Colonist losing stats

[TotallyAverageGamer]

So I was watching my colonists progress on shooting, he’s level 16 currently and I noticed it was going down over time. Why is that?

[Glerk]

Just the normal skill decay.
Use Mad Skills to slow it down or remove it along with skill saturation.

[Astasia]

Any skill above level 10 will slowly decay back down to level 10.

[IronSquid501]

It's a system that makes sure you can't just max out every skill on a single settler I believe. For shooting, I like to set up "shooting ranges" using strong walls & removing the "home area" from it, and whenever the settler is free I draft them and get them to shoot it for a little while, then adding it back to the home area to also train up construction

[TotallyAverageGamer]

That’s not the greatest mechanic ever, you don’t forget to ride a bike, why would you forget how to cook or shoot?

[TotallyAverageGamer]

Originally posted by IronSquid501:

It's a system that makes sure you can't just max out every skill on a single settler I believe. For shooting, I like to set up "shooting ranges" using strong walls & removing the "home area" from it, and whenever the settler is free I draft them and get them to shoot it for a little while, then adding it back to the home area to also train up construction

Not sure how you have time to do that, I’m trying to figure out how to manage all the stuff that needs to get done in my base as well as crafting mortar rounds etc.

[IronSquid501]

Originally posted by Bill Kerman:

Originally posted by IronSquid501:

It's a system that makes sure you can't just max out every skill on a single settler I believe. For shooting, I like to set up "shooting ranges" using strong walls & removing the "home area" from it, and whenever the settler is free I draft them and get them to shoot it for a little while, then adding it back to the home area to also train up construction

Not sure how you have time to do that, I’m trying to figure out how to manage all the stuff that needs to get done in my base as well as crafting mortar rounds etc.

it's mostly later in the game, after a certain point you can spend a fair amount of time waiting and a lot of good shooters lack working skills

[Slye_Fox]

Originally posted by Bill Kerman:

That’s not the greatest mechanic ever, you don’t forget to ride a bike, why would you forget how to cook or shoot?

But you can forget how to do a wheelie or stopie.
10 is supposed to be a 'Skilled Professional' in the task.

[TotallyAverageGamer]

Originally posted by Slye_Fox:

Originally posted by Bill Kerman:

That’s not the greatest mechanic ever, you don’t forget to ride a bike, why would you forget how to cook or shoot?

But you can forget how to do a wheelie or stopie.
10 is supposed to be a 'Skilled Professional' in the task.

Good point, you got me there. I still think they degrade waaaaay too fast

[BanDHMO]

Originally posted by Bill Kerman:

Originally posted by Slye_Fox:

But you can forget how to do a wheelie or stopie.
10 is supposed to be a 'Skilled Professional' in the task.

Good point, you got me there. I still think they degrade waaaaay too fast

I agree. There may well be a realistic reason to explain some of this mechanic away, but the reality in game terms is that you end up sticking people into production line-type jobs that they do forever. And that's just not fun, because it ruins the frontier feeling where few colonists have to be jacks of all trades to survive as a little community. Kind of gives the game an industrial feel. And if I wanted that, there are better games out there that do it.

Worst of all, you end up with artists who sit every day in a room and make statues, which sell for lots, but if they stop for a few days, suddenly their work isn't as good. This is the opposite of how it should be. Artists who are mass-producing works without much to say wouldn't be very valued.

[Slye_Fox]

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

Originally posted by Bill Kerman:

Good point, you got me there. I still think they degrade waaaaay too fast

I agree. There may well be a realistic reason to explain some of this mechanic away, but the reality in game terms is that you end up sticking people into production line-type jobs that they do forever. And that's just not fun, because it ruins the frontier feeling where few colonists have to be jacks of all trades to survive as a little community. Kind of gives the game an industrial feel. And if I wanted that, there are better games out there that do it.

Worst of all, you end up with artists who sit every day in a room and make statues, which sell for lots, but if they stop for a few days, suddenly their work isn't as good. This is the opposite of how it should be. Artists who are mass-producing works without much to say wouldn't be very valued.

Then use the MadSKills mod to reduce the decay rate.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731111514

[TotallyAverageGamer]

Originally posted by Slye_Fox:

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

I agree. There may well be a realistic reason to explain some of this mechanic away, but the reality in game terms is that you end up sticking people into production line-type jobs that they do forever. And that's just not fun, because it ruins the frontier feeling where few colonists have to be jacks of all trades to survive as a little community. Kind of gives the game an industrial feel. And if I wanted that, there are better games out there that do it.

Worst of all, you end up with artists who sit every day in a room and make statues, which sell for lots, but if they stop for a few days, suddenly their work isn't as good. This is the opposite of how it should be. Artists who are mass-producing works without much to say wouldn't be very valued.

Then use the MadSKills mod to reduce the decay rate.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731111514

Yup, ajusted them so they go down more slowly overal. Helps a lot as my colonists arent losing stats as often now

[Shiny cursed Potato]

Originally posted by Bill Kerman:

That’s not the greatest mechanic ever, you don’t forget to ride a bike, why would you forget how to cook or shoot?

Well thats a pretty bad example.

Your Colonists dont forget to shoot or craft Power Armor, they just get worse at it if they dont do it for a long period of time.

Which isnt that far from reality.

Do something alot and you get better at it. If you dont do it at all for quite some time...well you will get worse at it

[TotallyAverageGamer]

Originally posted by A Shiny cursed Potato:

Originally posted by Bill Kerman:

That’s not the greatest mechanic ever, you don’t forget to ride a bike, why would you forget how to cook or shoot?

Well thats a pretty bad example.

Your Colonists dont forget to shoot or craft Power Armor, they just get worse at it if they dont do it for a long period of time.

Which isnt that far from reality.

Do something alot and you get better at it. If you dont do it at all for quite some time...well you will get worse at it

Alright true, but overnight you shouldnt forget. Thats what it seems like happens with how fast they forget. Granted they should forget how to mine if you have them stop mining for a long time but the rate at which they forget is pretty high.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by A Shiny cursed Potato:

Do something alot and you get better at it. If you dont do it at all for quite some time...well you will get worse at it

"Quite some time" is generally a lot more than a few days or weeks, but there's also not really anyone on Earth you could say is "skill 20" at anything. It's not a system that can really be compared to reality and it's always going to bother some people. It's just a gameplay mechanic, a balance decision to make skill 20 something difficult to reach and maintain because it's so powerful.

[Zalzany]

Originally posted by Bill Kerman:

That’s not the greatest mechanic ever, you don’t forget to ride a bike, why would you forget how to cook or shoot?

The hell its not, you do forget to ride a bike like a boss. You not going "durr this is a scalpel right" no that is a spoon. You got 10 in medicine.

Its like learning advanced chemistry, and only remembering college level chemistry after 5 years of not using it. I mean come on. You got be young if you haven't found your self doing somehting you did 10 years ago and going "♥♥♥♥ this is harder."

I mean bike ride example alone is great proof. I started biking again at 25, yeah I knew where the pedals were and how to shift, but I had no physical skills for it at all riding to corner store and back was chore. Then 6 months later I could ride 16 miles in one go, now I stoped that kind of stuff I can do 4 miles with relative ease in one go even do 3 miles to local wlamart 3 back as long as I take my time browsing to rest up a bit first.

So your bike example is perfect you pawn knows that is a scalpel but hasn't cut open a living body in ages, so yeah is gonna be rusty and not as good as he was when he did it every single day from all the wild turtle bites, and bandit attack wounds, but a year after a killbox is put in suddenly he forgot half his ♥♥♥♥ from just never doing it.

I mean if you are young you think you know it all and won't forget it at 30+ you go "♥♥♥♥ I just did this 5 years ago how did it go..."