Coase,
A+ on the maneuvers, C- on the point migration.
I understand why it's needed, and you understand its shortcomings, so I won't go into that. But I think I have a suggestion that might work better for all concerned.
First, the design goals:
A) Allow players to experiment with new maneuvers without migration times.
B) Prevent players from gaining excessive abilities to migrate old skills
C) Do not permit players to train in new skills exceeding limits that would be in place after the grace period.
That third goal is important, because it elliminates what would otherwise be a very simple solution (making new skills trainable with 0 CMP).
Given those three goals, I propose the following system:
Impliment a new verb, FIXCMAN, which is the equivalent of FIXSKILLS, except it works only on CMANs.
Normally, characters have 0 FIXCMANs. Unlike FIXSKILLS, FIXCMAN allows for multiple uses, and has an expiration time.
Here's how it would work.
When a new CMAN is released, Characters will get 0, 2, or more FIXCMANs, depending on their professions. For each profession, you add up the new cmans that were added for that profession, and add 1 to that number. That is the number of FIXCMANs they get (enough to migrate in each of the maneuvers independantly, and then migrate back to their original training.) These FIXCMANs expire after 30 days.
This gives people the opportunity to try each skill once. It does provide a limited option to use the fixskills for other migrations, but it does allow for switching back and forth at will, since the number of FIXCMANs is limited.
If a second set of manuevers is released before the first 30 days expires, then a second group of FIXCMANs would be allocated. So, one might have 1 FIXCMAN that expires in 10 days, and 3 that expire in 20 days, and so forth. Yes, that makes storage a little more complex.
The current system just doesn't do the job. It prevents abuse, but it also prevents players from trying out the new skills, and I know that's not your intention.
Or, here's another plan:
Dump the new CMAN migration system altogether. We've lived without it for a year without mass hysteria, widespread rioting, and generalized end of the world scenarios. If the game survived for a year, maybe it's something that you can live with on a permanent basis. CMANs are 'flavor' for combat, afterall, not a mainstay of hunting techniques. A little leeway that adds variety and fun to the game isn't a terrible thing. It keeps characters from getting old and boring, thus enhancing customer retention. CMANs are the perfect place to allow for this, since you're constantly coming out with new and cool maneuvers for us to play with, and they're not so overpowering that being able to switch back and forth at 2 minutes per rank would be unbalancing. Or make it an hour per rank. The benefits of doing this outweigh the drawbacks of the new migration system.
--Tsoran
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