One of our next development targets is to add some new abilities for player characters to use while exploring the dungeon map. The actual progression that determines when and which Skills a player has access to won’t be implemented for quite some time, but it still informs our choices in which Skills to build first.

Basic Skill development for a GuildKnight is split into three tiers. At each Skill tier, there is a maximum number of Skills that must be learned before the Skills in the next sequential tier are made available. After creating a new character, the player will have the ability to choose a single Skill from Tier I immediately. After that, further Skill selection opportunities are earned by having a GuildKnight actively use their known class Skills.

In general, each of the Skills in a tier belong to one of three class “disciplines” that determine the play style that the Skill supports. These disciplines currently just exist to help drive design decisions for the class and ultimately may not even be exposed to the player. There are no restrictions on Skill selection for a character’s current Skill tier and any Skill within the current Skill tier can be learned.

Tier I

This tier will include the most fundamental Skills for each class. Currently we’re planning for there to be nine total Skills to choose from at this tier. Once a GuildKnight has learned three of the Skills at this level, they will be able to master one of their previously learned Skills the next time they gain a Skill advancement opportunity.

A mastered Skill will have its effects greatly enhanced beyond its standard capabilities. Our hope is that Skill mastery will help players to reinforce their desired play style while also allowing for more character diversity with a relatively smaller Skill pool.

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Tier II

At this tier the Skills learned will have more dramatic effects and will often supplement the abilities learned at Tier I. Currently, we’re working towards having a total of six abilities at Tier II. The player will be able to choose two of these then will again have the opportunity to master one of them.

Tier III

At this, the ultimate Skill tier, the most powerful class Skills are learned. A GuildKnight may only choose one of three available Skills from Tier III. While the Skills at this tier can’t be mastered, the idea is that their effects should be powerful and game-changing enough as to still make for a satisfying final Skill choice.

After we finish development on our next new enemy type we’re going to start building out the first set of Tier I abilities. As we get closer to getting this done, we’ll share some details on what our first planned classes are and what kinds of abilities they’ll have.

Until then, it’s back to work~!