COMMUNITY - FORUMS - SOULS, TALENTS, & REINCARNATION
Skill ramp regressing/progressing

Hey everyone,

My question is simple but very important for me and i didnt fin an answer in the forum. Do we already know if for example i dedicate one lifespan to blacksmithing and gain the skill ramps for the next life, can i decide to play an adventurer/soldier etc. for the second one without losing the headstart should i decide in the third life that i still want to be a blacksmith. Whoa that was one ugly sentence..... Simple said: Do skill ramps regress over lifetimes if not used.

Thanks in advance :-)


1/5/2019 10:55:07 PM #1

Yes, they regress over lifetimes. I'm not sure if they will go away if you don't use that skill for an entire lifetime so I'll get back to you on that, but you can expect that if you are a master blacksmith in your first life, and an apprentice in your second, then your third life you may have a lesser skill ramp than you got for your second.

Edit: Here we go

As for "skill levels" - Skills do have skill levels and you can max out a particular skill. However, skills can get "rusty" if they aren't used, so just hitting max isn't a guarantee that your skill will stay maxed out. Likewise, aging takes a toll on your character and that can affect your ability to use your skills and the gains you can make, when. Finally, death itself will certainly set your skill development back. ;) But more importantly, your skill ramps decay based on usage too. If two characters back, you had a really high blacksmithing ramp, but you haven't smithed anything since then, chances are that ramp is all but gone by the time you start a 3rd generation character after that. - Snipehunter


1/6/2019 1:00:45 AM #2

Hm... thx for the fast answer. Though i think this defeats the purpose a bit... with this you practically have no choice but play the same char everytime if you want to reach great heights. That could become pretty boring after some lifetimes if you cant make a break for a lifetime from your chosen profession.


1/6/2019 1:07:05 AM #3

Posted By Nasreth at 5:00 PM - Sat Jan 05 2019

Hm... thx for the fast answer. Though i think this defeats the purpose a bit... with this you practically have no choice but play the same char everytime if you want to reach great heights. That could become pretty boring after some lifetimes if you cant make a break for a lifetime from your chosen profession.

I would disagree to some extent, although for sure if you want to be the best at a craft you will have a hard time competing with someone who life after life does nothing but that craft.

However, if I was going to be a swordsmith myself, I may take my entire first life and wield a blade and never once touch a hammer and anvil. And then in my second life I may keep my sword skills sharp, but also start bladesmithing. This could allow me to reach the same level of skill with a sword due to the skill ramp, and approach crafting them with a fundamentally different approach than someone who was always, and will always only be a bladesmith.

This is just one example, but I guess what I'm trying to say the mechanics are in place, and how we use them will be up to us :D


1/6/2019 1:19:57 AM #4

Yeah :-) I just think it a little sad but would never call it a gamebreaker. All in all this game sound like a dream to me. I got tired of regular MMOs long ago. But still love the genre and when i imagined how an MMO should be, my vision was clearly very near to what this one is atempting to be. Im only a little bit worried what it can deliver at the end from my perspective as being a developer myself. Though i never realy coded for a game. ( I dont assume Tetris during school counts :-P ) but all the more do i respect these devs for it and hope for their success.


1/6/2019 3:29:53 AM #5

It's a good way of separating those people who truly want to become masters of a skill as opposed to having expertise in it. An expert will still be able to do a lot, but masters will be special and rare. That doesn't come without a price.


1/6/2019 3:49:56 AM #6

I dont think so Ravenlute. I agree that the time spent is relevant. What i wantet to say that in my eyes ther is no diffence if i spend, lets say 3 lifes in a row on my blacksmith or a life blacksmith - a life fighter - a life blacksmith again. it comes down to 2 years blacksmithing. in this scenario the pure blcksmith would have 3 lifes experience in his trade and it is good an right that he hast this year ahead. but that i have to start again at zero in blacksmithing is the point i didnt like.


1/6/2019 4:42:26 AM #7

Posted By Nasreth at 1:49 PM - Sun Jan 06 2019

but that i have to start again at zero in blacksmithing is the point i didnt like.

Check out this Q&A if you have time, it has some interesting stuff on crafting skills and how they work. I've jumped it ahead a little because the start isn't really related to skills.

Mainly what I wanted to say to you though, is that from my understanding it will not be 'starting from zero'. The skill ramp does decrease, but we don't know how fast, or if it does in fact keep decreasing until zero. For all we know, if you do nothing but blacksmithing for your first life, maybe your character 7 sparks later will still get 1.1x speed in blacksmithing skills.

Labbe makes some great points too though, if blacksmithing is something you know you will probably go back to, just set your character to do some blacksmithing work occasionally while you are offline. Or if you are really serious about multitasking, buy more souls. I'm 100% not only playing one character, because like you I plan to dabble in a few different skills and it will just be easier that way.


If you are new to the community, the Design Journals will answer a lot of your questions.

1/6/2019 1:28:43 PM #8

So in essence our souls dont have good memory? I was looking forward to picking stuff up and down.

If i have to make sure to refresh everything for life, i think am not going to bother with a lot of it.

Takes something away from the experience if you ask me.

I rather the soul was a record of my progress and not something that disappears if i chose to do something else for a while. That kinda sucks.


1/6/2019 5:06:32 PM #9

Yeah ill probably use 2 souls in that case. Im pledging bloodline anyway so ill have 3 souls. Already made the purchase but have to pay yet. Didnt have time yet to go to the store for payment. (cause i dont like online banking, paypal etc. )


1/7/2019 12:05:48 AM #10

If I wanted to blacksmith every third life or so and get really good at that, I'd just do that with one soul and my other lives with another soul. That way, if the soul isnt used for non-blacksmith-characters, the ramp should stay as high as it is throughout all time.


Friend Code: 30EF47

1/7/2019 4:05:13 AM #11

Maybe you can just use a different soul with your heir.


Count LizenÇace VeLeîjres of Mydra's Crossing, VII of the order of the IX.

Order of IX

1/8/2019 9:37:22 AM #12

Posted By Nasreth at 6:06 PM - Sun Jan 06 2019

Yeah ill probably use 2 souls in that case. Im pledging bloodline anyway so ill have 3 souls. Already made the purchase but have to pay yet. Didnt have time yet to go to the store for payment. (cause i dont like online banking, paypal etc. )

Yhea so in order to play the game and save our progress we will be forced to fork out more cash every time. And dont forget your blacksmith dies even if you are not playing him. Lets say you been exploring for 3 months and come back your crafter will stile be old and soon dead.

I see where this is going!


1/8/2019 11:43:34 AM #13

Posted By Watru at 10:37 AM - Tue Jan 08 2019

Posted By Nasreth at 6:06 PM - Sun Jan 06 2019

Yeah ill probably use 2 souls in that case. Im pledging bloodline anyway so ill have 3 souls. Already made the purchase but have to pay yet. Didnt have time yet to go to the store for payment. (cause i dont like online banking, paypal etc. )

Yhea so in order to play the game and save our progress we will be forced to fork out more cash every time. And dont forget your blacksmith dies even if you are not playing him. Lets say you been exploring for 3 months and come back your crafter will stile be old and soon dead.

I see where this is going!

no one says you should play several characters at the same time. Just play one life of smithing, then one life adventuring with another soul, then again one life of smithing with your first soul.

Its only getting expensive, if you want to play several characters at the same time, especially if you dont have time for that.


Friend Code: 30EF47

1/8/2019 4:33:59 PM #14

Personally I like the idea of needing some personalization. Too many MMOs allow one character to be an expert at everything. This method creates diversification in skills and will make "Masters" much more rare. It won't be like other MMOs where you can just switch your toon to make yourself awesome armor, and jewelry, and weapons (you know the old, one character adventures and the other crafts everything under the sun) and then go back to your adventurer. Unless you are willing to have 2 or more characters dieing at the same time, you will only have a limited number of enhanced skill sets per character.