I've been thinking about this for some time and I've read and listened to some gamedev veterans speak about the subject of balance and the viability/incentive for players to pick skills (of any kind) and it got me thinking about the balance between the need for social skills in Underrail vs the greater benefit of putting those points into something that is more commonly required in the game.
Now, for me personally, I haven't really gotten the need to use any other social skills beside mercantile in Underrail because the requirement (as in situational requirement) for the other skills (especially the weapon and lockpick/hacking skills) are higher, that is, they are needed more often in most situations, OR when the choice is given, the social outcome is not rewarding enough to pick it, a clear example is the "toll" in the slums of junkyard, the sacrifice of skillpoints to access that choice is not balanced with the reward or having put those skill points on other skills that ultimately benefit the player more so than it otherwise would have. And it gets me thinking about the future of the social skills and how viable they will be in the end.
Granted, the game is in alpha and things are surely going to change and I'd like to ask you Styg: What's your view on this matter and can you estimate roughly how much the social skill requirement will increase as the development goes on? Because I'm one of those guys that talk my way out of most situations, but I also want it to feel like an alternate route rather than a disadvantage or "punishment".
I also wrote about this on my Tumblr in case someone wants to read it:
http://eliasfrost.tumblr.com/post/61956760469/skills-requirement-viability-and-usabilityThanks
