You know how when you level your hearthlings they gain bonuses? Well to me some of them are useless and can just be ignored. Like the footman, all you need is the equipment to be effective. So I say they should rework the system to include a research system. I mean its not immersive to see a civilization be smart automatically. Heres how I picture it going. At the bottom of the skill tree is a campfire which means you have the knowledge to start a civilization. And with this new system your base job, i.e. workers, can level. And all classes can level indefinitly, each time a class levels you gain 5 research points which can be spent to unlock new classes and or buffs to classes. For example, you must research Get to Arms to unlock the footman and also the buffs to combat type classes. And after you unlock the passive, all characters that reach the level that is required to origionally unlock it will gain the bonus. And then comes the new passives. Footmen needs a rework to make the passives more wanted because your researching to unlock them in this case. Passives like footmen take 25% less damage in combat or footmen regens HP 20% faster. And Crafter Bonuses can be increased crafting speed or even unlocking new stuff to make! Please post your opinions, id love to see what you all have to say <3
Edit: Please read the last post from me for a revised version. Too lazy Lol.
I would like to argue with their damage bonus perkā¦
Regardless, I personally donāt think there needs to be more requirement to unlock a class than the requirements already made. Like you have to have a farmer to a certain level to be a chef AFTER your stonesmith (whatever heās called) is high enough level to make the spoon.
But as for additional perks, I think an XCOM style level system could work.
I was thinking the soldier class might get a little class tree of itās own with specialised classes. Like every āsoldierā starts in a recruit class, which only wears low level armor and a sword. The recruit class can be promoted to warrior, guardian, ranger etc. which each have their own orientation. Warriors for example have a bonus on two handed melee weapons with splash damage to better clear groups of weaker enemies, guardians receive more courage and defense from their armor and shields to tank enemies, rangers use ranged weapons and deal good single target damage etc. Higher classes in the tree can wear better equipment, so a fresh recruit canāt equip high level stuff and has to use low level equip. So it gets important to have a standing, well trained and somewhat diversified military. I just made this up on the run, but I think managing such classes would be much simpler than micromanaging each soldiers individual perks. I would also like if hearthlings would lose experience over time in all professions thatās not their currently represented or base profession, so soldiers canāt be effectively used to double back to e.g. workers to do other tasks and just be promoted to soldiers to fend off single attacks, but actually have to stay in their profession to keep their combat strength. Instead there could be training puppets the soldiers could hit for some extra experience, so they have something to do besides patrolling.
This recruit-class would also imply that low lvl gear is needed at all times to train new soldiers. so you cannot sell off the lowlvl leather armor once you can craft steel gear because your new recruits need that leather gear to lvl up.
btw lvling up could also apply to gear:
well used gear could possibly gain boni with were not present when crafted. So a leather armor after weeks of usage by an footman gains the perk āwell usedā and does not decrease walking speed anymore ā¦
or maybe a small bonus on spirit for recruits who are proud to wear this piece of equipment handed down by their seniors.
BTT:
I donāt like the prospect of more micromanagement especially for every hearthling out there.
Imagine a flourishing town with 200+ hearthlings after release. You seriously wanna manage all your citizens? Cuz if you add those āskilltreesā to the fighter classes workers and crafters ought to get those trees tooā¦
Iām not saying iām against research and development but the requirements as are are enough. Maybe add some research later on for classes like the kickstarterpromised engineer. or the magmasmith. Try and error for those high lvl classes. Not the basic stuff.
Alright let me rephrase what I was trying to say. Basically the game starts out with workers. Workers, Footmen, and Farmers are the 3 classes you automatically start with. Then is the research system. All the characters wont have a skill tree, the civilization does. For example, you can unlock perks through the research system for more crops, harvest speed, exc. which leads to the unlock of Trappers. Same thing goes for Archers, Clerics, and Knights. Research points is gained by Building, Chopping, Crafting, and Mining. If you unlock a perk via research, all you need to do is level up the class to the required level to gain the added perk. The research perks are different from leveled perks. Its like discovering the use of Fertilizer! Hope that clears up any confusion.