I am focusing on the original eight professions from the Ultima series (starting with Ultima IV, with each based on a particular Virtue), and have assigned a Primary Skill to each profession. When this skill is raised, all primary skills associated with other professions are decreased by the same amount (or, probably, more). Other, secondary skills also lower certain primary skills. Wearing or carrying certain weapons, armor, items, and even clothing cause temporary loss in particular skills, which will linger for quite some time after removing the item to prevent toggling with hot keys and other workarounds.
A lot of this is to impose a certain degree of my aesthetic vision. Some restrictions are "realistic," some arbitrary. Basically, I want a Paladin to look and act like a Paladin, a Mage to look and act like a Mage, etc. (what I envision them looking and acting like), at least within a certain range. I do not, however, really want to implement a full fledged class system. I also want to try to encourage more group play. The skill cap will be set at the original 700 to force players to make certain choices about their characters.
Some skills (namely healing, crafting, and knowledge-based skills) will not have any effect on any other skills, and may be practiced freely. This will allow a bit more variety, and encourage professions/combinations other than the original eight. Many rogue skills are not virtuous and will consequently not be compatible with certain skills (namely Chivalry, but also many others). I may also try to tie this into a heavily modified version of the Virtue system (but that is another post, for a much later date).
Some of the Primary Skills were fairly easy to isolate:
Paladin (Chivalry): Somewhat modified version of the original (Sacred journey removed, for example).
Mage (Magery): With a few spells removed, altered (namely removal of Recall).
Druid (Druid Magic): A new magic-based skill, including animal forms and new reagents.
Bard (Musicianship and a new Bard Song skill): The two will function in tandem.
Tinker (Tinkering): Pretty much the same as the original skill, at least so far.
Shepherd (Herding): Will allow up to five animal slots with Taming. Without it, only one is available. Also, only (most) animals are tamable, no monsters. May include some additional perks as well.
I am having more difficulty with the Ranger and the Fighter, and would appreciate some feedback (if anyone made it this far...
Ranger:
In the original Ultima games, the Ranger was the class of the virtue Spirituality. I want to work this into the Ranger’s primary skill. At first glance, Tracking seems a natural choice, but it is not particularly steeped in Spirituality.
After some brainstorming, I decided to perhaps make the primary skill Meditation, but not the same Meditation skill practiced by Mages. That skill would be renamed Concentration, would only effect Mana regeneration, and would only be usable by Mages and Druids (maybe Bards).
The new Ranger-based Meditation skill would increase with use of the skill, with a slight increase possible if practiced at one of the eight original shrines. Actively, it would also function as Spirit Speak, but would only grant the ability to understand ghosts. This is for flavor. Passively, it would function as Resisting Spells. This is to give the skill a practical use and not require the Ranger to waste a skill slot on a useless skill. Note that both Spirit Speak and Resisting Spells would still exist.
While I like the above system, it nevertheless does not really scream “ranger” to me. Would it perhaps make sense to also use a certain amount in Meditation as a prerequisite for learning Tracking, or perhaps have it give some bonus to Archery? Can a skill pull triple duty in such a manner? I had considered using it instead of Tactics for Archery, but I do not want to limit archery to Rangers.
Fighter:
For the fighter, I considered making Focus (renamed Battle Focus) the Primary Skill. I want to make its use active, as opposed to passive. Thus, in order to use it, the player must select it. It then either lasts for a specific time, with a notification revealing when it stops, or until it is turned off. It would still be raised in the same manner, but would now only effect stamina (maybe very slight HP increase). This will make the skill specific to fighters, since it will cause other primary skills to decrease. This is an attempt to make the fighter the best pure combat character.
