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| Thread: Skillwheel Theorycrafting |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 · NEXT» |
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Stevie
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Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 18, 2015 10:43 PM |
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Edited by Stevie at 23:38, 31 Mar 2015.
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Skillwheel Theorycrafting
Disclaimer: This is NOT related to Heroes 7 in any way. The thread proposes a brainstorming session in regards to the concept of Skillwheel.
Without going too deep into it, what would a good Skillwheel be? We always praise Heroes 5 for its innovative Skill system and imagine for ourselves an even better version of it, but things are not that simple. I gave it some thought and discovered a lot of intricacies behind the concept, and it's anything but easy to establish a harmonious relation between the various features that come into play. So many variables, so many designs and so many ways of assembling the pieces together, and they all have to make sense to someone else - the player.
So what I propose is to have a debate about your ideal Skillwheel. Give it some thought, be creative and share your vision.
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I already worked on a Skillwheel model, here it is (click for bigger version):
This is an illustration of what I believe to be a good Skillwheel. What do you guys think, do you understand it? Is it visually appealing? I will explain it granted people are interested, but for now I'm trying to see some first impressions. Remember, players would have to find their way relatively easily. Also, don't try looking too deep into it, like for example what abilities are those or if the prerequisites allow good builds, because the point is to establish some general guidelines without being too specific about things.
I'm also hoping you guys would go ahead and make your own, and explain why you opted for one feature or another. In this way I think the community becomes self-aware of this and we can improve our visibility by being more transparent on the issue.
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Guide to a Great Heroes Game
The Young Traveler
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PandaTar
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posted March 18, 2015 11:18 PM |
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I like it holistically speaking. I simply would prefer if you could give a small hint of what some skills do. Seeing their connections here and there make more sense if we know why. As I don't know H6 - played only demo until it bored me 1h30 later, some terms used there I might not be familiar if they came from said game.
In a more depth-like comment, I would surely add many other skills - to illustrate the whole chain of development, even if that's only showing a Necromancer skillwheel. Are you showing all the skills you would have or only those that a Necromancer would come by, even if not able to learn it directly?
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"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster."
GlaDOS – Portal 2
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Stevie
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Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 19, 2015 12:08 AM |
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So what skills do you not recognize? Indeed, there are some novelties/spins on certain skills but the I don't think it's anything that vague to make you miss any points.
The Skillwheel shows all the skills in existence, 7 Might, 7 Magic and 7 Neutral + 1 Racial. 7 of them have full mastery, 7 have only 2 masteries, and 7 have none - they're banned. Which is which would depend on class. You can create a lot of possibilities this way, while keeping a balanced number of 14 skills open for each class. I think this is a very strong point of this Skillwheel, it's sound in theory and intuitive in its representation.
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PandaTar
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posted March 19, 2015 12:55 AM |
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I quite don't remember the effects of: warfare, guildmaster, enlightenment and scholar (only H3 scholar). Warfare makes me ponder about defense and offense and tactics. Enlightenment makes me ponder on old Intelligence. Guildmaster I do not know.
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"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster."
GlaDOS – Portal 2
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Storm-Giant
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Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
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posted March 19, 2015 01:01 AM |
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I believe there's one thing called 'Warfare units' in the H7 site, huh 
Warfare cover the old good War Machines.
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PandaTar
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posted March 19, 2015 01:18 AM |
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Oh, yes, forgot about that.
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"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster."
GlaDOS – Portal 2
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 19, 2015 01:54 AM |
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Edited by Stevie at 03:23, 19 Mar 2015.
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Well, since I'm doing this, I might as well explain it all.
Might Skills:
- Offense, gives bonus to attack, includes archery, various offensive passives and opens new mechanics, like a stack killing another resulting in a free turn, etc.;
- Defense, gives bonus to defense, defensive abilities, intercept ability, improves health ratios;
- Warcries, active abilities for might heroes generally;
- Warfare, linked to war machines, ballista, catapult, first aid;
- Leadership, increases morale, bonus to some creature production, stuff;
- Destiny, increases luck, opens the luck dimension for more actions like defense, spells, abilities, lol;
- Tactics, increases initiative, also has perks for 3rd deploying row and creature's speed;
Magic Skills:
(just gonna mention them as I don't think there's a need to explain anything)
- Prime;
- Fire;
- Water;
- Air;
- Earth;
- Light;
- Dark;
Neutral Skills:
(first three are more on the magic side, the rest are more on the might, but there's no precise rule for it)
- Sorcery, increases the potency of spells and makes casting more efficient;
- Scholar, gives bonus to experience gained and the ability to write scrolls (consumable), also includes skills like eagle eye, spell research, etc.
- Enlightenment, gives more primaries, has an ability that even gives more level-up points (thought of 1 per 5 levels), increases mana pool and regeneration
- Economy, a Kingdom relate skill that increases income, abilities increase the production of resources, various dwelling bonuses maybe, etc.
- Guildmaster, a skill I came up with, gives 1 thief per mastery level which you can use to spy and sabotage your enemy, abilities enhance the Thieve's Guild in various ways, basically an information + sabotage skill, could be a treat in multiplayer;
- Diplomacy, increases the probability of troops to join you, decreases cost of creatures to join, lowers aggressiveness (so some might flee)
- Logistics, gives more movement points on the adventure map, includes seafaring ability, pathfinding, snatch, etc.
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The Young Traveler
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TDL
Honorable
Supreme Hero
The weak suffer. I endure.
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posted March 19, 2015 02:12 AM |
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Edited by TDL at 03:04, 19 Mar 2015.
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In theory, there are multiple other ways we could implement a skill system, but judging by what we are given (so far) I find your skill wheel as pretty much the best of what we could possibly expect from the game, even given unknown skills such as Guildmaster. That said, I really dislike the possibility of having limited masteries to a skill, irrespective of natural hero affinity (might or magic). Personally, I'd rather have might heroes have limited access to magic skills (such as being restricted to basic or advanced) and vice versa but have it done in an equal spread.
On another note, if Scholar is what I expect it to be, I think it pretty much is waste of skill space. Tactics is also somewhat basic and intuitively useless. I do not know what Guildmaster equates to, but unless it is something connected to Nobility (as in growth manipulation), I am unsure if it is worth to have it there as well. Which leaves us with an unbalanced skill wheel 7+6+6, which by itself is not good either.
Truth be told, everything pretty much relies on how much impact and on what the basic skill has. As in, does offense affect melee or both ranged and melee. Do tactics only provide increased movement range. How useful warfare units are. Furthermore, if we have perks and if we do how much they interact with one another, how much they complement the basic skills, how many of them we get per level. Balancing is also a snowing issue as you can't manage 20 something skills with multiple intertwined abilities.
Me and Elvin had an interesting discussion about certain skills and stuff and I might provide my vision on what I would like to see later in the week as I am dead tired and barely able to scribble my thoughts.
EDIT: Took me 30 mins to come up with this and I see you added some more info so my post might not be as cohesive now 
ANOTHER EDIT:
I reviewed the current skillset and saw a skill name paragon. In theory, it should be one of the neutral skills.
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Stevie
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Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 19, 2015 03:20 AM |
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How I understand it is that, in the absence of restrictions, having classes would make no sense. You have to provide some differences somewhere, and you get those either by having skills and abilities being restricted, or you have to invent new Skillwheels for each class.
Or, you abandon classes altogether and have just one or two heroes per faction. But people would just make one build and roll with it every time, which was a complaint at some point in time iirc.
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Guide to a Great Heroes Game
The Young Traveler
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TDL
Honorable
Supreme Hero
The weak suffer. I endure.
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posted March 19, 2015 04:12 AM |
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Another point in question is our perception of how magic skills work. Essentially if we take into account we have 7 of each skill, it proves we have an imbalance because we also have skills such as sorcery or enlightenment, which are distinctly magical. This is where I personally think a skill such as wisdom would do wonders, even given how archaic it looks. And there are two viable routes I personally conceive in such a situation where wisdom is brought back:
a) opt-out of the skill wheel system;
By opting-out, it would allow us to group skills into trees: might, magic, and potentially, economy(?; for the lack of a better word). Thus, you could essentially construct trees where you start with three basic starting skills, of which either one is enabled upon starting the game/recruiting the hero, or you start with them all and have several abilities/sub-skills down the tree enabled. Warfare (best name for might skill) would govern offense, defence, archery (if it was a separate skill), tactics, warcries, etc. sorcery/wisdom would govern every sort of magic including other skills and economy would govern the remainder. This way you could close off skill branches in the tree, but it would not necessarily close you off spells for good. The main skill would have a distinct effect (for example, main might skill could be tactics) but most importantly, the principal magic skill would allow magic heroes to learn spells irrespective of schools. Spell effectiveness would then be determined by learning the shcooll skill and subsequent perks. Alternatively (that is the way I envision this system), the main skill would enable you to learn spells of a certain proficiency (2/3/4 based on basic/advanced/expert) while taking the sub-skill (which in this situation would be a perk) would allow you to learn a certain type of magic. Further perks down the line would improve effectiveness, add mass effects, etc. but this way it would cut down on the need to farm for levels and ability points (essentially, you'd be able to learn TWO types of magic with 5 skills points, provided no additional requirements between skills were in order, instead of what, 6?; further down the line it would subsequently limit the amount of levels you have to waste to learn more magic).
Such a system is more or less similar to what dragon age inquisition had to offer. It isn't exactly what I based it on, since it works
differently with all the active abilities and passive bonuses it gives, but the whole tree and separation into distinct trees is how I envision this.
b) much like shattering magic replaced magic spell schools in h5, add wisdom to replace magic spell schools altogether for might heroes
This would potentially allow might heroes to make up for the lack in the spellcasting department, unless warcries already do it. This way spell school proficiencies would be further restricted to magic heroes, except for maybe the basic level and/or certain perks, but essentially might heroes would be allowed to learn even the highest level of magic, however weak the spells and their effects are. This would impose another requirement: balancing. To counteract this, you'd have a certain skill (call it warfare or something), that mages would have which would enable them to improve their stand on the battleground, albeit in a weaker fashion than having access to the combat skills.
c) the third viable route would be to lift the whole magic school system and repair it, by limiting the total amount of schools to 4; this would allow some more intermingling between sorcery, enlightenment and the like but that is discussion for further times;
Either way, any way that I can think of would further distance the game from being true to former HOMM installments as it would be either an amalgam or h6/h5 or h6/h3, neither of which is exactly fitting to the heroes series. That said, I would really like to explore the first option, given the chance, as I believe it would work around the balancing issues we'll have with the system given how many skills we have, how many levels will be needed to max them out, how many more will be needed if perks are indeed in hte game, etc.
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alcibiades
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
of Gold Dragons
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posted March 19, 2015 09:14 AM |
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TDL said:
This is where I personally think a skill such as wisdom would do wonders...
NO! PLEASE don't go there again. I think I understand your reasoning, but Wisdom is not the solution to the fact that there are too many magic schools (which there are). A skill like Wisdom will always be a dummy skill in the sense that it's a skill you need to have [most certainly as a magic hero, most likely as any hero]. As such it just ends up being an empty funnel for skill points, which is exactly what we don't need in a system that's already stressed with too many [magic] skills.
Not to speak of the absurd case of playing a magic hero and not being offered wisdom (which could happen in H2); a problem that was solved in H3 by letting all magic heroes start with wisdom, which once again made the heroes more similar and variation in the game smaller, which makes the game less good.
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What will happen now?
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted March 19, 2015 09:20 AM |
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Edited by Elvin at 09:26, 19 Mar 2015.
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My latest entry on the subject.
The skills I had in mind were a mix between H5 and H6, with ability effectiveness being influenced by skill mastery. Three basic abilities per skill branching into more advanced abilities. Below I'm just mentioning the basic ones to convey the general feel of each skill. As you may notice, some traditionally underpowered abilities have been improved so that everything is useful in its own way.
PS I do not like the categorization of skills as might, magic or neutral. There is little point in having an equal amount of skills in each category and there are cases where a skill could boost might as well as magic abilities. Like luck. I believe that resistance deserves to be a skill, especially if combined with the H5 shatter magic. Warcries probably, diplomacy not convinced. It is very easy to break it and H5 handled it well enough.
OFFENSE(+5/10/15% inflicted might dmg)
Battle frenzy (+1 dmg to core/ +2 dmg to elite/ +5 dmg to champion)
Archery (+10/15/20% ranged dmg)
Pressed attack (Hero marks a unit, whenever it attacks the hero attacks too)
- Battle frenzy: Actually I prefer 4 unit tiers but this is an example.
- Also I put pressed attack there because I don't want heroes to have direct attacks outside of the skill system. It would open the way to more complex heroic strikes.
DEFENSE(5/10/15% reduced might dmg)
Toughness (+2hp to core/+5hp to elite/+10hp to champion)
Evasion (+10/15/20% ranged reduction)
Counterstrike (+10/15/20% to retaliation dmg)
- Theoretically toughness should give a might resistance but I gave it +hp so as to merge it with the H5 protection ability. That way it helps both against might and magic attacks.
- I do not like skills that give extra retaliations passively, I'd much rather they had a condition such as defend or have a specific warcry for that. Counterstrike would open the way for such an ability.
TACTICS(Deployment radius 1/2/3)
Reinforcements (Creatures +x/y/z% of your army strength join the fight)
Siege March (Units gain +2 movement in siege)
Ambush (Deny opponents deployment area by 1/2/ gain +5 init on first round)
- Here tactics is all about combat maneuvers, formations and mobility on the battlefield.
- If the tactics skill was just the umbrella for the perks and gave no bonuses then a tactics ability would substitute ambush as a core skill. Ambush would become an advanced ability instead.
EXPLORER(+3/5/8 movement on adventure map)
Pathfinding (Ignore terrain penalties by 25/50/75%)
Scouting (+1/2/3 scouting radius)
Navigation (+3/5/8 movement on sea)
LEADERSHIP (+4/6/10 morale)
Warcry master (+x/y/z% effectiveness)
Recruitment (+1/2/3 units of the first tier to recruit per week)
Diplomacy (Neutrals have increase chance to join for reduced price, also reduces cost of surrendering.)
- Morale chance is calculated as 1% per morale point. Those bonuses are additive so expert leadership gives +20% chance for good morale.
- Given my latest thoughts on what warcries should be, they probably deserve a skill of their own.
NOBILITY (+x/y/z gold per town you control)
Mining (Bonus resources from mines you own every x/y/z days)
Economist (Improved marketplace rates)
Architect (Reduced building prices)
ENLIGHTENMENT(+10/15/20% xp)
Intelligence (+20/30/50% mana)
Eagle eye (Automatically learn tier 2/3/4 spells cast by another hero or unit)
Scholar (Allow exchanging spells with other heroes)
SORCERY(+10/20/30% spell effectiveness)
Arcane training (Reduced mana cost)
Mana regeneration (After combat for basic/advanced, during combat in expect)
Magic insight (Allows hero to learn 2/3/4 tier spells regardless of the schools they possess)
FORTUNE (+4/6/10 luck)
Resourcefulness (+x/y/z from picked resources, better treasure rewards from combat locations)
Soldier's luck (improved chance for abilities to trigger)
Misfortune (Decrease enemy luck and their lucky dmg bonuses)
RESISTANCE (x/y/z% to reduce spell effectiveness by 30%)
Currupt mana (Enemy spells cost more)
Back to the void (Increased damage against summons)
Detain magic (Reduced spell duration)
WARMACHINES (Manual conrol, +x/y/z to structural points)
Ballista (Improved dmg)
Tent (Heal lvl 1/2/3 curses, revive x/y/z of your fallen units after combat)
Catapult
- Portion of tent revival is of course small, like no rest for the wicked in H5.
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Map also hosted on Moddb
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Minion
Legendary Hero
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posted March 19, 2015 10:47 AM |
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I really like this approach from Elvin. I don't think every ability need to scale with the main skill though. I mean I don't want the automatic response to always be leveling your Skill, and when it is full then go for Abilities.
Archery for example has no point in scaling, because the troops already determine the effectiveness of the skill. First week you won't take it even if it is +20, but second week you just might if you have a lot of shooters. It becomes a strategic choice. But if is +10 you simply won't take it, or you will but feel like you just took a worthless skill for a couple of levels. Same goes with Pathfinding being +25%, it should start at +50%.
There should be long term planning but also you should feel getting stronger every level up, that for me is exciting at least.
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"These friends probably started using condoms after having produced the most optimum amount of offsprings. Kudos to them for showing at least some restraint" - Tsar-ivor
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 19, 2015 12:32 PM |
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Edited by Stevie at 15:36, 19 Mar 2015.
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I think we should ask ourselves some basic questions, so that we can better understand each other's viewpoints and ideas:
1. How many skillwheels do we have and according to what (class? faction? universal skillwheel?);
2. How many skills there are in total and what do they do;
3. How many skills a skillwheel should have from the total;
4. How are skills distributed on the skillwheel (Might - Magic - Neutral? another way? or no specific distribution);
5. How many abilities a skill should have (maximum - minimum);
6. How are abilities distributed (according to mastery levels?);
7. Any internal prerequisites and any rules for them;
8. Any external prerequisites and any rules for them;
9. Ultimates, yes or no;
10. What would make good ultimates prerequisites (streamlining? more free pick?)
11. How would the interface look and what are the advantages of your display;
12. Miscellaneous, notes, etc.
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Guide to a Great Heroes Game
The Young Traveler
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TDL
Honorable
Supreme Hero
The weak suffer. I endure.
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posted March 19, 2015 02:36 PM |
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alcibiades said:
TDL said:
This is where I personally think a skill such as wisdom would do wonders...
NO! PLEASE don't go there again. I think I understand your reasoning, but Wisdom is not the solution to the fact that there are too many magic schools (which there are). A skill like Wisdom will always be a dummy skill in the sense that it's a skill you need to have [most certainly as a magic hero, most likely as any hero]. As such it just ends up being an empty funnel for skill points, which is exactly what we don't need in a system that's already stressed with too many [magic] skills.
Not to speak of the absurd case of playing a magic hero and not being offered wisdom (which could happen in H2); a problem that was solved in H3 by letting all magic heroes start with wisdom, which once again made the heroes more similar and variation in the game smaller, which makes the game less good.
In the way I described, it wouldn't necessarily be an "empty funnel". It would actually prove to be quite the opposite as in the long run it would allow you to save up skill points from spending them on multiple levels of magic types. You could make the base skill allow to get the spells, but I haven't honestly thought this through completely to make a decent statement.
The problem lies, as I see it, not in the way the skill system works, but the sheer amount of skills and abilities that are in play. Knowing how slowly heroes acquire levels, you'd pretty much require a minimum of L map with huge exploration zones to level up and get a decent amount of skill to make an impact (especially given how LITTLE content is generally placed on the map even on L maps, because of the 3D visuals of the adventure map).
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PandaTar
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posted March 19, 2015 04:41 PM |
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Edited by PandaTar at 16:46, 19 Mar 2015.
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Well, the design of a skill wheel which would appease me the most would be something on these lines (notice that I wouldn't make a hero level up. He would level his Skill Tree, as far as he would gain experience - similar to how Final Fantasy X Skill Grid worked):
Stevie said:
1. How many skillwheels do we have and according to what (class? faction? universal skillwheel?)
1 Universal Skill Wheel with branches. Each branch leading to different faction skill wheel. Each faction would have smaller groups of skills, and some of those bound directly to the hero-class and his specialization, which would lead to an ultimate skill (different for every hero). As I assume there would have Advanced Classes, meddling into them would make your hero less specialized in his first Class, rendering one unable to learn the ultimate skill.
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2. How many skills there are in total and what do they do.
3. How many skills a skillwheel should have from the total;
Would vary amongst factions. The quantity should be fair, not truly considering that all factions should have the same number of skills. This pristine balance in numbers is not necessary, nor real. Factions shouldn't be balanced. They have their own weaknesses and strengths. Sometimes, they simply are stronger than another. Period.
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4. How are skills distributed on the skillwheel (Might - Magic - Neutral? another way? or no specific distribution);
Distribution sounds more like a matter of visual organization. I simply don't see it mandatory, but mainly to keep things from becoming messy. I wouldn't, though, label them this and that, just keep them grouped whenever they seemed similar on a holistic effect.
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5. How many abilities a skill should have (maximum - minimum);
6. How are abilities distributed (according to mastery levels?);
The number I see ok is somewhat like how skills were designed in H4: 3. Or 2. They would be mastered in this fashion: basic - advanced - expert - master - grandmaster. When reaching grandmaster, you could still give skill points to it, adding a symbolic effect to it, but there wouldn't have any new LAYER of improvement as it should happen when going from basic to advanced, for example (MM players would find this system familiar, of course). Some of these skills would improve hero's basic stats, such as HP, damage, SP etc. I mentioned HP because I envision a game system where heroes duel each other while their armies clash, under certain circumstances.
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7. Any internal prerequisites and any rules for them;
Probably related to race and gender of that hero.
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8. Any external prerequisites and any rules for them;
Probably related to quests, experience in battle, terrain, adventure map settings.
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9. Ultimates, yes or no;
10. What would make good ultimates prerequisites (streamlining? more free pick?)
Yes, as mentioned above. Related to a hero specialization, thus being unique to each individual.
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11. How would the interface look and what are the advantages of your display;
12. Miscellaneous, notes, etc.
It would look like a tree, or something similar to that FF grid. I would have to sketch it - when I have the time. On a note regarding randomization, the universal skills should go that way, in a random fashion, still, following tendencies of MIGHT and MAGIC of each hero - or, perhaps, following tendencies of proficiency in gameplay. Which opens another branch of things I would enjoy seeing in this game: experience over killed enemies. The more you kill a certain kind, the more proficient you should be. It could be a universal skill you automatically learned after your first battle. Hm, that's hard to explain what I have in mind.
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"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster."
GlaDOS – Portal 2
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 19, 2015 05:13 PM |
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Edited by Stevie at 17:17, 19 Mar 2015.
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Wow, those answers kinda hit me like a train. That's just like another game to me. But goes to show the different ways people imagine their own version of the Skillwheel. I bet there would be as many models as there would be people to post them. Kinda scary when you think about it that way.
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Guide to a Great Heroes Game
The Young Traveler
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yasmiel
Supreme Hero
Former Chessmaster
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posted March 19, 2015 05:26 PM |
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Edited by yasmiel at 17:28, 19 Mar 2015.
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I would be content with H5 model, except that secondary skill requirements should be simplified, as one should not need a "skillwheel" to seek and find which ability leads to which.
Heck even and improved "h3" model would suffice (3 levels of developments with maybe some perks build in to each level.
Overcomplicating things can sometimes be a bad thing.
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PandaTar
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Celestial Heavens Mascot
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posted March 19, 2015 07:10 PM |
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Edited by PandaTar at 19:14, 19 Mar 2015.
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yasmiel said:
Overcomplicating things can sometimes be a bad thing.
Yep. In my proposition, there would have the option of the BASIC layout and the ADVANCED layout. The former would focus on the skills in general, for people who don't fancy much this part or simply don't want to make much effort in choosing what to pick. The Latter would show everything available, for people like me, who fancies most the RPG aspect of it.
@Stevie
Yeah, people do think differently. I'm sorry that I cannot help much further with your proposition. Given that you said it wouldn't be related to H7 or else, I simply deviated from the already seen models, because I think they are just so vague.
If I get the time, I'll sketch something to have a better visual reference, if you wish.
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"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster."
GlaDOS – Portal 2
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Maurice
Hero of Order
Part of the furniture
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posted March 19, 2015 08:10 PM |
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Edited by Maurice at 20:16, 19 Mar 2015.
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Stevie said:
I think we should ask ourselves some basic questions, so that we can better understand each other's viewpoints and ideas:
1. How many skillwheels do we have and according to what (class? faction? universal skillwheel?);
I would have a generic layout depending on faction and then refinement for each Hero class. The skillwheel should somehow reflect the philosophy of a faction; so Haven would be based around discipline and unit coherence, while Sylvan would be based around nature, etc ... This shouldn't be reflected in the actual skills, but in the abilities that lie beneath it. The faction wheel should differentiate between Might and Magic, depending on the Hero in question.
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2. How many skills there are in total and what do they do;
I won't go into specifics here. Before you design something this detailed, you need to have a firm basis to build upon first. I'm not going to put up a painting somewhere when I'm still plastering the walls  .
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3. How many skills a skillwheel should have from the total;
Like I said, it depends on the philosophy of the faction. A faction like Haven that is based on Light shouldn't have access to Dark Magic for instance, so it won't show up in the skillwheel either. Similarily, Inferno shouldn't get access to Water Magic. I can't think of a similar example with Might skills, right away, other than this one: a Might Hero should get access to more Might skills than a Magic Hero and vice versa.
Edit: Thinking about it a bit more, I would say that each Hero class has access to the Adventure Map skills and that Might Heroes have about twice as many Might skills available as Magic skills while for Magic Heroes, the opposite is true. Or maybe something else: a Might Hero might only get access to X Magic skills, after which further Magic skills are greyed out and become unavailable, while similar applies to Magic Heroes when it comes to Might skills.
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4. How are skills distributed on the skillwheel (Might - Magic - Neutral? another way? or no specific distribution);
A Hero should get access to all skills he could be able to learn normally. The percentage with which each is offered depends on the faction and Hero class. For visual reference, I would indeed opt for a threeway distribution between Might, Magic and Adventure Map skills.
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5. How many abilities a skill should have (maximum - minimum);
Varying. Each skill should have generic abilities, that anyone with that skill has access to. Just like with Heroes 5, however, there are also abilities that are faction and Hero class restricted. It's at this point where Skillwheels really get their faction flavor.
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6. How are abilities distributed (according to mastery levels?);
Heroes 5 has a good one, with abilities spread across the Mastery levels, with some abilities requiring others preceding it.
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7. Any internal prerequisites and any rules for them;
Not sure what you mean? There should be dependencies, of course, so you can get access to more advanced abilities as you acquire lesser ones.
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8. Any external prerequisites and any rules for them;
Other than Hero class and faction philosophy? I am not sure what you mean here.
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9. Ultimates, yes or no;
Yes.
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10. What would make good ultimates prerequisites (streamlining? more free pick?)
There should be more Ultimates, with less overall requirements than those of Heroes 5, while also being less game-breaking in their effect. In essence, I see Ultimates as nothing more than an added synergy bonus from other skills, like with Artifact sets; once you acquire several pieces, the combination yields a synergy bonus - I envision the same for Ultimates. I am not sure if they should be freely given once you meet the requirements, or if you need to actively invest in getting them.
Like regular abilities, Ultimates should depend on both Hero class and faction, further defining the faction flavor of the skillwheels.
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11. How would the interface look and what are the advantages of your display;
Your image is a pretty good one. Have non-existing abilities faded out, but allow players to look at the info for each skill and ability on the wheel, so they can plan ahead. Display the connections and thereby the requirements for more advanced abilities.
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12. Miscellaneous, notes, etc.
Keep the random skills during level up. With multiple Ultimates, even "bad skill choices" should be able to yield something fun and interesting, providing a different means to approach situations during gameplay - and maybe even a better understanding of the game as a whole. Draw players out of their comfort zone with regards to the skills they'd want for their Heroes.
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