Yes, exactly. Don't force people to play economics if they don't
want to.
But the problem is, if you can study a skill for free, many characters
will send in the orders:
study 101 1
study 102 1
study 103 1
...
(which is exactly what happened when I removed the skill begin cost,
many turns ago. I put it back the next turn)
Someone claimed that most units only know one or two skills. Fine,
then this won't be a big deal to them. And since you're only limited
to a skill family, there are still lots of choices to make about what
to study. But a character skilled in two separate areas would be more
rare (the warrior-magician, for instance), not the commonplace as it
is now in Olympia.
I've heard "I sorta don't like it" arguments, but nothing really
concretely bad about this idea. I like the feel, and it allows me
to get rid of study costs -- two benefits.
Where are all the other folks on this list?
-- Rich Skrenta <skrenta@rt.com>