Hobbies not connected to a skill can check an attribute or just have an effect (lower stress, raise morale, etc.). I have quite a few hobbies/activities planned and all skills will have activities to raise them over time.
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It is poisoning people a hobby? 
is a joke lol
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For @poison_mara ? Yes, poisoning will be allowed lol.
Honestly, itād be a great way to steal peopleās gearā¦
You guys must have had it rough. Let me get you some soup
I know I am coming at this from left field but ā¦
Perhaps classifying skills as professional (primary) means that you master the tools as a professional of that field would.
Likewise, classifying skills as a hobby (secondary) means that you have a hobbyist mastery of the tools in that profession -
With additional training (or lack of upkeep) skills can drift up or down from one classification to the next.
PS - it is surreal playing Zombie Exodus with āFear the walking Deadā playing in the backgroundā¦
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I can only shudder at the amount of coding classifying skills into a professional and hobbyist level alongside their percentages and then the appropriate skill checks for professional and hobbies would take.
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Unless the levels give some kind of bonus, I see no need to actually implement them, as we already have the original levels to work with (basic, beginner, adept, superior, master, etc)ā¦An 80% skill should work no matter if it was mastered through professional training, as a hobby, or simply as a response to the apocalypse.
If youāre talking about using the levels as a mean to alter the amount of experience gained with each training period, then itād unbalance the game. Soldiers would have half a dozen skills in the professional level while teens would have a few hobbies at most.
While I can agree to some backgrounds skipping some checks, having different options to choose from, and/or having alternate scene descriptions (as seen in the original ZE), the additional skill level system would be hard to implement in a way that balances realism with gameplay balance. Also, what was the reason to implement it again?
Not really a question about the game, but howād you get that *goto {hold_loc} to work (In BuildCharacter)? It seems to be a variable that can be changed based on choices in other branches, while directing where the main branch goes. It seemed to be a fairly versatile tool to use, but whenever I replicate it I end up with a bad label error.
Apologies if you consider it rude to discuss your code, I always like to take a peak under the hood.
choicescript_stats line 683: Non-existent variable ādante_joinā
When trying to access the stats page for relationships.
You know what I found funny about games like State of Decay and Dead State? The fact that some survivors hoard nudie mags. I always giggle a little when that sorta thing is mentioned in these post-apocalyptic type of games. Thatād certainly be one kind of hobby. 
Ah Dead Stateā¦ the only zombie game where survivors ask you to get them high. Especially Aggro.
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I still remember when Aggro came up to my guy and asked if he wanted to bang and my guy was just like ā/blinks slowly once, twice, thrice/ Iām gay. I am very gay. I am so gay, the only person Iām interested in here is Paul and heās recently widowed soooā¦ No thanks.ā
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I guess Iāll fill an entire room in my base with triple-x magazines, alcohol, and cigarettesā¦Knowing peopleās skewed priorities, Iād have the equivalent to Bill Gateās networth in the post-apocalyptic market 
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Definitely. Iād say those three things are probably right after bullets and food on the list of priorities of things to have/scavenge in Post-Apocalyptia. Luxuries sell, man, and people wanna feel good and/or forget. 
@JimD will know best but a simple check of +/- 50% efficiency (or whatever threshold you desire) should not be too complicated.
I am a novice @choice coder so I may not understand the full issue,
@Zolataya [quote=āZolataya, post:3548, topic:2000ā]
I know I am coming at this from left field but ā¦
[/quote]
Left field usually has all the good ideas.
If I understand you correctly, your vote or suggestion is to classify skills as profession- or hobby-based and that may be more programming than I can afford at this point, though I will have some skills gain bonuses within a profession. For example, a doctor can learn medicine faster than a teenager.
About 2 years ago, I pitched an idea to CoG for a zombie game at sea. They declined but watching FearTWD makes me wonder if that game would have similarities to the show. I still may use the idea in Safe Haven.
@Sylfaen I donāt mind discussing code.
*goto {hold_loc} means goto the location stored in hold_loc. All you need to do is *set hold_loc to a value which is the label where the reader needs to go.
@Sneaks that error should be fixed now.
@Lithophene Iām going to add +morale items at some point but no nudie mags. Maybe.
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Thatās the problem, actually. I set hold_loc to a certain value but when my script hits *goto {hold_loc}, I get some kind of strange Bad Label error directed at that line. Iāll have to mess around with it more later to see if I accidentally put the *set hold_loc somewhere I wasnāt reaching before hitting *goto.
Also, at this rate of complexity for the skill system, it might be simpler to just make the Skill System its own āsceneā and have any skillups be handled there. I know the Lost Heir guy did that with his store menus so it wouldnāt clutter up the main scenes.
Something along the lines of:
*If (ranged > 79) or ((HobbyRanged = true) and (ranged > 59)) or ((ProRanged = true) and (ranged > 49))
Would solve several out-of-character situations where the protagonist canāt do something their background implies theyāre good at. Also, it only seems mildly annoying to code. Then again, all the experience with coding I have is analytical, so I have no real way of saying if itās worth the trouble.
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I believe the main problem is that @JimD is coding A LOT as it is. And weāre not even that far into the game. IIRC the inventory system itself is probably awful in how to keep track of it.(depending on how youāre doing it.) Adding professional and hobbyist would add more coding and then coding each profession to set a skill for profession or hobby true, then making the several stat checks that determine if a choice will or will not succeed or if it can even be selectedā¦
It goes on from there And if youāre like me youāre bound to make several infuriating, albeit mistakes. Sometimes a single space will ruin your entire day and give you the dreaded error message.
Then again @JimD is MUCH better at coding than I am. So he can probably handle it a lot better than me.
@Sylfaen in the next update, I hope to introduce a new skill leveling system. In this version, skill leveling will be within scenes and I will send the player to a separate scene through *gosub_scene.
@StarshinaSokolov I am comfortable coding but am making hard decisions lately of simplifying some coding to finish Part 1 by the end of the summer. Right now my priorities on coding difficult features are:
- ways to add NPCs on missions
- more dynamic romantic interactions
I realize you are not necessarily advocating hobbies as skills but making a suggestion.
Note: CoGās official guidelines suggest authors do not code ways to add NPCs on missions.
YES.
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I was thinking along the lines of...
*Temp NPC_Travel false
*choice
#Take NPC with you
You decide to take NPC with you.
*Set NPC_Party True
*goto Travel
#Don't Take NPC with you
You decide to not take NPC with you.
*goto Travel
*label Travel
Dialogue.....
*if NPC_Travel True
NPC dialogue
Something along those lines.
Edit: Sorry this is a really sloppy example. Did this on mobile than tried fixing it on a PC and now itās allā¦ Bleh. I think you get the idea though.
Also thatās just a LOT more to code 
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