Jam Rascal

Greetings Seraph Glad to see that you made it through the ordeal and have been able to access your old memories. These have been packaged in Memory Cores as we found during testing that the process of sending you through will result in near total memory loss. These Memory Cores are [hiss-fuzz] and completely stable. You won’t be able to recall all your memories at once and these portable devices only contain enough power to contain a small selection of past experiences. As your mind can only cope with [fizz] or rapid insanity. There should be other caches of memories that we’ve sent [hiss] and vaults. We’ve planned [kshh-hick-fuzz] that should make this easy for you. Plant [fuzz] Build [fizz] Grow [hiss] Thrive. We’ll be waiting for you. Jonas --- Hi VS Team, My suggestion is that the class system and the associated abilities are reworked into a customisable and modular Skill system that supports the game's lore. A Memory Core will allow a Seraph to learn (remember) Skills allowing the player to tailor their seraph abilities relevant to their play style. Gained on first spawn and by searching through ruins and dungeons, Memory Cores are treasures that will hopefully encourage more early-mid game cave exploration by providing interesting rewards that will hopefully result in meaningful decisions. I am imagining that the abilities available to choose are large/chunky modifiers (eg. learn new recipe set, +15% to skill) rather than pitiful incremental ticks (eg. +2% pickaxe speed, rope recipe now costs 1 less vine) As this means they can be a bit rarer and so makes the excitement of finding greater and using one more impactful. Memory Cores: Each memory core contains three positive bonus Skills and three negative drawback Skills (balanced similar to the current system). A player must choose one bonus and one drawback from the list. Some cores simply contain a random selection of bonuses/drawbacks Skills, others are profession specific and contain a concentrated Skill set linked to the abilities of the profession. Memory Extractor Cores: A small percentage of Memory Cores are empty Extractor Cores, these can be used to remove a Skill (positive or negative) from the Seraph that uses it storing it in the Core. If an Extractor Core with a Skill in it is used, it will give that Skill to the Seraph then break. In single-player games this allows the player to remove negative Skills that they don’t enjoy playing with. In multiplayer this is of course still possible, but also allows players to trade positive Skills to a friend. Starting classes: Players would still choose a starting class but this would manifest by them starting with 2 (semi randomised) memory cores in their inventory for their chosen class. This should provide players with more variety in their starting skill set, which allows players in multiplayer games where others have chosen the same class to feel more unique, whilst still fitting within the general gameplay style they want to start in. Balancing easy acquisition with fun work: Finding a dungeon or ruin containing Memory Cores could use the existing trader system. Perhaps instead of it being a specific item swap for map dialogue line. It could be linked to a Seraph trading a certain volume of goods with the trader before being given a map. Cores may be locked inside a special safe that requires the Seraph to sacrifice an object or complete a task to open the safe. Players that enjoy combat: Temporal gears Players that enjoy food prep: food items equal to a quantity of satiation Players who build lots: taken and smashed on an anvil with a helve hammer Players who like exploring lots of ruins: Cores could also be found in regular broken chests. Modding Support: If Skills can be defined by using scripts, with Seraph attributes (eg. ore/crop/lumber output, animal detection range, hunger rate, recipes known) being able to be modified. Then Skill Sets for profession Memory Cores can be defined as lists of Skills based upon specific id names or words. This would allow modders to create new Skills and add them to new sets or maybe even add new Skills to existing professions. Lore: Along with a new set of skills you could also provide the player with a snippet of lore in the form of a first person description of life before/during the rust, maybe even a picture. Memory cores could be found in a location with environmental storytelling (eg. a broken down door with skeletons near the safe, crates of rot and a selection of preserved food surrounding a half buried safe) I love what you're doing with the game and have really enjoyed my time with it so far, I look forward to every new update. Rascal