Dingobaby

The improvised bow still rests horizontal rather than vertical. I appreciate that I'm in a minority here but I like to get a stone knife and bow combo up and running asap.

I think that professions should be added as a character trait on spawn and randomly assigned. Only you know what your profession was before the outbreak and if asked you can lie. The only way can show you were a mechanic is to fix the cars etc. A person that was a mechanic will always be able to use the correct tools to fix a car and it will always work. Every other profession can try to fix it but it will only work 1/100 times and will ruin the tools quicker too. This way you could lie about your profession and you might get away with it. I think this will help the KOS element as somebody might have a profession that you need in your group. I think most spawns (50%) should be standard jobs like postman milkman etc. but you can learn any profession from books, read 100 books about mechanics and you are a mechanic. You can have multiple professions by reading multiple books but you can't master more than one and the more you read on one profession lessens the rest. Books would ruin after being read more than a few times so that people can't horde them for the group. If you have a teacher in your group you can shorten the time it take to master a new profession. There are no combat skills that increase with professions as I think this should come naturally as you play more. Once a group has multiple characters and professions >5 they must elect a leader and then political influence can play a part and bring in new skills. Only leaders can recruit or remove players from a group. For example: You spawn in and check your character you are listed as a postman. You run around and loot up and this will probably dictate what other skills you can achieve quickest (find tools, books etc. for a particular job). You spawn in and you are a mechanic. You can fix cars straight way with no risk and reduced tool damage. If another profession fixes a car they will only have 1/100 chance of success and will ruin the tools twice as fast You spawn in and you are a doctor. You can administer drugs straight way with no risk. If another profession gives/takes drugs they only have 1/100 chance of success. You are in a group and one of you get injured or gets poisoned, if you don't have a doctor you can risk it yourself or you can find the drugs needed and a doctor. You meet someone and ask them what they do and they say a doctor ...