Skill Atrophy

[node_runner]

I've always wanted to change the way character leveling works in all of the Bethesda games. Oblivion was the closest, in that you would level up based on your actual usage of different skills, but had various other problems because it was such a pain to maximize your stat bonuses. I think the Oblivion approach could have been salvaged if done better, as a few mods have attempted to show.

 

I've always wanted to see your character improve his/her skills based on how much you use that skill, but with a twist. NOT using a skill should cause your character to get "rusty". For example, a character that is using guns a lot can build up the skill, but later in the game decide to focus on energy weapons instead. As energy weapons skill increases over time as you use it, your guns skill begins to drop.

 

There should obviously be some kind of upper limit on the total amount of skill points you can gain this way, based on INT. It seems like atrophy rate should also be dynamic, depending on how a particular skill relates to your stats. For example, having high agility may slightly decrease the rate at which your agility-based skills atrophy, but low endurance would increase the atrophy rate for those skills.

 

It might also be a good idea to have skills that were once high recover at a much faster rate. You know how you can practice playing an instrument for several years, stop playing for quite a while, and then pick it back up again. Even though you've lost your chops, you tend to re-learn how to play much faster than the first time you learned.

 

Essentially you end up with a character that is much more dynamic and playable for longer life-spans. Instead of re-starting the game and going through all those same quests for a 5th time, you can simply re-train your existing character to change things up for a while and challenge yourself. Maybe that level 17 character you have sucks at stealth, but you really want to challenge yourself to sneak into the Gun Runners' building.