As caldwell himslef stated, its intended to be a hard cap. And the rules back it up. Now.. That means they are useless mostly, except for grabbing skills in disfavored catagories.
I wouldn't call them useless. I'd say they perform a "rounding out the character" function that the player doesn't have to pay for. So far as I can tell, the idea is to place limits on your character's ignorance. Anyone can have up to 6 ranks in anything at 1st level, it's all a matter of whether or not you're willing to spend the DPs. But there aren't going to be any nomadic tribesmen with ZERO knowledge of the kinds of animals they use.
Thats correct. Why? because he is from the nomad culture that has a given set of ranks............. Then again i might be wrong. I have yet to see the nomad culture, and since they are (atleast by harp scifi rules) illegal, i would not be surprised if they didnt give any ranks in the correct skill to identify an animal.
Lets see
You would prob get mundane lore: own culture. 3 ranks = 15
You have an above average total stat mod of +5 in re, giving you +10 total or even a 100 for a total of +20
you would have an skill of 35 pluss your roll to even comprehend routine facts of your culture...
You would know that you ride horses...
You can ride a horse.. 10 ranks after all...
But do you know what a horse are?
You have less then stellar chances of knowing what a horse are....
You need lore: fauna lore for that given region..(sidenote: nomads travel so horses might even be from another region, so higher diff lol )
You have no
darn clue about what to feed it.. (Animal handling skill)
etc etc
And then you can argue if its mundane things to do.. but then the skills are
darn meaningless and waste of ranks... Anyways, nomads are by default a culture based on fail if they even excist in harp scifi. At best they are illegal so no player falls into the trap.
Thats the same thing as d&d 3.5 knowledge mistake all over.. The farmer never knowing what a cow are.
Ever seen the signs in the amusement parks? This tall to ride..
If a culture are bound to fail based on ranks, they should not be there.
To be able to contribute on a low level in this game, you need to minmax or rely on SYSOP\GM Fiat or luck.
fudge that
doodoo... If all you can do are pray to the dice gods or rely on the gm to look away you are comic relief.
Thats why im saying culture are there to pick up ranks in skills that cost 4 dev points.
Let me guess.. More people that havent seen over 200 in db?
We had that at lvl 1, our very first session