Interface question

[Chris]

Players can visit a school (or university). There is a list of skills you can learn (there is also max level the school can teach listed). There is also a list of skills you already have.

You use stamina (energy, the squarish orange icon) to learn skills. Usually (skills that are 100% difficulty) the first level cost 50 stamina, the second 150 adn the third 300.

The problem is, the interface I made (below) it is totally confusing and unreadable

[BlackScorp]

what about to make progressbars? and table with icons and tooltips?

Dagging |------level 1 of 3(colored progressbar) ---------| learn(icon) on hover it display a tooltip with costs and difficulty

[Chris]

But the progress bar should not be for level, but for skill points. You don't learn a skill in one go, you have to accumulate skill points (click learn 5 times to get these 50 points) and then the skill does level up.
Also, level 1 of 3 would be misleading since university could allow max level 5.

[BlackScorp]

take a look here

http://www.rfonline-online.com/gallery/albums/screenshots/RF_Online_Skills.jpg

this is a screen from an MMORPG. each time you use a skill it increase the % , if it reache 100% level gain up. so basicly you can do it this way.

[Chris]

Oooo! I see, a skill points progress bar below skill name. Looks self explanatory. Thanks.

[AltarofScience]

Why would you not just let people buy the skill as a total? You can set the price to be equal to the total cost. Since you don't have levels, I don't understand the use of skill points. Why would anyone bother to buy a part of a skill instead of just waiting to get all the money and do it all at once. This does not make sense.

[Chris]

Because the max stamina you can have at any point of time is 180 and some skills cost 300 stamina or more.

[Murzim]

Because the max stamina you can have at any point of time is 180 and some skills cost 300 stamina or more.

The archon of simplicity was caught red handed here.