Job System

[Duraza]

I think it would make gameplay more intresting if there was a job system in the game. Right now you can learn plenty of skills like blacksmithing, weapon skills, mining etc but what's the real purpose of learning those skills? People just train weapon skills and such to get stronger but for what goal? Many times people have to train skills in weaponry and such just so they can become a crafter because they need to kills monsters to get experience. However with a job system things would make more sense.

Basically how it would work is that
1 You decide what you want to do
2 You find a NPC who does the same
3 You do quest's for that NPC for them to first learn who you are/ trust you
4 You obtain a special quest inorder to work for that NPC, learning how to do their job and be their apprentince

For example:
1 I want my character to be a blacksmith
2 I either go to Harnquist (or Trasok)
3 I do quest for Harnquist to gain his trust
4 I do a special job quest and become his apprentince/worker

Having a job as a blacksmith will then help your character in many ways.
1 While doing the job you will get more pp (or experience if/when they change the gaining system). The pp will be the same amount you would get if you were killing monsters. In other words if I'm making a regular short sword that may be 1 pp while if I'm making a more complex weapon it may give 10 or 20 pp.

2 Since your doing a job its expected that you won't be bored but busy doing something. Like possibly when I talk to Harnquist he asks me to make him 20 short swords (he has to get a supply from somewhere so it makes sense that what he's selling is being made by someone else and not just him)

3 Because you are doing your job its expected that you would be getting payed anytime you begin to work.

4 The opening of additional special job quests. These quest would be open to only people of a specific job. So since I'm a blacksmith I might find a special order from Vega in the arena asking for 5 longswords.

Having the jobs can also make playing more intresting. Possibly you have a job as a warrior. Instead of just randomly killing you might find that your "boss" tells you to kill 10 tefusang that he spotted. Possibly your boss asks you to go and kill some of the monsters that are trying to evade from the labyrinth. Maybe your a healer so your boss tells you to go cure 10 NPC guards fighting those same monsters your warrior friend is fighting. Gm's could even tie jobs in with events.

One last thing I wanted to mention is that you should be able to change your job. Not everyone wants to be a blacksmith forever. However if you change then there should be rules. For one thing, to stop people from using this to level up quickly, there should be some kind of time that you can't play a job after quiting (maybe a day or so). You should only be able to play one job at a time. After you switch jobs, for the fact that your not getting practice at your old job, you should start to lose experience in the old one (slowly) but there will be a set amount of experience you can't lose (like 70%) because you never completely forget how to do something that you've done for a while. When returning to your old job you should have to either start all over but because of past experience get to higher job levels quicker or start from a higher job level than you would have with no experience. It would be really intresting if eventually you could open your own weapon shop, smith, potion place, or just do something special after you gained the highest job level. In other words you started as harnquist's apprentince but now you've moved on to have your own smithy having become a master blacksmith like him.

[Farren Kutter]

Wow, that is actually sounding sorta cool. At first I was gonna come in here and smack you for trying to bring 'classes', which are sometimes referred to as jobs, into PS, but this is actually sorta cool. Like, real jobs.

[Myriel]

Great idea, I'd love this to be put into game!

[Natrina]

 Well, this isn't a bad idea at all, but the thing is... nothing stops you from doing that already. People in general lack the ability to stick themselves to just a few skills or areas, but that's not a system problem, it's a player one. I keep myself within just a single area - crafting, and just the basic fighting (two skills: fighting and light armor, the law does force everyone to know some basic fighting). I admit I'm not totally specialized, after all my main crafting skill isn't implemented in-game and I've gotta do something, but still. Everyone right now has fighting, and magic, and crafting. And quests for everyone virtually possible so they can get x and y items (though on the quest part I'm not sure if I can blame much people. My character would do pretty much everything, unless quests that would require law breaking) or simply to do quest exploration (aka Power Questing?), instead of doing it to cultivate a specific faction.

 So my point is: there's no need to implement this with a "job system". Everyone can and, hopefully in a close future, will stop being a jack of all trades. For now, I think it's good as it is. We're gamers and testers, remember? If most people do pretty much everything that means at least there's a lot of testing going on. And so eventually, while the system gets more solid, things will be implemented to force us to specialize.

P.S.: Re-reading the end of your post makes me think there's some real potential there, but it's mainly in "skill decay". You should, indeed, lose something from practicing something else, but the system itself shouldn't be with solid jobs, I quite like the idea of fluid free skills, make us all different.

[Duraza]

Well, this isn't a bad idea at all, but the thing is... nothing stops you from doing that already. People in general lack the ability to stick themselves to just a few skills or areas, but that's not a system problem, it's a player one.

Well the point of the system is not for people to only learn one skill. Maybe I didn't explain myself well enough but just because your doing a job doesn't mean you can't learn other things. The use of the job was to make the game more like real life. During the medieval times certain people did certain things and most people didn't just fight or craft for fun. They did it to make a living. So lets say I pick a job as a crafter. I do crafting to make a living, as in to get money and such. It's my profession. Does this mean I can't try to learn alchemy or swordsmanship? No, it just means that when I go to work I craft.

So my point is: there's no need to implement this with a "job system". Everyone can and, hopefully in a close future, will stop being a jack of all trades. For now, I think it's good as it is. We're gamers and testers, remember? If most people do pretty much everything that means at least there's a lot of testing going on. And so eventually, while the system gets more solid, things will be implemented to force us to specialize.

Yes its good that many people do many things inorder to test the game. However like I said the job system is not to limit you to doing a specific thing. Its to have you do something professionally instead of just doing things for the sake of doing them. For example many characters rp themselves as warriors. Wouldn't it make more sense though if they had a job as a guard for Hydlaa or a defender from creatures of the labryinth. Wouldn't it make more sense if certain people worked in the arena as gladiators instead of anyone randomly going in there to train? Wouldn't it make more sense if certain people studied glyphs and found spell conbinations instead of everyone just doing it? I'm not saying that you can't do all these things, only that one should be your profession. Do you have to have a profession? No, there are plenty of people who would not have jobs, even people who have skills in any of these professions. However it makes sense that some people actually work for a living. Would it be good to implement this right away? Probably not because as you said this game is still in testing so people should try and do a little of everything. However I think this would be a good idea to put in near the games completion.

P.S.: Re-reading the end of your post makes me think there's some real potential there, but it's mainly in "skill decay". You should, indeed, lose something from practicing something else, but the system itself shouldn't be with solid jobs, I quite like the idea of fluid free skills, make us all different.

This is true. The skills you have should decay regardless of jobs.

Wow, that is actually sounding sorta cool. At first I was gonna come in here and smack you for trying to bring 'classes', which are sometimes referred to as jobs, into PS,

Actually the idea originally came from the classes thing. I didn't like the idea of classes in ps though and after a little thinking came up with the jobs idea.

Great idea, I'd love this to be put into game!

I would to 

[Zan]

I kinda have to agree with Natrina, most of the job system being suggested here can be done among players .. a lot of it is already being done in the Imperial Trades. The only real addition would be the ability to earn experience while doing something else than fighting but the Devs are well aware of that problem.

[Duraza]

I kinda have to agree with Natrina, most of the job system being suggested here can be done among players .. a lot of it is already being done in the Imperial Trades. The only real addition would be the ability to earn experience while doing something else than fighting but the Devs are well aware of that problem.

Yeah it can be done among the players. I just think it would be intresting if game mechanics could also do these things. Its always fun to RP things but when the game mechanics can support things that we rp it makes the game more intresting. For example you can RP you work for Imperial trades and actually do work. You can do the same with Harnquist but wouldn't it be more intresting if he recognized your work instead of you just rping it? The other plus side to jobs would be more NPC-Player interaction. Usually unless your buying something or questing few players pay attention to the NPCs. With this the NPCs will become a greater part of the game and more involved with the players.

[Zan]

I'm not trying to bash your idea but I always thought that the Devs always intended to decrease the NPC - player interaction and replace it by player - player interactions?

Either way, I already feel that you can work with Trasok and Harnquist by completing their quests, along with a handful of other NPC's who teach you crafting techniques through questing. I guess having some NPC's handing out orders and fitting payment for those orders wouldn't be such a bad thing though.

[Natrina]

 Ah, sorry for my missing the point, Duraza. And indeed, the Imperial Trades does have a job system set up (with levels even...), even though due to some things it isn't a very important part of the IT reality.

 But yes, I usually have a bit of... distaste in making players depend on NPCs (mainly because they won't depend on us, that's for sure, with the tribes and all), yet it makes all the sense that things such as becoming part of guilds or organizations belonging to the npcs and/or working for them should also be possible.

[Duraza]

To respond to both you post I'd like to say that I kinda agree and disagree with you. Yes player to player interactions are important and should be greatest in the game. However I realize when I play the game there is little to know interaction with players and NPCs. Unless you are shopping or questing then people completely ignore them. I feel that by increasing player-NPC interaction players will start to realize them as a part of the game and not some figure that disappears during rp because it can't move or speak. The more players realize that NPC's are to be regarded just like players the better the rp will get when considering those NPCs.