{"id":2461,"date":"2024-10-02T09:32:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T16:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/?p=2461"},"modified":"2025-01-28T15:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T23:59:09","slug":"advancement-and-skill-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/advancement-and-skill-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"ADVANCEMENT AND SKILL TREES"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1248px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By Dave Georgeson<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We strongly believe there are three core elements at the heart of a great, massively social MMORPG. Fun and compelling moment-to-moment gameplay, a thriving global economy you&#8217;re excited to participate in, and satisfying character advancement. These are all married together and intertwined like ivy branches. Each inseparable from the others, and all operating in mutual support. This is an incredibly hard feat to accomplish, and it&#8217;s worth every ounce of the herculean effort required to make it happen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Together, they\u2019re too big of a subject to tackle in one article, so today we\u2019re going to separate out character advancement and talk about how that works in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sterne Reichweite<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>GAIN EXPERIENCE BY BEING USEFUL<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sterne Reichweite<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s core principles is that you learn by doing\u2026but not by just blindly repeating an action over and over again. Instead, you need to do something that\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">useful to yourself or others, or incurs risk.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How does that translate into gameplay? Here are a few examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s say you\u2019re learning to be a Ranger, and you learn the skill to set up temporary camps in the wilderness. Do you get XP for setting up a camp that just sits there idle? No, you don\u2019t. But you <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">do <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">earn XP when that camp is used by you or other players to rest or re-equip.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or maybe you\u2019re becoming a Weaponsmith and you start making weapons. Do you get XP from making weapons? No, but you <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">do <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">get XP when those weapons are actually used by you or other players. The more the weapon is used, the more XP you earn.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same is true for entertainment (you get XP when your dancing benefits others), leadership (you get XP while actively providing benefits to squad members), xenobiology (you get XP when people use the libraries of information you create) and you gain XP with medical skills when you heal or restore other players.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, some trees are more straightforward. When you train with a weapon, you get XP when you cause damage with it (which incurs risk for your character). If you learn Combat Engineering skills, you get XP when your traps or turrets are effective.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can see the pattern here. This is about your relationship to a universe where danger exists, and how your actions impact others both directly and indirectly, all of which are critical elements in our living, thriving sandbox of a game.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>SKILL TREES AND TOOLS<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lot <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of skill trees in Stars Reach and every skill tree has a tool associated with it. To gain XP in a specific skill tree, you need to use the tool associated with it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to be a better miner? Use the extractor. A better leader? Use the rally banner. Get better with the assault rifle? Then use the rifle in combat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a simple concept. Of course, you can\u2019t equip everything at once, so you\u2019ll have to pick which trees you\u2019re advancing at the moment by choosing the appropriate tools. And various tools have different quality levels which affect their various abilities, which again plays into economy and crafting, but the basic idea of \u201cuse tool, get XP with that tool\u201d is an easy one to understand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nearly <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">everything you can do in the game is associated with skill trees (you can do fundamental things like run and jump without unlocking skill nodes, of course), so your loadout choices will influence what your character becomes capable of doing as you play.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>CAN I LEARN EVERYTHING?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, and no.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, you can learn every skill in the game, but no, they cannot be active all at once. There is a maximum number of skills you can keep \u201cin practice\u201d for your character at one time. If you want to continue to learn more skills thereafter, you\u2019ll need to first let some of your previously-learned skills atrophy and fall \u201cout of practice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atrophying a skill doesn\u2019t mean you lose it. You\u2019re just out of practice and can\u2019t use the capabilities at the moment. You do retain benefits from having worked so hard the first time: If you want to dust the atrophied skills off and relearn them, it\u2019s much easier and is really just a matter of time. You don\u2019t need to learn the skill again from scratch.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>WHAT DO I LEARN IN A SKILL TREE?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you unlock nodes in a skill tree, you\u2019ll gain bonuses to your existing abilities and unlock root nodes to other trees that branch off from the one you\u2019re climbing. And you\u2019ll also unlock Specials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Specials are new abilities that you use with the tool for that skill tree. Some examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re pursuing the Forestry skill tree, you might learn to force trees to grow so you can replant and replenish more quickly, or automatically de-limb a tree when you cut it, or learn to cure diseases in the trees while they\u2019re growing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re learning Leadership, you can inspire your team by boosting various character stats, create formations for them to use for bonuses, or activate crowd control abilities against foes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re learning to use the Laserwhip (a weapon), you might learn to Lasso an opponent, or Laserstrike at range, or lash out and entangle a foe like a Bola.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And so on! However, there are two caveats with this:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can unlock many Specials on a skill tree, but you can only <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">enable <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">two of them at a time, and;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Specials you have enabled are <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">crafted into the tool that you\u2019re using<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. So when you want to use different Specials, you\u2019ll need to buy or craft a different version of your tool and use that one instead.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see all of this obviously intertwines with moment-to-moment gameplay as well as the economy. Every item you use in the game was made by a player, so you\u2019ll either need to learn crafting skills of your own, or you\u2019ll need to make friends with someone that has those skills. How that all works together is a much larger discussion for another day.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>SO WHERE ARE WE NOW?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As with most (if not all!) fundamental gameplay systems in an MMO, we first have to build the supporting infrastructure, which is part of what we were up to when we were running quietly before announcing the game publicly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then we build the systems and interfaces that the gameplay teams will use to fill out the code and data that becomes the trees and abilities.\u00a0 Finally, the player-facing trees and abilities themselves get created and you&#8217;re able to see and test them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We&#8217;re on that last step right now, and you&#8217;ll be able to see the first couple skill trees very soon. Our next set of external tests will let players explore the first couple of simple skill trees, and then we\u2019ll continuously roll out new ones thereafter until we get all the intended functionality for launch into the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re still pre-Alpha, so we have a good chunk of development still to do, and we\u2019d love to hear your feedback on these core concepts! Join us in our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/starsreach\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Discord channel<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> so we can discuss!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have a friend or guildmate who would enjoy this testing, please give them this link to sign up: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/signup.starsreach.com\/email-cohort\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/signup.starsreach.com\/email-cohort<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":217806712,"featured_media":2467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1462,1459],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-from-the-devs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SR_SkillTree_devBlog_2.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdLeGO-DH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217806712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}