Intermission Two – Skills.

Skills within Haven have been designed to be the major influence in most endeavours, where a skill is determined to be an ability that must be learned , as opposed to an attribute, which is a physical, or mental, trait one is born with, but can only be improved upon by the allocation of points.

Unlike other incarnations of skills within Virtual Realities, a skill must be taught to the player by either a skillmaster with the knowledge of the skill being sought, or by the use of a rare Skills Crystal. An unknown skill can not, and will not, suddenly be available to a player, just because they have performed some repetitious task or action.

Once a player has gained knowledge of a skill from a skillsmaster they then can concentrate on training it up, which does not require a skillsmaster, but training and use of a skill.

For example, a warrior may not be a skillmaster and therefore be unable to impart the skill of longswords on a player, but can train any player who already has obtained the skill elsewhere.

Any skill will advance rapidly in levels at the beginning, as the experience needed to advance in levels is low, but a point will be reached where the amount of experience needed to gain a level will occupy a long period of a players time. Level gaining is a game of diminishing returns

Each skill progresses in Tiers, which are comprised of 100 levels each, the first Tier being the Beginners Tier. So a newly learned skill will start off at Beginners Tier, Level 0. When the player has advanced up in levels of a skill to be at Beginners Tier, Level 99, their next level will move them up to the next Tier Category, that being Apprentice Tier, Level 0. It is at this point the player will require the services of a Skillsmaster again, for a player can not move up to a new Tier category but must be promoted by a Skillsmaster in the skill to be promoted, and also must be of a higher tier standing in that skill than the Tier that the player wants to be promoted to. Higher level Skillmasters are far and few within the gameworld.

Abilities, on the other hand, are different than both attributes and skills in that they can be self taught, and do not require a skillsmaster to obtain. These are things that require attributes in their use, but can not be improved by training but by using the ability

There are twenty Tier Categories that any skill can attain, and each of them encompasses 100 levels in a skill. This means to gain the ultimate height in a skill requires a player to gain 2000 levels in that skill, a feat that could require more than one hundred years of training.

Tier progression Table

Tier 1 - Beginner Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 2 – Apprentice Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 3 - Adept Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 4 - Expert Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 5 - Master Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 6 - Grand Master Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 7 - Veteran Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 8 - Sage Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 9 - Champion Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 10 - Hero Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 11 - Paragon Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 12 - Epic Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 13 - Legend Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 14 - Immortal Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 15 - Demigod Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 16 - Titan Tier Levels 0 - 99

Tier 17 - Deity Tier Levels 0 – 99

Tier 18 – Lesser God Tier Levels 0 – 99

Tier 19 – Greater God Tier Levels 0 – 99

Tier 20 – Creator Tier Levels 0 – 99

As a normal player within the game may never rise further than Tier seven or Tier Eight, due to time / life restrictions, the developers of Haven, Holobyne Technologies, have so far refused to enter into any discussion or explanation on why it has been designed in such an expanded manner.

*** Notes from a Journalistic Adventurer ****