First, the announced job class system apparently aims to solve a number of pain points caused by the present attribute system. Those pain points are real, and though technically they can be balanced with careful thought and implementation, that equation becomes quite messy the moment you add player specialization and cooperation to the mix via multiplayer. So, it’s understandable that the devs chose to step away from attributes as a system and towards something else. This much is fine.
This game is not Final Fantasy Tactics, however. It is a difficult, demanding sole-character rpg - and that has a few implications.
First, players are not building characters to optimize a combined arms problem. They’re building characters to fulfill some idea or fantasy they have. That means that player agency is the most important aspect the job system needs to solve, not gating. That said, gating should still be applied, or the game dissolves entirely.
Second, because the game is difficult, player agency needs to be built for from the ground up, not added in as an after thought. Otherwise, players will be forced into strange or simply unwanted or boring builds purely because the structure of the game and system demands those roles first, and then says ‘alright, do this role how you like’.
The jobs-attached-to-weapons idea mishandles both things.
Let’s assume I want to play a heavily armored, frontlining wizard. In the current game, I solve this by building into either int or faith, then look for stat appropriate gear. Since armor isn’t affected by attribute, that means my only bottlenecks are casting tools and a shield..
In the new system, I’d presumably need to level into a specific frontline class to survive being in the front, then level into some magic dealing class to gain access to the types of damage I’m interested in, and only after spending an undetermined amount of time playing a style I don’t like will I be able to play how I want to – By which point, the progression part of the game has ended. That’s bad design, entirely.
I have some potential solutions though - the core idea of the job system isn’t bad, just its implementation via weapon handling.
My thoughts are as follows.
Solution 1: Players level up and gain xp. This part remains the same as it is now. They then, upon leveling up, gain a number of points they can apply to the same class-based facets the devs are going for now. This simple solution pulls weapon coupling away from classes, letting players build how they like.
–Pros: This is the simplest implementation to solving problems. Gate higher level gear purely by level, not by stats or use. Perhaps specialized tools might require a minimum amount of points spent in a particular ‘tree’. That’s about it.
–Cons: This has the least gating and effort. The former leads to role dissolution, the latter leads to boredom. That means that this solution looks pretty on paper, but is ultimately lacking.
So, we’ll treat what it does as the goal, then look at how to constrain it in my next solution.
Solution 2- a player can simply ‘select’ a class from some in-world NPC, and begin leveling that class regardless of equipment loadout chosen. This would let a witch level as a knight without wearing heavy armor or giving up their caster fantasy. This system would have its own positive gating - if your class matches your equipment (knights wear heavy armor and use melee weapons), you either gain an xp boost, or perhaps different kinds of runes can be trained for based on how you operate within the class itself. This part would involve splitting ‘class’ talents into defined systems of trees - each class now has ‘offense’, ‘defense’, and perhaps ‘utility’ trees.
- Let’s take our earlier magic-casting melee tanker as our example. I have chosen to level as a ‘knight’ for now, and am wearing heavy armor. This has two branch points, depending on what is implemented:
In the first scenario, my time using heavy armor is rewarded with bonus xp towards gaining the talents I want without restriction. This gets my ‘main’ setup online faster, and lets me survive problems earlier, even if I must later swap out for other armor to build for talents as necessary.
In the second scenario, I have a small percentage boost, but which only applies to acquiring defensive-based class abilities. I would also still be gaining *some* xp towards a knight’s offensive capabilities, which may or may not be desired. On the other hand, we could further split focus into class-separate systems - tell the NPC that I want to focus on magic damage, and I want to stand in front of my allies, shielding them from harm. This further separates offensive and defensive trees while leveling both without friction. The dialogue could be something like the NPC asking you how you’ll defeat your enemies ‘ I want to curse my enemies and let them rot in despair’ ←This focuses your offensive xp on the witch’s offensive talents. Then the NPC asks how you’ll survive your enemies, to which you respond ‘I will wear the heaviest armor, trusting it’s solidity to ward off their blows’ or something ← This focuses your defensive xp into heavy armor talents.
—Sidenote: Yes, this means that offensive and defensive experience would be separate values. And personally, I’d further recommend splitting total xp gained between values, with users being able to talk to the npc who gave them their class and say they want to ‘focus their efforts’ or ‘split their attention’ – This would let players choose how to divide their xp, if it matters. And it would if someone wants to play a full knight without hybridizing, but wants to focus on getting offensive talents before defensive ones. Ideally, you always gain some amount of xp towards all trees of a ‘class’, but by focusing on one tree or another you’d split the xp gained something like ‘75/25’ for offense/defense.
–Pros: These solutions maximize build freedom and minimize undesired playstyles - In Scenario 1, If you really just want a particular rune from the knight offense tree, you can focus on gaining knight offensive xp while continuing to not use knight-typical weapons → this foregoes the small xp buff you’d otherwise get, but you can keep playing the playstyle you want to without punishment. And in Scenario 2, there aren’t classes at all - just talents tied to playstyles, split between offensive and defensive traits which can be further split into things like DoT, magic, physical, sneaking, sustain, etc. Honestly I think the second scenario is the best mix of options for what you’re looking for, but it could also be the most complicated to implement.
–Cons: There is still gating - but it’s reasonable gating from most perspectives, and follows the ideal of ‘effort should be required to gain the related things’ without forcing undesired playstyles upon players during the progression phase of the game. Which means the game no longer punishes you for wanting to play a certain way, which solves, I think, all of the issues that led to the job-class-system as an idea to begin with.