How to Create a Better Skill Tree
Now, these days, it sometimes seems like it's impossible to release a big action blockbuster without a thing called the Skill Tree. You've probably met them before, for example in Tomb Raider and Watch Dogs. They often consist of three branches with funny names like “innovator” or “hunter.” In these games, you gain experience points by playing through missions, and whenever you hit a threshold, you get a skill point.
With them, you can unlock a new ability. The ability can be cool, like a new move, or something less interesting like slightly increased health points. These skill trees were initially only in RPGs with a lot of numbers, such as Diablo 2, but have since become ubiquitous in action.
-big budget games - from Spider-Man to DOOM, and now it's just an expected part of modern console games like towers and microtransactions. But while I find such decisions already clichéd and boring, I completely understand why skill trees work and how they can benefit different games.
On the one hand, they can be used to determine difficulty as the game progresses. If in God of War all of Kratos's abilities are unlocked at the beginning, it will completely overwhelm some players and they will only use easy-to-learn techniques without delving into the intricacies of the combat system.
... But as you earn new abilities from the skill tree, your set of combat moves gradually increases as you progress, and since you've spent fictitious currency on this move, you'll probably feel the need to use it. Skill trees are also a good way to make players feel like a progression as they play.
At the beginning of the adventure you are weak and have only a few special moves, but towards the end you are a walking tank with an armful of abilities. This can also be used to engage the player. They can create a different gaming experience with each new playthrough.
And they give the UI artist team a job. Someone has to paint all these icons. Despite all their advantages, in most games skill trees are structured in such a way that the bottom line is terrible, so in this video we will talk about common mistakes that are made in skill trees and how we could fix them.
For starters, many skill tree games allow the player to unlock most, if not all, improvements by the end of the game. And this deprives the player of the need to think about his choice. They only think about the order in which they unlock the skills, not what improvements they exactly need.
I personally liked the skill tree in Assassin's Creed Origins because I knew I wouldn't be able to get all the skills by the end of the game. Instead, I had to define a specialization - I focused on the branches of Hunters and Seers, who were constantly improving my stealth abilities and expanding my ability to capture camps and create chaos in the ranks of the enemy.
This produced interesting results, such as how Bayek felt for me personally, and his skills matched the way I decided to play the game, but there were also interesting consequences for my choice: neglecting the warrior branch, I was rather weak in combat alone.
For one. I often had to avoid direct confrontations and find new ways to deal with situations. Immersive Sims are also good at showing the implications of skill choices. In Deus Ex games, some paths and options will be locked based on the "upgrades" you choose, forcing you to look for alternative routes that better suit your character.
And in Prey, the more skills you unlock, the more “alien” you become - up to the point where friendly turrets consider you a threat and try to kill you. Another way to mess up skill trees is to simply make skills boring. Not very intriguing, right? All in all, the new tricks in Dishonored and the incredibly cool attacks in God of War are much more interesting than a few extra numbers in the game's Excel spreadsheet.
And don't forget Metroid basics: one ability can serve multiple purposes, for example, an ice ray, which is also a weapon. and the way to move. Ultimately, an interesting skill will make you unlock yourself, and you will immediately rush to try it. For a second, back to Origins, I found myself in a very exciting cycle: I discovered new abilities - then happily tested them in several camps and missions, which gave me I have enough experience points for a new ability ...
And so on! It should also be noted that skill trees cannot include mechanics that the player should have initially. While playing Horizon Zero Dawn, it annoyed me that I could not grab enemies from ledges, like any other similar game, until I discovered that it was a skill to be unlocked.
The same goes for Mirror's Edge Catalyst, which has Fate's special moves blocked despite being available from the beginning in the first game, yes, and I'm sure it's pointless to add crappy skills just to increase numbers. Some game designers obviously think more is better - check out this monstrous, convoluted skill bush in Path of Exile and Salt and Sanctuary, but if you ask me, a neat, trimmed bush with a handful of really cool upgrades is often the best.
Decision. Another problem with skill trees is the process of earning skill points. Most games give you points for no reason, for consistent play, and this is a missed opportunity. Back to Prey, which uses "Neuromods" as physical objects in the world.
This means that you have to go and find them - perhaps by exploring the various nooks and crannies of Talos-1 or completing side quests. This essentially turns the entire world of Hyrule into one giant skill tree. Which also forces players to actively work on improving their character rather than randomly boosting stats.
It reminds me of the Far Cry 3 crafting system. In that game, I knew I wanted the best gun holster - and the menu told me to get some skins of a specific animal. So I slowed down the main quest, found the animal habitat on the map and went hunting for skins until I gathered enough material to craft my holster.
I wanted an upgrade and had to figure out how to get it, and had to complete a set of actions to get him. Want to learn how to sprint glide? Well ... Played some more and got the skill points I needed. Listen: you don't need to encourage the player to just play through the main missions - they bought your game for that, so use your skill points to encourage other ways of playing.
Play skillfully, or play on high difficulty, or explore more, and so on. But be careful with the encouraged type of gameplay. The system in Skyrim, where players improve skills by performing actions associated with them, can force players to create dozens of daggers, just to increase the skill of crafting.
You do not need to encourage grinding or gameplay that is not related to the main gaming experience. The last problem is that these skill menus are boring to navigate. They take you out of the game world to a menu screen that looks like you're taking out an insurance policy.
It doesn't really get in the way on a massive adventure like The Witcher, but it can significantly slow down the speed of a fast-paced game like Doom. So - make them fast. As in Downwell, where there are three skill options to choose from between levels.
Take one and fight again, or make them automatic. Red Dead Redemption 2 has skill trees for both Arthur and his horse. However, whether Doom needs skill trees at all is another matter entirely; the point of skill trees is that they can be great fun.
How about skills that offer the player both advantages and disadvantages? Or skills that can be linked in a variety of ways? Or skills that can only be equipped in groups? Skill trees feel like one of those systems that every game has these days - simply because they are in every game these days - but they're not bad in and of themselves.
It's just that it's easy to get lazy with them and continue doing like everyone else, without looking back - whether it suits the game, the pace or the gaming experience. So be creative with them! Skill trees are not about making the player wait half the game to get all the mechanics that should have been at the start, or looking at a boring menu with boring health boosts.
They are about personalizing the gaming experience. About rewards for different ways to play. About pushing for difficult choices. Tell me about your favorite skill trees in the comments of the video, and I look forward to a million comments on this crazy Sphere Grid thing from Final Fantasy X ..
