[zenith]

It's taken way too long, but finally the new skill system is getting close to completion. School courses will remain unchanged, but no classes will be added. This has been done for consistency and fairness, as many current and future players should have access to courses already taken by long-term players.

Skills are completely new and will allow for a lot of additions to the game.

Mechanics
Skills require study and testing to increase in rank. Similar to stat ratings and career ranks, skill ranks dictate how good you are at a particular skill. As is the norm with most things in Awakened Lands, skill ranks will take longer to progress the higher your rank is. Low ranks in skills will be somewhat quick to gain, but to achieve high ranks in skills will require dedication.

Studying
Skills are developed by studying, which costs energy. Each time you sit down to "train" is considered an hour of study, which is capped at 8 hours per day. Each hour is worth skill development points similar to careers.

As you earn skill development points, you will inch your way closer to a letter grade in that particular skill (everyone starts off with an incomplete grade). Once you reach a grade of C in a course you will have an option to test the skill. D's and F's are not shown.

Testing
Testing is not automatic nor is it free, as each rank's test will costs money. Costs start off low, and increase with each rank. The higher your grade, the easier it will be to pass the skill's test. If you take a test too soon and fail, you will lose some time invested in that particular skill. If you take a test early and pass... well you just saved yourself a lot of studying.

Available Skills
Currently there are two types of skills available; combat and knowledge. Combat skills will improve one's effectiveness with that particular type of weapon. This means higher average hits in combat, a better chance of scoring a hit, and at some ranks even higher chances of a critical hit.

Combat Skills Currently Available
Pistols
Sub-Machine Guns
Rifles
Shotguns
Short-bladed Melee (knives, short swords, etc)
Long-bladed Melee (katanas, wakizashis, etc)
Axes
Blunt Melee

Knowledge Skills Currently Available
Military Assault - helps with attacking hideouts
Military Defense - helps with defending a hideout
Military Fortification - helps with repairing and defending a hideout

Skill Limits
Skill ratings do have a cap based on your Intelligence rating. While you can have any number of skills, the highest your rank can be in a skill is equal to your Intelligence. So if you have a 5 Intelligence, the highest your Military Assault skill can be is a 5.

Future Skill Updates
Since our skill-code framework has been reworked to allow for modular updates, an almost unlimited amount of skills can be incorporated into the game. Many new skills are already under development such as Reconnaissance, Stealth, Perception, and Disguise to name a few.

How skills will affect the game
I've tested the effects of the combat skills over the last 2 weeks to get a feel for how it will change the game. While no one is going to see themselves doing double damage by just adding 1 rank to their shotgun skill, they will see a slight improvement.

For instance, take my test case (500 tests each rank). A level 20 with all 20's for stats using a T-350 shotgun fighting a level 30 with all 30's for stats using SiC armor.

Rank 0 (standard) = 2.65 hits per attack for an average of 168.2 total damage
Rank 1 = 2.98 hits per attack for an average of 193.7 total damage
Rank 2 = 3.09 hits per attack for an average of 210.5 total damage
Rank 3 = 3.37 hits per attack for an average of 237.8 total damage
Rank 4 = 3.51 hits per attack for an average of 268.1 total damage
Rank 5 = 3.68 hits per attack for an average of 301.8 total damage
Rank 100 (just for kicks) = 1 hit per attack for an average of 2,215.5 damage

As you can see the effects are slight per rank, but add up in the long run. Going from rank 0 to rank 5 almost doubled total damage per attack. Of course your results may vary. The rank 100 test was just for fun, but made damage go well beyond the max for the weapon.

On a side-note concerning the new skills system and current weapons. Even though the newest weapons all seem to be shotguns and axes, there will be other weapons hitting the market to incorporate the new skills. So for those starting off with pistols and then finding out there are few good pistols at the higher levels of the game, your time invested in a weapon skill won't be a waste.