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This is a small gripe of mine with all the skill trees in Loren, SotW, and now QoT. They are so highly impersonal. Krimm's skill tree is not Krimm's skill tree. It's the barbarian's skill tree. Vaelis' tree is the mercenary's. I don't feel like wow, this is a skillset really befitting that character, it's just a class they picked when they were born or something. I don't mean the skills themselves aren't thematic, I mean their descriptions need to be more personal.

Most of these could be fixed simply by replacing "character" in the tooltip with the actual character's name. Just look at Krimm's Counter Attack* for example.

Current: For the next 5 turns, whenever character gets hit with a normal melee attack, it automatically counter-attacks the enemy with 75% accuracy.
Improved: For the next 5 turns, whenever Krimm gets hit with a normal melee attack, she automatically counter-attacks the enemy with 75% accuracy.
Awesome: For the next 5 turns, whenever Krimm gets hit with a normal melee attack, she automatically counter-attacks the enemy with 75% accuracy. Don't test her patience.

The awesome one has some flavor text too, which I also would like to see way more of (there's zero of it thus far). I know there's room for it in this particular skill because there are skills with twice the tooltip size. :D

Okay, so anyway, you might say, but enemies use these skills too. True they do, but we can't read the descriptions of their skills anyway, so it doesn't matter if it says it's Krimm's skill. As long as the tooltip of the actual buff/debuff is character neutral (and it should be if only to keep them as concise as possible) that doesn't make a difference.

Let me show you some more examples, going right from current to awesome version.

Krimm, Spinning Strike
Current: Hits 3 nearby targets for 125% damage, with 30% chances of causing weakened condition for 3 turns.
Awesome: Krimm sweeps a wide arc, striking 3 opponents for 125% damage. There's a 30% chance that each target will be weakened for 3 turns.

Krimm, Pull
Current: Pull a staggered enemy from the back row (if there is someone, they will swap positions). Target will also be paralyzed for 2 turns.
Awesome: None can hide from Krimm's fury. She pulls a staggered opponent from the back row to the front, swapping with whoever might be there. The shocked victim is paralyzed for 2 turns.

Krimm, Adrenaline Rush
Current: Whenever the character is staggered, using this skill immediately removes the stagger condition and increases speed by 10% for the next 3 turns.
Awesome: A raging barbarian is an unstoppable force. For the next 3 turns, Krimm will repeatedly shake off the Staggered condition. Her speed is increased by 10%.
Admittedly it gets a little repetitive to put Krimm in every tooltip but I couldn't remember any title/nickname for her or even the name of her tribe. ^^

So obviously I would like QoT skill descriptions to get this treatment. I think it's too early to do unless the storywriter wants to do it, because we obviously can't incorporate personality without knowing the girls' personalities. If Kira is the oldest sister then you could have "big sister" themed descriptions for her tanky skills... but I don't even know that much :D

And yes, given that it's a little too early maybe it was too early to make the thread too, but perhaps I could get some opinions on it and above all, there's just nothing better to do on a Sunday morning.

*I don't have a save (I only have my party halfway through act 1) with Krimm so I took that tooltip and all other Krimm tooltips from forum screenshots.

I use generic "character" because some of those skills are also used by enemies so would be weird to see a Skeleton use Finishing Blow or something and see "Vaelis killed Vaelis with finishing blow"

And how exactly would that happen? I just want you to change the descriptions, not the tooltips for mousing over a buff/debuff in combat and not the combat log entries.

Yes descriptions could be changed. I'll try to remember it for a future update, though of course right now I'm swamped with other 301548 things to do

I can do it, once I know what to actually put there anyway. I was just putting it out there for now.

OK cool

Moving the discussion from the art thread.

jack1974 wrote:however I really don't think there's enough space in the skill descriptions to add more lines...!

Well, firstly, take Fire Blast for example, which uses all three lines. Most others don't, so there's space in those. Secondly, you're assuming you have already worded all skills as efficiently as possible. If we take Bramble Coat for example, one sentence reads,

Those that strikes the target with melee will suffer 4 damage.

Instead it could say,

Melee attackers will suffer 4 damage.

But obviously explanatory power > flavor, so if a skill needs to have a humongous description to make its effect clear then I won't advocate adding a funny line to it. Also by adding a line I don't really mean forcing a linebreak.

Great to hear they have their own colors though. Makes this easier.

Okay, I want to give you an idea of how this could look. Firstly I want to stress I'm not making anything near final now, because I cannot incorporate personality before I know their personalities. Maybe they have some favorite lines etc. But anyway, with your code, ten minutes of googling and two crashes, I've created a fine example of what I envisioned.

Original


Awesome


So why is this better?
- Numbers and the debuff are colored so you can quickly see what the ability does. I don't think this was ever much of a problem per se, but this is still better. It also makes comparing different levels of the same skill easier.
- It says Kira, not the bloody character
- The quote wasn't a huge success, but I'm putting it out there. I said it wouldn't need a linebreak but I think it does, so huge tooltips cannot have quotes, but nothing's saying they all need to have quotes to be personal. edit: I changed to the correct shade of green and now I like the quote a lot more ^^

Very nice!
Yes the green should be darker, maybe try #416331 (it's the one used for the items).
Of course wait because if I do changes to the skills, you'll need to redo it. But when they're more or less final is surely worth doing it

Personally, I'm fine with the original text as is, as they are straight to point and tell me what I need to know. Highlighting status effects and numbers is a good idea although I don't recommend using white as it is kind of difficult to read against the yellow-brown background. I think the quote is kind of distracting to me.