In real survival, people often refer to pocket survival guides and other books, so it’s not out of the question.
It’s pretty immersive that you’d use a book if you wanted to learn a new skill like how to tie knots, or sustain crops, or properly repair a car, or light a fire.
I don’t know about other people, but the one of the first places I would go is the library to get a bunch of how to books and other things to help me survive. Knowledge is power after all.
true, maybe some of those books help you to build deadly traps or better bases or how to use a gun
How to build a gun 101
Farming for dummies
Trapper’s Magazine : Deadliest Traps
Just to name a few options.
And to also top it off, this real book exists. (And is a really good read!)
I’d totally buy that book.
There is one important thing I would like to suggest to Nelson. Please don’t pull a 7 Days to Die and make certain books required to read to learn a skill. It makes it feel like you can’t do anything until the RNG decides to spawn one. (7 days to die may have changed the system since I played about a year ago so it might be different now.)
Logically you don’t need books to learn something if you can learn it hands on. If you find out how to chop a tree effectively, that’s not something only a book can tell you.
Basically what I’m trying to say is that even realistically, books should mostly just be an aid to give you low level skills. Not a wall that blocks off higher skills.
Good idea, relaying back to your threshold idea I believe.
Also here you go
How specifically do we want books to work though? Should they have actual readable text like in the Elder Scrolls and DayZ, or would that be too much work for Nelson alone to be doing? Should they be craftable? Obviously repeatedly reading the same book shouldn’t upgrade a skill infinitely, but how should it be limited? (Books could have a limited number of uses per life, a limited number of uses per player, or a limited number of uses overall. Books could be consumed when read, have less of an effect each time they’re read, or have a hard cap on what level they raise a skill to.) Should books be able to improve multiple skills? Should reading take time or be done in multiple steps?
In my old post about skills, I suggested that a book could be crafted to save a portion of the writer’s level in a specific skill, and read as many times, and by as many players as you want, but would only raise their skill whatever the level of the writer was. In that way, books could be used both to spread skills between players, and to preserve skills in case the player dies.
Ayyy my brother has day book
like in 7 days to die?
I say there readable, but you must press and hold to pull that prompt. A quick tap will just grant the exp/skill.
Personaly I whould like to see books (one use per player life) to grant eather EXP or up to medium skills.
Like most books give 5-15 exp, a few scattered ones (look slightly different, also hover over text color is blue? Not white?) Grant one skill level max, with a low level maximum grant. But go to a militia base (highest end book), and the maximum grant may be 4 of 6. The only skill (o think so) that can be maxed by books is crafting. Just give the book a ridiculously complex name and a level requirement to read (otherwise it says you cannot understand it).
Example of mechanic : Aiming for dummies will grant one level per player life (as in you have to die to gain from it again), but max level it can grant is up to 2 of 6, meaning when you have 2 skill, the book gives generic exp instead.
The books (except blank) cannot be picked up (balance).
Blank books can be used (written) and placed, and when picked up, retain there info. There apperiance can be customized. They serve as EXP banks. (No free exp or skills to prevent abuse).
Newspapers also can be found and used, but for 5 exp each. Can be crafted.
Thoughts?
tl;dr for my approach:
There are two kinds of books, freeform books (like the current ones you write in) and educational books (which are usable items that you can equip or set down somewhere). For ease of referral I’ll also call educational books “manuals”.
Manuals are reusable and can be used by multiple people or by the same person across deaths. They spawn frequently at libraries and schools, and rarely in general civilian places like houses. Manuals have a preset skill type and level that they will teach. If you are at a higher level in that skill, the book will not be of use because obviously, you know more than the book shows. I guess you could see it as a skill checkpoint of sorts, and they could have randomly generated titles just for vanity (e.g. a farming manual could be “Basics of Garden Tending” or “Advanced Irrigation Techniques”). Some books may overarch into multiple skills, probably limited to a max of 3 for simplicity. (e.g. “Woodworking 101” teaches entry-level crafting, but also logging trees).
The freeform books work just like you’d expect, people can write in them and place them down or carry them. Think a hybrid between 3.0’s book and Minecraft’s book. A reasonable limit of 5-10 pages each, but potentially in the future there could be multiple sizes of books. To limit griefing, the author (the first person to write in the book, not necessarily the one who crafted it) can manually give permission to other people to edit a book, otherwise random people cannot edit its contents.
I completely agree with this, well said. Also, to add to the places books can be found, I think Prisons and Malls could contain books as well, as Malls have some bookstores and Prisons have their own personal libraries.
I have a couple ideas about this. When you first pick up a book you can read it for 30-50 exp on something. After that it is “used” and gives no bonus. However if you craft a bookshelf inside your base you can put used books inside of it.
These books will generate small amounts of exp over time that you can collect by clicking on the bookshelf. (Instead of giving exp it could instead make nearby workbenches better; i.e. a woodworking book on a shelf gives a discount when placed near a sawmill.)
This system will make books useful after being read the first time.
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