Starting profession with max skill on skill that you don't enjoy leveling. And basic starting equipment of that profession.

[Immortal Zed]

If your trade is a carpenter to make daily living, but starting skill at 3 is only enough to build wall with tons of holes and weak doors, can't even build a freaking chair yet....Doesn't make sense to me, I have no carpentry experience and I'm pretty sure I can build a chair. Doctors should have max medical skills....Do you know how much time they already spent practicing to be a doctor?

 

Profession only offer +1 to +3 to that skill which is almost worthless. Say if someone don't enjoy leveling up a specific skill can choose that profession with starting max skill so they can level the other ones. 

 

And starting profession should have basic starting tools instead of endless hours hunting for them, annoying..... Doctor should have most of the medical equipment, carpenter should have hammer, saw, nails. Lumberman should have an ax.......Policeman should have a gun and a melee weapon. Every trade needs its tool.

[Gaffa Tape Warrior]

• That would make the game easier.
• It is a design decision.
• It's a game, it doesn't have to be realistic.
• It would remove the need of a professional to train to be a professional a second time, which is part of the game.
• Your character is meant to be an average Joe. The average Joe is not a carpenter, or a doctor, or a chef. The average person is not even male. There is no typical job that the average Joe has, therefore the average Joe has no professional knowledge.
• There's this random guy on the internet who does not think he would be able to make a chair if he tried.
• It would remove the need to scavenge for tools at first. Why would a carpenter bother looting his village for a hammer and nails if he already had some of his own?

That was just me getting the most likely internet-guy counter-arguments out of the way.

By the way in my opinion it's a good idea.

[Zomboid]

As a doctor you often start off at a clinic or pharmacy with the items you would expect. Likewise with other characters, perhaps there just needs to be more spawns for the characters that make sense for their particular profession (maybe EVERY house can become a spawn point and depending on the profession will influence the starting items in that particular house). Also I think the level 0 through 10 skills need a little illustration to outline what they are more clearly.

 

0 = you know nothing

1-2 = you know hardly anything

3-6 = you can do this for a living

7-9 = you are an expert in this

10 = you make Yoda proud

[Popsalot]

You're right. Job skills/traits are currently pointless. It has more to do with recipes known going into the game.

[CaptKaspar]

You're right. Job skills/traits are currently pointless. It has more to do with recipes known going into the game.

Nailed it. It's not about the skill, it's about the knowledge that comes with the profession.

The challenge is not being able to repair fishing rods, make an insecticide spray, or know how to bake bread without their respective profession. That's why I pick them anyways. It's very hard to learn all the recipes without loot respawn.

I'm not against there being starter kits for each profession as an option. There is already a starter kit option in sandbox anyways. Would be useful to have them in MP too.

[Trojan_Turps]

I think you should be able to custom skills etc in sandbox mode. So you can try and make yourself.

If I started with better skills I would balance out my settings to make it harder in other ways.