Alright. So I brought this up in dev chat, but I’m putting it up here to keep better record of it, and to get further feedback from players to see your stances on this. It’s a loose plan regarding how things can eventually be done regarding how specialization (Guardian, Consular, Sentinel) work and how it’s achieved, actual progression of training as a Jedi/Sith (Initiate > Padawan > Knight > Master), and other stuff.
So first off: Training progression. The idea I had for this was that people would start as they normally would. Obviously people have access to baseline force abilities if they wish to use them, train them up, and eventually get the quest from Jhoren to open up Lightsaber construction. But currently, past that, it’s just a matter of playing, RPing your training (if you actually go for the Jedi/Sith rather than remain neutral), etc. Here’s a loose method of how it’s gonna change:
After the Lightsaber quest from Jhoren, you’ll continue leveling up your skills to reach another marker, likely start/continue with going through RP training to pass the time, etc. But eventually you will be able to take another quest from Jhoren that will essentially “tag” your character as being ready to be taken on as a Padawan. From here, PCs of Knight or Master rank will be able to select a Padawan through an item or target command (the method doesn’t matter much, just explaining loose mechanics). The Padawan will then be bound to the Knight/Master training them. The RP would then continue as it always has, moving through training and otherwise, but this time the Knight/Master will be able to periodically grant “tokens” to show the progression of training for the Padawan. There will be limitations on how frequently these can be given, obviously, to avoid just suddenly jumping up really fast. Once the Padawan has been granted a certain number of tokens (TBD), the Knight/Master can then “tag” them to take “The Trials”.
Now we move on to a continuation of the above, but also explain how specializations will work. Jhoren then becomes available once again for a longer quest that is “The Trials” for the character in question. They would go through it as any other quest, and upon completion, will be able to finally select their Specialization (Guardian, Consular, Sentinel). At the same time, they would be granted the Knight rank and be able to take on a Padawan of their own. Now, I also know people may wonder about how a Knight becomes a Master. Given how huge of a deal that is, the idea is that will be DM granted only, through RP.
As a whole, with this method, things can progress rather smoothly while still remaining immersive and slow. Likewise, it still keeps that focus (among Force users) on the Jedi/Sith themselves, in terms of higher power. Those who remain neutral and can’t/won’t choose a side will obviously still have access to everything, but will not have that access to those greater Force abilities acquired through having a Specialization. But that’s always meant to be that choice, regardless. Do you choose a side and have to stick to and follow their rules, or choose to do what you wish, but with a lower level of ability than those with proper training?
In the end, this is all entirely up to debate and reworking over time. It’s not an immediate thing, but as a whole, to do it another way would likely lose out on a great deal of the immersion involved, and in the case of choosing a side, make it effectively meaningless. So feel free to toss your thoughts in here. It’s already been mentioned that the actual training process of the Padawan from the Knight/Master could use some refinement, for instance.