This may be present in some skill-based games out there already, as it is a pretty basic idea, but I have not played any that use it. The idea is somewhat adapted from Guild Wars. In GW, part of your goal in the game is to unlock abilities. You get a few as you level up, but most of them come from completing quests, and there are hundreds to unlock.

What if that same mechanic was added to a skill-based MMORPG, but instead of abilities, the player unlocked more skills? They would not have to be unlocked solely by quests, as they could also be opened up from items, locations, other skill achievements and other actions. I think it could add a lot of life to a game, as players could continuously strive to unlock rare or difficult skills.

It may be difficult to add enough skills into the game to keep this going, but many of them could be focused crafting skills, various combat abilities, etc. Also, they all don't have to contain 50+ different recipes or abilities. Some could have lower cap points and fewer actions within them.

In UO, combat and crafting skills can be accessed by hitting certain prerequisites of main skills. Stonecrafting is an example of a skill a carpenter can 'unlock' when he reaches Grandmaster Carpentry. Remove Trap 'unlocks' only when you reach a certain level in both Detecting Hidden and Lockpicking.

In EVE, many skills are unavailable until previous skills are trained up.

ATITD seems based entirely on unlocking skills.

It's a neat feature for expanding on existing content, but it has to be done carefully so as not to fall into the massive disparity pit that level-based MMOs have. It's important to make sure the unlocked skill does not give significant advantage over someone who does not have that skill.

I am trying to implement a skill system into my game that is kind of along this line. I don't care for skill ups or level ups, in fact the game does not have levels, so I worked around this. I will share it here since it is along the idea line you mention.

There are NPC characters that are skilled in a certain combat arts or skill. You seek them out and they send you on a quest to use a temporary basic skill. You must use the skill when on the quest and successfully complete it. By successful I mean not die.

Once you complete the quest successfully your reward is the skill itself which is permanent. To get more powerful skills you need to seek out an NPC that has advanced the skill further. To become a master of certain skills would require you to defeat the master.

For simple skills such as mining or crafting you learn the basic skill by reading books or talking to NPC that is skilled in the art. You then seek out masters who will give you quests to complete. Each quest will advance you in the art. Eventually you will become a master of that art.

There are limitations to how many skills you can learn so you need to pick wisely. It will not be possible to learn every skill or combat art at the same time but you can respec individual skills and start over.

Sounds interesting. However, what stops someone from picking up one of these quests to get the temporary skill, and just going and doing other things with it?

That is a darn good question and something I had not though of.

Guess I will have to make the quest timed. Give the player a day to finish it. If they fail no problem the skill is gone but yeah they could grab a quest and use the skill indefinitely.

Thanks for pointing that flaw out.

Maybe, depending on the rest of your design you could use instancing. For example, they get the quest and the temporary skill inside an instance, and they can only use it while in the instance. If they leave or logout, they will have to pick the quest up again to regain the temporary skill.

That is also a good idea. Probably better way to implement and yes dungeons for these quests will be instanced.

THat sounds like a game i would play! and its nice to see someone else that likes GW and borrows and adapts ideas from it

It had a lot of neat ideas. However, I still look at GW more like Diablo than like an MMO. Not to take anything away from it, though, as it was a great game

I didn't even think of that. Yeah, GW had a lot of good ideas. My idea is similar but not the capture the skill as GW.