Character Occupation Ideas

[The7thMystery]

For those of us who plan to mainly play with custom characters, the original ten jobs are a bit limiting.  I understand they're there to balance stuff out, but it's weird when you want to use a preexisting character that doesn't fall under one of those categories.  So here are some broadly titled jobs that could vary things up a bit:

Entertainer
- Low end on the practical stuff, but is good at building relationships/keeping morale up.  Perhaps they have a higher chance of triggering friendly interactions?

Criminal
- Difficult to build positive relationships with and very distrustful of Police Officers.  Generally good with their hands, and noticeably good at investigate/breach/assault.

Journalist
- Very perceptive of their surroundings and the people around them , are a "people person", and good at investigate/breach.  Comparatively more adventurous than a librarian.

Student
- Something to represent a non-specialist.  Average across the board.

[David]

Good ideas. I'll sticky this to get some more feedback.

Tip for suggesting new occupations: think about what's generally realistic for a small town, what they may be good/worse at doing around the house, and how they might interact with others via the various systems in the game.

[Duck]

Criminals and students should have different chances of liking different things. For example, in school, A might enjoy cooking classes, while B might be a shop kind of person. Average all across the board seems boring. Criminals are a similar case, and they should have a chance between being a people's person (Con man), a tough (Self-explanatory), or a laborer (Prison workshops). I'll make a little list of occupations later to add to this.

[Rommel459]

For a small town, waitress might be a better fitting occupation than entertainer, most small town waitresses(in my experience) are fairly social, so should have the relationship/morale bonus, probably also a small or moderate bonus towards cooking and cleaning... in fact waitresses in my mind, also fits better in a small town setting than a chef does. lol

i also have a question or possibly a second suggestion, is there any special interaction between survivor occupations and the related buildings?

IE police officer with police station?

[The7thMystery]

i also have a question or possibly a second suggestion, is there any special interaction between survivor occupations and the related buildings?

IE police officer with police station?

In the case of a librarian in the library, after having my entire team breach the library, he gave the other survivors the booksmart buff for 300ish mins, which makes them "Sharper".

[David]

Re occupations having other effects - without giving too much away, I can say that occupations do have some special effects on tasks and other events.

[varkarrus]

Can we have deep sea repairmen? Clowns? Astronauts? Biostatisticians? Clowns? Farmers? Video Game Testers? Professional Artists? Fast Food Workers? Business CEOs? Trust Fund Children/Lottery Winners? Homeless People? Bank Robbers?

[HaikenEdge]

I agree on the necessity for more occupations, some of which don't even need to be necessarily useful, because I think it would assist with immersion. I mean, while being forced to group with a politician may not be somebody's first choice, but it could seriously happen; likewise, I think occupations like soldier would also provide different feels to characters.

Basically, what I'm saying is that I think an increase in the number of professions would be beneficial to the game, particularly if it comes with an option to turn off "useless" professions.

[Oleg]

Private Detective (best in sneaking , searching , spoting )

ex-special forces (very strong, best fighter )

[chickens]

Hmm... how about teacher/professor? You could do some skill randomization since it could be a shop teacher or a bio teacher or a math teacher... they could have prejudiced reactions either for or from various educational levels?

You could have a few flavor ones with really random stats, too, like temp worker or unemployed or, as people mentioned, student or homeless person.

Boy, brainstorming stuff for this game is almost as much fun as playing it!

[DarKPenguiN]

The line between a "Criminal" and "Police" officer is a fine one... 

I would like to see a Class (name unimportant-) which has the skills to bring back more information from Investigations. (i.e. After carefully scouring the Building "Alex" determines that there will be a very substantial cache of cooking ingredients and cooking implements inside this building and a very low chance of any weapons/ammo.)

-It would make "Investigating" far more important and strategic if determining which buildings to breach/assault.

-My wife had a really cool idea as well. When we were first playing we were unsure what a mechanic did and what the gasoline was for- She suggested that there might be Generators in some of the houses which would need repaired (Mechanic) and Gasoline (to run).

This leads me to the conclusion that perhaps more "classes"is less important than expanding upon what the current classes can actually DO and make them more specialized and diverse...

[Banjo]

Occupation ideas (kept deliberately sketchy, stat-wise) I'd like to see added:

Waitress/Waiter - good with cooking and social interaction
Prisoner - good at combat and sneaking, distrusted
Artist/Writer - creative but not very social
Homemaker - good at cooking and morale stuff
Journalist - investigative and sneaky, but not tough
Dancer (exotic?) - fit and good socially with opposite sex (but minus to same sex!)
Politician - excellent social (smooth tongue) but little else
Lawyer - less social buffed but smarter than Politician
Actor - social/relationship buffs but poor combat skills
Student - average across the board
Farmer - good with cooking and building
Courier/Delivery - fast mover
Doctor - less-skilled version of Surgeon but better socially
Clerk - average across the board

[falco1029]

Here's a few I've made with the custom occupation maker and would love to see have special effects by being built in:

Computer Specialist/Computer Programmer: High with Smarts and good at noticing details. Great at investigation and spotting and searching, for example, but overall would be underbalanced. Their advantage would be with the possibility of buildings have working computers, or something similar. 'X found a laptop that still had some battery life. Upon opening it up, he found the following message:' which might then have one of the escape objective pieces, for instance, or might give other clues about the town.

Martial Artist: Like Athlete, but more focused on combat and survival. Built in features wise, they could maybe have a benefit to close combat, specifically, or be good for helping against lynch mobs.

Scientist (Could be something more specific like chemist, but that seems about equivalent to the specificity otherwise used): Like computer specialist, would be best at conceptual mental tasks. Featurewise, maybe in a university or school they'd be able to create something advanced, like an explosive. Maybe can also work with a doctor to 'cure' someone with a fever, or cause it to 'be dormant for a week', effectively curing it for the game.

I also used a waiter one too, and i like the ideas others have for them.

[SaturnFX]

Going on with special forces / military

Strong, best at firearms, but heavy eater (army runs on its belly), abrasive (not as a rule, but given the scenario, he would naturally try to assume control through power and in civilian groups, that wouldn't be overly loved by all..especially peacenik types)

[Krusa27]

Psychologist: High Resilient stat and maybe he can help with bad relationship.
VIP, Tv star, showgirl, etc...: good leader (everybody follow him because he his famous) and high morale
Bricklayer: very strong and very good and fast at barricading