Instead of merging skills, you could suggest new ways how to use all of them. All combat skills can be versatile, simply need more balancing, adding pulse weapons to ignore laser/plasma resistance, but of course they should be much weaker than now, making bozar non-rare weapon to see BG snipers, make turbo-plasma weaker but do bursts instead of more range + less AP per shot, etc. This way any SGer/BGer/EWer could be sniper, single fast shoter or burster. About repair/science/lockpick/speech/gambling, it can't be used now properly because of lack of content yet, not because there's no way for imagination how to make them work. Reworking sneak skill to make it useful on 100%, 150% and 200%, not only on 300%+ghost by adding new factors affecting success like shadows/obstacles. And there are much more ways.Merging skills will only make all players more similar to each other.
Any action or inaction in a position of power will always grant you enemies
. About repair/science/lockpick/speech/gambling, it can't be used now properly because of lack of content yet, not because there's no way for imagination how to make them work.
others will never fit mmo game.
@krashkishm I only gave unarmed as an example because its easy to make a formula for that people won't argue over. Intelligence helps determine speech/barter, SP gain, and the base stats of basically all the non-combat skills.
So basically INTELLIGENCE will become obsolete skill IF I can put ALL to COMBAT SKILLS (because as u say INT wont affect combat skills) = ultra powerbuilds
ffs read the post then try to comprehend!
I said that INT wouldn't be a factor in the independently increasing Unarmed Skill, and that it would be useful in almost all the Non-combat Skills. Not that the Non-Combat Skills would be the only skills using it. Energy would definitely rely on it and the others might too to a lesser degree.