Reading & Knowledge

If you’ve seen the last update the knowledge system has been added to the game. By knowledge system, I mean the study of books to gain knowledge, and a set of passive abilities that can be unlocked by spending your knowledge.

In this post I want to explain the reasoning behind this system, and where I see it leading moving forward.

The Problem

Previously, Reading was the one skill which had no upgrades to spend focus points on. As players pointed out, this didn't feel right. But the reason Reading did not yet have abilities, was I knew the underlying mechanic was lacking.

The Primary problem as I saw it, was that reading a book was instant. There is no required planning or investment over time. If all the player does is click a book and gain a reward, it’s too simple. Not only in terms of gameplay mechanics, but the feeling itself is too simple.

For those players who invest in reading I wanted to create the possibility of feeling like a fantasy scholar: hunting down texts, unlocking ancient knowledge, crawling through temples looking for a specific text. This, of course, is the goal. Not every player will fully engage with every system, nor will every player take on the roleplay feeling of their character, but I definitely wanted it be possible.

So, the question became: how to allow players to become invested in Reading as a skill? How do I allow them to create a relationship to books and knowledge?

Studying

The answer was that unlocking a reward from a book needed to take time. And during that waiting time I wanted the book in the player’s inventory. I wanted the player to see the unlocking progress, to get excited and involved in the prospect of unlocking its reward. Therefore, the concept of “studying” was a perfect fit.

Studying had the secondary benefit of opening up access to all books to all players. Previously books had a reading level requirement to read. This didn’t feel right to me because I wanted all players to have access to the lore. With the studying mechanic, now simply seeing the text on the page was accessible to everyone, regardless of their character.

Knowledge Points

But what is the player unlocking by studying a book?

In earlier designs, I was working toward a unique passive ability associated with every book. For example, studying the book on flowers gives a Botany perk, studying a book about ancient geography reveals a new dungeon on the map. The problem here, is that there are too many books, and not enough abilities. Second, some books are poems or political, for which its very hard to come up with matching abilities.

The solution was for books to unlock some kind of point/currency, which can then be spent on rewards. This too, didn’t feel right to me, because it made all books the same. If a 300 year old poem like “Mother of Duality” gives 4 points, what does a tongue-in-cheek political letter like “The Island of Insanity” reward? The two are on a different spectrum.

This is how I arrived at a final solution of dividing knowledge in to 3 categories: Philosophy, Mysticism, and Worldlore. These categories came from my attempts to organize the existing books. I grouped the books by how they “felt”, then tried to give these groups names. When I arrived at the word “worldlore” the rest fell in place. “Worldlore” brings together the political, historical, and geographical types of books into one umbrella.

The complexity of any gameplay system must bring benefit equal to that complexity, and 3 types of knowledge was to my mind about the maximum allowed complexity for a reading/studying/unlocking system.

With 3 types of knowledge, the player can still choose a path, search for specific books, and plan a “build” so-to-speak, without having to learn or track too much.

The Study Bench

One other way this system is a nice fit for DoT, is the study bench which is used by the player to select a book to study or to unlock knowledge abilities. Since many existing skills (Cooking, Alchemy, Quartermastery, Enchanting) require a specific item in the world to interact with the skill, it felt right to do the same for reading.

But what is the benefit, you might ask. Why make the player visit a specific location to spend their knowledge points or study a new text?

The answer is twofold:

1. Connecting to the world. If interaction with a gameplay system is primarily through UI – especially if that UI can be opened at any time – the UI begins to feels separate from the game, like a secondary mini-game floating on top of the world, and not a part of the world.

   The addition of a study bench means a scholar now has a reason to visit other scholars (to use their study bench), to plan specific routes in dungeons, and to remember specific locations. Mastering Reading now means interacting with the actual gameplay world, and not simply making decision in a user interface.

2. Time Investment. One problem I am seeing develop in DoT is there is little downside to taking on every skill. To make characters more unique, one method is to add costs to these skills. Time investment is a great way to do this. The Botany skill requires picking flowers, the Cooking skill requires attaining ingredients and recipes, and Reading now requires finding books and study benches. This takes real effort, beyond simply playing the game as normal for a little longer to gain more XP, you have to play the game differently. Playing as a scholar is not the same game as a pure warrior.

Extensibility

A final word on extensibility. As far as possible, I am designing The Doors of Trithius to be game that can be extended and built upon over time. The knowledge system is a great way to do this, since new books and knowledge abilities can seamlessly be slot in. A new region now means not only new enemy types, traps, weapons, etc, but it also means new books, lore, and knowledge abilities.