Original Post
Been playing Two Worlds recently, a solid RPG. But one little thing kept nagging at me, and it's not exclusive to Two Worlds: Spending Caps. So here it is, as far as I can see it. At level three, you have ten skill points to spend on a couple dozen possible skills. But you are not actually free to spend ten skill points among them, because there are caps that say "you must be at least level four to upgrade further". So here's the clean-up: Change the value of the skills. For instance, a level-three character goes to spend all ten points on the skill Archery. Instead of the player bumping into what feels like an arbitrary game mechanic, change the usefulness of Archery skill so that spending ten points on Archery achieves the same result. Here's a Before and After: Before: Each point spent in Archery gives a 2% bonus to hit, but player may only spend three points per level-up on Archery. Player gets five spending points per level-up. Formula: new_value = old_value * cap / allocation Multiply 2% bonus * 3 / 5 = .012 = 1.2% per bonus to hit per skill point. After: Each point spent in Archery gives a 1.2% bonus to hit per skill point, with no spending cap. Skill point allocation is free of unnecessary baggage, and player can spend any way they like.