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I'm trying to write a litrpg and one of the main feature is skill merger. Skill merger is a feature where characters can merge skills to create new skills (e.g. Fire ball + Sticky ball = Sticky fire ball).

Depending on the skill, a skill merger can happen anything between 1 to 9 times one at a time or at all once and only maxed proficiency skills are eligible for skill merger.

The new skill resulted from skill merger will retain its previous properties and effects whole also getting new properties and effects (e.g. Sticky fire ball can explode like normal fire ball and scatter like granade afterwards but sticks on things like burning gel and explosion will become quite unlike fire ball where it's a fast explosion damage or sticky ball just sticks and traps people).

So here's the problem I'm facing as a result of max proficiency skills can be eligible for skill merger. It kinda slows down that skill merger a lot.

A character will have 6 skill points per level so at level 9 they will have like 54 skills. Which resulting in slow skill merger but many skills.

Since it takes time to increase a skills proficiency to 100%. So it will take time for skill merger to be eligible in early levels.

By the way skill points are points that characters can you to get skills.

So is there any solution for this dilemma?

Sorry for misunderstanding.

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    \$\begingroup\$ It's not clear to me from reading this what a "skill merger" is. Can you edit your question to document the rules for this in detail, as though writing for someone who had never seen a game with such a mechanic in it? It's also not clear what makes this current version "slow" - can you explain in more detail, or walk us through an example? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 14:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ I second DMGregory's comment. We need more information about what a "skill merger" actually means in your overall game concept. Perhaps you could phrase that part of the question as a player story (e.g. "When the player reaches max level in "diving" and max level in "basket weaving", they get the option to merge both skills into "under water basket weaving")? That would for example raise the question why they would not opt to do that. If there were no reason, then that would beg the question why that wouldn't happen automatically. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 14:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ Are you asking for a way to speed up access to skill mergers? Ie. leveling up a skill to max proficiency takes too long, so you're looking for a way to help players get access to merging faster? If so, you should give us more details about the mechanics you use for leveling up skills. How do players gain skill levels, and how are they distributed between the possible skills? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 14:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DMGregory Yes. Skill proficiency depends on the usage. The more you use the skill the higher proficiency it will become. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 14:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ Wait a moment. You recent edit added a completely new element to the design: Proficiency percentage. So there is now a proficiency percentage which increase with usage and there are skill points which are obtained by levelups and can then be distributed on different skills (I presume). How exactly do these two mechanics interact with each other and with the skill merger system? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 22, 2022 at 14:50

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One solution would be to have different skills require different amounts of work to get to 100% proficiency. When some skills max out very quickly, then it won't take very long until the first merger options become available.

This of course puts a limit on how far certain skills can be developed. How committed are you to the idea that a skill must be maxed out before it unlocks a merged skill? You could already enable certain skill mergers on earlier proficiency. For example, a character would already gain the option to learn Sticky Fireball with Fireball 30% and Stick Ball 40%.

If you do want to stay committed to the idea that mergers may only happen when a skill is maxed out, want mergers to happen early but also want to give the option to invest a lot of effort into mastering the art of fireballing, then you could solve that by also unlocking a more advanced version of a skill when it's maxed out. For example, when the character reached 100% proficiency in Fireball, they don't just unlock the merger with Stick Ball, but also unlock a new skill "Greater Fireball". Greater Fireball is basically just a stronger version of Fireball which also requires a lot more effort to bring to 100% proficiency.

That would mean that raising a skill to 100% gives two different progression options: diversification (by investing in a merged skill) or specialization (by investing in an advanced version of the same skill).

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