Posting this was sort of initiated by another post (here: http://www.gaslampgames.com/forum/discussion/472/leveling-up-after-all-skills-are-finished) But I thought given the nature I should just post a whole discussion. I actually thought quite a bit about this. Taking a decent number of 6 rank skills (5 points to max) still needs some lower capping skills for support in order to not have a really terrible go at it.. the highest theoretical level characters I've had could be was 30 (though I could of gone higher if i had all 6 level skill trees). The idea of opening new lines has merit but I dont believe waiting until you cap your starter skills is really necessary. Example, You want an additional tree. Unlocking an 8th Tree cost 3 points for the first rank Unlocking a 9th Tree cost 5 points for the first rank Unlocking a 10th Tree cost 7 points for the first rank etc. I thought about making it cheaper (say each unlock being 2/3/4) but having each following rank be the same price. However if that was the case people would just take the longer trees as their starters and only unlock the short trees. That = Cheese. So instead just making each additional tree more and more costly seemed a good Also in my testing I've found its possible to go over level 100 (was offline and then crashed it, no leaderboard douchebaggery here guys ). With an effectively limitless level cap (I mean, its over 100 and those levels require RIDICULOUS amounts of xp.. like.. lots and lots of zeros...) and the above system someone could theoretically get every skill in the game and max it, but REALISTICALLY it would never happen. It would however be useful for people who cap out or are simply willing to gain additional power in exchange for a MAJOR sacrifice. AND SACRIFICE YOU MUST For those who have not noticed, you gain way more stats when adding skills than the skills alone give in the description. This is because each skill adds +1 to either warrior, wizard, or rogue on your class bar. Each point on that bar increases your stats and abilities based on which class you take. You get NO benefit from leveling UNTIL you spend the skill point. So if you spend 3 levels to unlock ONE new skill tree (and thus its first rank), you have only gained ONE new skill. That one skill unlocked will still only increase the appropriate class rank by ONE point, no matter how many skill points you spent to unlock it. You still only gained ONE skill, so you only get ONE class increase. In game terms. Lets Say you have a level 25 character, you've descended very deep, playing the awesome DLC we know is coming. Lets say there are three versions of this character, (the third is very unlikely at this level). One with an 8th, a 9th, and a 10th tree unlocked respectively. 8 Tree Hero Lvl 25 = 3 Levels spent on 1 tree (-2 effective level). Your hero has the stats of a level 23 but counts as 25 for how much xp is needed to level. 9 Tree Hero Lvl 25 = 3 and 5 points(8) spent on 2 new trees. So you only got 2 class increases. You lost 6 levels. You have the stats of a level 19 but require as much xp as a level 25 to progress. 10 Tree Hero Lvl 25 = 3 and 5 and 7 points (15) spent on 3 new trees. 3 Class increases from that, not 15. You are really a level 10 hero, but you need to earn just as much xp as a level 25 does to gain another level. -- In retrospect this is really really harsh. If its too harsh you could consider a method that doesn't increase as you unlock new tiers. Less harsh example Unlocking Skill Trees : Static 4 skill point expenditure. No matter how many trees. Doing it that way each tree beyond the first seven will still give a pretty major penalty... -3 to your effective level, as you just sacrificed those extra points. However if you wanted to really make a jack of all trades it wouldn't hurt quite so bad. These numbers could be balanced up or down, perhaps even based on difficulty. (4 going rogue, 3 dwarven moderation, 2 elvishly easy). Also consider requiring a large sacrifice of lutefisk or some other such silliness, such as talking to an oracle and receiving a quest etc (but you would have to have the skill points saved up before they would even talk to you, so you'd be even weaker than once you unlock the skill because you cant spend them ) after which you would be granted the new tree. Lots of fun stuff. Discuss.
Oh the level and effective level thing with a 4 point unlock would change to Level 25 PC's with 8 9 and 10 trees. First is level 22, second is 19, third would be 16, a whopping 9 levels under for three trees at a static price of 4. Getting the xp to go from 25 to 26 when your the equivalent of a level 16 is not the fastest of things, so the first formula probably shouldn't be used if this suggestion is taken, as it would quickly gimp even the coolest characters without heavy modding to the xp system.
