Skills
Characters are able to learn a variety of skills. Some similar skills can be grouped together, and in these cases a character with a specific skill in a group will be able to perform the other skills in the group at a reduced proficiency (approximately 50%).
Each character will be better at improving in some skills than others, and not necessarily in the best skill they started out with.
Weapons Skills
Used for shooting small and medium size weapons.
Used for large and heavy weapons.
Driving Skills
Used for piloting small to medium sized vehicles.
Note that the driving skill is one of the slowest skills to improve. Improvement is based on the number of driving turns that occurred in combat.
Used for piloting larger trucks (anything with a bulk capacity over 500).
Misc. Skills
Ability to lead others to battle and bolster their morale.
High courage characters less likely to surrender in events.
Used for artillery weapons. Not grouped with other weapon skills ((http://dark-wind.com/forums2/index.php?a=topic&t=1562))
Used for repairing and salvaging vehicles.
Used for helping with the immediate effects of injuries.
Helps evading the most dangerous pirates when traveling and shifts the odds a bit more to your favour in scouts
Pedestrian weapons are weapons the characters carry and can equip when on foot.
Will be used for telepathic and telekinetic abilities brought on by long-term after-effects of solar radiation
Not yet implemented
Even though these skills may show up on your characters it's not possible to use them yet.
Will be used for piloting smaller 2-3 wheeled bikes.
Removed Skills
Ability to fight in unarmed melee combat, was removed in favour of the scouting skill
Training
Characters train a small amount in the skill of your choosing every week. Using the training centres located in Somerset and Elmsfield vastly improves the amount of skill they gain.
The training centre in Somerset is especially adept at teaching Driving and Cycling, while Elmsfield is more focused on First Aid.
All characters are able to learn all skills to some extent, for the skill to show up in their character sheet they need to have at least 10 points in it.
Training occurs weekly at 04:00 GMT Friday mornings.
When Training Hits
Characters do not have to be in a town with a Training Centre to benefit from weekly training, so long has they have registered at a Training Centre. The amount of benefit a character receives from the Training Centre is based in part on how much time he/she has spent traveling; the more time traveling, the less time training.
Characters receive training based on the last town they were in, so if they are traveling from Gateway to Somerset when the week changes, they get training as if they were in Gateway.
How much time a character has spent traveling can be seen in his or her Character Detail Sheet.
Training Form
Training effectiveness is also affected by a character's current training form. This condition fluctuates over a period of several weeks or even months, and represents a character's ability to absorb and retain the training materials. A character who appears to be training poorly may not do so indefinitely; a character might get stuck in a rut, but that doesn't mean he/she won't start training well again((http://www.dark-wind.com/forums2/index.php?a=topic&t=2830)). This condition is not visible to the gang owner.
The math
Training Form is a multiplier in the range of 0.4 to 2.0. The weekly training of each character is multiplied by the Training Form value to determine how much skill they learn.
Each character's Training Form is randomly modified every week by +/- 0.3. It will never go above 2 or fall below 0.4.
Each rank of Motivator gives a 0.05 bonus to Training Form for characters in the same town as the Motivator. For example, a level 5 Motivator provides a 0.25 point bonus to every character in town with him.
Field Training
Characters can train while on wilderness encounters, and the more dangerous the region the more effective field training is. Also, the lower the character's skill, the more effective field training is.
Therefore, low skilled characters generally field train faster (even in Somerset) and that higher skilled characters have to move to more dangerous regions to keep their field training going well.
All field training skills are affected: weapons, driving, trucker, courage, first aid, mechanic, leadership.
Leveling Through Use
All skills also level when used in events, however, not all characters will use their skills. Obviously, if a character is firing a weapon, the chance their skill with that weapon will increase is high.
Mechanics and scouts are a little different. The highest level Mechanic and Scout present in the event will receive the most training, however, the highest Mechanic and Scout of each gang will also receive some training as well.
First Aid is a bit different in that if the scout is successful (ends in a Looting Phase) the character with the highest skill in the entire squad may level his First Aid skill. If the scout is unsuccessful (the players' cars escape), then the character with the highest First Aid in each car may level his First Aid skill. This simulates the behavior that when escaping, cars will scatter and regroup later, in which case the best medic immediately available is pressed into service.
For more active players this should usually amount to more than what they gain through weekly training.
TODO: Exact requirements of leveling through use.
Floating Point Notice
The skill levels on the character sheet are only approximations rounded to their nearest integer value (So 49.5 becomes 50) for example.
It's the source of some confusion as you're not able to nickname or buy specialisms for characters who are close enough to show up as having 40 or 50 skill but aren't actually eligible.
This is no longer the case as skills are now rounded down. This is causing some confusion of its own because players are seeing an apparent 'skill loss'.
Skill Maximums
TODO: Explain skill maximums more.
The average natural skill cap is supposed to be around 150 on the average, but characters that skilled are very rare and this is largely unexplored.
If you pay money to hire a character there is a greater chance you will hire someone with a lower skill potential than if you used your leader to get a free hire. (([Discussion] - see page 2))
There is strong anecdotal evidence that a character's skill cap applies to all of that character's skills. So, if a character hits his maximum in Gunnery at 94, he will hit that same maximum in any other skills he trains in.
Leadership does not seem to be affected by the character's skill cap.
Talents
TODO: Explain talented characters better
Talented characters learn the skill(s?) they are talented in faster and don't reach their maximum skill cap nearly as fast as normal characters would.
Talented characters could be able to level their chosen skill up to 300+
Characters who are recruited with >20 skill from taverns are very likely talented in that skill.
Skill Related Bonuses
Besides being able to perform much better in their chosen skill highly skilled characters also enjoy a few interesting perks:
- at 30 skill can yield bounties when killed if a bounty has been put on their gang, and their obituary will appear in the Darkwind Gazette should they perish.
- at 40 skill they can be given a nickname.
- for every 50 skill points they can learn a specialism specific to that skill.
- at 100 skill their name will show up in the Darkwind Hall Of Fame should they die.