Trail Blazing skill/ Party Land Traveling - Ranger

[Mazrim]

Hi all,

 

I wasn't sure how Pillar of Eternity was going to handle Party traveling. I know in the old BG & Icewind Dale games basically had a random chance to have npc/monster encounters which was always cool but I was wondering you there was any thoughts on expanding that. It would be interesting to see if you tie into a Ranger skill.

 

Perhaps like a trail blazing skill- that could help in a number of ways:

1) The PC party travel fasters from location to location 

2) Avoid less monster encounter or not as difficult mobs

3) Find undiscovered locations (ancient tomb/burial ground,  Roaming Gypsy camp)

4)Perhaps give the party potential bonuses as way of the ranger finding favorable terrain to traverse the wilds.

5) Finding party resources(Food, Precious Items, Herbal...etc) along the way

6) Avoid treacherous weather so they party is better/well rested.

 

To me this would make the Ranger a much more attractive party candidate instead of just alternative to a fighter type. 

 

Any thoughts?

[Lephys]

It's a good idea, really, in general. There are actually various other threads (of varying ages) around, usually talking about "world map travel," etc., if you're interested in reading similar ideas.

 

Also, I hadn't really ever thought about weather. The survivalist-type would probably know how to identify warning conditions for bad weather. Since PoE will have scripted interactions, you could easily have the weather-related benefit manifest as a warning/check by your survivalist character when bad weather's coming your way, giving you the option of pushing on, or changing routes to continue on more slowly but safely, OR taking shelter, perhaps in a number of ways.

 

If no one had sufficient skill to accurately identify weather warnings, you'd simply be left guessing, and choosing to do whatever you will with no warning. I like it.

[Plutone00]

Could be a good thing since generally the only class with potential use outside of combat is rogue. But the problem is the more abilities you give to ranger and rogure, the more useless other classes will be. So if I were to implement this idea of yours, I would give each class an ability outside of combat : paladin would receive divinations, wizard would read the stars etc

[Lephys]

Could be a good thing since generally the only class with potential use outside of combat is rogue. But the problem is the more abilities you give to ranger and rogure, the more useless other classes will be. So if I were to implement this idea of yours, I would give each class an ability outside of combat : paladin would receive divinations, wizard would read the stars etc

 

Well... I don't think the "Abilities" we're talking about here are restricted by class (the best example being Rogues and Lockpicking -- in some games, only Rogues can Lockpick at all, while in others (like PoE), anyone can, but Rogues simply get a hard bonus to the skill). I was mainly referencing stereotypes, really, just to not be saying "some given character" every single time.

 

You could have a very survivaly Wizard, or a very survivaly Cipher, and a Ranger with almost no survival skill. *shrug*. I'm more interested in the what the skill could offer, gameplay-wise, than who could and could not use the skill.

[Plutone00]

Let's say we have a magically sealed chest (I'm not talking about PoE specifiaclly). Only magic can unseal it, meaning wizards, priests and druids. It would make no sense to make that "unseal ability" available to non-mages. I hope you see my point.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Plutone00

[Lephys]

No no, I see your point. I'm sorry for being unclear.

 

I was referring to the strong possibility of something like Trailblazing being a skill with a value scale. Again, like Lockpicking for Rogues. If Rogues could just unlock all locked things, and no one else could unlock ANY locked things... well, that makes Game a dull boy, .

 

So, for example, if magically-sealed things weren't few and far between, then "Magical Unsealing" would probably have to be a skill, so that SOME Wizards could unseal certain things, while others' (who hadn't spent as many points in Magical Unsealing) could not.

 

Or... to put it another way, I was just kind of saying that, for what it's worth, PoE's design doesn't really like a lot of hard class restrictions. So, anything that's going to work like a skill (that could be feasibly used by anyone of any class -- such as knowledge/skill-based Trailblazing and/or weather prediction/Survival-related stuff) is probably not going to be specific to a given class.

 

I wasn't really trying to say what must or must not be a skill. But, that was why I initially put "abilities" in quotes, since stuff like Trailblazing seems highly susceptible to existence as a skill, even though it doesn't actually have to be one.

[rjshae]

I'd think just a general Scouting skill could cover foraging, outdoor navigation, hazard avoidance, tracking, and possibly animal skinning. It sounds like every class will have access to every skill.