Skills (a.k.a more stuff for RJ to work on!)

[Jatta Pake]

If the flurry of new skills added in the recent builds prove anything, it's that more skill options are just plain awesome. Some of the suggestions below are ones already made, but I'll repeat them anyway so RJ has a single post to review for all the new skills.  

 

Foraging (Upgrade) - At the higher levels, Foraging should spawn medicinal plants and roots that are native to Kentucky. This would justify a Foraging Skill Book. These medicinal plants could be Cooked for use in First Aid.

• Spiked Blazing Star - painkiller. Perhaps made like tea.
• Goldenseal - antibiotic if eaten or antiseptic if made like a tea.
• American Ginseng - exhaustion/fatigue cure. Perhaps made like a tea.
• Witch Hazel - anti inflammation, anti bleeding and burns. Rub directly on skin.

Scavenging - Requires a tool. Functions like a reverse carpentry skill. Non-player made items like furniture, tables, cabinets, can be "Scavenged" to produce things like nails and planks.

 

Animal Husbandry - Needs animals to be added to the game but would allow for the breeding and caring for farm animals. Part of the fun of this skill would be the animal noises continually attracting zombies.

• Chickens - Need to build Chicken Coop. Spawns eggs. Must be fed Worms and Maggots.
• Rabbits - Need to build Rabbit Hutch. Spawns more Rabbits. Must be fed Weeds.
• Goats - Need a fenced in area to keep them from wandering off. Can be milked for Goat Milk. Just needs a large enough area of grass.
• Bees - Need to build a Top-Bar Hive. Spawns Honey.
• Pigs - Need to build a Sty. Spawns more Pigs. Must be fed food but can use Rotten food.

Masonry - This would be the skill used to construct things with cement and brick/mortar. In addition to sturdier fortifications, the higher Masonry skill would allow construction of the following:

• Brick Oven - Required for baking and higher skilled Cooking. A grill can only do so much. Also allows baking of earthenware bowls etc with low level of Pottery. 
• Kiln - Required for making items at higher Pottery Skill like make Bricks, Charcoal and Cement. Also used to Dry foods.
• Forge - Required for Blacksmithing. Requires Charcoal to operate. Smelting nails.

Pottery - Seems like a useless survival skill, right? First, the Pottery skill would allow the Player to find dig up Clay.  After constructing or finding a Brick Oven to bake foods that last longer, Pottery skill would use that oven for other items:

• Bowls, Plates, Knives
• Jars and Pots for Food Preservation

With a Kiln you could add a range of other items:

• Water Filtration Components
• Charcoal (for Forge and Water Filtration)
• Bricks
• Cement
• Casts for cast iron mechanical components

Mechanics - At lower levels, allows the construction of lifting tools. At higher levels, can repair cars and gas generators. Allows makeshift:

• Wheelbarrow
• Pulley
• Can Opener
• Hand Operated Water Pump (requires cast iron mechanical components)

Blacksmithing - Requires a forge to make nails. Can be used to melt stuff to make cast iron mechanical components.

 

Get to work, RJ!

[Some Clever Username]

I like this!! My favorite is animal breeding just because it'd be a fun but challenging thing to create a farm in the apocalypse!

[Jatta Pake]

I should add that although some of these skills seem to violate the Everyman average joe perspective at face value. However, all are skills humans have used for thousands of years. There are plenty of books on these topics in the library as well as a growing movement of survivalists and preppers who are practicing basic versions of these skills. So it would make sense for people surviving the zombie apocalypse to start learning these skills.

[Some Clever Username]

I should add that although some of these skills seem to violate the Everyman average joe perspective at face value. However, all are skills humans have used for thousands of years. There are plenty of books on these topics in the library as well as a growing movement of survivalists and preppers who are practicing basic versions of these skills. So it would make sense for people surviving the zombie apocalypse to start learning these skills.

Yeah, it's realistic and I want to have a farm dammit!

[Suomiboi]

Great stuff! I do have to say that I still don't like the idea of forging items for reasons stated on multiple other topics and I won't go into the details here. But otherwise I agree with all points and simple metal working would be an awesome addition to the recipe system.