[Neus]

SURVIVAL

Survival is familiar territory. It doesn't have many talents that affect combat, but does have many convenience ones, as well as some related to crafting.


Preparation
1.5 SP per Rank

• First Move - At the start of a battle, except back attacks, you gain Initiative LV SR * 1 for the first round, which increases your Move by LV, as well as CEL (for the purposes of determining turn order) by SR * 2.
  
• Food Supply - You pack emergency food supplies. If you are hungry at the end of a battle, you will automatically eat one. You stock SR * 1 total, whcih refill when resting at an inn.
  
• Just In Case - Extra items come in handy sometimes. Increases your Item Belt size by SR * 1. (Max SR: 3)

Preparation has been expanded slightly, letting you get more emergency food supplies. Initiative was changed; before it lasted for turns equal to the rank of Preparation, but that was a little OP, I felt. Now it makes more sense, but it can also be stronger on the first turn.


Packrat
1.5 SP per Rank

• Hoarder - Increases your maximum carrying capacity by SR * 5.
  
• Hauler - Increases your maximum Battle Weight by SR * 2.
  
• Hider - Reduces the total number of items dropped upon defeat by SR * 15%.

Packrat is still what it is; an enabler for item addiction.


Scout
1.5 SP per Rank

• Keen Eye - Increases the range and skill of your ability to detect traps on the ground or on objects, based on SR.
  
• Solver - Decreases the Mental Stamina required to recover traps (including your own) by SR * 1, to a minimum of 1. (Max SR: 3)
  
• Trenchman - Digging trenches has made you fast at digging in general, decreasing the time it takes to dig holes by SR * 7% of the shovel's base speed.
  
• Landmarker - You have a good memory for places. Upon closing a treasure map, the spot the treasure is hidden at will be marked (for only you) with an X for SR * 5 seconds.

Scout has some more general use paths. Keen Eye is more or less what it did before. Solver and Trenchman make it easier to utilize the pit traps, and the latter also helps speed up things for farmers. Landmarker should make getting a treasure map full of sand a little less impossible to solve.


Security
2 SP per Rank

• Knowledge - Determines the base success rate for opening locks, which is equal to SR * 10%. However, a lock may be more or less difficult depending on the quality of the lockpick you use, as well as the strength of the lock itself. (Max SR: 10)
  
• Dexterity - Swift movements decrease the time it takes to attempt to pick a lock by SR * 0.5 seconds.
  
• Disarm - Lets you disarm traps and increases the success rate of doing so by SR * 15%.
  
• Failsafe - Decreases the chance that failed disarm attempts on a trap will trigger it accidentally by SR * 20%. (At SR5, you will never trigger them by accident.)

Security has gotten a lot of changes. Before, your CEL and SKI played a part in your success rate; that's no longer the case, neither for locks nor trap disarms. Dexterity is probably a largely welcomed addition. Since lockpicking takes 4 seconds to perform, if you have SR5 in Dexterity, it drops it down to only 1.5 seconds, which is a huge difference. I expect that will be very common for anyone who invests in Security.


Harvest
2 SP per Rank

• Miner - Boosts the chance of successfully finding items while mining ore veins by SR * 20%.
  
• Scavenger - Boosts the chance of successfully finding wood and food at old campfires by SR * 20%.
  
• Fieldworker - Decreases the time it takes to hoe dirt into farm soil by SR * 7% of the hoe's base speed.
  
• Lumberjack - Decreases the time it takes to cut down trees by SR * 7% of the axe's base speed.
  
• Experienced - Decreases the chance of suffering minor injuries while performing mining, scavenging, hoeing, or woodcutting by SR * 17%.

Harvest is a bit different now. First of all, all of the 'daily nodes' have been changed to work like the randomly generated ones, except they won't disappear. You'll need tools, if appropriate, as well as some physical stamina to use them. If you're heavy into non-combat activities this is probably your bread and butter talent, since it speeds up things (but if you like to take it slow that's fine too). As for what Experienced means by 'minor injuries', well, we'll touch on what it is when War goes up, but basically, a minor injury might be something like a pulled back or a rock hitting your head. It'll make sense at some point.


Cooking
2 SP per Rank

• Feast - Allows you to use Feast Table Kits to setup feast tables inside of camps. Feast tables require 10x of a single food item to setup; anyone can eat food off the table. The feast tables you set up will hold 10 + (SR * 2) servings, and the food will be SR * 10% better, and last SR * 1 longer.
  
• Camp Meal - Allows you to set up Cooking Pots in camps by cooking something at a campfire. Anyone may eat from the pot, and it serves 1 + SR *1 meals, which are SR * 3% better and SR * 1 more filling.

Cooking and food have undergone some overhauls. First of all, different food qualities no longer exist; when you log in to this version, all your food will get put on a meal ticket that you use to 'regain' it in stacks. Yes, food stacks now, so no more clogging up your inventory. Instead of having the quality determined when an item is cooked, instead, I'm moving more to it increasing based on how it's presented, like above. Not only will this make inventories easier to navigate, but it will help decrease the overhead caused by saving/loading a bit, since it won't be saving 20-30 different foods. I don't think the varying qualities had much significance either; the values were higher, yes, and randomized, making food more 'unique' per serving but that is of debatable value.

Instead, now, you can clear a dungeon and make a camp for you and your friends, eat something nice, or set up a banquet. This helps roleplay, as well; before if you wanted to feed your friends, you'd have to somewhat painstakingly trade with them. It is much simpler and more immersive this way, in my opinion.


Concealment
2 SP per Rank

• Sneak - When engaging a monster on the map, if they haven't been alerted, you and your party members gain Sneak for SR * 1 rounds. (Only the highest Sneak in the party takes effect.) (Max SR: 3)
  
• Plain - Obscures the appearances and names of your equipment when examined by other players, and prevents them from seeing its details. What is hidden depends on SR; SR 1 = Accessories, 2 = Legs, 3 = Hands, 4 = Torso, 5 = Weapons.
  
• Moneyboot - You start hiding some money in your boots, decreasing the amount of Murai you drop upon defeat by SR * 15%. (Still effective for Nagas, somehow...) (Max SR: 2)

As promised, I said you would be able to obscure your equipment in the examine menu, and here it is. Plain turns equipment into generic descriptions which varies based on what it is; for weapons, it'll still say the size of the weapon and the type it is, for example 'A large sword.' and for armor it'll say the armor type, 'A heavy armor torso.', etc. So if you're a real stickler for being looked at, here's your out. Sneak has also been adjusted mainly for the sake of sanity; it didn't make much sense to be chased down by a monster and somehow still be sneaking around. Now, you actually need to sneak up on them.

I debated making Moneyboot 0% effective for Nagas but it's such a random demerit for that race that I didn't bother. Besides, if you think about it, they can still wear boots on their hands.


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Overall Thoughts: Survival gives you a bit of a peek at the kind of thing I'm going for with the last two categories, or at least, Cooking does. War is not wholely full of roleplaying stuff but there is a bit as well as a 'big' one that I previewed, and Occult is ambitiously full of new ideas that are more complicated than the rest of the talents. War is mostly done, with only two talents not being finished, and some of the stuff in Occult hasn't been fully written out yet, although I have a good idea of what I want to do for all of them in my notes.

Furthermore, War requires me to setup and program another interface for something, so if I host a beta any time soon, it will probably be with the understanding that a few of the talents will not be implemented fully yet. But we'll see what happens.