Mr-Bandit
Recruit
i read a suggestion about books and scrolls, but already had my own ideas, but i liked some of them so now my ideas has some of theirs in it.
WB had books, but BL works differently, i still want to see books but the way they would work would have to be different.
i would suggest 3 levels of books: basic, intermediate, and advanced. they would act as an extra focus point in a specific skill (as if the holder of the book was learning more by reading the book and then putting it into practice to get better, faster), but would not work beyond a certain skill level (because the holder has learned all there is to learn from the book). so a basic 'beginners' book would add a temp skill point in specific skill until, say, lvl 50, intermediate would work until 100, and advanced would work until lvl 150. so a 'basic book of/beginners guide to: blacksmithing would add an extra focus point to blacksmithing until lvl 50, and then no longer apply (no further benefits). the advanced book would also come with a minimum basic skill lvl before taking effect because a beginner could not make any sense of the book until they have the necessary experience. there would be no books that add anything over lvl 150 because at that point you would be an expert and know just as much as the ones writing the books.
the books could be rare loot from specific quests, looting bandit hideouts or caravans, taking cities/castles, or be bought from wandering book merchants (yay WB!), but the more advanced books would be damned rare and damned expensive. (gold sink?)
as for scrolls, they would be more common (not a lot mind you, keeping them rare keeps them valuable!), at least more common than books. they too would focus on a specific skill, but instead of adding a skill point they give flat exp to the skill whenever exp is earned on it. the figure would need to be carefully calc'd for balance reasons, but perhaps a .2 or .5 bonus on exp earned in that skill, and placed either at the end or the beginning of the exp calculation (it could be either, i'll explain momentarily). the scroll would have a limit, a total amount of points that can be bestowed before the scroll vanishes (totally consumed), so it could also be possible to have different sized scrolls (of different values if you wished to sell).
(i said i would explain momentarily, if the bonus were added at the start of the calc it would need to be smaller because it would be affected by skill points, perhaps it would just be a 'base +.5' for every skill point earned because a multiplier at the start of the calculation would be too powerful, a multiplier at the end could work after focus points have been calculated but would produce a larger number, which would need to be reflected in the scrolls total point limit. adding at the beginning of the formula would benefit characters without many focus points in the skill, adding at the end would benefit those with more focus points in the skill - but chew through the scrolls point-cap faster, so a decision would need to be made here, the latter seems safest to me because then scrolls would remain useful into the late game.)
to apply this i would perhaps add an extra slot for books and scrolls, this seems the easiest and simplest way to manage.
there is also the potential to add a 'traders journal' which would remember the value of goods in the places you had visited, along with when that happened (player character only). there are perks that add tweaks to inventory to give a little price information, and there are trade rumours, but this would allow hard-information on places visited (so: no visit - no data). there have been times when i wished i had something like this, but writing everything down myself would de-fun the game for me. ther was a mod that added something like this foe WB and i found it useful. however putting this book in the slot would mean that the use of books or scrolls for player character was no longer possible - an interesting tradeoff!
i guess there are the possibilities for other books too, but i guess i would leave that for modders unless someone came up with a really good idea for one...
WB had books, but BL works differently, i still want to see books but the way they would work would have to be different.
i would suggest 3 levels of books: basic, intermediate, and advanced. they would act as an extra focus point in a specific skill (as if the holder of the book was learning more by reading the book and then putting it into practice to get better, faster), but would not work beyond a certain skill level (because the holder has learned all there is to learn from the book). so a basic 'beginners' book would add a temp skill point in specific skill until, say, lvl 50, intermediate would work until 100, and advanced would work until lvl 150. so a 'basic book of/beginners guide to: blacksmithing would add an extra focus point to blacksmithing until lvl 50, and then no longer apply (no further benefits). the advanced book would also come with a minimum basic skill lvl before taking effect because a beginner could not make any sense of the book until they have the necessary experience. there would be no books that add anything over lvl 150 because at that point you would be an expert and know just as much as the ones writing the books.
the books could be rare loot from specific quests, looting bandit hideouts or caravans, taking cities/castles, or be bought from wandering book merchants (yay WB!), but the more advanced books would be damned rare and damned expensive. (gold sink?)
as for scrolls, they would be more common (not a lot mind you, keeping them rare keeps them valuable!), at least more common than books. they too would focus on a specific skill, but instead of adding a skill point they give flat exp to the skill whenever exp is earned on it. the figure would need to be carefully calc'd for balance reasons, but perhaps a .2 or .5 bonus on exp earned in that skill, and placed either at the end or the beginning of the exp calculation (it could be either, i'll explain momentarily). the scroll would have a limit, a total amount of points that can be bestowed before the scroll vanishes (totally consumed), so it could also be possible to have different sized scrolls (of different values if you wished to sell).
(i said i would explain momentarily, if the bonus were added at the start of the calc it would need to be smaller because it would be affected by skill points, perhaps it would just be a 'base +.5' for every skill point earned because a multiplier at the start of the calculation would be too powerful, a multiplier at the end could work after focus points have been calculated but would produce a larger number, which would need to be reflected in the scrolls total point limit. adding at the beginning of the formula would benefit characters without many focus points in the skill, adding at the end would benefit those with more focus points in the skill - but chew through the scrolls point-cap faster, so a decision would need to be made here, the latter seems safest to me because then scrolls would remain useful into the late game.)
to apply this i would perhaps add an extra slot for books and scrolls, this seems the easiest and simplest way to manage.
there is also the potential to add a 'traders journal' which would remember the value of goods in the places you had visited, along with when that happened (player character only). there are perks that add tweaks to inventory to give a little price information, and there are trade rumours, but this would allow hard-information on places visited (so: no visit - no data). there have been times when i wished i had something like this, but writing everything down myself would de-fun the game for me. ther was a mod that added something like this foe WB and i found it useful. however putting this book in the slot would mean that the use of books or scrolls for player character was no longer possible - an interesting tradeoff!
i guess there are the possibilities for other books too, but i guess i would leave that for modders unless someone came up with a really good idea for one...
