The "Focus" skill system

[Engimage]

This is another idea how to modify current "star" skill progression system.

So the issue I am trying to address here is the ability for a single player to create "closed cycle" system not requiring other people labor. As it is now, at some point a single player can take like 6 different skills effectively creating a closed production chain. With the ability to spend unlimited calories this creates a real problem effectively breaking the economy.

As I see it one of the main goals in Eco is showing people they need to collaborate, that they can't reach their goals by themselves. I do understand that the current star system is designed like it is to allow overall server progression from early stage skills to more advanced. This is why you need the ability to learn new skills over time.

However one idea from long ago makes much sense. You just had a hard limit of 2 (4 or more depending on server collab settings) maximum stars at a time, with the ability to "unlearn" a skill if you wanted to respec.

So this is almost exactly what I am proposing here. Depending on the collab settings you can have a set amount of skills marked with a star. These skills will level up when using them, while all skills not marked with the star will effectively lose exp, deleveing them as a result.

Unlearning a skill does not make sense irl, but what happens is you kind of "forget" stuff you are not doing for a long time.

Such system will let people progress over time if they want to focus their effort on the modern specialties, however forcing them to let others catch up earlier professions.

This still does not solve the ability to invest unlimited amounts of labor by a single individual, but still would be a nice addition to help with labor segregation.

Another thought here. Skills without stars can be limited by say level 3 or 4. This would be like that to prevent swapping stars back and forth.

[johnkslg]

Perhaps we make certain skills have multiple stars needed to fully level them up. @WeaselDog @Sekor2600 @mirasrael

[Engimage]

Perhaps we make certain skills have multiple stars needed to fully level them up.

The issue is that once learned the skill remains for the player. Does not matter is you need one or more stars for the next one. Making certain skills require more stars is kinda unfair. The issue is preventing the player from effectively using multiple skills simultaneously.

For example if a player is doing Composites, he should not be able to effectively chop trees, hew logs, make lumber, produce Oil and make composites themselves, all by himself. If one decides to make composites he should probably drop Logging to let other people do it. At least one should definitely not be able to produce Oil if he is focused on Wood production.

So on high collab for example a player could only pick say 2 skills at a time for active use. I did propose a way yo smoothly degrade dropped skills over time instead of straight dropping them, but that is an option for sure.