Electrician Skill is nearly impossible to level, even as an Electrician!

[Clerkius]

Aside from dismantling electronics, repairing generators, and crafting devices, there is no viable method to really train the Electrician skill up to 10 or any lower level that unlocks other various crafts because of the massive prerequisites for levels beyond 5, even then an Electrician can barely attain those lower levels, the xp gains are absolutely miniscule. The standard world doesn't even have the resources to really train such a skill in your standard Survival fare (Unless you play Sandbox with highly abundant resources, but I'm speaking of Survival Mode). The fast learner trait helps somewhat, but why is a skill like this capped at 10 when it is practically impossible to achieve, even for the few endgame survivalists?

Very soon we'll be able to craft 'Battery Connectors', but it requires you to be a Level 5 Electrician. I have great doubts that such a wonderful, nifty feature will even be used considering the circumstances (any electronics scraps attained will be expended towards getting those tiny xp gains, there won't be anything left for battery connectors if said person even manages to get there), and there are other devices that demand a GREATER SKILL LEVEL than 5. I mean, this is partly why the PZ Wikipedia lacks a great deal of detailed information on items and crafts, because nobody can really get around to experiencing these things for themselves in the game with said circumstances. How many people have you seen discussing the crafts for electronics (sensors for bombs, etc) on a normal basis, letalone put up videos on things such as establishing traps and using noise makers (excluding official pz developer videos)?

The amount of xp gained in training the Electrician skill isn't even close to enough to make it a worthwhile effort; I've ransacked the entire town of West Point, and even plundered the mall before, and it still doesn't garner enough to train this skill.

Thankyou for reading.

Sincerely,
a concerned survivor of the zombie apocalypse.

EDIT: [Developer Response]

Originally posted by Captain Binky:

"FWIW, I'm not super-fond of that either. It's a relic from a time when skills were going to be much less passive and more Morrowind styley. We've since moved on to a much more career-oriented skill system which means, as others have stated, it will be very very difficult to max out all skills - instead you favour the skills you had prior to the apocalypse. The intention here is to favour teamwork within groups. Of course, without NPCs in single-player, this can feel a little restrictive at the moment - the flip-side being that different starting occupations/skills will have a significant impact on survival strategy which, to me, is a good thing.

The purpose of the game, as shown by many of the types of occupations we have, is that it's all about an *average* man/woman in the apocalypse, not Jack Bauer.

BUT, that all said, I agree about the redundant skill point.

EDIT: As far as the electrician goes - yes, I'd agree it's not as balanced right now as some of the other skills in terms of levelling it up. I stand by the principle that if you don't start the game as an electrician (either by career or hobby) then it *should* be difficult to level up. But it may be that it's currently a bit too far in the 'hard' direction. But then, the electrician skill is much much more recent than the others, so it stands to reason that its implementation is a little more rough. This is all stuff to continually balance as we head towards 1.0 so we welcome observations of this kind :)"

Thanks for the clarification, my fellow survivor of the zombie apocalypse.

[dmharrism]

Pikachu is sad

[Authentic Peach]

I agree with your statement. That is why I would rather be a Farmer Rick in the apocalypse.

[Father Crow]

Well made point, hopefully a retweaking of exp earned per scrap could be adjusted depending on dev's list of priorities but for the mean time just rely on ye old methods and light up candles and use the power of steam! *rolls his moustache and tips his top hat to the other gentlemen and ladies in the room* cheerio!

P.s How are your PZ episodes progressing?

[Clerkius]

@ Father Crow:

I'm not too concerned with the use of generators for power (Anybody can achieve that if they want it), but the absence of the Electrician skill being used in general for its "crafty" features given its circumstances. People who also do not play as an Electrician shouldn't be shot down the opportunity to better their characters skill to achieve the requirements for crafting the various things (excluding the class specific craftables) they can find from skill magazines.

Whilst other skills can be trained w/ renewable (ex: farming for food, food used for cooking, cooking food with rotten ingredients also giving xp, etc) / infinite measures (ex: Harvesting nature to craft tools, chopping trees w/ tools for strength, running for fitness, etc), this is far from the case for the one skill we all know as Electrician. Training that is greatly finite. I'd hope that the exp earned is increased in the future or at least the resources to train it increased, as well as having skill books (for xp multipliers) for it too.

In regards to your question...

If it's concerning Ep.3 of Resident Zomboid, don't expect that until later in the 1st quarter of next year. If it's my playthrough series you're speaking of, the second season will come around when Build 33 is ready. There's a lot of things they're still fixing, tweaking, and balancing right now for IWBUM's Build 33, so I'd rather wait.

[Arkana]

I agree, even with the mods that bring more gamer electronics (Nerd Culture) I haven't even gotten a single point in this skill. (I haven't really been trying, but still)

[Gilga ™ |Yonaguni|]

Iam playing with the Hydocraft mod, and do a long survival game, it took my only 3,5 month to reach level 1 in Electrician.

With this speed i will reach level 5 in 2 years.

[Articulate Llama]

Well you can level all skills to 10, so playing as an electrician is not debilitating in the slightest. Sure the skills takes forever to level (are you using books?with them it isnt that bad) but really you should have to work hard to get to max level.

This game doesnt have many easy buttons, so not sure why you expect one for this skill.

[Freedom]

Originally posted by Warboy:

Well you can level all skills to 10, so playing as an electrician is not debilitating in the slightest. Sure the skills takes forever to level (are you using books?with them it isnt that bad) but really you should have to work hard to get to max level.

This game doesnt have many easy buttons, so not sure why you expect one for this skill.

I would expect fun. Nothing fun about leveling Medical or Electrician.

[Clerkius]

Originally posted by Warboy:

Well you can level all skills to 10, so playing as an electrician is not debilitating in the slightest. Sure the skills takes forever to level (are you using books?with them it isnt that bad) but really you should have to work hard to get to max level.

This game doesnt have many easy buttons, so not sure why you expect one for this skill.

The problem with this skill is that there aren't enough resources to even get it levelled a few times, and there are NO skillbooks for it either, and the current amount of exp earned is little to barely nothing to even acquire a few levels. Every other skill is possible to achieve 10 despite how many ingame years it'd take for most skills with dedicated grinding (the grinding alone to train skills like Strength / Fitness could very well take several ingame years). I'm an endgame player myself.

We're not expecting 'Survival Mode' to get any easier, it should remain difficult as it's intended to be, but the ability to better our own characters for this particular skill practically isn't there, even as an Electrician!

[Clerkius]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

I'm pretty confident in the entire map you could find enough items to level up electrician over a number of years. If there's not, it'll probably be balanced as more is added to the game.

There are four electrician-related magazines in the game.

There are magazines to learn the various crafts for the skill yes, but no skillbooks for exp multipliers which is something this skill especially needs with its finite resources. The map doesn't have enough resources to bring up the Electrician skill to a moderate to high level as a result; especially with the exp requirements drastically increasing by levels 4-5 & beyond. Not enough exp is garnered to warrant the skill as a helpful addition to a survivors well being down the road for the endgame.

[Sick Boy]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

I'm pretty confident in the entire map you could find enough items to level up electrician over a number of years. If there's not, it'll probably be balanced as more is added to the game.

There are four electrician-related magazines in the game.

"entire map" "over a number of years"...Come on dude. Get real.

[Fallout]

Since you're having problems with the "Electrician" skill,you could just use the cheat menu mod to level that particular skill then disable it,until The Devs fix it,just saying

[Clerkius]

Originally posted by FalloutCell:

Since you're having problems with the "Electrician" skill,you could just use the cheat menu mod to level that particular skill then disable it,until The Devs fix it,just saying :spiffo:

Perhaps for others, but it's not the solution for me. When I start playing on Build 33, I'll just continue playing the Electrician lottery for now. It's like having a box of chocolates when you never know what you're going to get, but in this case it's how many parts & scraps you're going to get and HOPE you get lucky to pluck enough exp droplets from HALF of the map that only garners a couple of level ups or so until the realization kicks in that it's very unlikely that anyone can even reach their preferred level in that skill, letalone cap it at 10.

A skill that can't shine, and is passed up in several cases by survivors.

[Articulate Llama]

Originally posted by Sick Boy:

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

I'm pretty confident in the entire map you could find enough items to level up electrician over a number of years. If there's not, it'll probably be balanced as more is added to the game.

There are four electrician-related magazines in the game.

"entire map" "over a number of years"...Come on dude. Get real.

He is real, this is post apoc survival, why shouldnt it take a long time to max skills. Or do you all want your skills to be maxed in your first month?

This is not an easy mode game people, best to just accept that and move on. Though there should be books for the electrician skill imo.

[Sick Boy]

Originally posted by Warboy:

Originally posted by Sick Boy:

"entire map" "over a number of years"...Come on dude. Get real.

He is real, this is post apoc survival, why shouldnt it take a long time to max skills. Or do you all want your skills to be maxed in your first month?

This is not an easy mode game people, best to just accept that and move on. Though there should be books for the electrician skill imo.

No. I don't want things maxed out in my first month, but it shouldn't take in-game years either. Are you that dense that you can't see there should be balance brought to the skill?

No one was saying it should be "easy mode". But it shouldn't be "impossibly impractical mode" either. You have a brain. You should consider dusting it off and using it every once in a while.