Now that there has been sufficient time for people to level up new characters without grandfathered skill levels, I'm looking into ways to improve the system.

One thing I've wanted to do for a while, is get rid of the weapon trains that people get on leveling and replace it with a different system. For some of the more exotic weapon types, in the future you'll likely have to search out a weapon master who is willing to train you, and complete a quest for him to learn the skill.

For the other ones, I'd like to add in training points/practice points or something of the sorts for all skills. It'll require (X) amount of points to learn a new weapon skill or (Y) amount of points to improve a skill.

The amount of points for one skillup will likely be dependent on current skill level. (It will take less practice to raise a skill from 5 to 6, than it would from 355 to 356).

In addition to a few points granted at level up, I'm also considering allowing training points to be purchased for a reasonable fee and/or adding in specific skill trainers. IE: Go to the monk's dojo and practice mediate with Master Wang for 3hrs and you'll recieve a skillup! Go to the thives guild, and for a small fee they'll instruct you in the fine art of hiding and sneaking.

I'd like some well thought out responses, any stupid one liners or knee jerk responses will be erased.

I'm looking for pros, cons, or suggestions on how to properly implement this from the players who have had experience raising skills. Overall most of them seem to be leveling up fairly well (perhaps a little slower than I had suspected, but overall good), except for a few stragglers - Charm, Disarm to name a few.

I think this idea would be a good supplement to what's already in place.

Thoughts?

-Bane

From my experiences, at lower levels skill levels are much easier to raise as opposed to at level 30. As Bane mentioned, these are going to be put into place to supplement the current system, not replace it. I love the idea of questing (whether it be to find a master weapon trainer, or the traditional -- step by step quest method) to earn new skills and weapon abilities. I favor this idea because as 99% of the mud is broke (1% = plu, huklebuc, and sulik :P) this is a more desirable option. The pay-by-train method is also a neat option to have.

One question I think we should consider is: How will the 'master weapon trainers' perform the task of raising weapon skills?

(1) When finding these 'master weapon trainers' they grant you points (just because you were able to find them?)

(2) They train you against beasts (at your own risk) that raise a specific weapon train at a faster pace than ordinary mobs? I don't know how the formulas exactly work, but for ex: every time you get a raise, it raises it 2 points, as opposed to 1 skill point.

(3) The more of the desired quest item that is recovered for the perm/mob, the more skill points that will be allotted to the individual seeking the skill train.

That's all I got for now, but I'll keep thinking up more things..