Appreciating the Old Occupation System

[sol12]

I know this might be a little late to make a comment on, but I really wanted to get this out there before the final release. I just wanted to say that I appreciate the old Occupation system for the Dups. It made more sense and was more consistent with the game's theme to have them "learn" their skills. Now, we just say "oh you have some experience, lets just pop in a skill that you may or may not have been working towards." In my opinion, this takes away from the immersion that making your "duplicates learn their actual skills" gave. 

Now, maybe there is some underlying reason for the change that I have missed. If so, please let me know. Otherwise, I'd like to hear the communities thoughts on this. I'd especially like to know if I'm in the minority with this. 

[Coolthulhu]

The old system was tedious due to amount of micromanagement involved in having to get every dupe through the set of "must have" professions. For most dupes, it just meant doing manually what they are already getting automatically (buffs to strength and athletics). Since the morale requirements only depended on highest level, the only correct way to play would be to have dupes learn all the levels below their highest as soon as they have what is needed, and this was really tedious.

Also, it forced a split between "expert dupes" who need nice food but can do everything, and plebs who never advance past some level.

The new system is much better at allowing dupes to specialize and also partly solves the tedium of assignment. It also makes interests matter, unlike all the earlier systems. It's a lot better than all the earlier ones, except maybe the very strict first incarnation (no passive leveling at all, only current "hat" matters) and the pre-occupation system where all dupes can do everything.

[natanstarke]

The new system is vastly superior man, art is the only job having a bad time in the new system.

[Rainbowdesign]

I like the new system more.

[sol12]

I understand why the new system is liked. It's because it's easier to get the staff needed for a base in less time. You slap Meep on a hamster wheel for some cycles and then all of a sudden, he knows how to cook. It just doesn't make sense, logically. And that is a big deal for a game like this.

Before, it felt you you were building your people from the ground up, making them work for the higher tier jobs. their experience and what they were doing actually mattered. The idea before was NOT supposed to be getting the Dups to learn all of the professions. It was supposed to be making Dups specialized in certain things and then working towards a better moral system. Even now, it is too easy to abuse the moral system to get what you want in silly ways (like being able to make a great hall within the first 5-10 cycles). 

I totally get that the old system needed to be better fleshed out. But I don't think this overhaul approach was the right way to go, and there are so many other ways to balance the problems you've mentioned. (such as, they could stack the moral requirements across all the skills like it is now; but make the requirement for high tier jobs much lower to discourage Jack-of-all-trades, while maintaining the need for Dups to actually work the career path they are learning.)

Heck, with the way it is now, you can just start with all scientists and just give them the jobs you want them to be in a few dozen cycles while keeping the EXP buffs. All you lose is not having specialized Dups in the first small chunk of the game. 

though, now that I'm re-reading it, I might be describing what Coolthulhu mentioned "except maybe the very strict first incarnation (no passive leveling at all, only current 'hat' matters)".