In case of somebody not having the idea about the future soft-skill system, here´s an interview with Brian where he explain the thing (Watch from min 9:40). In short: It will be a system that manages the dexterity of a character with certain tasks, simulating natural experience in them. That´s a great system that will incentive people to value more their characters life and at the same time give them some spectrum of specialization in the things a player likes. But I believe that we can make it a whole lot better introducing a Knowledge/Know-How Tree that would give even more value to a characters life allowing him to perform certain tasks that would require certain Information to realize, that it´s outside of a normal person ordinary knowledge without limiting them in any way with classes, professions, etc. Just pure survival and the role of informations (the right one) in a real survival scenario.   What is this Knowledge or Know-How?   Your character have an UI tree of locked subjects, that enable your character to: Perform actions Receive instructions/material lists  Unlock the branch of a subject to get access to advanced techniques or knowledge (understand/read other books)   How would an in-game character get the knowledge?   As in real life - through books. Once a character "reads" the book on a subject, he "unlocks" the branch of the tree  on that subject, allowing him to "know" how to perform certain action, and the things he will need for it. For example: You want to build a wall (you can do it by yourself or find someone with that knowledge) You need the knowledge or to find a book (some kind of structure) When you find the book, you unlock the subject or the branch or the info on materials you gonna need for certain action. In our case lets suppose that our character knows how to build wooden structures, he unlocked the basic ones, and made available for him to "read"/understand  a book on advanced wooden structures (which would enable him to make better structures) Now you need to gather the materials for your wooden wall. For the basic one, you only need logs. But for example if you want to build a fortified one, you gonna need special wooden pieces (and the knowledge of how to gather them) When you know all this, your character just have the option to build a simple wooden wall. But if you don´t have the knowledge, even if you manage to gather the materials, you will not have an option to build the wall, and your charactar will only say "I don´t know what to do with all this". The tree would look like a techology tree in some games (will use Civ one as example) You could also enable/unlock a know-how/knowledge/hard-skill by practicing the previous related one (or several) an X amount of times. This would simulate the expertise you get in one area and develop the next level by yourself. For example, if you build enough Basic Log Walls, you could get enough expertise to start building the fortified walls. Or if you chop enough logs, you could get the knowledge to make some woodwork.   Which tasks would require this "knowledge"?   The knowledge tree would have some of the following subjects:   Advanced Mechanics - Would allow a character to fix/build complex mechanisms and systems with certain elements Mechanical Knowledge - Fix weapons, cars (outside of the basic things that are already available) and other mechanical parts (probably needed in basebuilding. Electronics Knowledge - Fix electronics (radios, night vision googles and other electronic devices) Electric Knowledge - Fix/build things as base light systems, generators, etc Construction Knowledge  - Would allow the character to build things, and also destroy them. A character will be able to collect the materials without this knowledge, but not how to use them.  Wood structures Metal structures Complex structures  Advanced Medical Knowledge - It would enable the character to realize complex medical tasks, aswell as reduce the chances of the character getting an infection from wounds, etc CPR Blood transfusion (i mean seriously  does anyone knows how to do one apart from medics?) Complex treatment (infection, serious wounds?) Advanced Military Knowledge  Explosives (arming and disarming)  Military signs  Use of complex military gear (radios, some weapons) Also fixing weapons Crafting Ghilles (the good ones at least) Miscellaneous Lockpicking - Enable a character to use lockpicks and also to open bases doors  Food conservation - Enable a character to storage food for long periods of time without it getting spoiled (smoked meat, use of salt, etc) Horticulture - Enable a character to plant his own food (seriously, far from everyone knows how to do that) Advanced Cooking - In case that vanilla or a mod comes up with a "morale" system (nor moral), better dishes would add more to morale. Advanced Crafting etc Material gathering Mining - Enable a character to gather specific rocks  Woodwork - Enable a character to craft specialized wood pieces etc   Variables for the implementation   Random know-how(s) assigned to your character. This would simulate the residual knowledge you have from your "normal" life. These know-hows are advanced ones, that would be useful in the future (so by the time you need them you could also get them playing the game) and will avoid people suiciding to get a better set from the beginning.   Non-Compatible branches In case you choose one branch, you automatically block another one in the tree for ever. (This is somehow implemented in StarCraft 2, where you can choose ways for your troops to evolve, and in Dota 2, where you have a skill tree where you choose various paths to upgrade your hero through the game. But their trees are very limited with 2-3 paths of "specialization") This way people specialized in offensive knowledge would have to search for people specialized in structures or medicine if they want to build a base or heal themselves often.   Ability to show your knowledge trough some special armband or badge,etc ( Suggested by dorn956) One could have special signs to show the knowledge your character have. These would be optional, and you could only show one of the know-hows/hard skills your character has (for example you know how to build concrete walls and also advanced medicine, but you can only have one distinctive sign. These could be badges in the cloth/backpacks, or armbands.   Simulate information digestion (book reading) (Suggested by Sqeezorz) To present a real way of knowledge being acquired by the character, there could be a timer (minutes /hours/ days) that the character should have the book on themselves. This could be enchanced by actually reading the book with some minimal info on the subject (?)   Books condition should affect the value they carry (Suggested by Sqeezorz) Deteriorated books should provide less information (a % or a random part of the whole depending on the condition), making it necessary to get another copy of the book containing the missing part(s). This could also be applied increasing the time it takes to digest the book.   Books of Important and really valuable knowledge (like Explosives, or really fancy base building techniques, etc) could be separated in several Volumes. This would make the person who got the whole knowledge more valuable, and naturally limit the number of people that carry it. Also adding a lot of fun trying to get all the volumes :)   What will this add to the gameplay?   Immersion - You will feel the value of knowledge and books in a post-apocalyptic world Realism - You will not be able to build a fortress from scratch without any knowledge or to repair something Character Value - Your character life will be valued aside from your skills, by the knowledge you managed to get. Other players life´s value - Other players will be essential to realize some things if you dont have or dont want some knowledge (this could be accentuated with a limit on the quantity of knowledge a character can get) Books will have a value - Books for knowledge could be rare or limited per server. Everyone will have "side quests" to get the book they need Books could become a  natural currency for trading and not only an RP element or extra fuel for fires    Edit History 17.3.17 Added CIV tech tree example the ability to "unlock" know-hows by performing multiple times a previous related skill, some variables for the implementation,  dorn956 suggestion on special signs,  Sqeezorz suggestions on deteriorated books and knowledge digestion (acquisition)