Warrior General Games

I saw a thread that had an idea where you would be able to specify the SAs your player gets, I have something along those lines. Its a simple system that can lead to tons of different player builds.

You start out by classing each Special Ability into a level (1-5) for the spaces on the tree. Based on that level you can assign them to a slot on the tree (first to fifth).

Example:

Level 1 Skills - First Step, Quick Cut, Trash Talk
Level 2 Skills - All of level 1, Shed Block, Lower Shoulder
Level 3 Skills - etc.

In the first slot of your tree you can put in any Level 1 Skill, second slot is any Level 1 or 2 skill, third slot is any Level 1, 2 or 3 skill. And so on.

This skill levels thing is to prevent people putting powerful SAs at the front of their trees and pumping them to maximums without having to spend a bit extra to get to them. This, ofcourse, can be totally just thrown out and we can do a five slot SA tree with any five SAs a person wants. Bort can make the call on this based on his understanding of the numbers, but also there may be no need to balance things because everyone would have the same options to build with so the playing field will be level on all accounts.

People would end up having some unique builds and would be able to develop players to play particular roles through their special abilities. Develop a Linebacker that you want to be an awesome blitzer (i.e. Lawrence Taylor or Shawne Merriman) by giving him Tunnel Vision. Develop a Kick Returning Wide Receiver or Running Back by giving him the Return Spec skill. Develop a powerful possession receiver by giving him Power Thru, or a slick versatile Running Back by giving him Sticky Hands or Route Run.


Also, this system can be implemented with the current players and the new players. Refunding points spent in SAs wouldn't be hard to do as you don't have to worry about the amount of points gained through leveling up and daily training. You'd just give the points back, clear the SA tree and let people build, if they want what they had before they can simply rebuild it exactly. For new players, you'd just add the SAs when you want to buy them, sort of that first point gets you the SA on your tree and one point in it.

As a side benefit, the SA point refund will help out all the people that spent SPs in SAs that they don't want anymore. Two birds with one stone there.

Lastly, custom and advanced equipment won't have to change. Custom equipment will modify one of the trees that a person builds just like it modifies one tree now. Advanced equipment becomes better in many ways because you can still reap the benefits of an extra 11th SA by using it, or, in the awesome way, roll an advanced equipment then select the SA that it boosts to be a part of your tree. For example, if I roll a Power Thru Advanced Equipment with my WR I can go ahead and add Power Thru to my SA Tree and make use of it if I want to. It'll definitely cut down on the shopping rolls that are deemed useless.

No love? =(

That actually isn't a bad idea Infinity. I like it. However this would mean balancing SA's for all the positions which would be a lot of work, but I like it.

FAIL

What about custom EQ that has a boost to a tree? Refund? Keep a tree? What?

Originally posted by Daedalus Finch
What about custom EQ that has a boost to a tree? Refund? Keep a tree? What?

Reading it again, the idea feels like it would mean for people to only have one tree to work with, but I figure it still works on a two tree system and you would just pick which tree you want to boost with the custom.

What would be cool is if SA's were modifiable.

Like, you could move a slider for an SA, one end would be 100% chance of effect with 1% of an actual effect, and the other end of the slider would be 1% chance of effect with a 100% effect.

It would also be cool if we could "design" our own SA's, and add different modifier's that each have their own value, and the SA itself could only have for instance, a maximum value of 100. Maybe it could only be done once every 8 levels or something...I don't know.

I realize these ideas are questionable for this game in it's present state, but they would be neat I think. As for the OP, it is just as unrealistic for this game as my ideas. I mean, would it be cool? Yes definitely, but would it work well for this game? Meh, probably not.

The current SA system is clumsy and restrictive.

I'd like to see the SA system reworked in the same manner that training was reworked.

Generally, opening up options (completely?) to players will add variety, increase interest, and not cause any problems.

Originally posted by didymus
The current SA system is clumsy and restrictive.

I'd like to see the SA system reworked in the same manner that training was reworked.

Generally, opening up options (completely?) to players will add variety, increase interest, and not cause any problems.

Same here. I'm aiming to open up discussion on how a system could be developed to make players unique. Right now the builds for physical attributes are pretty much standard at a lot of positions and that makes sense (seeing as how in real life the variations in speed/strength/agility and such between players at the same positions are not too big). But Special Abilities, they lend themselves to the idea of customization between players as they are unique skills that assist in certain portions of the game.

Develop a Linebacker that you want to be an awesome blitzer (i.e. Lawrence Taylor or Shawne Merriman) by giving him Tunnel Vision. Develop a Kick Returning Wide Receiver or Running Back by giving him the Return Spec skill. Develop a powerful possession receiver by giving him Power Thru, or a slick versatile Running Back by giving him Sticky Hands or Route Run.

There are so many potential combinations for building awesome skill trees. Sure, some people may not want to go through the effort of doing all this so there can be cookie cutter trees posted up that a person can select if they want. But really, custom SAs, I think it would open up a whole new can of worms in player development that people would really enjoy.

Originally posted by TheInfinity
Originally posted by didymus

The current SA system is clumsy and restrictive.

I'd like to see the SA system reworked in the same manner that training was reworked.

Generally, opening up options (completely?) to players will add variety, increase interest, and not cause any problems.

Same here. I'm aiming to open up discussion on how a system could be developed to make players unique. Right now the builds for physical attributes are pretty much standard at a lot of positions and that makes sense (seeing as how in real life the variations in speed/strength/agility and such between players at the same positions are not too big). But Special Abilities, they lend themselves to the idea of customization between players as they are unique skills that assist in certain portions of the game.

Develop a Linebacker that you want to be an awesome blitzer (i.e. Lawrence Taylor or Shawne Merriman) by giving him Tunnel Vision. Develop a Kick Returning Wide Receiver or Running Back by giving him the Return Spec skill. Develop a powerful possession receiver by giving him Power Thru, or a slick versatile Running Back by giving him Sticky Hands or Route Run.

There are so many potential combinations for building awesome skill trees. Sure, some people may not want to go through the effort of doing all this so there can be cookie cutter trees posted up that a person can select if they want. But really, custom SAs, I think it would open up a whole new can of worms in player development that people would really enjoy.

you can get adv. equip, and the returner specialist skill is nearly completely worthless

Originally posted by didymus

Generally, opening up options (completely?) to players will add variety, increase interest, and not cause any problems.

I agree with two of those points...but you can't really say "not cause any problems", because really, you don't know for sure what problems may arise.

I'm not a big fan of advanced equipment yet, I think the shopping system needs to be reworked to make it useful. Spending training points on an iffy shot to get something useful is just tough for me to do. Might just be me but thats how I see it. And the Return Specialist skill does need to be reworked, I'm sure Bort is trying to fix it.

As for the causing of problems, thats going to be an issue with any change in the game, especially when you are messing with the combinations that people can slap together. Like how much is the Tunnel Vision boost going to effect a 3-4 OLB's evasive rush against the OT? Or how much will a Running Back with Return Specialist be gaining in boost for the returns and will it be too much?

Overall though, I think the fact that you are still limited in how many Special Abilities you have and the fact that Special Abilities, at least to me, add to a build to make it better will have it lead to less problems than some of the other proposed ideas like picking your major and minor attributes.

Late night post cause I was thinking about this.

Implementation wouldn't be hard. You'd just refund the points spent in SAs and clear the trees so people can construct them. The hard part is that whole business about ranking the abilities and that may not even be necessary (Bort's call on that as he knows the math). Also, consider that everyone would have the same choices, so people can follow effective builds like they do now.

As a side benefit, this would help those players who are upset because they spent points in SAs that they don't want anymore. It won't break the system because it'd just be giving them back points they already had at one point. Custom Equips would still modify one of the trees that the player builds. Advanced Equipment would still be valuable as it is another SA a person can have and it can also modify the SAs you pick (so say I roll a sweet Power Thru equip, maybe I'll add that Special Ability to my player to take better advantage of it).

The more I think about this idea TheInfinity, the more I think it should be implemented in GLB almost immediately. I mean, it would be sweet to have a WR with Power Thru and Stiff Arm.

You could even make funky things like an OT who can play TE effectively (give him Sticky Hands...why not? Certainly better than "Hands" )

Like you say, the possibilities are ENDLESS.

It even follows the classic RPG element of "building your own class". I can't see any drawbacks to doing this at all. You could even let people name their own ability trees if you really wanted.

EDIT: And edit the OP to address custom EQ now that you have an idea how to handle that.

Originally posted by saintedix

You could even make funky things like an OT who can play TE effectively (give him Sticky Hands...why not? Certainly better than "Hands" )

Like you say, the possibilities are ENDLESS.

It even follows the classic RPG element of "building your own class". I can't see any drawbacks to doing this at all.

Except that TE's cost twice as much as OT's...