new Skill System Guide?

[Denisetwin]

When I searched "skill" 792 posts came up, most having nothing to do with the new system. Has someone done a guide or how to or FAQ on converting your current dupes over to the new skill system?  I just opened up my game to play a bit at lunch and was a little intimidated by having to make all these choices on the skills board.  I can wing it, but thought I'd see if someone has already provided some guidance as I'd hate to screw this game because I didn't understand how the new skills system best works.  I did find the discussions below and read them but I'm trying to see if someone has given recommendations based on their play with the beta.  I have between 13 and 15 skill points per dupe to spend and 16 dupes and not sure where to go with it.  Is the new meta that each dupe needs to be a one to two task master instead of jack of all trades? Is it better to spend a few skill points on research/learning so they can relearn the skills they just lost with the new update faster or does that no longer work, I've seen posts saying both ways?  Do I spend some to make a Doctor or kindness or whatever it's called now since it sounds like disease is more of a factor now?    I've read posts that say morale will need to be like 50 to have a fully skilled dupe?  My dupes currently range from low 30s to high 30s in Morale depending on how much time they spend outside the base in exosuits but I could get them into low 40s fairly easily, I just let them eat whatever right now instead of only the BBQ and pepperbread and just last night made bedrooms for all but the three newest dupes.    Quick question on the shift bonus, four downtime gets an extra morale right?  

 

 

 

[Junksteel]

Nice to centralize the discussion somewhere.

It's hard to sum up briefly every thought I have on the new skill system but let's start with your questions.

Disclaimer: All I say are opinions only, I don't have a way to prove any of my points and I struggle with spreadsheets at work, what to say in ONI!?

1) Specialization seems the way to go at least in the early and mid game. If you can afford a jack of all trades for a single dupe in the end game you should be able to do it with all of them (except if we take interests into account and a dupe that has many of them can have a discount learning each new skill). Interest has a much important role right now as it determines how much morale it will cost for a dupe to learn a task. You can see a heart next to a skill that may interest a dupe in the skill tab.

2) I'm not sure how it looks like in official MK III release yet but old colonies in the preview branch would wipe dupes interests. So no heart or discount for old school dupes.

3) Hmm, you still can avoid doctors as a must have if you take enough care. Otherwise, it would be a good idea to have Apothecary runing and at least one doctor. Diseases are fairly more common now but less lethal.

4) People presented different calculations on how high morale one should have in order to make every dupe jack of all trades. I can't tell the precise value as I failed to provide such high morale in the preview branch. I'll start again today and I will try to select dupes with interests in each profession to see if I can afford jack of all trades at some point. We'll see. I don't know if 4 downtime shifts would give the extra bonus as I enslave my dupes very harshly.

[FiannaTiger]

From my playing here is what I learned from the beta branch.

• Having a dupe that knows everything will be very hard to achieve.
• It's better to have some specialized dupes
• Only really need 2 doctors per colony
• Only need 1 cook
• Only need 1 artist
• The moral points required for the first three levels of skills are 1,2,3 would have to check what the space suits and the 10% reduced time skill cost
• You don't need to have every pre-req skill to get exosuit engineer just hover over the skill and you can see what you need.
• If a dupe has a heart next to a skill it will cost 1 less so dupes with more interests will have more moral to work with overall.
• If you make a mistake you can use the building to clear their skill points (takes about 3/4 a cycle)
• You do not need to spend all skill points!
• Some of the skills unlock certain things a dupe can do!  Tidy II allows dupes to empty pipes. Tinkering 2 or 3 allows construction of conveyors.

 

[JohnFrancis]

3 hours ago, FiannaTiger said:

If a dupe has a heart next to a skill it will cost 1 less so dupes with more interests will have more moral to work with overall.

I though that to, but someone pointed out that according to the info tip it's actually a 0.5 reduction in requirement. So half the moral cost. Have not tested this but was advised if you choose two level one skills the dupe has an interest in it will require +1 moral.

[M.C.]

1 hour ago, JohnFrancis said:

I though that to, but someone pointed out that according to the info tip it's actually a 0.5 reduction in requirement. So half the moral cost. Have not tested this but was advised if you choose two level one skills the dupe has an interest in it will require +1 moral.

Just tested it. It's -1 to morale cost, not 50% off. Taking two level one skills with hearts costs zero morale total. Two level two skills cost two morale. Two level three skills cost four morale. Whoever told you that hasn't tested it properly.

[ELLIOTTCABLE]

So, to be clear, all "interested" skills are *free* at level!? Basically, just pick them all up, immediately, as soon as a dupe pops out of the printer?

This seems to make "Interests" a huge, huge deal - way more important than starting skill points, afaict.

I'm pretty sure my new dupe-choosing heuristic just became "any dupe with three interests and who isn't flatulent."

[JohnFrancis]

2 hours ago, ELLIOTTCABLE said:

So, to be clear, all "interested" skills are *free* at level!?

Not quite, you still have to pay a skill point to acquire them. You just don't get any moral requirements from learning the interested level 1 skills.

[FiannaTiger]

If you have a dupe that is interested in digging, building, and tidying you would be able to get Digging 3 Building 3 and Tidy 2 all for a total of 8 skill points (no reduction there) but only cost 7 morale instead of costing 15 morale.

[Lacost]

Usually you want to define a profession for each Dupe with an according interest and then spend the first skill points there. This helps with morale and ensures that only the fastest Dupes work on your projects. lvl 0 builders can be agonizingly slow whilst specialised Dupes will build you stuff in no time.

 

However, I tend to employ a more specialised early game strategy that relies heavily on atmo suits. Basically, the Dupes only leave the atmo suits when going to sleep which makes it impossible for them to suffocate (or waste time breathing) and to contract diseases. You can also liberally use water airlocks to prevent gases from mixing and get clean builds in vacuum.

 

Firstly, all your Dupes immediately go for atmo suit training to get rid of the penalty. The exceptions are your miner and researcher which absolutely need skill points in their profession tree to be able to work. The next 3 skill points go into the researcher skills because learning is the most powerful attribute a Dupe can have. The next skill points go into the respective profession of the Dupe and once those are filled out, everyone gets the two tidying skills for extra strength.

[minespatch]

After my day long play with the new update, I really feel like I lost all that I learned from my training.

So from what I'm reading here is that I should keep a handful of dupes that have a one skill speciality and the rest should be able to multitask with different skills?

[KittenIsAGeek]

15 minutes ago, minespatch said:

So from what I'm reading here is that I should keep a handful of dupes that have a one skill speciality and the rest should be able to multitask with different skills?

You should do whatever works best for you.  For me, I try to pick dupes with diverse interests so that I can quickly train them to fill complementary roles.  One dupe has research and ranching, another dupe has digging and cooking, yet another has carrying, tinkering, and research.. Yep, Liera is going to be my astronaut.  Anyway, pick what makes sense for your base and have fun.