As we forge ahead into the new year, there are several significant updates that we've been working on. One of those changes is the revamp of our skills system, evolving it into a more robust skill tree structure. Today, I'm pleased to introduce Eric Wagoner, the newest member of our development team, who is spearheading this exciting redesign. In this post, he shares his journey and insights directly with you.

Skill Trees

Several years into development, weve added many skills and abilities and were not nearly done yet. Choosing skills has always been one of my favorite parts of RPGs. Now, the time is right to take our skills system to the next level.
Accelerated Warfare Lets go!

Why Trees?

The decision of what ability to select is a special moment in the game. It is a triumph. By placing abilities in a more structured flow, the player has guidance on where to look and what exactly their current decision is.
On the right is an art mockup, not the actual tree! Note: In our game, the term "skill" refers to the overarching category you level up in, such as "Chivalry," "Cooking," or "Botany." And within each skill, you unlock items called "abilities" (technically, this means our discussion is about ability trees, but we've chosen to use the more intuitive term "skill trees" for simplicity). These limitations also add a new layer of strategic thinking to the game as you puzzle out the trade-offs involved in ascending the tree and getting the abilities you want. And with Jake busy on the upcoming Factions update, it was a good time to reconsider ability balance, including how it relates to larger battles and more allied units.

Structure

We decided to have our skill trees unlock from the bottom to the top to give players the feeling of scaling a mountain of awesomeness. The bottom level starts unlockable, and abilities can also start deeper in the tree with no parent ability, requiring that any ability (or hard junction) of equal or greater depth be available to unlock first.
Soft junctions (on the left) are unlocked by either prerequisite. Hard junctions (on the bottom) require each. Ability powerfulness (& complexity) generally increases as the tree is unlocked. More powerful abilities might be placed earlier on the tree if their connecting paths are reduced or limited. Less powerful abilities may be used as prerequisites to increase the total cost of powerful abilities.

What makes a good tree?

Distributing the most desirable abilities away from each other creates many viable paths through the tree, adding depth to the decision-making process. Since players can earn XP from using active abilities, some are placed early on the trees to give players options to level each skill through use.
Battle Hardened wont let you go down without a fight Grouping related abilities together adds realism and makes intuitive sense, since it's easier to learn things which are similar to what you already know. The shape of the trees also allows us to convey meaning through symbolism, such as the stability and connectedness of the new Chivalry tree.

Skill Themes

As you might expect, there are lots of considerations when designing a skill system. We want to give each skill a special feel and particular strengths. To do this, we consider the general themes of each:
Chivalry: Virtue, honor, protecting humanity
Warrapt: Tradition, pragmatism, persistence, practice
Dreadheart: Instinctual, barbaric, savage, animalistic Another consideration is how many abilities are in each tree. Dreadheart had the least number, so I added a few new ones. Warrapt and Chivalry, having the most, received more modifications instead. The above three are coming first, but deliberation is already underway for the weapon skill changes:

Balance Changes

When considering individual abilities, I compare them to similar abilities. For example, Mighty Lunge on the Warrapt tree is similar to several other jump-attack abilities. In playtesting, the 2-range limit was annoying, because, being an attack, it only gave one tile of extra movement. This wasnt quite enough for what it was used for: catching up to those pesky hit-and-run enemies. It also didnt make Mighty Lunge feel particularly mighty. Vicious Lunge, in the Daggers tree on the other hand, has a much longer range. This felt off, because a long jump is more mighty than vicious, and daggers are relatively short range. I want to keep a short range jump-attack for variety, because the others are longer range. Therefore, let's make Vicious Lunge the jump attack skill with the short range but better energy cost, cooldowns, and less vulnerability, since daggers are light & fast. Mighty Lunge can have a longer range.
From concept to completion: can you guess the skill? Several existing abilities will become applicable to nearby allies in light of the new Factions update. For example: Bravery, Aura of Valor (Chivalry), Guarded Wait, Combat Awareness (Warrapt), Vicious Sustain and Blood Lust (Dreadheart). Other kinds of abilities may also be applicable for allies, i.e., Parry & Knights Challenge.

New Abilities

Our dev post just wouldnt be complete without a few teasers for some of the new abilities coming your way.
Lacerate: Lash out in a bloody attack with +5..15% bleed chance, dealing +5..15% more damage, but taking +20..10% longer. On hit, the enemy takes +8% damage and bleeds twice as fast for 1..3 turns. Lacerate adds to the short supply of Dreadheart active abilities, but its placed so late in the tree that it cannot help much with XP gain, which is addressed by another new ability. Its fairly powerful, however, so it makes sense that it would be an apex ability to strive towards (the tip of the claw, so to speak.) It fits with the Battle Trance line of abilities, but this is purely thematic. Bleed is a major feature of Dreadheart, so I wanted to give it a little more punch by causing the target to bleed twice as fast (two ticks per turn) for a few turns. I also wanted this ability to create additional blood tiles around the target, so that the player can start using the environment more as part of their tactics and strategy. Blood tiles combo with yet another upcoming ability, as well as future abilities such as the Blood Mage, but be careful; you might not be the only one who likes getting bloody!
Bleed resist never looked so cool
Noble Steel Resonance a new Chivalry ability: firmly embed your weapon into the ground, sending forth a resonating shockwave that weakens the defenses of all enemies in its path. Enemies receive -10..14% dodge chance and -10..14% physical resist for 3..5 turns. Just when you thought Chivalry had enough abilities, we added more. While Chivalry is bordering a bit much on the magical for a skill not listed in magic menu, it's possible to consider nobility in its own mundane yet semi-magical category, almost as a prerequisite for certain kinds of virtuous magic.
Martial Flourish: Launch a flourishing attack against adjacent enemies when you enter a new stance, dealing -40..20% damage with +15..35% knockback chance. Martial Flourish puts a bit of kung-fu in your step, replacing Quick Swap, which is merging into Efficient Dispatch to make it more attractive. We dont stop there; players have said stances were underwhelming, and Swift Transitions switching stances quicker seemed that way. After all, you can only use one stance at a time, and each stance requires investment. So, lets make stances more exciting! Making them compatible will breathe new life into these mechanics. Swift Transition is getting five upgrade levels so that players can now briefly have two stances active at higher levels.
Combat Awareness gets a new look I hope you enjoyed reading this update as much as I enjoyed writing it. Development continues on Factions, Skill Trees, and more, so keep your eyes peeled for more exciting updates.