  Hull Down
  Scrambler: Your Mecha Fighting and Mecha Weapons melee attacks may cause Haywire.
Heavy Weapons
  Manstopper: You know where to place your shots to make them count. (Heavy weapon shots may stagger their target).
Initiative
  Blink: Enemies with a lower initiative count than you have a -1 Penalty to hit you.
Insight
  Sherlock: You may use the insight skill to determine the character traits of others. (This also gives a +1 bonus to all skill rolls dealing with them for a time.)
Martial Arts
  Hap-Ki-Do: You may block attacks using your Martial Arts skill.
  Kung Fu: Your unarmed attacks have the "Armour Piercing" trait.
  Crane Stance: Your unarmed attacks have the "Extend" trait. 
  Grappling: Your unarmed attacks may cause the target to be GRAPPLED, reducing their speed to 0, and preventing them from using moving for 1 turn.
Mecha Artillery
  Bombardment: Add 2 to the range of all Artillery weapons.
Mecha Engineering
  Innovation
Mecha Fighting
  Mech Fu: Your Mecha Fighting attacks have the GRAPPLE trait.
Mecha Gunnery
  Suppression Fire: Even if you miss, attacking a target with a weapon with BV 2 or more causes their next attack to be at -1 to hit.
Mecha Piloting:
  Born to Fly
  Road Hog
  Sure Footed
  Wingover: Whilst flying or skimming, you may perform a 180 degree turn in half the time and without losing any speed.
Mecha Weapons
  Deadeye: You may use energy weapons as though they were shields for the purposes of blocking missile fire.
Medicine:
  Surgeon: You are a skilled surgeon. (May use medicine to repair serious conditions and injuries)
  Cybernetics: You are trained in cybernetic surgery and maintenance. (May use medicine to install Cyberware in others, as well as repair damage to cyberware and cybernetic dysfunctions).
  Anatomist
  Combat Medic
Mysticism
  Meditation: You may meditate without a nearby shrine to recover MP and mood.
Performance
  Theme Song: You have your own theme music! (When using perform, attempts to increase the morale of yourself and nearby lancemates).
Repair
  Tech Vulture
Science
  Biotech: You have trained in the morally dubious field of biotechnology. (May use science to do Biotech stuff and repair biotech organisms)
Shopping
  Business Sense
  Dealer: Your trade contacts open doors for you (may roll against shopping skill to increase the number of available items in a store).
Small Arms
  Trick Shooting: You gain a +1 bonus to hit when targeting specific body parts.
Spot Weakness
  Sniper: You gain a +1 bonus to hit and a damage bonus when firing a single shot.
Stealth
  Ninjitsu
Survival
  Dominate Animal.
Toughness
  Hard as Nails

Any: Idealist Blood

Cheerful
  Pleasant: You're just downright easy to get along with (Positive relations bonus with others). 
Melancholy
  Badass
Pragmatic
  Extropian
Spiritual
  Faith: You just know that things will work out alright in the end. (Mood improves faster and degrades more slowly)
Passionate
  Gate Crasher
Easygoing
  Mellow: You're able to laugh at yourself (failing missions does not lower mood, taunts do not phase you)
Sociable
  Camaraderie
Shy
  Heroic Mime: You have perfected the art of getting people to tell you things without actually having to say anything. (People have a 50% chance to spontaneously offer you jobs and rumours upon first talking to them).

Reflex
  Twitch Reflexes: You may use your Reflex stat instead of your Speed stat for determining Dodge skill rolls, whichever is higher.
Body
  Weight Lifting: You are adept at carrying heavy loads. (Increases weight capacity and ability to handle heavy objects one handed)
  Strong Arm: You've got one heck of a throwing arm. (+1 Range with thrown weapons)
Speed
  Stunt Driving
Perception
  Eagle Eyed: Your visual range increases by 1 square, +1 bonus to Insight, Spot Weakness and Awareness rolls.
Ego
  Mind Over Matter: Your stubbornness allows you to succeed when your body might otherwise fail. (Add half your Ego to Body for determining Weight Capacity, Health Points, Stamina Points, and Body related skill checks).
Craft
  Jack of All Trades
Knowledge
  Savant
Charm
  Bishounen