Player Skills

* See Also Player Tools
* See Also Fabrication
* See Also MMORPG_Player_Progress
* See Also Player_Movement_and_Maneuvering
A Skill Improvement System in the Rapture Reborn MMORPG. STILL, this game emphasizes rewarding Players own abilities (cleverness/imagination/common-sense/knowledge) rather than some artificial system which 'can be gamed'. 
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Mix of Skills in Rapture's Story (Since Founding of the City) :
* Adjustments to 'Employment/work' types certainly would be required over time, and not everything could be adequately preplanned ... (some deficiencies were unforeseen/unexpected).
* Additional personnel could be recruited to correct shortcomings. It is Stupid/contrived that Sofia Lamb wasn't properly vetted as a socialist/collectivist/insano -- likely for someone who might be able to adversely affect so many Citizens. Likewise that only 'one' psychologist would somehow be able to handle the problem.
* New (latest) Technology and Training imported from The Surface - Things needed for the required self-sufficiency
* Ryan would pay/subsidize for Vocational training for the most critical needs, and leave less important to be funded by various industries and businesses (creating some business opportunities serving those needs). Rapture's basic schools and its University would be geared towards future needs. The next generation is NOT born with its knowledge and skills.
Rapture's Initial design planning was done using Ryan's Surface Organization - The problem was limiting the true plan's details on a "need to know basis" for secrecy.
In the MMORPG, there are many skill gaps amongst the Citizens of New Rapture, and the inhabitants are admonished to "Increase their skills to be able to advance and improve their city's future"
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Experience Point System for Player Skills :
Basic system is an Incremental percentile (0-100 lost of small increments, like Tenths : 0.1) with increasing difficulty, and slower advancement at the top end (and many Skills, general and specific).   Milestones for general level quantum 'Achievements'.
Example list of similar system ( http://www.uoguide.com/Skills )- except this Rapture MMORPG has a much more extensive list of skills.
Players should be able to do most things 'moderately' with only a little 'trial and error' (may have middling abilities initially from 'life' experience' when starting).
Equivalences for different skill areas ("overlaps" : ex - using a Hammer to fix things gives some arm-coordination for using a Club to brain a Splicer, or to break a Lock on a door)
No Loopholes for 'too easy' advancement (some effort is required)
The usual fast advancement at lower 'skill' and much harder towards the 'expert' skills levels.
Skill level is enabler for additional solutions(versatility) and increased probable success for mundane actions
Players are significantly above average compared to NPCs  Skill cap ??  One person can only do so much (Player is supposed to be better than normal 'Joe' anyway),   Employing/coordinating NPCs with complementary skills is the solution (and interesting aspect of game and a challenge to make the AI have competent NPC sidekicks).
NPCs share a similar system for training as the Players have (and will advance by the same avenues and can be guided/planned for special skills, Players preferred way of playing).
Advancing NPC Team size  requires management/coordination skills development (once Player is outside of the 'out-patient' status of their Cure and have oriented themselves, one of the early 'missions' is to obtain a lackey/gopher to do tedious activities for the Player (even if they are initially a liability to try to go adventuring with).
Some professional qualifying classifications require not just the skill level, but public demonstration of the skill in a standard test -- like  City-qualified "Marksman" (with particular weapon) has a shooting qualification test - Opens available 'jobs' (Missions) from the City who wishes to have its citizenry have adequate survival skills and a pool of skills that might be needed in an emergency.    Civic Prestige Brownie points for doing these are an additional Player's incentive ...
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Decoders :
When you find information out in The Ruins (or stuff already brought into the City Library) you don't instantly know what it is about (or more importantly, how much it is worth or how useful it might be).  It might need decoding.  Not quite the same as if it was written with a cipher, but with all the specialized techno-jargon and shorthand, to anyone not immersed in whatever field it is related to, it might as well be Klingon.
SO the decoding is actually doing research (or having it done for you) to try to translate and discover what the information is about.  The in-game process wont be 'real' and untranslated information will have a gibberish font and fake text to cover its secrets.  Parts of that will start appearing and even then will just summarize what the information entails instead of exact/tedious 'real' details of some possibly fictional  technology.
As mentioned elsewhere, pieces of information may not add up immediately, but as more is collected (clues given to where to get more - likely just more from the original source location).
So research Skills will be valuable to at least a moderate level  (A Team NPC 'egghead'/'bookworm' likely to be employed and train down that specialization path).   Hiring experts (preferably with boilerplate non-disclosure clause) can also be done, or just turning it over to the Library for CASH (and skipping the rest of the effort/involvement yourself).
Information can lead to technical abilities, clues for Missions to interesting places (where more valuable goodies might be found) and fill gaps in Rapture's history.
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The Workings Of Rapture :
Part of the Player Skills is knowledge of how specific things work, which you get via some Missions to get the information (like blueprints/instruction manuals) to understand how specific things work. Many useful techniques are learned via doing City Repair Missions (like all those hidden hatches and access panels ...). Various mechanisms are common throughout Rapture (frequently made by Ryan Industries or a subsidiary from the City's construction).
Example - "How to Open a Sealed Securis Door" - Not broken, but sealed on a Pressure Failure Event (fix the pressure differential after going through a failsafe airlock and sealing the leak on the other side, and the resetting the safety sensors)
How to analyze and diagnose a situation and then know what needs to be done
Basic machinery repairs, communications systems, transport, etc...
Types of Terrain and Footing for effective Player_Movement_and_Maneuvering.
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