I generally like the idea of seeing a seperation of weaponsmiths and blacksmiths.
Pronon Palmsuger wrote:But you know, the more I think about it the more this game seems to be based on the lord of the rings your so against, I mean hobbits, Orcs, Elves, you know that the Hobbit was tolkiens creation?
That's not true, there is more than enough folklore, mythology and fairy tales that preceded Lord of the Rings (timewise). In fact, Tolkien himself was inspired by celtic legends. Of course, they were not exactly as he put them to use in LotR and his tales of "Middle-Earth", but they
were there—in a way.
Before you chalantly and generically put down all proposals that aspire to add some "realism" to this game, you should look into other RPGs and how they work. There's, for example, one called 'Ultima Online', where you have a vast amount of different skills, and a skill cap (limiting the total of points that can gained for skills, therefore limiting the selection of well-developed skills a character possesses). What is the result of such a system? Character interaction and teamwork suddenly grows more important. At least, more important than hundreds of jack-of-all-trades walking around like there's nothing special about it.
Most people in medieval times were more likely peasants, urban commoners, simple craftsmen (where do you think all the surnames, in essence, come from? Names like Jay
Smith, John
Miller, Joan
Cobbler, Jack
Carpenter, etc.?). Indeed alot of people have a wrong image of medieval times.
If you're saying the fantasy element should be removed completely, I'd say you might want to play a different game; although I can't think of any MMORPGs with a "realistic" scenario. Quite in the contrary, most hold a surreal setting, however try to apply common sense to the actual gaming system.
So, what's the reasoning behind approaching this "realism" in a surreal setting?
Common sense, I'd say. After all, this is not a single-player game where the goal is to have as many skills as possible and kill as many monsters as possible; quite in the contrary. This is a game where people should actually also role-play impairments, weaknesses, flaws in their characters.
So, to round up my thoughts, what's the flaw of a jack-of-all-trades?
A lack of any real focus, that's what. And the way illarion is right now, this is not the case.
Edit: Or at least, it's a role-playing issue that seems to never be resolved.