// LORE

Design Decisions: Economy & Skills

Design Decisions - Economy, Skills & Crafting

Locked in session 2026-04-14. To be expanded in future sessions.

Skill Point Economy

Decision: Players cannot max everything at max level.

The skill tree must force real build choices at OL 90. Inspired by New World - players should have distinct builds, reasons to respec, and something to theorize about. A player who maxes Combat Level may have a different skill allocation than one who split across all three tracks.

Point economy target: at OL 90 you can max roughly 60–70% of your class skill tree. The remaining 30–40% is the choice you made. Players can respec (cost TBD - probably credits + a cooldown), so builds aren't permanent, but they're not trivial to change.

Implementation note: The scaling cost structure (ranks 1–3 cost 1 pt each, 4–5 cost 2 pts, 6–7 cost 3 pts = 13 pts to max one skill) creates the right constraint when a class has 12–14 abilities. Total budget at OL 90: ~180 points. Total cost to max everything: ~180+ points. You can max most things but not all - and the interesting decisions happen between OL 20–70.

Class Perks at Character Selection

Decision: Every class gets clear, visible perks shown at character selection.

Players should be able to read the character selection screen and say "that's the one I want." Not just flavor text - actual mechanical advantages stated plainly.

Format goal: Each class gets 2–3 bullet points on the selection screen:

• One combat/gameplay perk
• One economy or utility perk
• One unique-to-this-class perk (the exclusive)

Example - Keth Tempest:

• "Deals increased damage as combat continues - the longer the fight, the more dangerous you become"
• "Crafts weapons and armor at 25% reduced material cost"
• "Earns bonus credits from trade routes (cargo delivery bonuses)"
• "Exclusive: Blood Challenge - lock a target in single combat; it cannot flee or call for help"

These perks should be concrete enough that min-maxers can calculate them and casual players can understand them at a glance.

Tempest crafting bonus rationale: The Keth are engineered warriors who understand weapons at a physical/genetic level. It makes narrative sense that a Tempest knows exactly how much material a weapon needs and wastes nothing. The trade route bonus fits the Keth frontier economic position - they move goods through dangerous space and get paid accordingly.

Crafting Economy Philosophy

Decision: Most items in the game should be crafted.

This includes: weapons, reactors, shields, engines, devices, and consumables. Crafting is the primary source of gear, not drops. This incentivizes the Trade Level track and makes Brokers and Crafting Level investment valuable to the whole economy.

Drop philosophy:

• Common mobs drop materials (ore, components, salvage) - fuel for crafting
• Elite mobs drop rare materials and occasionally mid-tier complete items
• Boss mobs drop rare complete items that are slightly better than the best craftable equivalent at that tier - not by a large margin, but enough to be desirable

The gap between best-crafted and best-dropped should be small enough that craftable gear is the realistic endgame for most players, and boss drops are a meaningful bonus rather than the only path to competitiveness.

Tiered Crafting System (Scalable Recipes)

Decision: Items are crafted at specified level tiers, not as thousands of individual items.

Instead of a separate item for every level (level 12 beam, level 13 beam, level 14 beam...), recipes scale by tier:

Each tier produces an item appropriate for that OL range. Want a better version within the tier? Spend more materials for a "quality" variant (quality 1–3 within the tier).

Benefits of this approach:

• Manageable item database (5 tiers × item types × quality levels instead of 90 levels × item types)
• Crafting Level investment matters throughout the game, not just at launch
• Higher-tier crafting remains aspirational - you can see what you'll eventually make
• Materials from any tier's content are always useful (used in that tier's recipes)

Blueprint System (Design TBD)

Decision: Blueprints are the unlock mechanism for crafting recipes. Not all should be freely available.

The exact gating TBD, but the philosophy:

• Common blueprints (tiers I–II): Available from vendors at all stations. Every player can make basic gear from the start.
• Advanced blueprints (tiers III–IV): Faction-locked - available from specific faction vendors once standing threshold is reached. Incentivizes faction play.
• Rare blueprints (tier V): Drop from elite mobs and bosses; rare loot from Ancient sites; rewards from endgame mission chains. Not purchasable.
• Class-specific blueprints: Some items can only be blueprinted by specific classes. A Tempest can craft weapon modifications that no other class can make. A Warden can craft psionic resonance components.

Class crafting specializations (tentative):

Crafting Level (Separate Progression Track)

Decision: Crafting Level is earned by crafting, separate from Combat/Explore/Trade XP tracks.

• Earns XP every time you successfully craft an item
• Higher-value/higher-tier items award more XP
• Crafting Level is NOT part of the Overall Level calculation (it's a fourth specialization, not a requirement for anything other than advanced recipes)
• Displayed alongside Combat/Explore/Trade levels on the character sheet

Crafting Level cap: 30 (matching the individual track caps).

A player who ignores crafting entirely can still reach OL 90. A player who only crafts will have high Crafting Level but low OL - they'll need other players to bring them materials from high-level sectors they can't safely reach.

This creates a natural social loop: high-combat players gather materials from dangerous sectors and trade them to high-crafting players who turn them into gear the whole group can use.

Design session: 2026-04-14 Next steps: Rewrite skill-trees.md with the revised framework (no weapon/tech passive skills, hard choices on class abilities, class perk display at character selection).