I'm aware that for the last couple of years I have complained a lot about the skill system - I have called it slow, time consuming, etc. etc. But I'm making this topic to put some other players' minds at ease if they ever find themselves frustrated with the system.
Illarion is a game meant to be played for a long time, and of course, revolves around role playing as opposed to killing people. Now I'm sure many of you see this on the boards whenever somebody complains about the skill system..."role playing is more important than skills" is the basic summary of it.
I've noticed that older players (much older players, that have been around since the game was first made) have characters that didn't essentially train their for skills that often...namely combat skills. The characters gained the skills simply by being around for a long time, raising skills just by IG experiences with conflicts.
And that's how it usually is in the real world, right? Most people don't just train to get better at things and impress people, most people get better at things just because their lifestyle or job requires it - be it anything from welding to playing an instrument to military infantry.
Personally, I like to only play fighting characters because anything to do with crafting is tedious and boring for me. I always found it unfortunate that only a couple of my characters were good fighters, but now, it's not really a big deal. Sure, technical skills to support the role speak strongly, but it is the personality of the character that really sticks out.
So who cares if your character isn't the strongest fighter in the land? If you're around for long enough, the "strong ones" will get bored of beating everybody and go away, but you'll still be around...with more skill than complete newbs, and some face to support it. Eventually, he might get strong, but interesting characters don't roll out of bed to get where they are. It takes some experience and molding first.
This goes for crafting as well. Regardless of whether your character is a fighter or a crafter, it shouldn't be your goal to get as much skill as you can in the shortest amount of time...you should enjoy your players experiences, with skills being a side product of those experiences. Let characters formulate their own opinions on your character. Don't confuse the side product for the goal.
I consider myself to be a casual player, I can't log in and play a whole lot like I did a few years ago. I'm generally swamped with work during the week so I have to play on my weekends, or sometimes after work if I'm lucky or not out with friends.
While I think the creators should be a tad bit more receptive on player's suggestions, they're not all that bad. There's obviously something I enjoy about Illarion otherwise I wouldn't have played it for as long as I have. The coolest thing? It's freakin' free.
So here's what you, the players, should take away from this:
-Don't get bent out of shape about the technical limitations...work around that by making up for it using creativity and role playing well.
-Go with the flow of things, there's no reason to get frustrated because of IG events. Both the good and bad things that happen to your character are neat, because only in this game can you experience the occurences that you do.
-Don't dedicate yourself too much to Illarion, it's just something to do in your off time. You want a powerful character? Runescape's always there (not to slag on Runescape, it's got its place - but it isn't the same thing as Illarion nor does it serve the same purpose).
That's really all I can think of at the moment. If you read this thing all the way through, thanks, and I hope you take something away from it.
Your points are valid Bloodhearte, but few people if any really are out to gain as much skill in as little time as possible. The new skill cap system kind of discourages anyone from doing it and forces people to go out and roleplay or sit inactive and get caught by inactive smiter Gm Loralyn.
Illarion is largely a roleplaying game, but everyone enjoys it when a great war quest comes around and during such times you need strong characters so the quest leaders can have fun sending out strong characters. I remember back a few months after the skill wipe there was the Nightmare quest, and the player of Nightmare the demon had to be careful when attacking because he didn't want to pk everyone because of the fact no one had well developed skills yet.
In my eyes Skill and Roleplay walk hand in hand. If you want to be an awesome theif that can throw daggers with pin point accuracy, you better have the skills to wipe the floor with my dragon slaying knight if you get in his way. I really think one must play to your skill as opposed to straight out roleplaying and imagining your character has these amazing skills so hack uncountable undead without getting close of being harmed... when in reality during a quest a simple undead can kill your character.
In reality, skills are not difficult to get. As pendar told me once, skills in illa are easily gotten. 5 minutes devoted to training and you can be a very strong character in a month or two. That is how it used to be, I really don't like how it is now, I hear that some noobs are spending an hour training and still not capping. But illarion is an ever growing and evolving entity, you cannot really get angry with how it is, because more likely then not the developers will agree that something is ridiculous if indeed common sense tells you it is.
Let illarion continue to grow and develop. It truely is one of the best looking games that are free and not copied from another game, out on the internet.
I agree Garett, but the reason this post was written was to calm down those who are increasingly frustrated with the technical side of Illarion, or at least help them think in a more lackadaisical manner about it.
It's true that one should have their skills and role playing hand in hand, but people should accept the fact that dynamic characters who can kill anything and do backflips shouldn't be bred overnight. Everybody wants to have a character that's interesting for how good he is at things, but that should be earned over time and experience...not granted.
For characters that aren't particularly skilled but want to be dynamic, they could make up for their lack of skill by personality and saving face. It's at least something to enjoy until your character gets skilled enough.
Wow, I really enjoyed reading it. You know what I agree. Every time you log on kill 20 pigs and then RP. Eventually after 1 year. If you log on every week you killed. 1040 pigs. He is right instead of sitting near the computer and keep on clicking attack. Let some time pass. One day you will see you will become powerful.
>_> If the technical side of Illarion wasn't so messed up now, you would gain skill from conflicts, especially for Rankor, but it is, so... Good read, though
