Skill books actually teaching you game mechanics.

[LeoIvanov]

This is going to be pretty short one.

 

So, what if the well known skill books not only taught our characters how to level up the skills faster, but also taught us HOW to use related skills?

 

For example, a skill book level 1 of carpentry could have an information regarding the barricading of houses and building basic constructions, as well as teaching around the "how to"s. What do you need for it, what and where do you click, how long do you wait. With time, more advanced books will tell you about more advanced stuff you unlock, like better walls, or rain collector barrels...

 

In short, this is going to be like a mini-tutorial for each game mechanic written in the books that help you level up the corresponding mechanic faster. This will help new players get familiar with how the game works (+ seeing importance in finding the skill books in the first place), as well as introduce players to the newly-added features that will come in the future, like medical skills.

[King jjwpenguin]

I get your point but i think that would have to come with an overhaul of everything at once so a farming overhaul and construction, and etc. that way the books work with the system. it would be a hassle but i do like the idea. Personally i think it would make things a lot more complex and then would they skill boost by just skimming the book quickly or would they just get it once they do like check list. I mean if its for them to look through the book they would just skim through real fast. if it was a checklist then it would be annoying for when you want to learn to barricade when its talking about walls.

[LeoIvanov]

I get your point but i think that would have to come with an overhaul of everything at once so a farming overhaul and construction, and etc. that way the books work with the system. it would be a hassle but i do like the idea. Personally i think it would make things a lot more complex and then would they skill boost by just skimming the book quickly or would they just get it once they do like check list. I mean if its for them to look through the book they would just skim through real fast. if it was a checklist then it would be annoying for when you want to learn to barricade when its talking about walls.

 

They "read" the book normally like you do right now, page after page, timed action, time-skippable (in singleplayer at least). The whole idea was to teach newer players how to do construction/cooking/fishing/hunting and etc by the use of already existing skill books. Let the tutorial, like the one you get by pressing F1, pop up when you click "read" the skill book. Then you can read it to understand game mechanics (You can skip/close them later on and just read the book as normal if you don't need them).

 

Each book (for beginners, for intermediates, advanced, expert, master) has their own set of game mechanics to teach you, so even by the time you get to level five you still get to learn about something new. For example - "Did you know that when you reach level five you can poison your team mates by adding bleach to their soup, or you can detect the poisoned food?" For "Master Cooking" book could do the trick, but obviously more detailed and with more pictures.

[Scyoni]

I like this, it's very much in the spirit of the game... it would also give some merit to keeping the books you've read because you could reference them when using skills you aren't completely knowledgeable about. I know whenever I find a new book (in multiplayer) I spend the night reading it whether I plan on using the skill immediately or not, but being able to double check things like trapping recipes without going to the wiki would be cool.

[Suomiboi]

Personally that would pretty much take me out of my immersion bubble every time I read a book.

I don't want to see 'hold x to build a rain barrel' in anywhere where it's clearly part of the game world. Also I don't like that much hand holding. I can see how this would benefit beginners, but I think a traditional tutorial would suffice that much better.

[deprav]

Well, I've mixed feelings about this but I think I like the idea all things considered.

Like Suomi said, there's an "immersion breaking factor" but if you think about it, the only other way to have the informations you need is to alt+tab the game and check the wiki for craft recipes and game mechanics which is imo much more immersion breaking than reading those same informations in-game, in a skill book.

Tho, maybe you could have the choice to make your character read the skill book but not being forced to actually have to go through the book yourself if you already know what's in it.

It would also be a pretty unique feature compared to other actual games and their wikis, having the user manual inside the game is actually pretty sweet since you can still access the wiki informations if your internet is down !

[falloutboy84]

For me as a new player this would really come in handy (pun intended).

I find myself rather often looking in the wiki to see like - do I need that saw to create that cage trap.

But for things like cooking, well after 2 weeks of multiplayer with friends (and having the wiki right next to me) I have a rough estimate what to cook if I have certain things in my fridge.

 

But for everything else, it would be a nice idea to have the tutorial pop-up again, if I learn for a new skill level.

How about: If players deactivate "show tutorial at start-up" - the skill book tutorials do not pop up. That way a new player, reading the tutorial is informed on the last page, that if he reads skill books, info about the game will pop up IF he leaves the tutorial activated.

 

Hence, player can decide of he wants to see it, or not.

[thunderstorrm]

I love the idea. It could come with a skip all button for anyone who never wants it to pop up. They click that one time and never get the tutorial portion again so it will not mess up their immersion. I do not think it would mess up my immersion... If It were real life and I were there I would see if I could find books in the library to help me figure out how to build things or whatever since I am not a builder in RL.I think it should have certain options... Option one, skip. Meaning it will skip it for this book this time. Option two, Skip all. Meaning it will never open any of the tutorials in books ever again for this player in this game/server or whatever. 

[nin4]

as for me skill books are cheaty a bit. may be because of multiplier is too high or multiplayer becomes unbalanced, but looting every house only for to find skill book makes game more oriented on leveling but not surviving. so i think this features are at first to change.

[LeoIvanov]

Personally that would pretty much take me out of my immersion bubble every time I read a book.

I don't want to see 'hold x to build a rain barrel' in anywhere where it's clearly part of the game world. Also I don't like that much hand holding. I can see how this would benefit beginners, but I think a traditional tutorial would suffice that much better.

 

Just like someone has said above me, having to alt tab out of a game to check how to do/create something is more immersion breaking than having a tutorial of a certain game mechanic pop up when you read a skill book for that game mechanic.

 

A traditional tutorial is fine, but with the game growing so fast, with a lot of new skills coming in with new update, you'd have to work on your tutorial even more, instead of teaching people the very basics of the game that are necessary for people to know BEFORE they start playing, and then let people learn and discover new things on their own, without throwing all the information on them at once and expect them to remember it.

 

For example : I've seen people on youtube struggle with simple stuff like climbing through a window, or figuring how the fighting system works, or how to load/reload/fire weapons, or why they can't craft/use certain items when they are in their bags instead of main inventory. THOSE things I'm perfectly fine with having listed and gone through in a basic tutorial.

 

People, however seem to get less frustrated when try to figure some game mechanics that are not immediately required for you to do. They take their time figuring how to build a wall, or how to make their garden, and most of the time they even alt tab (I know I do) when they can't figure it out or think it's too complicated to figure out on their own. I, for once, used to play for a long time without touching the garden mechanic, because at the time it looked way too complicated for me, and I didn't want to alt tab out of the game to learn how to do it. If learning how to do it was as simple as me finding the farming book for beginners and be able to read through it, then I would've started using farming much sooner.

[King jjwpenguin]

I mean the idea of how it works seems a little odd to me and it may be because i dont fully understand it but for now i just dont really like the idea.

[Dreadstone]

I love this idea.

I do agree that is is highly important for the people that don't like it to be able to disable it by turning off the pop-up tutorials.

 

It took me forever to figure out some really basic things. At no time did it occur to me that the game was detailed enough that I needed to actually tear open my little packets of seeds to get the seeds out before I could plant them. After three real life days of gaming I broke down and looked it up in the wiki. So skill books giving you little hints like that would be extremely helpful. Especially if it comes with fantastic visual aids from everyone's favorite raccoon.

[Skotie]

I like this idea as well or least I think so if it works like I think it does. Basically reading a skill book would give you recipes and ingrediants needed on how to make things correct?

 

If reading the book just gives you the recipes+exp boost and maybe improves upon them (stronger barricades, salads which give more nourishment) but your still allowed to craft recipes without them then I would say that was perfect. After reading all skill books having the proper tool equiped could show all possible recipes even without having all the ingrediants.

 

For some things like salads there a near infinite combination so maybe just a display a general recipe in those situations such as.

 

Example: Kitchen knife + Bowl + Vegtables + Cooked meats

 

Which tells you the utensils needed and ingrediants. You could have a drop down list for the vegtables and meats. Or you could just make the recipes list seperate from the actually crafting, just have them stored elsewhere, like I don't know maybe in those notebooks I never use!