A few ideas I was churning about came together to make this mod idea, mostly being my love of the character Garland from Dissidia (who used a weapon which transformed from a sword, to an axe, to twin swords, to a lance, to a flail), and Essence mentioning how to stack buffs and such into one skill slot. So, my overall plan is as follows: You take this skill tree, it gives you an ability - probably staves for the first level, and then it follows up the progression of weaponry, mace -> axe -> sword. Somewhere in there, probably level two, a thrown weapon bonus. One would take this if, say, you wanted to get those useful functions out the weapon skill trees without having to limit your weapon selection if, say, dual wielding. In fact, this would somewhat force you to diversify the way I envision it. To whit: So, you get the staves bonus, and say it also gives you a knockback or AoE ability that works with ANY weapon. Then, you unlock thrown, and it gives you a modest ammo recovery bonus, say. Each weapons bonus gives you a small boost in functionality when that weapon is equipped. Then you unlock maces, which gives you a mace bonus, and also a bonus for using a mace AND a staff. Then you unlock axes, which gives you an axe bonus, and also a bonus for using an Ax and (Mace/Staff), a different bonus for either weapon. Then you unlock swords, which gives you a sword bonus, and also a bonus for using Sword and (Axe/Mace/Staff). Each bonus combo is different, and you get better bonuses for diversified weapons (the sword bonus for instance would only apply with Sword/Sword, and be more effective in one point, but overall less effective than the diverse options). Major Question: Would it be feasible within the game's coding, to replace the old buffs from the previous skills with upgraded versions at each tier: e.g. you unlock the ax tier and the mace and staff buff A is replaced with mace and staff buff B? Further: Is this even practical? I realize this is a lot of effects (around n^2?) and background stuff to be going on with one skill tree. Finally: Do you guys think this is even a good idea? For clarity, I'll give a sample skill skill tree: ~School of Barfighting~ (As in, improvised weaponry) 1 - Bash Hard; Don't Get Bashed Back. -Staff skill bonus. -Forward/sides aoe knockback skill. 2 - Sticks and Stones and Thermite Bombs -Ammo recovery bonus for thrown weaponry -stat bonus 3 - Slugger -Mace skill bonus -staff skill upgrade -mace/staff skill bonus 4 - Now with Sharp Bits -Axe Skill Bonus -staff; mace; staff/mace skill upgrade -Axe/Mace; Axe/Staff skill bonuses 5- Civilized Weapon, etc. -Sword skill bonus -Ability of some sort? -staff; mace; axe; staff/mace; axe/mace; axe/staff skill upgrade -Sword/Staff; Sword/Mace; Sword/Axe skill bonuses Key point being, only one of these bonuses will be active at a time, each will do something different, and the abilities get upgraded with each skill point to make investing in the next point even worthwhile. This skill is intended to be MORE EFFECTIVE with dual wielding, though not totally hopeless without it.
*eye twitch* I swear this happens every time I go to mod, be it Dwarf Fort, Minecraft, whatever. The key thing that interests me isn't even moddable. That leaves the idea in something of a shambles, not sure of any way to simulate the effect without that functionality.
