Short Intro: At some point, all "fixed" educations will be done by a player (or ignored). The education system is nice, though, and gives a direct benefit for playing over time. I feel, one should further utilise the system. This is most easily done by having repeatable educations that do not give one really big bonus but rather some small boni that can be used to boost one's character where and how one wants.
Long Proposal:
For quite some time this lingered in my mind:
At some point, you are done with all the educations, have 12 bachelors (yet no Master) and ... cannot learn any more. But learning is something you do all your life!
I am therefore proposing to introduce REPEATABLE EDUCATIONS. Which means ... exactly what it says. This has the added benefit of not running out but being repeatable (duh!) ad infinitum, giving small bonuses.
Pros:
- Can do educations even when "all are finished" (or earlier if you decide a particular BA has absolutely no use for you).
- Opens possible Achievements for learning?
- Option to selectively strengthen work stats ...
- ... thus giving the General Bachelor something of a use.
- Makes Education merits retain usefulness.
Pro/Con or doubtful:
- Strengthens Non-Druggies a little while not having an overly significant impact on druggies.
- effect on companies/employees uncertain. (But at least you can directly work for work stats!)
Con:
- Would need to get coded. Duh ;)
- Some people might feel a neverendingness when they prefer a "done with it" line of things to do.
How I envision it:
In the very basic version there are 6 courses, that each run 1 week:
Course A : gives X Manual
Course B: gives X Endurance
Course C: gives X Intelligence
Course D: gives X*0.55 Manual, X*0.55 Endurance
Course E: gives X*0.55 Manual, X*0.55 Intelligence
Course F: gives X*0.55 Endurance, X*0.55 Intelligence
Of course you could add or tweak percentages or even decide that it is always the same. Then you could even cut it all into one "Further Education, 7d", that makes you select at the start what stat you want. Give the courses fancier names, obviously. This is the VERY BASIC idea that I have more ideas to expand but first want to fathom the general response.
(X above are whatever is decided a weeks' education is worth in work stats. Personally I'd think that 500 stats(==X) are somewhat reasonable, especially compared to normal work stat gains from working. But numbers are easy to tweak.)
Some ideas how one could further expand repeatable educations:
1)
Remember that great game Masters of Orion II? (If not, try it. I assume torn players can forego graphics in favour of mechanics, eh? ;)) When you researched everything, you could research "Miniaturisation <of science field x>". On and on without any end. One could count up how often the repeatable course(s) have been done for eventual awards/merits. Example: One would have "Course A - level 10" after 10 repeats, perhaps with an honour bar.
2)
Why only work stats? Why not repeatable courses for other stuff? Say ... 7%points Weapon XP with a weapon of your choice (i.e. 1 weapon takes just about 4 months to master to 100% just via courses. Obviously requires the weapons bachelor ...)
Or why not stats? One week of sprint training, worth ... 1500 energy spent via Gym into speed?
These bonuses should probably not be big and overwhelming. Instead, they should probably be tiny tidbits to speed up normal progression that is already there (i.e.: no extra coding for "weird new kinds of bonuses"). This way one could get a bit of individualisation - that is a field where I find torn a bit lacking. (I do realise how hard it can be to allow strongly different builds while not having a clear "best" and maintaining overall balance!)
So, before I write endless novels everybody only shouts down (I can surely add a few more ideas if you want):
TL, DR: Introduce repeatable educations that give at the very base work stats and/or other little bonuses. Further small benefits possible.
A different suggestion involving repeatable education was posted here by someone else, but I feel it is in essence strongly different to this one. Some ideas of bonuses could be considered: http://www.torn.com/forums.php?p=threads&f=4&t=15926110&b=0&a=0
Looking forward to your replies/thoughts!