[Zakizo]

So something that's been nagging me is the fact that characters don't have access to all of the skills they know in battle. I don't know if anyone would be open to removing the skill slot mechanic (it would take away valuable update time and would probably introduce balance issues), so I'm going a different direction with my suggestion: A trait called Strategize.

How it would work is this: You select Strategize from your battle menu. It takes 0M to use (subject to repeat action penalty, so only the first use in a round is free). This opens a list of the skills you have equipped. You select the one you want to remove, and then the menu moves on to a list of unequipped skills. When you select one, the currently equipped skill you first selected is removed, and the unequipped skill you chose next is equipped in its place. This would fix the skill access issue of characters suddenly forgetting half (or more) of the skills they know when they enter battle, and they would still be limited in the number they could use at one time, which would probably fit more in line with the whole "willpower" thing, rather than making it feel like everyone has some weird, chronic amnesia.

[Sarinpa1]

Strangely enough I was thinking about something similiar in shower.

I'd support it, but it would have to cost atleast something to swap things around. As you proposed it, it'd make skill slots completely redundant. Since I could just equip what I want at start of each turn, use it and next turn just do the same with something else.

[Zakizo]

I honestly wasn't sure about how much it should cost myself. 1 or 2M would be fine too, but I'd rather not bump it to 3+, because I'd like it to stay one of those things you're at least able to do when your opponent knocks out 5 of your momentum in a turn... since all we've really got for that situation right now to my memory are Charge, Bash, and Sharpen.

[Slydria]

I like the idea, I feel like it could alleviate some of the issues I find in combat like preparing your Skills in advance depending on your opponent and having Skills that are only good in certain situations.

For instance, let's say I have Riposte, if my opponent is a Mage of some sort, it's unlikely to be of any help to me. Another example is say I'm a Black Knight with the Steel Blood skill, if your opponent can't Poison you to begin with, it's effectively wasting a Slot.


Though, here's how I think it should work in combat:

- Strategize is a seperate menu option, like Skip.
- When you use Strategize, it first brings up a list of your Skills that you don't have Equipped.
- If you have available Skill Slots, it will be Equipped, costs are then applied.
- If not, after selecting the first option, you then get a second list of what Skills you have equipped to replace it with.
- After selecting the Skill to replace, the Skills are swapped and costs are then applied.

I just hope something like this won't be too clunky to implement.

[Soapy]

I really didn't like this at first, since it seemed like even though it'd make a lot of sense ICly, it'd mean more building to counter your opponent and not less.. but the more I think about it, the more I realize it's the opposite.

It lets you spend more SP than your skill slots allow without really making Will less useful, encourages better SP allocation so you can use it properly, makes metagaming to counter your enemy (at least in terms of skills) less effective since anyone can swap their skills in battle, and makes hard counters a little less hard since you can swap skills out to make them easier to handle.

I'd say make it 1M, and the only thing I dislike about this after really thinking about it is that it'd probably be another combat-mandatory trait on the pile of combat-mandatory traits we already have (along with growth talent, style blending, lady luck, tactician, exceptional health/will, on guard, etc).

[Zakizo]

That's a good point Sly, I didn't think about the case where they may not have all their skill slots full. And it'd make going into battle while forgetting to equip your skills much less... ow. And I see your point Soapy, that was actually a concern I had too. I wouldn't mind if it just became a new command everyone gets rather than a trait.

[Rendar]

You know what traits should auto be had..?

Kick, Skip, and this.

No seriously. How do you not know how to KICK someone but you know how to punch them. It'd make having broken weapons less HNNGH.

[Trexmaster]

Well, everyone else said just about everything I was going to say of it. It'd drastically change how people spend their SP.

My only concern is some classes getting stupid with it (see: DH being able to swap between all their stances, MG having access to every single shell, etc.)

Yeah, sure, everyone will have it, but playing the counter game in the middle of a fight just makes things more complicated, and things will just boil down to who hard counters the other person first. This already happens, of course, but making it the way the game's played for everyone...I dunno. Soapy has a point in that it'd make things better in a way if -everyone- could do it all the time, but, at the same time, I'm torn on if allowing people to freely swap around their skill slots in combat is the way to go.

I'm not completely against it, though. I'd say limiting it to once per round, on top of the 1m cost, would be fairly reasonable. Maybe even have a limit on its use per combat, too. Like, 5 times or something, I dunno.

[Sarinpa1]

How about just allowing this to add skills, not remove?

[Zakizo]

Sarinpa1 » Sun Dec 13, 2015 4:15 am[/url]"]How about just allowing this to add skills, not remove?

I suggested it due to the irritation of characters not being able to use skills that they already know. There is literally no reason that a character should be completely shut off from using a skill that they actually know in battle. If it's changed to do anything but swap equipped skills with unequipped ones, it would defeat the point of the suggestion. That said, I could see preventing the character from using a skill the same turn that they switch it in being reasonable.