Skinning Shouldn't be a Skill Point

[kithkatul]

Its just not worth it. Skill points are too valuable to waste on something as trivial as skins and meat, and gold isn't -that- hard to obtain.

Unfortunately that means skinning just never gets taken, and for a game that strives for 'realism' (such as not being able to carry more than like a single small backpack's worth of stuff), why doesn't Dirwin start with it? Isn't he a hunter and poacher? Did he forget one of the most basic skills of a bow-hunter?
Most of the other characters have a decent background that would imply knowledge of skinning game too. This isn't the 21st century, preparing your own meat wasn't niche knowledge in the middle ages.

Remove skinning as a skill. Make it default again. Alternatively, it will NEVER get picked.

[IrishUnicorn]

That is/was pretty commonly asked, I even tried to propose couple solutions for that like separate skillpoints for survival type abilities that we get by either completing quests or every couple lvls, but devs are pretty adamant about this and they haven't touched skinning since they made only piercing/crushing damage users be able to skin game, and I doubt they will touch it at this point.

[brown29knight]

Skinning, as the game currently stands, is one of the most powerful skills, provided you use piercing or crushing damage.

This is because gear is more important than skill points/levels in determining your overall power level, and skinning can get you THOUSANDS of gold, MUCH sooner than contracts allow.

Reputation can be bypassed (to a large degree) if you know how to get the fence in Brynn on your side.

Therefore you can get end-game gear much sooner with skinning than you can without it, and use that gear to dominate the early and mid game. By the end game, when the foes have caught up to your gear level, you have gained the levels and skill points to match.

In its current form, skinning is too powerful to make it default. That would require a return to pelts being worth far less than they are now.

[funkmonster7]

I think the reason why Skinning became a skill that requires AP to unlock is when the full game comes out, money and food should be relatively scarce. The way the game is intended is "if you want something, you need to earn it". That's why the game is survival-themed. And that is also why pelts are worth so much right now.

I like how it is right now. It is hard for players to get food but I heard a few months ago there will be fishing with leeches as bait or something? That might make things easier for non-Skinners. Otherwise, Skinning is for hunter-gatherer players.

I've asked devs for hunting contracts before, because bow players usually struggle in dungeons where they open a door and 1 enemy is standing right behind it, and it alerts 2 others from somewhere else. If that was the first room you opened a door to, you're kinda dead.

Furthermore, Hunting Grounds (the POI) are kind of pointless these days, especially if they are so far away. Even when I tried out the hunter-gatherer playstyle as Dirwin, it was only in the early game that I needed money for the Nomad Bow in Brynn, but I didn't hunt deers because they'd run before I see them. (Without stealth, it is near impossible to catch deers, as well as saigas.) Hence my suggestion to the devs about hunting contracts. It would make Hunting Grounds more purposeful, for one. And Harpy Nests, Crawler Dens and Ghoul Dens (?).

However, I think it might be too early for these contracts to be implemented. My idea about hunting contracts is not exactly killing the critters, it is more about procuring certain goods to certain merchants i.e. you can buy the pelt and hand it in for gold and rep if you want, but you likely would incur a loss in profit if you do that.

But if there is anything to make the 1 SP spent on Skinning more worthwhile and "important", imo this would be the way to do it and stop people complaining about Skinning. ;-) Just my own thoughts.

[IrishUnicorn]

Is it that powerful, really? I have been using it on few characters but stopped using it entirely now, I feel like there is more than enough money from contracts to buy top tier gear with selling books, and skinning feels like getting even more gold You cannot spend for the cost of a skillpoint. Not to mention You have to actually backtrack to carcasses to get those pelts which takes similar/more time to getting contracts done. It never really changed the way my character progressed even if I specifically hunted for money.

Skinning always just feels off to me. To actually make money comparable to contracts You gotta go and hunt something like bison herds, which is dangerous and going back and forth between those 12 carcasses and traders, 2pelts at a time to sell them all - all the while missing out on the opportunity of getting unique gear, treatises and valuable/usefull stuff from the dungeon You could do at the same time. Then theres the fact that the most money hungry classes cannot actually make use of it since only piercing and crushing weapon users can skin, and ranged characters don't need to spend that much money to repair as say sword and board characters who can get some 3k in gold for light repairs on their gear.

So basically You spend a point to be able to get money from a source far from ideal progression, no chance of getting stuff You can only grab at dungeons - treatises and uniques, which are the most important thing in the game as of now, just to have slightly more gold than what You could make in a dungeon which You don't have way of spending due to the fact that You don't need much on repairs, since daggers and spears don't cost much to repair, hammers have 5million durability and stun to death, thus lowering repair cost on armor and cost of arrows/bolts as well as repairing bows is low. And in case You don't go hunting specifically and just doing dungeon runs back to back, You pay that skillpoint to make several hundred gold each few dungeons when encountering agressive animal by accident.

Point is that personally I don't think that it fits well in the current state of the game, on top of which is very situational, most characters can't make use of it, and those who can are better off trying to get unique loot in dungeons.

Maybe it would be better if there were wilderness tasks for hunting more dangerous animal/monster nests in which we could find uniques/treatises on the bodies of mercenaries that failed the task, or some crazy scientists researching those.. but implementing something like that to justify hunting for those 4 classes feels like a lot of content that won't be used by most characters. Then there is alchemy that could make it better, but the idea of mage-alchemist spending 3 points just to be able to harvest rare alchemical stuff for potions and not getting any use out of 2 prevoius perks is just.. oof.

[Drewsko]

its easy money and easy food, two very important things in stone shard, specially early game.

[BlackKatana]

In my savefile, there is a bison spawn point just east of the pawnshop of Brynn south of the caravan camp. it's literally the most lucrative way of making money for me.

[Freeman]

Some people swear by skinning but I don't see the charm. I've run 3 characters to level 30 without it and never felt I was missing out. Pelts take a lot of space and are bit awkward to sell since 2/3 settlements conveniently lack a tailor. They are essentially just weaker valuables and the game is already full of real bling.

Yes fence has some nice stuff but not all. Sure you can hunt 100 boars and savescum and get a 17k weapon by level 6 but that's not my cup of tea. Early game enemies can be whipped by a wet noodle and the world is already bursting with food.

Besides, it sounds like work. My characters are warriors.

[IrishUnicorn]

Seems like community is split 50:50 on this one

[|Revenge|]

Originally posted by ProestUnicorn:

Seems like community is split 50:50 on this one:praisesun:

Yep, i personally don't mind skinning at the moment, i don't do It myself either.

I did test It out and It seens to me that It can make you rich as long as tou have the right damage tipe and can actually hunt stuff.

[brown29knight]

Agreed. I use it on some characters, and not on others. It is super powerful once young trolls and gulon start showing up regularly, and before that can give you a different playstyle.

For a hunter Dirwin, I'll get skinning early, explore for the witches hut, trade the staff and hat for rotten willow rep, and get to Brynn for the first time, with the fence available and plenty of cash to gear up. Almost no dungeon running, yet end game gear early on.

My staff Jorgrim gets skinning at 11th level, just before I go for the ancient troll. The cash helps him finish his gear just before the boss fights.

My long-range electromancer build got it as a prereq for the +1 vision skill, she rarely gets pelts from anything she kills, but the meat is nice, and things bandits kill (or Gulon/bison that kill each other) has still made her about 10k coin.

Most of my other builds ignore it. My spear COULD get it, but dungeons are too fun with him. Same with dagger. Slashing builds, or mages who do not go after the extra vision, would just waste the point. My crowbar Arna will eventually get it, (not much else to spend skill points on with her) but with such a cheap weapon, and never needing to repair it, I already have plenty of cash, so no rush.

So I see it as a powerful skill, that is also highly situational to your build. It can be useless, or a game changer.

And therefore I cannot recommend it be free... too powerful if your build can use it, and too weak to bother with otherwise.

[IrishUnicorn]

Hmm.. if it looks like this, maybe it would be a good idea to just remodel the skilltree a bit, so getting rare ingredients for alchemy in the future won't cost mages 3 skillpoints, since picking up skinning on them is a huge waste, and 2nd perk of the line is not very usefull on them either.

[Freeman]

I thought about that vision skill for my wiz... but what good is +1 vision without +1 range?

I wouldn't take take skinning just for coin. If they ever introduce some super-duper trophies with permanent bonuses that's another story. Playing a hunter is good roleplaying idea and many games have done it before. But sacrificing skillpoints for it feels just wrong.

Glad characters can swim and read out of the box.

[funkmonster7]

Originally posted by ProestUnicorn:

Seems like community is split 50:50 on this one:praisesun:

Honestly, I'm not so much for Skinning these days. I tested out Skinning back when wolves were in every forest map tile. But nowadays, I don't take Skinning.

The two abilities after Skinning aren't worth it either.

The one after Skinning, which is something like Tracking: you hear an animal and it hears you and runs before you even see it. It is also useless in dungeons.

And then +15% damage against beasts... same thing. Bandits hit me harder than animals and are more aggressive than animals. So these days I don't take Skinning anymore. However it is an option for those hunting Gulons if they're into it. When I play Dirwin I prioritize all my points into ranged weapons ability tree because he needs all the SP he can get or else bandits will roll him over.

Originally posted by Freeman:

I thought about that vision skill for my wiz... but what good is +1 vision without +1 range?

I wouldn't take take skinning just for coin. If they ever introduce some super-duper trophies with permanent bonuses that's another story. Playing a hunter is good roleplaying idea and many games have done it before. But sacrificing skillpoints for it feels just wrong.

Glad characters can swim and read out of the box.

Wizards shouldn't need to worry about Skinning at all. All magic spells ruin pelts, you have no use for Skinning as a result.

[IrishUnicorn]

Welp, gotta hope that skinning will at least become standalone skill, not an entry to a skill path. Second skill after that is.. very meh, but rare ingredients might be useful later on for alchemy/crafting, 3 skillpoints is a huge investment though, especially to just to get some more ingredients for crafting (saving that 50 gold You would othervise spend buying it at alchemist), whats more - since we will get armor tree soon and it is safe to assume that branching into it will be a standard practice and thus will make skillpoints even more precious, rendering this part of a skilltree more and more obsolete as more skilltrees - like sneaking are being implemented.

[brown29knight]

Originally posted by Freeman:

I thought about that vision skill for my wiz... but what good is +1 vision without +1 range?

Electromancers have a number of skills that work on line of sight. Therefore the vision helps them. I still wouldn't take it before mastering the electromancy tree.