I get asked a lot about the skills in Wayward. Some people are not fans of the skill system and would much rather have more traditional “class” systems in place. The skill system in Wayward is very much, a way to not need classes at all. Rather than forcing players into a role with limitations and boundaries, the player is only limited by how they want to play – in fact, all methods of play are available from the start without artificial class restrictions. It furthers the idea of open-ended gameplay that Wayward is all about. That being said, there is a few issues when dealing with this type of system.
Current Issues:
- Some skills lack depth and effectiveness.
- Some skills are simply for crafting success rates.
- Some skills don’t effect gameplay.
These issues can be fixed, and will be, in the upcoming versions. The next portion of the skill debate is the progression of them. Currently, three systems are in place with Wayward:
- The higher your skill is, the less chance you have to raise it.
- The higher your skill is, the less it gains at a time.
- The higher all your skills are, the slower it is to keep gaining new skills.
The issues that plague these systems are the balancing of them. Since Alpha 1.0, I have slowly been tweaking them, making it easier and easier each time. The 3rd point in the list was added a long the way to add more strategy in the progression of the skills – it makes players think twice about raising random skills at the start and makes them focus; such as what you would do in a real survival situation. That being said, these systems are very much hidden to the player; therefore, ruining my concept behind it. I think I can address these issues, in time, as well.
And yes, in the next version you will see easier skill gains once again.
I’m quite pleased with the classless system you’ve decided to go with. My only complaint is that you can only improve it by successfully using it. In real life you often learn from failures at least as much as successes. Same with item wear: I hit the rock but it didn’t affect my ax at all because nothing fell off of the rock? With the current system, failures (except crafting failures that destroy ingredients) kill time and nothing else. I would appreciate at least knowing that the attempt gained me some knowledge.
I hope to improve this a bit in the new version. Thanks for the comments.
Dude… A skill system that gains you MUCH more experience by failing than by succeeding?? I LOVE IT! That would help the top-end skill gain balancing, encourage you to make more complicated things rather than simply grinding low-level stuff, AND it would make failing a recipe/losing materials not feel like an awful waste–! Just like real life, if you choose to look at it that way 🙂
You would need to make high-tier recipes at least soft-locked to low-level users somehow… I like the idea of a material limit rather than a skill level requirement–because if you do manage to gather the materials, then you can at least *attempt* something complicated for huge XP at the cost of those hard to acquire goods!
I know this is a long-dead thread, but I love this idea so much!
I am pretty addicted to this game right now. My only complaint is saving, closing, then coming back later to find out that I’m nowhere near the cave where all my stuff is.
The things I’m looking forward to right now are: being able to choose what you take out of a chest, doors, and lanterns or some sort of simple stationary light source that could stick to the wall.
World saving is coming up in the new version for sure 🙂
I Never Got ANY Treasures In 100 Trys, This Game Is Boring. I Give 2 Out Of 5 Stars.
Be Happy That I Havent Gave You 1 Stars. But If You Blame This post Three Times, Ill Give One Stars And Add This Game On My “Blacklist.” I Hope You Die Soon, Have A Good Day!
I’m kind of wondering what 100 tries means. Or what blaming your post three times means. I think if I try to piece together your broken english I can somehow find the mysteries of what the meaning of life truly is.
+1 for a new chest UI where you can browse what is in it.
Right now the process goes like this:
.oO(“Is this the Leatherworking chest?”)
/me Fills inventory with a 40 assorted units of Iron ore, talc and some twigs I put in there by accident.
.oO(“Fiddlesticks”)
I know it’s not the best system yet, but one thing I like to do is lay some chests down, and on the tile above them place a single item as a describer to what is in the chest below.
Going forward though, I definitely want to work out a system as you describe.
Hey there, love the game so far. I’ve got some feedback if you’re willing to have a listen.
When I first found this through a recommendation on /v/, I was skeptical when the OP called this a true survival game that plays like Minicraft. Recalling Minicraft and how terribly shallow the “survival” element is from the lack of a hunger element to “two items craft all”, I was genuinely surprised when playing through my first life on Wayward. I’ll emphasize the next point to demonstrate my reaction.
Fun
As
FUCK.
You’ve nailed down the exact feel of helplessness in a survival game. When you do things they require stamina, when you run low on stamina you ache and hurt, when you do nothing you regain stamina but not instantly, when you work and regain stamina you become hungry, when you become hungry you need to eat which requires tools which requires materials that are gained through multiple resources, resources which depending on your luck are not conveniently next to you and are better acquired by tools.
And while you juggle the numerous tasks and struggle desperately to accomplish all of them to stay alive,
the sun
is slowly
setting
adding to the dread
and sense of urgency
each move
you make.
This is true survival. Playing this game both amuses me for hours and also leaves me with a sense of longing at what other survival games have tried and failed to create what Wayward accomplishes so easily. Never ever make this game casual. Ever.
Looking forward to a good chest UI.
Cheers.
Wow, thanks for the testimonial. I’ve often seen lots of traffic coming from /v/ but could never find the topics.
I just found your game from a youtuber’s let’s play. I have to say, for an Alpha project this game is AMAZING. I agree that the skill system makes more sense than a class based system. The only way I could see classes making sense would be to allow the player to pick what their profession in the real world before the shipwreck was to give them a small starting skill boost (i.e. pick ‘Carpenter’ when you make a new character to start with 10% woodcrafting). But I honestly think this would add very little to the game.
I’m really looking forward to where you take this game!
P.S. is there a place to send suggestions?
Hello there,
I just found the let’s play… very cool!
You can send suggestions a multitude of ways, but probably easiest through email using the contact link up at the top of the page, or if you want a more discussion based format, there’s the subreddit… or, well, just post a comment here 🙂
This is a really fun game, just started playing yesterday.
I’m a little worried about the last change “the higher all your skills are, the slower it is to keep gaining new skills.” I feel like this will make players afraid to do things because they fear getting points in a skill and slowing down their progress.
Maybe if the lower 50% in any skill is exempt from this calculation? That way people wouldn’t be afraid to experiment.