This will be a little bit rambly, and I will link to what I posted in another thread on some of these. I just wanted to put all of my thoughts in a single location, rather than submit a ton of feedback I can't get much discussion from.
Please note, I understand the game is in alpha. I don't consider myself an expert on MMO's, but I feel I have a good grasp on what is enjoyable for a majority of people and what isn't.
Alchemy
Alchemy is what I consider to be a pancake of a tradeskill. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. It means it's a trade skill that takes some effort to work up. There is nothing wrong with this, especially since Battle Chemistry will eventually be a reward for maxing it out. For this fact alone, I consider Alchemy fun. It's a lot of work for a lot of reward, and I can see this having all kinds of fun practical uses by itself. It would be nice to be able to create unique, more potent versions of store bought potions as well. (This may already be a thing, I don't know.
I have another thing I want to mention about it, but we will wait until we hit the gardening section for that.
Anatomy and Pathology
As it stands right now, I find this to be pointless. The only benefits it gives are skinning related. I would like to see a more in-depth process where you can salvage for different parts of an animal/creature, and experiment on them to find weaknesses, or to create poisons/chemicals that can change the targets anatomy.
As an example, perhaps I could create a degeneration poison that causes skeletal bone structures to rapidly decay, causing anything with a skeleton to move slower and take additional physical damage. You would make this poison by experimenting with chemicals on femurs. Once you find the right combination, you gain a recipe, which you can then craft and apply to a weapon. These poisons would require a certain Anatomy skill to be used. Psychoanalysis would be removed, and instead you would gleam this information from Anatomy as well. (If it showed what you knew about a species in the UI, such as its health, armor, etc then even better) Only those who have discovered a targets weakness would be able to properly exploit it. (They would still be able to take advantage of it, but nowhere near as well)
Archery and Fletching
Still need to fiddle with.
Armor Patching + First Aid
The new changes to Armor Patching and First Aid are a fantastic start to making these better!
Art History
I feel like this ties more into lore than anything else. I would ditch this, and instead make a skill called Appraisal. Make it affect more than just paintings. Anything relic looking from dungeon delving, you won't be able to correctly identify it's value until you have enough appraisal to do so. There could also be merchants that will appraise things for you, for a price. You could then tie this into some hidden quests perhaps. "Oh, this goblet is actually slightly different from the others, and you notice what appears to be an attempt of restoration on this item. A little scratching reveals the initials F. Y." Find it's owner, and it's a quest! Another example, one goblet might have more expensive jewels encrusting it, and without appraisal you wouldn't be able to identify it's true value.
Battle Chemistry
The programmable battle golems are a phenominal idea. So phenominal, an entire skill set should be dedicated to JUST that. I'm serious. All the skills in that tree should revolve around skills for the Golem, and programmation of the Golem. Cap each golem to 1 or 2 skills, and make it so you can "save" different Golem configurations, and make these configs your skills. Call it Golemancy or something like that. Remove it from Battle Chemistry. This will allow a lot of flexibility in Golem choice, the catch being you need to swap out the Golem (costing energy).
Upon doing that, then make Battle Chemistry more fleshed out in it's current form. Add more interesting bombs, and WAY more infusion choices. I love the concept here.
Beast Speech
This one is a lot of fun, but I feel like it could be more. Perhaps give each "animal" a skill requirement. You can then converse with these animals at that point, and maybe some of them will give you some useful information?
Caligraphy and Meditate
I am fine with the idea of these. Just make sure each weapon skill type has an appropriate equivalent.
Carpentry
Player Housing. This is all I need to say for this. (Look at how Rift does player housing. This skill system plus Rift's execution of placement? Hell. Yes.)
Cooking and Gardening
I believe my complaint with this is solely due to Alpha, but I will state it nonetheless. It simply doesn't do anything fun. I can grow stuff and make it into stuff.
Actually being able to DO this in an MMO is a lot of fun, don't get me wrong. But there is no reason to do it right now. Some things that I feel would add a lot:
-Allow us to grow different kinds of spices, which will imbue foods with properties like +Damage, +Combat Regen, etc.
-The potential with this and player housing (Carpentry suggests you have this in your mind) cannot be overstated. If it can get to this point, re-design gardening to take a long amount of time to grow and have us buy farming plots of land, and then introduce Chemicals you can make with Chemistry. These Chemicals could alter the final magnitude of a plant (It's properties) in exchange for growing speed. The better your gardening and chemistry, the better you become at this process and the more tools you have to enchance the potency and speed of your crops.
-Allow plants to drop rare seeds, that we can cultivate into unique herbs/spices that will give food powerful properties. Gardening determines how well we can cultivate these seeds, and in addition determines how often we can get seeds from the plants we farmed to make another batch.
Dying
This is actually a hilarious idea, and a good one at that too. I have nothing but compliments for this one.
Endurance
I feel like I should be getting + Energy from this, not + Armor. In addition, the inventory slots are too spaced out to matter much.
Here's my idea. Keep the + inventory slots, but also add a few bag slots. Give each bag a "weight" value. You cannot have more bags equipped than you have bag slots or weight. Going over the weight amount will drastically increase Energy costs.
Limited inventory space in a freeform skill system, like the one in Project: Gorgon, is a terrible design choice. This system is all about creativity, and here you are limiting bad space, which limits gear choice, which limits creativity. With a system like this, giving players the option to have enough room for multiple sets of gear to fit comfortably can only help you.
Fire Magic
See here: http://stratics.com/community/threads/combat-skills-analysis.298440/#post-2285633
Fishing
Aside from providing more food options, I have a really fun idea for this from Winters Roar, an old EQEMU server. Allow fishing to rarely get you treasure maps. (If you plan to incorporate actual fishing, if not then give it a rare chance to find inside fish of the appropriate skill level)
Have these treasure maps involve finding the right location to go to, digging up the treasure, and killing it's guardians. Have the reward be fairly substantial.
Foraging
As it is, not a bad idea. Works well enough. If you like the idea with the rare seeds, I feel like incorporating them into Foraging as well would be a great idea. Perhaps even make treasure maps be exceptionally rare nodes you could find and forage. You know how EQ worked, I think, so you are aware of the quest potentials with this as well.
Gourmand
This idea is a fun one. Again, if you like the spices idea, perhaps you could use this as the way to identify spices. Want to know what a spice does? Have enough Gourmand skill, otherwise the food could just say "Seasoned with Oregano" or something. Another alternative would be to have Gourmand enhance the effects of the seasonings slightly.
Again, assuming you like that idea. Otherwise it's fine as-is.
Leatherworking and Geology and Skinning and Tanning
The system you have in mind for this is perfect. Perhaps making tailoring and smithing versions later on, but otherwise you are good to go here. (Would need stuff like Smelting, Mining, Sewing, etc)
Lore
If you could somehow incorporate this into Dungeon elements to find hidden passages and such, that would be phenomenal. Otherwise, it's fine as-is. Has some balancing issues with how Fire spells work though. If you plan to add more elements later on as well, you might want to consider how Lore will interact with those.
Mentalism, Cow, Sword, Deer, Staff, etc
See here: http://stratics.com/community/threads/combat-skills-analysis.298440/#post-2285633
Mycology
No comment. Does what it needs to do. I assume you have more to do with this yet, with the Myconic.
Teleportation
As it is, I use Words of Power far more than I do Teleportation. Either remove Words of Power, or allow me to bind to 2 circles for Teleporation, or remove the constraint of having to start in a circle.
Please note, I understand the game is in alpha. I don't consider myself an expert on MMO's, but I feel I have a good grasp on what is enjoyable for a majority of people and what isn't.
Alchemy
Alchemy is what I consider to be a pancake of a tradeskill. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. It means it's a trade skill that takes some effort to work up. There is nothing wrong with this, especially since Battle Chemistry will eventually be a reward for maxing it out. For this fact alone, I consider Alchemy fun. It's a lot of work for a lot of reward, and I can see this having all kinds of fun practical uses by itself. It would be nice to be able to create unique, more potent versions of store bought potions as well. (This may already be a thing, I don't know.
I have another thing I want to mention about it, but we will wait until we hit the gardening section for that.
Anatomy and Pathology
As it stands right now, I find this to be pointless. The only benefits it gives are skinning related. I would like to see a more in-depth process where you can salvage for different parts of an animal/creature, and experiment on them to find weaknesses, or to create poisons/chemicals that can change the targets anatomy.
As an example, perhaps I could create a degeneration poison that causes skeletal bone structures to rapidly decay, causing anything with a skeleton to move slower and take additional physical damage. You would make this poison by experimenting with chemicals on femurs. Once you find the right combination, you gain a recipe, which you can then craft and apply to a weapon. These poisons would require a certain Anatomy skill to be used. Psychoanalysis would be removed, and instead you would gleam this information from Anatomy as well. (If it showed what you knew about a species in the UI, such as its health, armor, etc then even better) Only those who have discovered a targets weakness would be able to properly exploit it. (They would still be able to take advantage of it, but nowhere near as well)
Archery and Fletching
Still need to fiddle with.
Armor Patching + First Aid
The new changes to Armor Patching and First Aid are a fantastic start to making these better!
Art History
I feel like this ties more into lore than anything else. I would ditch this, and instead make a skill called Appraisal. Make it affect more than just paintings. Anything relic looking from dungeon delving, you won't be able to correctly identify it's value until you have enough appraisal to do so. There could also be merchants that will appraise things for you, for a price. You could then tie this into some hidden quests perhaps. "Oh, this goblet is actually slightly different from the others, and you notice what appears to be an attempt of restoration on this item. A little scratching reveals the initials F. Y." Find it's owner, and it's a quest! Another example, one goblet might have more expensive jewels encrusting it, and without appraisal you wouldn't be able to identify it's true value.
Battle Chemistry
The programmable battle golems are a phenominal idea. So phenominal, an entire skill set should be dedicated to JUST that. I'm serious. All the skills in that tree should revolve around skills for the Golem, and programmation of the Golem. Cap each golem to 1 or 2 skills, and make it so you can "save" different Golem configurations, and make these configs your skills. Call it Golemancy or something like that. Remove it from Battle Chemistry. This will allow a lot of flexibility in Golem choice, the catch being you need to swap out the Golem (costing energy).
Upon doing that, then make Battle Chemistry more fleshed out in it's current form. Add more interesting bombs, and WAY more infusion choices. I love the concept here.
Beast Speech
This one is a lot of fun, but I feel like it could be more. Perhaps give each "animal" a skill requirement. You can then converse with these animals at that point, and maybe some of them will give you some useful information?
Caligraphy and Meditate
I am fine with the idea of these. Just make sure each weapon skill type has an appropriate equivalent.
Carpentry
Player Housing. This is all I need to say for this. (Look at how Rift does player housing. This skill system plus Rift's execution of placement? Hell. Yes.)
Cooking and Gardening
I believe my complaint with this is solely due to Alpha, but I will state it nonetheless. It simply doesn't do anything fun. I can grow stuff and make it into stuff.
Actually being able to DO this in an MMO is a lot of fun, don't get me wrong. But there is no reason to do it right now. Some things that I feel would add a lot:
-Allow us to grow different kinds of spices, which will imbue foods with properties like +Damage, +Combat Regen, etc.
-The potential with this and player housing (Carpentry suggests you have this in your mind) cannot be overstated. If it can get to this point, re-design gardening to take a long amount of time to grow and have us buy farming plots of land, and then introduce Chemicals you can make with Chemistry. These Chemicals could alter the final magnitude of a plant (It's properties) in exchange for growing speed. The better your gardening and chemistry, the better you become at this process and the more tools you have to enchance the potency and speed of your crops.
-Allow plants to drop rare seeds, that we can cultivate into unique herbs/spices that will give food powerful properties. Gardening determines how well we can cultivate these seeds, and in addition determines how often we can get seeds from the plants we farmed to make another batch.
Dying
This is actually a hilarious idea, and a good one at that too. I have nothing but compliments for this one.
Endurance
I feel like I should be getting + Energy from this, not + Armor. In addition, the inventory slots are too spaced out to matter much.
Here's my idea. Keep the + inventory slots, but also add a few bag slots. Give each bag a "weight" value. You cannot have more bags equipped than you have bag slots or weight. Going over the weight amount will drastically increase Energy costs.
Limited inventory space in a freeform skill system, like the one in Project: Gorgon, is a terrible design choice. This system is all about creativity, and here you are limiting bad space, which limits gear choice, which limits creativity. With a system like this, giving players the option to have enough room for multiple sets of gear to fit comfortably can only help you.
Fire Magic
See here: http://stratics.com/community/threads/combat-skills-analysis.298440/#post-2285633
Fishing
Aside from providing more food options, I have a really fun idea for this from Winters Roar, an old EQEMU server. Allow fishing to rarely get you treasure maps. (If you plan to incorporate actual fishing, if not then give it a rare chance to find inside fish of the appropriate skill level)
Have these treasure maps involve finding the right location to go to, digging up the treasure, and killing it's guardians. Have the reward be fairly substantial.
Foraging
As it is, not a bad idea. Works well enough. If you like the idea with the rare seeds, I feel like incorporating them into Foraging as well would be a great idea. Perhaps even make treasure maps be exceptionally rare nodes you could find and forage. You know how EQ worked, I think, so you are aware of the quest potentials with this as well.
Gourmand
This idea is a fun one. Again, if you like the spices idea, perhaps you could use this as the way to identify spices. Want to know what a spice does? Have enough Gourmand skill, otherwise the food could just say "Seasoned with Oregano" or something. Another alternative would be to have Gourmand enhance the effects of the seasonings slightly.
Again, assuming you like that idea. Otherwise it's fine as-is.
Leatherworking and Geology and Skinning and Tanning
The system you have in mind for this is perfect. Perhaps making tailoring and smithing versions later on, but otherwise you are good to go here. (Would need stuff like Smelting, Mining, Sewing, etc)
Lore
If you could somehow incorporate this into Dungeon elements to find hidden passages and such, that would be phenomenal. Otherwise, it's fine as-is. Has some balancing issues with how Fire spells work though. If you plan to add more elements later on as well, you might want to consider how Lore will interact with those.
Mentalism, Cow, Sword, Deer, Staff, etc
See here: http://stratics.com/community/threads/combat-skills-analysis.298440/#post-2285633
Mycology
No comment. Does what it needs to do. I assume you have more to do with this yet, with the Myconic.
Teleportation
As it is, I use Words of Power far more than I do Teleportation. Either remove Words of Power, or allow me to bind to 2 circles for Teleporation, or remove the constraint of having to start in a circle.
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