How do you see social skills in the future?

[Kokolo]

This thread comes from the thoughts I left in the recent patch notes thread. How do you guys see social skills in the future? Henrik said that tatoos and hairstyles are going to be player made. We see managment as a primary skill in professions.

Given that we only play with one character per account do you guys feel like these skills (let's call tehm social skills) should be in the professions? Is it worth it to extract less materials or not craft blunt weapons in order to tatoo people and give them a clean cut? What more would you like to see them do in order to be worthy as a profession?

Tatoos - Henrik already confirmed that their vision is to have special tatoos with magical properties, as well as being tied to your reputation with races and tribes.
Managment - currently little to no benefit, but big tax reductions for keeps and trading later on will be a boost to the skill
Barber/stylist - keeping up a certain appearance could also be tied to your reputation and standing and I do see potential here.

Do you feel as these benefits are worthy of being a profession and devoting valuable points away from lores, crafting and extracting for this? Adding additional poits to the professions cap would make crafters more independent from extractors, or take up more lore if they choose not to take the new skills.

Since we are now playing with only 1 character per account and these skills feel not as important as crafting to me (I could be wrong), but making them secondary would lose their uniqueness, I would go as far as suggesting a separate 3rd skill tree calles social skills where you have ony 100 primary skill points to invest in these skills. This way everyone can take up something without buffing existing professions which I feel like are more or less balanced.

Of course, these are just ramblings as we have no information on how SV plans to implement these skills nor the impact they will have as a profession. I'm interested to see what you guys think.

 

[BigRed]

I’d like to see haircuts impact sophistication and fade over time to unkempt/basic low-soph cuts. This would encourage players who want the sophisticated or cool haircuts to visit barbers regularly.

I expect these will self-regulate supply and demand to some extent. If you’re in a quiet village there may only be a single barber/tattooist. Sophistication may actually be worth more in the capital cities, as there may be more to unlock there. So you could end up with hillbillies visiting the big smoke and being considered unsophisticated, while the city slickers spend their time and money preening.

 

[Kokolo]

I can definitely see that. Also having different places valuing different things. Being neat and tidy in Tindrem gives you better standing with the locals. When going to a Kallard place they will look at you better for having a beard, especially some braids or something (I am not too familiar with the lore). So if I say "I'm gonna base myself in a Khurite town for a while for some materials" it would benefit me to look for a different haircut for the standing. Or maybe a good look increases your max standing with them for 10 points or allows you to accumulate standing faster while a dirty look looses a little bit of standing over time.

I do see a problem with it for people who like to create a character just as they want it and play with their ideal look, so I don't think the benefit / penalty for looks should be big. Having a system of sophistication as you said would encourange even them to maintain the look, but a little bonus for people who enjoy a bit of roleplay I would like to see in the game.

 

[BigRed]

I like these ideas. Standing may be a harsh penalty whereas sophistication is a bit less drastic for players who don‘t focus on it. It could be good to break down the interpretation of sophistication score by the NPC, so that the effective rating is based on different factors by faction. So Tindremics would put emphasis on tattoos, Khurites might care more if you have the right haircut, Kallards a beard, Oghmirs heavier armour, and so on.

 

[StreamerLord]

Barbers huh seems like a nice way to excuse the complete lack of character customization. We really need a modern facial creation system I would be very happy with something 1/4th of what BDO has.

 

[finegamingconnoisseur]

I can definitely see that. Also having different places valuing different things. Being neat and tidy in Tindrem gives you better standing with the locals. When going to a Kallard place they will look at you better for having a beard, especially some braids or something (I am not too familiar with the lore). So if I say "I'm gonna base myself in a Khurite town for a while for some materials" it would benefit me to look for a different haircut for the standing. Or maybe a good look increases your max standing with them for 10 points or allows you to accumulate standing faster while a dirty look looses a little bit of standing over time.

I do see a problem with it for people who like to create a character just as they want it and play with their ideal look, so I don't think the benefit / penalty for looks should be big. Having a system of sophistication as you said would encourange even them to maintain the look, but a little bonus for people who enjoy a bit of roleplay I would like to see in the game.

That would give the game a Kingdom Come: Deliverance vibe, like if you recently engaged in bloody combat and you're covered in blood npcs would react differently to you.

Civilians might avoid you, traders might call the guards to accost you (you could then try to bribe, persuade or threaten them to leave you be), and bandits might flee from you sooner than later during combat.

You could wash off the blood in the fountain in town or lake in the wilderness.

It would really add a layer of meaningful social and rpg elements into the game. I'm all for it.

 

[Kokolo]

Barbers huh seems like a nice way to excuse the complete lack of character customization. We really need a modern facial creation system I would be very happy with something 1/4th of what BDO has.

In his last stream Henrik said that they will expand on the character creation screen but not a lot. Most of the character customization will be handled by players. You will loot tatoo designs, buy them, find them in the world, etc. Improving your standing with a faction will give you access to their hair/beard styles and tatoos as well. I think this will suit the game very well if implemented properly.

That would give the game a Kingdom Come: Deliverance vibe, like if you recently engaged in bloody combat and you're covered in blood npcs would react differently to you.

Civilians might avoid you, traders might call the guards to accost you (you could then try to bribe, persuade or threaten them to leave you be), and bandits might flee from you sooner than later during combat.

You could wash off the blood in the fountain in town or lake in the wilderness.

It would really add a layer of meaningful social and rpg elements into the game. I'm all for it.

Yeah, I agree. Watching the stream made me realize how many games carry the tag MMORPG but have little to no role playing in them. These kinds of changes would give the world quite a lot of character. I fear it would deter more casual players from playing the game though. Too much micromanaging can become annoying fast for some.

 

[Olympeus]

Great post Kokolo thank you. Some cool ideas from FGC and Big Red for how to make the “social” skills meaningful professions alongside the other professions and/or just give them RP significance.

I’m not smart enough to contribute cool ideas (apparently neither was the troll) but I enjoyed the read. Thank you.

 

[Kokolo]

Thank you for stopping by to read.

If something does come to mind feel free to write it here. I see this more as a discussion post than specific suggestions. As I said, we still don't know how exactly these things will be implemented so we can speculate and imagine these systems freely.

 

[Speznat]

Hairgrow like in red dead redemption or like it was in the witcher that going to the haircutter is nessary because otherwise you look like a mess. and if its a whole proffesion wich actually eats skills points than these few people are more or less needed wich give them uniqeness wich is awesome.
because than you have to go to a barber every 100-300 ingame hours or so.
Would be unique compared to every otehr game ever existed on the market.

Would be really cool in my opinion.

 

[finegamingconnoisseur]

Hairgrow like in red dead redemption or like it was in the witcher that going to the haircutter is nessary because otherwise you look like a mess. and if its a whole proffesion wich actually eats skills points than these few people are more or less needed wich give them uniqeness wich is awesome.
because than you have to go to a barber every 100-300 ingame hours or so.
Would be unique compared to every otehr game ever existed on the market.

Would be really cool in my opinion.

Heck yes, I'd love to see this implemented into the game. Push Unreal Engine 4.26 to go where no other mmorpg game developer has gone before.

 

[Rankor]

Social skills should have their own skill point pool and not affect other primary items; they should only affect reputation and standing.