trickenso
commented
4 years ago Also, maybe like the new style government buildings, a skill might require infrastructure to maintain it. Rather than a single book that can fit in your inventory, it could be installed in a library room that can only maintain one skill, or a finite number of skills. That way you could learn your skills from a work party, or you could study it at a library later.
Similarly to government buildings needing to be bigger and more ornate to secure power, a library might need to contain more stacks and reading desks to maintain a broader range of skills, or to reduce study time, or similar. There might be considerable infrastructure required to support an endgame skill, or that later skills might require or benefit from the presence of earlier skills in the same library.
With the skill book system there are a few ways in which people seem to use them.
In any case, the system works, but here's an alternative use case: The Archives.
I Imagine it to look like a simple metal bookshelf, with space for each skill book that can be added. When a skill book is added it becomes a permanent part of the Archives, and is visible. When an authorized player interacts with it they immediately learn all skills it holds that they don't otherwise own.
Why do this instead of just sharing skill scrolls?
Well, let's say you are on a large server with more than one country forming. You want to encourage new players to join you, or maybe you are just competing against the other group. If you made skill scrolls freely available, then a spy could take extra and give them to the other group. Additionally, you'd have to produce the skill scrolls from the skill books regularly. With the Archive you can be sure that the information doesn't leak into enemy hands. No checking out of books.
Another use case would be in combination with contract boards for researching. In the current system someone still has to keep the book that can make more scrolls, but if the contract can dictate that the book is deposited into the Archives it means that no one has the book.
Authorization for the Archives could be for a specific player, all players, or a member of a specific demographic or nation. (i.e. you have to own land within the nation or be part of the demographic to use). Anyone with authorization can add a book to it, but no one can take a book from it.
Visually, I think it would look better than just locking the books in a chest. It gives them a dedicated space, and it could even have a decoration value to create value for additional books made on a server. Building the archive and filling it with all skill books could grant more of a boost to the development of skill points than one without books, similar to how braziers only provide a boost when lit.
It could be a government owned item for the benefit of the community, or an individually owned item for a player's private library.