*kidneythieves love*

*everything else hate*

I’m skeptical about the argument that treating skills as unlocking new capacities rather than incremental improvements on the same ability is somehow ‘non-rpg’, although the points about it being a potential backtracking mechanic are valid, it depends on the rhythm and mechanic through which skills and gear is acquired. If it’s a case that the equipment is readily available, perhaps from a shop or equipment locker, but you just can’t use it until you put points into it, then its far more a matter of tactical choice.

To give a further example, take a social skill very relevant to Deus Ex type games such as Intimidation, increasing ranks unlocks different dialog options and opens up ways of scaring enemies, say from being able to taunt them to stay back at the first rank, to negotiating for time and to degrade their stats through persuasion, to being able to attempt to force them to surrender or drop weapons at a higher rank.

cRPGs need to start incorporating more social options into their combat mechanics to deliver on their roleplay-ness, stuff like shooting someone to make them talk or scare their friends, or, vice-versa, intimidating someone you’ve just hurt in a fight.

and yes JC and Paul were black.

The problem with IW was that it was made for crazy racists, and you’d have to be racist to like it. It was called ‘invisible war’ because they wished my black Denton brothers were invisible so they wouldn’t ruin their perfect crazy racist white world.

The idea of a marksman stat determining size of crosshair seems a sensible way to avoid obviously gimping a player’s skill whilst providing a developable skill / reward mechanic.

NOLF2 does this, as does DX1 & DX:IW. However, DX1 does it to an extreme. It takes 15-20 seconds for the Sniper Rifle crosshair to shrink to a usable radius with 1 point, which is far too long.

Also, every Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Call of Duty, etc. game does this based on your movement, but returns to a usable radius independent of some “stat” (although R6/GR does use if you’ve been injured)

Are you really describing a proper rpg? The skill advancements system you describe sounds like the same kind of ability / item system of alot of action / adventure games. Think Zelda OoT, you can always swim on surface. Silver fin grants diving to a certain depth, gold fin to greater depths, iron boots – walk on riverbed, blue tunic – infinite air.
I agree though that that system works best, but that because I hate level grinding with a passion.
just read SBS’s comment – Why couldnt console players understand complicated stats and options? Is it genetic? I find rpg stats are usually a poor representation of skills and a throw back from pen and paper rpgs where there could be no visual representation of them. The idea of a marksman stat determining size of crosshair seems a sensible way to avoid obviously gimping a player’s skill whilst providing a developable skill / reward mechanic.