[Request / Idea] - Pseudo class-based RPG skills combat system addon [not as replacement but as a layer of added complexity]

[KJinx101]

A lot of older class based RPG's had the classes with skills that belonged to each of them which triggered specific animations with specific effects (stun... summon this, summon that, a bunch of strikes, teleportation behind the enemy etc). I think with the abilities some mods that are already available for skse, this can be very doable. 

How a 'Skills' System Can Be Fun 

Some of the more active ones that would've done this best would be TERA or Black Desert Online. TERA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3DVvtQGFVI BDO: https://youtu.be/mT9KWnSC7Yk?t=602

You can see the 'stealth' teleportation in TERA along with the combos, and explanations of skills / effects in black desert... The potential problem of the styles of these games is that the pace is far too fast / cartoony for syrim... but the general concept / creativity of the combat system still added such a fun element to the gameplay. A really cool part of TERA for that matter was the fact skills basically had random synergy with other skills: "using 'poison slash' within 2 seconds after 'deep wound' will allow the poison damage to continue for 10 more seconds; using 'poison slash' immediately after 'war cry' will double the poison's residual damage " etc. This would force the player to choose which one was more important... until they were a high enough level to where both could somehow be accomplished due to something like  'war cry' no longer locking other skills while its invincible animation played.  And the users had a menu where they could chain a certain number of skills together [depending on how high their lvl was]. Say at lvl 60 you can chain 5 skills together for a combo. And at lvl 60 you could also make a total of 6 chains [1 every 10 lvls]. Not that this was accurate but this is the idea. 

The best part of this is that the 'combos' from TERA allowed the player to use a keypress to move to the next skill in the combo chain [from the combo menu] so that the player didn't have to manually remember or select them. But if the player wanted, they could choose trigger another skill (outside of the one they chose for the combo) to trigger the different effect. Could be as surface level or as complicated as the player wanted.

Although the execution wasn't perfect, outside of scaling, Kingdom of Amalur's combat was somewhat fun... this explains what was good about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH6N1APPLhQ To a degree, this is already present in current skyrim combat systems, but the idea of having skills creates more options to 'commit' to with more consequences in battle. That's what can be really fun and add layers of risk/ reward. Furthermore the classes were not rigid but still rewarded commitment and consistency with choosing classes through buffing skills depending on how closely related they were.

Skyrim by itself along with certain combat system mods already provide many of these 'skill' effects along with certain items or by random chance or through the skill tree etc. Taking advantage of these to make skills that can do this on command or with extra risks and benefits via a combo and with special animations can really make a fun system. Doesn't even need to be as complicated but the idea is there. Added layers to make combat something that can be calculated in realtime... in ways other than simply through prepared consumable materials, equipment layouts, or a few tricks that can be learned using the exisitngcombat system / mods [the usual counters, seikiro style kills etc]. 

It would be great if there were a format to allow players to create skills with a preferences file or something (with a nicely set up default one) but even having one to tune up the balance to their choice of mods and playstyle. 

 

How to Incorporate Skills Without Using a Bunch Of Hotkeys

Dealing with the issue of clutter and or hotkeys is a separate issue, likely solved by extended hotkey system. I'd assume a placeholder item could be made to trigger the 'selected' skill. And another could be used as a placeholder item to 'navigate skills.'

Returning to kingdoms of Amalur, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX1Lxe7dY3M the combat for that game was really just left click for the basic attack and right click for the selected skill. The number keys were used as hotkeys to select the skill. I'd figure that a similar system could be used where the 'navigate skills' button could be something that steals the scroll wheel while it is pressed down... this would temporarily show a skill tray and cycle through skills. The placeholder item used to trigger the skill would simply do exactly that, causing the player to commit to the action they've taken (with some skills that can be 'canceled' using a 'block' and some skills that might make you regret using them).

This also helps to naturally make 'skills' a much more deliberate choice and less spam-able.

 

Animations Are Amazing... Skills are a great opportunity to add more

Obviously a major reason to have RPG style skills is just to incorporate those high fantasy / OP / anime cartoony style animations into skyrim without having them take over the whole combat system and ruin the pacing. Hahaha this is probably my real reason for this idea. (Think about the crazy ones where the player seems to teleport around the enemy, slashing them from many directions. The epic slashing moves that allow the player to jump to superhuman heights and then crash down as if the smash the opponent... )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cguzso3D5aY

When you look at some of these MCO movesets, there are some that make you think, "I'd want this animation for this weapon" and some that make you think, "this animation would be cool every now and then but would kill combat in general..." This would be a great way to incorporate some of these amazing movesets just for the use of a certain skill. Maybe with some having added damage reduction, vulnerability, higher damage, or invincibility while the animation is playing... Maybe triggering some skills could change the regular animations to another moveset for 15 seconds for more strikes / DPS [because of the animations] and the cost of reduced mana / stamina for 30 seconds afterwards. I know there is a combo combat system similar to this already [almost mortal kombat style] but this would work wonderfully just applied to individual skills. 

This would be a fantastic opportunity to have something more accessible than spell scrolls to spice up combat and the gaming experience. Learning skills from NPC's that aren't limited to basic proficiency and spells... finding a powerful skill scroll in a chest and realizing you need to level up and increase your stats to 'learn it' getting some from random NPC's that are more common etc. Deciding to switch weapons to have access to a skill.

I'm honestly over the moon about some animations, but you only have so many to use / chose with regular skyrim combat. Having skills and an RPG system could really open that up. And its minimal nature of being triggered by 1 key would allow it to add to skyrim without completely disrupting things especially depending on how 'cooldowns' and mana and stamina consumption are used.

 

General Note About A Skill Menu

In general I think the setup of the skill tray is important. It's probably simplest to have skills stored in scrolls or books that the player can 'learn,' and once they're learned can appear in a menu with a drag and drop 'duplication' style interface to assign skills to skill tray slots by a priority order. So if the player has 20 skills lined up for a possibility of 5 different weapon combinations only the ones that are possible with the currently equipped weapons will show up on the skill tray and they will show up in the order of the priority they were set with. Meaning if level 10 has a maximum of 5 skills the first 5 that are possible with that weapon/equipment combo will show up and not the others.   

And having synergy between skills and options for skill chains and combos would be a huge plus. Having a tab to create combos using a similar drag and drop method would be great.

And it would be great if the skills themselves had levels, not unlike skyrim skills that improve as you use them. I think the main difference could be that these skills have extra requirements (which could probably be done through quests) to level them up. Finding a scroll of a higher level... Talking to an NPC who 'knows the skills', having a certain stat equipped, a certain weapon equipped while trying to learn the skill or upgrade the skill. Lots of room for creativity here. Whole 'classes 'of skills that can be 'learned' and unlocked over time, skills that are stronger when all of them are in your tray at the same time etc. Themed skills (samurai, ninja, valkyrie, etc.) Longterm visions here, not necessarily v 1.0 but having the ability to set these sorts of things would add so much. 

When playing skyrim, I miss the excitement of unlocking new abilities that aren't just random chances or slight buffs of things I already have. I miss the excitement of finding the skills that could reinvent my playstyles or strategies in certain situations... farming those skills up to the next level.  Leaning into a 'class for a while.'

 

I hope this seems interesting enough to somebody or some people. I think this can add an amazing layer of roleplay, fantasy, and fun to Skyrim without completely changing the nature of the game. I used to look forward to earning skills and leveling them up as part of that fantasy powering up experience... seeing the amazing animations that came with them... and would I love to see that in skyrim. I know that this was a little all over the place and I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to communicate the things that I thought were good about some other systems that would be nice to have in skyrim. I don't even think it's realistic to these done on so complex of a level, but a simple version that allows for more animations and some extra fun with combat would be more than amazing. I hope others would like a taste of that in their playthroughs as well can give this a chance.

Thank you!