Skills

Skills are the major measure of how powerful a character has become, indicating the base percentage chance that a character has of performing different tasks. As a character performs these actions, they will gain experience and they will get better at them.

Types of Skills
There are currently two types of skills in Shatterpoint - Primary and Secondary.

Primary Skills are the "main" skill sets, determining effectiveness in combat, healing, scavenging and crafting. They each split several times, getting more and more specialised as they improve. These skills can only be improved by directly using them, but contribute towards earning Trait Points.

Secondary Skills are skills which stay the same from 1% to 100%, and usually represent mastery of a specific thing, whether it is a language, a weapon or a recipie. These skills can be improved by directly using them, reading scavenged books and by being practiced in Downtime. They do not contribute towards Trait Points.

Improving Skills
Skills are improved by using them successfully. Each action is assigned a difficulty, such as the Tier of the enemy or the danger of the place being scavenged. The higher the difficulty, the more experience a character will get from performing the action. This is also changed by the Tier of the character - a Tier 1 character attacking a Tier 3 animal will get far more experience than a Tier 3 character attacking a Tier 1 animal. When a character's experience reaches the current value of the skill, it improves and the experience bar is reset.

''Example - Seamus, a Tier 1 Trojan with a Ranged Attack skill of 14%, shoots a Tier 3 Bear with his pistol. After several misses, he hits it and deals some damage. Because he has succeeded in an attack, he gains experience. This works out as 3 points due to the difference in Tiers. This takes his Ranged Attack experience from 13 to 16, meaning his Ranged Attack skill improves to 15%, and his Ranged Attack experience goes down to 2 (spending 14, his current skill) and can start rising again.''

''While he is doing this, Trigg, his Tier 2 Radslummer ally (with a Melee Attack (Blunt) Skill of 46%) keeps the Tier 1 Bear Cubs from protecting their mother with his massive metal club. He keeps hitting them and knocking them back, and each attack gains him experience. This time, he only gets .5 points each time as he is a tier higher than them. After killing all three of them, he has gained 3 Melee Attack experience, raising it from 12 to 15 - he needs 32 more experience to improve again.''

Primary Skills
There are five base Primary Skills, Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, Hacking, Crafting and Survival. These represent the basics that all characters in Shatterpoint have at least some training in, starting at 10% (before Origin modifications). At 25% and 50%, these skills split into more specialist versions that affect a smaller group of activities than the overall skill.

Melee Attack
Melee Attack is hitting people up close and personal. Whether a character uses their fists, swords or even bits of rock found on the ground, Melee Attack covers it all. At 25%, it splits into four seperate skills; Bladed, Blunt, Piercing and Unarmed.

Bladed
Everything from swords to halberds, and from scythes to chainsaws, if it cuts, it uses the Bladed skill. At 50%, Bladed splits further into Single-Handed Bladed and Two-Handed Bladed.

Blunt
Clubs, quaterstaves, sledgehammers and flails, blunt is home to things that crush and maul. At 50%, Blunt splits further into Single-Handed Blunt and Two-Handed Blunt.

Piercing
Daggers, spears, ice picks and railroad spikes, is you stab people with it, it's Piercing. At 50%, Piercing splits further into Single-Handed Piercing and Two-Handed Piercing.

Unarmed
The home of fists, knuckle dusters and gauntlets, Unarmed is by far the most badass combat skill, if not the most effective. At 50%, Unarmed splits further into Brawling and Improvised Weapons.

Ranged Attack
Ranged Attack is shooting people at a distance. It covers all varieties of ranged combat, from hyper-advanced sniper rifles to throwing stones. At 25%, it splits into four seperate skills; Archaic, Pistols, Shotguns and Rifles.

Archaic
Bows, slings and throwing stuff you find on the floor, Archaic is the stuff people used before they found gunpowder. At 50%, Archaic splits further into Bows and Slings/Thrown.

Pistols
Pistols is the realm of one-handed ranged weapons, from revolvers to snub-nosed Uzis. At 50%, Pistols splits into Handguns and Assault Pistols.

Shotguns
Short-ranged two handed weapons that pack more stopping power per foot of range than any other weapon in existance. At 50%, Shotguns split into Solid-Slug Shotguns and Scattershot Shotguns.

Rifles
The ultimate in man-portable range, Rifles are the long ranged killers of the Clean Zones (including Crossbows). At 50%, Rifles splits into Sniper Rifles and Assault Rifles.

Hacking
Hacking is the art of making programs and using them to influence other human's CortexNet implants. Or just putting up pretty pictures on Cortex.net. At 25%, Hacking specialises into Mindreading, Mindwriting, Nethacking and Programming. Hacking specialities require slightly more explanation than most (mainly due to pointlessly ambiguous names)

Mindreading
The arts of riding the senses, a skilled Mindreader can use another human or robot's senses instead of their own. At 50%, it splits further into Sightjacking and Sensor Use.
 * Sightjacking is the specialist use of Mindreading on Human targets, but at especially high levels, it can even be used on other biological creatures.
 * Much as Sightjacking is specialised use on humans, Sensor Use is Mindreading tailored for robots and security systems.

Mindwriting
Where Mindreaders can see what others see, Mindwriters can make others see what they want to, turning them into illusionists and tricksters of the highest calibur. At 50%, Mindwriting splits into Impart Vision and Conjuring.
 * Impart Vision allows a skilled Mindwriter can make their target sense what they sense, which helps security, communications and disorienting opponents.
 * The most terrifying and infamous use of a Hacker's art, Conjuring can create whole new visions and force people to live through them, making them fight enemies that aren't there, or turning allies into enemies.

Nethacking
Sometimes, a good, solid mental attack can leave opponents incapacitated or, hopefully, dead. Nethackers are also usually the best at setting up countermeasures for opposing hackers. At 50%, Nethacking further splits into Mental Blast and Clearmind.
 * Mental Blast is a direct attack from the Hacker's mind to their target's, hoping to burn out their bran.
 * If a Nethacker suspects they have been hacked, they can attempt to use Clearmind, a program that will delete all foreign programs from their own CortexNet. If successful, the Nethacker can immediately remove all Mindreading and Mindwriting effects from themselves.

Programming
All Hackers know how to program - it's this which creates the powers and abilities the other three skills use. Unlike the other three skills, Programming is simply crafting, and splits into Program Creation and Program Deconstruction at 50%.

Crafting
While crafting itself is hard, it's skill set is easy. All crafting eventually splits into Creation and Deconstruction - a crafter can attempt to deconstruct any item for spare parts and, in doing so, may learn how to make it if their Creation skill is high enough. At 25%, Crafting splits into Armour, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons and Utility Items. At 50%, these skills split into the relevant Creation and Deconstruction skills.

Survival
Survival is the catch-all term for everything that can keep yourself (and occasionally others) alive in the Clean Zones. It is used by Medics, Guards, Spies, Assassins, Scavengers, Soldiers, some of the poorer Crafters and pretty much anyone who is conscious. At 25%, Survival splits into Awareness, Stealth, Medicine and Scavenging.

Awareness
While the ability to see a long way or hear well is a natural gift, processing the information is a skill that can be learnt. Both skills change the distance that encounters are determined to be hostile or friendly - it's just that some things can only be heard, and some things can only be seen. At 50%, Awareness splits into Sight and Hearing.

Stealth
The opposite of Awareness, Stealth is the art of not showing up at all, or at least not appearing as a threat on a cursory investigation. At 50%, Stealth splits into Hiding and Disguise.

Medicine
Very popular people, skilled Medics find themselves well looked after by people who only barely know how to apply a plaster. At 50%, Medicine splits into Alchemy and First Aid.

Alchemy
Alchemy is a catch-all term used for creating supplies for medical purposes. Or occasionally poisons. It functions as both the Creation and Deconstruction skill for salves, poisons and medikits.

Scavenging
Scavengers find better objects in less time, making an art out of knowing where to look that people don't usually think of. At 50%, Scavengers further specialise into Battlegrounds and Scraplands.

Secondary Skills
Secondary skills are broader, but never get any more specialised. Also, instead of starting at 10% like Primary Skills, they start at !5 but are easier to improve. They are split into three groups;
 * Languages. The higher a character's skill in a language, the more they understand or speak properly when they converse in it. A character gain experience in languages that are not his own by trying to speak them, or by reading books designed for learning them. Languages that can be learnt are English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Chinese. All characters gain 100% in their own country's language.
 * Weapon Skills. Each weapon has it's own skill, which determines the maximum Attack skill that can be used with it - a character with a new pistol (Secondary Skill 16%), but a Ranged Attack skill of 56% will still only hit on 16%. Weapon skills gain experience every time the weapon is used, whether or not it hits. Every new weapon has it's own skill - even if a character has 100% in one pistol, he will start at 1% with any other.
 * Recipies. When a character learns a recipie, each time it is made will gain the character experience in that recipie. The higher a character's experience in that recipie, the more chance the item will be made with slightly better stats than a standard version.