Hey Alex, do enemy admirals also have skills?
In theory, yes. Not sure whether they will or not by next release, but I'm implementing this in a way that makes it apply to both player- and computer-controlled fleets.
One big thing that was left out (perhaps intentionally) was HOW one progresses. Do we gain experience along side our crew, or is there a special way to gain character experience. A mixture?
We'll see. In the next release, most likely alongside the crew.
• Could a character without any points invested in anything be able to do everything (just less efficiently), or will skills and attributes unlock the ability to do certain things?
• How might officers affect things?
EDIT: Bonus questions-
• Will different npcs react differently based on where you allocate your attributes and skill points? (your reputation precedes you sorta thing)
• Will investment in attributes/skills provide some crossover effects in the other fields? (ie. combat skills providing an intimidation factor that improves your ability to sell or buy at a more favorable price)
1) Well, most of the hull mods will be unlocks. I'd say the player will be able to do most/all things at a base level, though.
2, 3, & 4) Too early to really dive into, though I have some more specific ideas for 2).
Interesting stuff. Personally I'm hoping for a soft-cap. I don't like hard-caps.
I'm of the same opinion re: caps.
That makes 3 of us
Although, for me, "soft cap" just means "for all intents and purposes, a hard cap at +X levels" - where X isn't all that high.
Also quite interested in the extent of how player-moddable the entire skills framework will be.
Right around the same level as hullmods are now. So, you wouldn't be able, to, say, create skill trees with it - but you could add new skills (likely aptitudes, too), adjust XP/what's gained per level, etc. The player character will have a set of mutable stats in the same way ships have mutable stats now. So I'd say the
framework itself won't be very moddable - but that'd require new UI elements and such to work right, anyway. On the other hand, all the skills are being implemented in the same way a mod would do it - nothing hardcoded.