The Skill Tree Saga: Forcing mechanics to fit a skill point budget

[loopuleasa]

Some characters are simpler than others. And that is a good thing.

I noticed through the skill tree saga that we have a baseline budget of "skill points to spend" in regards to skill trees that is the same for all characters, ever since Wilson set the bar arbitrarily.

This means that all chars need to fit a budget of "skill points" of random mechanics.

That would be fine, if the mechanics are organically and creatively added with time, without any pressure of a deadline or a budget to fill.

Sadly this leads to an effect that is prevalent in all creative endeavors: Forcing

Applies to: Writing, Painting, Singing, Game Dev, all arts

Good works of art are born out of inspiration, and if you try to force it because "you have a budget" or "a quota" it ends up being a lot of filler in the end that sadly the whole would've been greater if the "forced bits" simply were absent.

I had this vibe with some aspects of the Wurt tree. Some things are there just because "there was a budget to fulfill and we didn't have a good idea what to put there". Same vibe I had with other past skill trees (like Wolfgang). I can't imagine what will happen with skill trees for other straightforward chars like Wortox or Wendy. Some characters simply don't need much... or are already close to perfect.

It's an unfortunate situation, that we have a fixed number of skill points ever since the Wilson tree was set in stone that all characters are now bound to. I think the whole skill tree saga would've lead to better results design wise if the total points were somehow variable for each character to allow flexibility and prevent bloat.

"Less is more."

or even more precisely:

"Less is only more, when you know what 'more' is"

 

[loopuleasa]

A longer read, but will be increasingly relevant for future skilltrees.

Max, Wicker and Wanda feel complete even without any skilltrees. But they still have a "budget" of 15 skillpoints to cram on top.

As for Wortox or Wendy, they are straightforward enough that the 15 skillpoint "budget" might be too high.