Incline Skill systems (you really liked)

[Raghar]

This is very realistic system that captures the feeling of person who is doing REAL lockpicking really well.

It was relatively complex system and it was decent.

 

[430am]

Path of Exile - you can make anything from anything and revel in joy about your overpowered overly complex mess of a build, so then you try ubers and get your ass fucked.
Gothic - very good and reasonable in-world explanation of getting experience and then having to turn it into actual skill by finding someone that can teach you, instead of magically having knowledge of a subject you never touched beamed into your head on a new level.
Arx Fatalis - the magic skill system where you have to explore the world to find runes which then combine into spells.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

If the system has too many skills, the game that is built around it tends to be shallow. Many things to do, but none of them interesting. Like open world games.

 

[luj1]

If the system has too many skills, the game that is built around it tends to be shallow.

Guild Wars. Underrail. Tales of Maj Eyal.

 

[Storyfag]

Bloodlines, MM7, MM8, Witcher 1.

 

[luj1]

MM7

Yes! Everyone talks about MM6 but Blood and Honor is underrated

 

[Damned Registrations]

I think Angband (Trouble of Middle Earth 2.3 variant in particular) was my favourite skill system. You had an incentive to hoard skillpoints, because you could increase the efficiency of spent skillpoints by increasing the broader category the skill belonged to first, or something like that. I forget how it worked exactly and the excellent guide for the game I used to use seems to have been lost in the mists of time. It also had discrete skills without levels you could purchase, such as cleaving attacks or the ability to craft items. Combined with the race and class system, it made for a huge amount of customization that made playing even somehting like a basic warrior pretty engaging from a strategy standpoint. The way skill levels interacted with magic was satisfying too, eventually turning your shitty spells into room clearing nukes, and enabling some incredible utility you nonetheless always wanted more of and never had enough points to go around.

 

[Devastator]

Swimming in Deus Ex was the best skill in an RPG. Always max that baby out first thing.

In general, I like skills to be designed in a way that makes them useful throughout the game. As much as I liked Fallout's skills, it always bothered me that different gun types were aimed at different parts of the game. I remember the devs saying that small guns were purposely aimed at the early game, big guns at mid-game, and energy weapons at late game. Of course, you can easily complete the game just using small guns or no guns at all. But that is not the point here. If I take a skill and it's exclusively useful late-game, it would be nice to have a heads up.

I wish Fallout would have let you do more hands-on research with the science skill, like System Shock 2 did. I bet different body parts of mutants would yield all sorts of neat findings. And then you could compare notes with Vree throughout the night.

Other than that, I like skills to be extensive enough but with limited points so that you are forced to specialize your character. It facilitates multiple playthroughs, prevents you from becoming OP, all that goodness.

P. S. I quite liked Disco Elysium's skills. Especially shivers, conceptualization, and inland empire. But more generally, I liked how certain combinations resulted in funny and quirky monologue, not just dialogue.

 

[HappyDaddyWow!]

As much as I liked Fallout's skills, it always bothered me that different gun types were aimed at different parts of the game.

This is actually something I love about the first Fallout. It adds a risk-and-reward system to character creation. It's safer to put your points in small-guns early on, but if you take the risk and max out energy weapons early, you'll be a god by the late game. It's a layer of conflict and decision making that's absent from a lot of modern RPGs.

Also, it just makes more sense logically. Something that really annoyed me in Fallout 3 and NV was how an assault rifle could deal comparable damage to a plasma rifle. Obviously it makes sense in the context of game balance, but it felt dumb.

 

[Gregz]

I can't think of a single skill system I liked.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Avatar:

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Darklands, Final Fantasy 2 (j), Arcanum.

 

[Beastro]

I like the ones where numbers go up.

 

[goregasm]

Quite simple by todays standards but Shadowrun for Sega Genesis was pretty decent with it's 3 archetypes and it's spreads in each

Eventually you could/would build a hybrid character but it was still surprisingly decent for a 90s console game.

All non combat skills were the same for each archetype, like everyone could increase shotguns or smg's and electronics, but they all were useful in game, and exp was fairly stingy.

Still one of my absolute favs I go back to. Should try to get into the newer ones I suppose as well, I own all three but only played through about half of the first game, something about the lack of atmosphere and freedom the Genesis version had keeps me from pushing through.

 

[Gregz]

Avatar:

Avatar:

 

[Amurada]

Its a bit odd for me. Sometimes, I think the methods of distribution matter as much as the system itself. For instance, of the entire FFT 'trilogy' of games, I prefer FFT1's, & FFT3's skill acquisition system quite a bit. The former due to the non-linear nature of it, coupled with how the 'real-time' element factors into utilizing particular skills - primarily magic based. As for FFT3 (FFTA2), its a bit odd. On its surface, its the exact same system as FFT2 (FFTA) has: new weapons grant the opportunity to learn new skills attached to said weapons, with what essentially boils down to story progress 'locking' what weapons are available at any given time. The system sucked in FFTA for some reason I can't explain, but for whatever reason, the exact same system is in FFTA2, and find it much more engaging for some reason? To the point that I was always excited to go to the merchant's shops, and sift through potential unlocks.

I've only played SaGa 1, SaGa2, and Romancing SaGa 2 so far. The system is rather basic and ephemeral, but going out of my way to encounter enemies much stronger than I am to farm the mystery points needed to unlock skills at much higher tiers.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Most western games are remarkably devoid of creativity here--I will once again blame Diablo 2 for this.

I liked Wizardry 8. I think it's the perfect mix of level ups + learn through direct XP, balanced well, and every skill has a use.

I would also say Horizon's Gate and Kingsvein but they are JRPG inspired, so I'm sure that opinion is disqualified.

Star Ocean 2 has a fun skill system that feeds into the bonkers crafting and specialty system in that game.

Some Roguelikes have good skill systems--ADOM, Gearhead, Caves of Qud.

 

[luj1]

Path of Exile - you can make anything from anything and revel in joy about your overpowered overly complex mess of a build, so then you try ubers and get your ass fucked.

Pretty good after the tree rework

 

[luj1]

Most western games are remarkably devoid of creativity here--I will once again blame Diablo 2 for this

because you are a retard

Diablo II was revolutionary with its system design - not their fault everyone else is a copy-pasting retard without originality

 

[octavius]

I can't think of a single skill system I liked.

Not even Median XL?

 

[Sibelius]

This is a bit out of left field, but I really liked the pre-New Game Experience skill system from Star Wars Galaxies.

As I remember it you had enough skill points and some change to master a couple of professions, but could also have a myriad of useful hybrid builds as there was no real class system restriction on skills (short of the skill cap). The real kicker though was how those skills and professions worked in the world itself. The economy and all items and services in the world were player made/performed which meant that there were no real redundant skills. If anything the almost complete lack of quest content (and terrible combat ) made the combat skills semi-redundant, though they were still useful for collecting high level crafting materials to feed the player economy.

Here is a link to a skill calculator for information. It's a Github link, but the calculator is on the web link, so no need to download anything.

https://marcjoyce.github.io/SWGProfessionCalculator/

 

[NotSweeper]

Most western games are remarkably devoid of creativity here

Originality is overrated. The insistence on it is how we went from masterpieces to cans of soup.
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Originality is overrated. The insistence on it is how we went from masterpieces to cans of soup.
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Oh for sure, games such as Arcanum, PS:T, Kenshi, Morrowind, and Underrail are well known for their lack of originality and not rocking the boat at all.

 

[MerchantKing]

Arcanum's skill system was the best. It also had the best skills like Haggling and Gambling

 

[d1nolore]

Arcanum was pretty great, it really has a lot. Melee, ranged, guns, throwing, thief skills, social skills, tech, magic. There’s honestly a heap of magic schools, I don’t think I’ve seen a game with more that I remember.