Skills

Overview

Skills are one of the major mechanics of how the player interacts with the sapiens in the game. It is a system that allows the player to determine what sapiens will do what type of tasks, and how many. Skills are required to perform their related actions, and they can be learnt by investigating a specific object. Some skills cannot be performed by sapiens which are unable to perform heavy tasks (e.g. elderly sapiens).

Roles vs Skills

Alule Example - Click to expand

There is an important difference between a sapien having a role and having a skill, but they are tightly related. A role is the assignment of one of any of the skills to a particular Sapien for them to work on open jobs that require this skill. However the first time they attempt a task they haven't completed before, there will be delay as the Sapien learns this skill. This is represented next to the skill name as an increasing circle graph. Once this learning phase is complete they have fully learned the skill and there will be no learning delay on future tasks. This is indicated by a little Blue Ribbon with a star in the bottom right corner of the skill box in a sapien's Role Panel. The diagram to the right shows an example of these concepts.

Alule Example

To the right is a screenshot of a typical sapien Role Assignment Panel. In this example the sapien Alule has 4 roles assigned - General Labor, Basic Cooking, Spear Hunting, and Mining. This is indicated by the green selection color of the role and blue check mark that was selected by the player. You can also see from the blue star ribbons of the skill box that Alule is fully skilled in several skills. However, unless a sapien is assigned the role (green selection) they will not perform that job - even though Alule is skilled in Basic Building, Investigation, Diplomacy and Fire Lighting he will never do one of these open jobs as he has not been given the role to complete jobs of these skill types.

You can see Alule is also assigned the Mining Role, however he is not skilled in it as there is no blue star ribbon or progress indicator. This means Alule will take a mining task to be completed, however the first time he attempts to mine something it will take a while for the skill to be fully learned. You can see from his Tool Assembly skill he is about 3/4's complete, however he will make no more progress on this skill until he is actually assigned the role.

Anatomy of the Skill Box

Anatomy of the skill box.

A significant amount of information is relayed on the skills box found in the "Manage Sapien" view. The diagram shows the different indicators present on the skills button.

Skill Name & Icon

The skill name and icon indicate the skill type. The color of the text and icon indicates if this particular skill is suitable to be assigned to this sapien. There are skills that require heavy lifting and will not be suitable for pregnant sapiens or children to do. These skills will be highlighted this way in the Roles Management panel for children and pregnant women. While these skills do not show up as yellow for elders, it's generally advised not to assign them to heavy lifting roles as they tire easily and move slowly making them ineffective.

Skill Level Indicator

A blue star ribbon represents that the sapien has fully learned this particular skill. While a sapien is learning a skill this area will show a circular progress indicator that progresses as the sapien learns the skill.

Number of Assigned Sapiens

This number represents the total of all sapiens who have been assigned this skill. This is an easy way to see where there are shortages of a particular skill slowing down a large job.

List of all Skills

Skill	Description	Investigation	Prerequisites	Heavy Lifting
	Baking includes the process of kneading flour into dough and creating a nutritious meal.	Flour		No
	Basic Building includes the construction of beds, crafting/storage areas and placing other objects.	None	Inherent	No
	Basic Cooking includes the ability to cook meat to provide more nutritional value.	Cookable Item	Fire Lighting	No
	Basic Hunting includes the ability to hunt and kill small animals by throwing simple projectiles.	Live Chicken	Tool Assembly	Yes
	Bone Carving includes the ability to create musical instrumentals and sharp blades from bones.	Bone	Rock Knapping	No
	Butchery includes the ability to harvest meat from the carcass of a dead animal.	A dead Alpaca or Mammoth	Rock Knapping & a Knife	No
	Ceramics allows for using a kiln to make fired clay products that are extremely durable.	Unfired Urn or Unfired Bowl or Unfired Brick or Unfired Tile	Mud Brick Building	No
	Digging includes the clearing of soil, sands and clay.	Soil	Rock Knapping	Yes
	Diplomacy includes the persuasion of wandering Sapiens to join your tribe.	None	Inherent	No
	Fire Lighting includes the lighting of fires, which provide warmth and cook food.	Branch		No
	Flax Spinning is the ability to create Flax Twine from Dry Flax.	Dry Flax		No
	Flint Knapping includes the ability to create less primitive flint tools, which are longer lasting and better than their rock counterparts.	Flint	Rock Knapping	No
	General Labour includes hauling items, clearing grass and harvesting common resources like fruits from trees.	None	Inherent	No
	Griding includes the process of crushing grains to make food out of them.	Hulled Wheat	Threshing	No
	Investigation includes the process of investigating a new thing to make breakthroughs to advance the tribe's knowledge.	None	Inherent	Some
	Craft and administer poultices and medicines to help the injured or sick.	Medicinal Plant	Pottery	No
	Mining includes the process of digging up valuable resources like rock.	Ground	Digging	Yes
	Brick Building includes the ability to make structures out of mud bricks.	Dry Mud Brick		Yes
	Music includes the playing of music to lift the tribes' spirit, increasing loyalty and happiness.	Musical Instrument		No
	Planting includes the process of planting a seed or crow to harvest more.	Seed	Digging	Yes
	Pottery includes the ability to create urns and pots.	Clay	Digging	No
	Rock Knapping includes the ability to create primitive rock tools and split larger rocks into smaller ones.	Large Rock		No
	Spear Hunting includes the ability to hunt and kill Alpaca and Mammoths with the use of spears.	Alpaca or Mammoth	Tool Assembly	Yes
	Thatch Building includes the ability to make structures out of hay, reeds or branches.	Hay	None	Yes
	Threshing includes the process of making grains ready to mill or cook.	Wheat	Pottery	Yes
	Tiling allows a sapien to use tiles to create floors.	Fired Tile	Ceramics	Yes
	Tool Assembly includes the crafting of more complex tools by combining multiple components.	Tool Components TODO	No
	Tree Felling includes the process of chopping down trees.	A Tree	Axe	Yes
	Wood Building includes the construction from wood, like door frames, window walls and walls.	Split Log		Yes
	Wood Working includes the crafting of things made out of branches and logs.	Log	Rock Knapping	Yes