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So, a short while back we did a poll on how to rework the proficiency system to get rid of some of the infancy issues that the system caused through time-based expansion and further complications caused by modifications and additions. The poll was a success, that's to say, 6 out of 10 respondents voted in favor, but in the end, the amount of negative attention was used as a pretext to reject the implementation. Some time was spent re-thinking the original plan, and we've come up with a new solution. Here are some of the major changes:
Obviously, there are a couple of things that require reworking. Right now we have done this:
Help! I'm a player, what should I do?
As per last Proficiency implementation, we intend to do a full review reset. What this means is that in a moment, all character applications are going to be reset to "Rejected". Fear not though, this is not a permanent "lock and key" rejection. Rather, when the app is rejected, players will need to get it re-reviewed. While we are still rolling out the change, it is recommended that the players read the changes on the Wiki, it's certainly a lot less information to take in, and is all framed a lot simpler than the previous system. Secondly, perhaps consider how to change your character's proficiency. A lot of proficiency have changed, and notably the disappearance of cultural proficiency will affect everyone. Here is what you should do to get your app in re-review:
- Combat or Intellect Schools no longer exist for the Proficiency System. Schools like the Blackmark training, Viridian Knight School and the Regalian Admiralty Academy still exist, but going to these schools no longer costs or gives free proficiency points. All Schools have their learning time reduced from 10 to 4, and can be taken anywhere in life. This liberates a character's backstory from being a proficiency slave, to being something a player can dictate themselves without having to worry about whether the proficiency points made sense.
- Cultural Proficiencies were all removed from the system, allowing for more unique feeling specialization as well as actually making cultural investment an active thought instead of a barely recognized afterthought.
- Nobles no longer gain +1 extra language in their language pool on apps.
- All points are still capped at 60 max gain, but individual Proficiency investments are capped at 30 now (which Racial/Culture boosts can exceed).
- All Proficiencies have been grouped up to create larger category proficiency. The system loses some specific specialization, but gains in terms of broad creative usability. In the past, Judicial was something you could only apply sparsely, now that is grouped under Statesmanship Knowledge, so you get to use Judicial, but also Commerce, Banking, Diplomacy and Public Speaking.
- Body Shape (Muscularity) is now attached to the Proficiency system, meaning it flows out of the logic of spending years training and sculpting a physique, not just adding it as an afterthought. This should get rid of unrealistically muscular artists and the lack of definition between the higher-ranking combat characters by adding a new Body Shape category above Strongman.
- Body Fat is now a separate term, which can be anything the player likes because it is independent from any of the other proficiency or body stats. Just as it should be, because fat accumulation has more to do with dietary habits than which school someone went to.
- Some racial limitations on body build have been changed:
- Kathar are now capped at Ripped
- Drowdar are now capped at Ripped
- Avanthar are now capped at Muscular, but have their "always muscled" removed from their race
- Maraya are now capped at Ripped in anticipation of their rewrite
- Altalar, Cielothar, Isldar are now capped at Athletic
- Dwarf are now capped at Muscular
- Orc, Cro-Allar and Thar-Url are now capped at Musclegod
- Slizzar are now capped at Ripped but can Template shift to any of these categories
- Yanar are not capped with anything, and can ovalate to any of these categories
- Race Boosts and Culture boosts have been changed. Many of them remain the same, but some change:
- Sihai (ch'ien-ji) switched from Aether Knowledge to Eastern Knowledge
- Songaskia switched from Trapping to Throwing Weapons
- Heartland Ceardian Ailor switched from Blades to Admiral Knowledge
- Anglian gender limit removed and both now give Heavy Bow Combat Skill
- Claith (renamed to Ériunin for the upcoming rewrite) switched from History to Language
- Daendroque Ailor switched from sailing to Underworld Knowledge
- Etosian Ailor switched from Unionist Seminary to Pole Combat Skill
- Vladno Ailor switched from Commanding Speech to Metallurgy
- Cro Allar battle command removed, but allowed them to take on other weapon proficiencies
- Url Proficiency reset system removed from lore
- El-Maraya Whip and Acro changed to Statesman Knowledge and Historical Knowledge
- Ka-Maraya (in prep of race rewrite) given Rogue Skill Proficiency
- Half races have all been tinkered with a bit here and there
- Set up the infrastructure for Group Boosts and Cap break boosts as well as artifact boosts, but these are all not yet a thing, we just made sure that when we do implement them, that they have a place where they belong, and they won't complicate the system further.
- Rewrote a new easy to follow Five Step procedure on calculating Proficiencies as well as providing a few examples of how to write such Proficiency builds for your Character Application.
- Modified the Magic Rule for Proficiency Points. Generally speaking there will be the chance for more proficiency points at lower levels, and less at higher levels, but all points "lost" get put into Magical Knowledge, meaning they aren't actually lost at all.
- Much like the Magic rule above, Vampirism points are "lost" into Rogue Skill instead of just being deleted.
- The whole page went down from 17 A4 worth of text pages to 5 A4 worth of text pages that congests all the information to be much much simpler.
- Rewrote the categories for the specific proficiency categories, reducing the total amount of proficiency types from 94 to 36.
Obviously, there are a couple of things that require reworking. Right now we have done this:
- Rewrote the https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Proficiency page
- Wrote up the Skill Categories for a basic understanding what each proficiency does
- Updated the Character Template https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/character-applications-template.54735/
- Deleted the old Proficiency explanation pages
- Rewriting all combat schools to detach them from the proficiency system and give them more personal appeal. Assume that all schools require 4 years of learning instead of 10 unless otherwise specified (for example the Viridian/Tyrian schools which do not allow anyone to leave ever).
- Rewrite sections of the Magic/Vampirism pages to cover the Proficiency changes.
- Rewrite the Race pages to cover some of the subsequent changes (notably in Body Shape)
Help! I'm a player, what should I do?
As per last Proficiency implementation, we intend to do a full review reset. What this means is that in a moment, all character applications are going to be reset to "Rejected". Fear not though, this is not a permanent "lock and key" rejection. Rather, when the app is rejected, players will need to get it re-reviewed. While we are still rolling out the change, it is recommended that the players read the changes on the Wiki, it's certainly a lot less information to take in, and is all framed a lot simpler than the previous system. Secondly, perhaps consider how to change your character's proficiency. A lot of proficiency have changed, and notably the disappearance of cultural proficiency will affect everyone. Here is what you should do to get your app in re-review:
- Was your app being reviewed in the middle of this change? @tag the person who was reviewing your app after you've updated the points on the sheet based on the new proficiency system (as well as Body Shape) and ask them to re-review it.
- Was your app previously rejected before this change? Submit a completely new app.
- Was your app previously approved before this change? @tag the person who reviewed your application last to re-review it. If this person is no longer on staff, @tag any other Lore staff member to tag your thread as Review Needed. Please be sure to double check whether the person you are tagging is still staff by looking up if their name is still blue, and whether they still have the name banner. If they do not, please do not tag them.
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