Skill Trees ~ design ideas in connection to other features

This a list of planned RPG Features for Chiventure (excluding skill trees):

• Non-player characters (NPC)

• Battle System

• Open World

• Player class

• Player race

These are some ways in which our designs of skill trees could relate to other rpg features:

Non-player characters:

A potential integration between skill trees and npcs is allowing for the possibility for NPCs to award player skills. This is done today in World of Warcraft, where completion of certain quests (starting and ending with npc interaction) can award the player Azerite Essences (a form of combat abilities). Furthermore, npc interaction in World of Warcraft allows players to upgrade these abilities as well.

NPC Dialogue

Many games have skills or other mechanisms that either allow for more dialogue options with npcs and also more ways to interact with them.

NPC dialogue skill tree examples include

• Haggling: To buy items for cheap or sell goods for a higher price
• Persuasion/Deception: To increase the success of a lie to mislead npcs, avoid conflict, gain allies, and unlock additional dialogue lines.
• Seduction: To seduce npcs and turn Chiventure into a dating sim
• Mind reading: To know what an NPC is thinking

Enemy Dialogue

Dialogue skills can be used in more than just npc conversation. Many games allow the player to interact with enemies in a noncombative way which allows the player to resolve conflict without fighting.

Undertale: Undertale is special in players have the choice in combat to either fight an enemy or talk to an enemy. If the player chooses to talk to the enemy, they then must choose the correct dialogue options which allow them to escape from combat without fighting. While Underdale's dialogue is not related to skills, it provides a strong example of how dialogue can be embedded into combat.

Defeating an enemy without combat can be rewarded with better or special loot, or even allow the player to convince enemies to become an ally. This feature can become infinitely complex where different npcs could have different persuasion options such as appealing to their better nature, beating them in a verbal argument, or seduction.

Enemy dialogue skill tree examples without implementing a full-fledged enemy dialogue feature include

• Distraction: This can make an enemy miss an attack or lose a turn
• Fear/Intimidation: To scare an enemy which can paralyze them or make them run away
• Seduction: Make enemies weaker or lose the will to fight

Furthermore, if dialogue skills like mindreading are implemented, the player can investigate the enemy to learn how to best interact with them and avoid conflict.

Battle system:

To improve the combat experience in Chiventure, it is plausible that the inclusion of combat-related skills be present in the skill trees. While it is possible to do combat solely with weaponry and not player skills (counter strike go, or other first person shooters come to mind), the text-based nature of Chiventure suggests that player skills would improve the user experience.

Open World:

Skill trees need not necessarily be only combat related. Turning on a lantern could be as much a skill in a skill tree as shooting a fireball. Could look into skills that relate with open world gameplay.

Player class:

Player class is extremely interrelated with player skill tree, with player class influencing large amounts of if not all of the skills present in the tree. Numerous games have skill trees tied to player class, it is likely the two are connected in Chiventure as well.

Player race:

Player race could also affect the skill tree, but likely to a lesser extent than player class. Returning to World of Warcraft, player race awards the player use of a racial ability. For example, in WoW Orcs have access to the ability Blood Fury.

Player stats:

In World of Warcraft, abilities that do not require user activation but passively affect player stats are called passives. If passives are implemented in the skill tree design, they could potentially affect player stats.

Travel:

Skill trees can allow for mobility within the open world. Skills can expand map capabilities, allow players to pilot different vehicles, or access fast travel to instantly teleport to certain locations.

Stealth:

Stealth skills similar to the ones seen in Dishonored can be implemented to drastically affect the playstyle of the game. Stealth-esque skills can be used to

• Sneak and avoid enemies
• Turn invisible
• Notice invisible npcs or enemies
• See in the dark/see normally non-perceivable things
• Possess NPCs or animals
• Assassinate enemies without combat
• Pick locks or escape other cells or traps
• Pickpocketing npcs