Obviously, with a few weeks of experience with SKINr, there are some tweaks that are likely due for what is unarguably a polarizing first go of this system. I have a few suggestions for other parts of SKINr that I could see being helped by changes, but I wanted to focus on skills here.
The skills that lower sequencing time (eg. Basic Induction) and skills that allow for more concurrent sequencing jobs (eg. Parallel Sequencing) are nice, but skills like Industrial Sequencing, which only deal with per-sequence volume upwards of a whopping 4700, seem tone-deaf to current demand and accessibility for the consumer base, at least for now.
Hardly any independent designer needs to sequence in volume (yet…) because consumer confidence for purchasing even a single sequenced skin is pretty low, and anyone looking to sequence anything in counts more than 5-10 are taking an incredible risk in doing it. Some community-positive, QoL skills seem to be missing. At the very least, it seems like there are skills and tools that could be implemented to make it easier for individual makers to build a brand.
For example, in an ideal situation, the following skill concepts might work better in tandem with the existing skillsets while still maintaining profit margins for designers/CCP, allowing NES skins to have a continued foothold in the premium skin space, and simply allowing better access overall for individual designers to feel like they’re actually accomplishing something…
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Creative Direction (Senior Creative Direction, Executive Creative Direction) - a skillset that allows one additional save slot per level, to a maximum of +15. (Though, it’s my opinion that this one comes with some subtle caveats if nothing else about the system changes. I might recommend ditching the ability to read pattern slider values before implementing more save slots.)
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Basic Licensing (Expanded Licensing, Universal Syndication) - a skillset that allows for either a reduction of sales tax or a reduction of sequencing cost (but maybe not both), up to a maximum of -15% OR perhaps more interesting, a skill that allows for automatic duplication/triplication/quadruplication (depending on the tier level of skill category, Basic, Expanded, Universal) of sequenced skins when sequenced in bulks of 200+, 100+, 50+, 25+, 10+ (depending on level within the skill category, I-V)
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Studio Efficiency (Improved Studio Efficiency, Major Design House) - a skillset that provides discounts against the application costs of patterns and nanocoatings, up to a maxmium of -15% OR that same kind of discount, but applied as -1% per skill level, up to a maximum of -5% at Skill V, with each skill category (three total) applying to specific design element rarities in ascending order
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Basic Brand Strategy (Improved Brand Strategy, Brand Empire) - a skillset that increases the scope of branding, allowing for an increased available character count for skin naming and line descriptions whle also potentially allowing modified tools for demarcating limited or vintage editions, clearance items, and, potentially, skins on consignment
Food for thought!
EDIT: Also, on the note of skills that promote volume sequencing and how they’re likely problematic at the moment, I should highlight the extreme caveat and risk of producing a high count of any particular skin and listing all of that stack at once. Folks would be right to assume that such a large pile needs to be listed for weeks or months at a time, but, there’s currently (AFAIK) no way to cancel or modify listings. Say you sequence a skin to 2500 and list all 2500 in a single listing for a three-month duration; someone might come along, undercut your design with something markedly similar, and there’s really not much you can do about it until the listing expires naturally. It all just needs a big rethink pretty desperately.