So, one of the things I noticed while away from RQ was that I didn't find myself thinking about the game very often in terms of the talent tree system (PERCs). And when I came back I found it kind of clunky to use them in combat... actually, it took me a while to remember to use them at all.

This to me is a good sign that they're not really a necessary part of the game. If they were a little thing or were completely finished or didn't add much overhead I wouldn't cut them out, but... well, as things stand right now I'd have to fill out a couple of dozen lists for each level of content added to the game. And those new maneuvers/abilities would have to be tested and somewhat balanced against each other. And the whole thing adds multiple subsystems to the game, including a targeting subsystem that nothing else uses.

Ditching the PERC trees means I need to rethink character advancement in some ways, but whatever I come up with is going to be simpler and easier to implement just because of the not having to fill out dozens of lists.

Bottom line: the core game is itself intricate enough, the character creation system gives players enough ways to distinguish their characters, and the combat system is complex enough without having MMO-style special moves and cooldown timers that don't really fit into the milieu. A lot of the special combat stuff I envisioned PERCs doing will work just fine as passive/automatic things. No need to make a special button that people have to hit to do a special sneak attack while hidden... just give characters with the right prerequisites more dramatic bonuses when attacking while hidden.

I do like the concept of PERCs (including the acronym), so I'll probably keep them in as a more passive thing.