Levels and Goals [was Alright..IF your gonan do DESIESE]

[Matt Chatterley]

On Tue, 27 May 1997, Adam Wiggins wrote:

> [JK:]
> > Hrm...  the assumptio nhere is that the "goal" is to reach high level.
> > Thats soemthing I disagree with strongly. The "leveling" phenomenon is very
> > very bad IMO, it comrpesses your game to a game of high-levels and people
> > just burning time to GET to high levels.
> 
> Yeah.  It always amazes me how anxious people are to burn through the
> levels, get the kick-ass gear, etc etc.  I always think that the *worst*
> possible thing you can do to a newbie is give them a bunch of great eq.
> Basically, you've just spoiled the game for them.  Now any other item
> they strive to aquire is going to pale in comparisson to what you already
> handed them.

Definitely. This also encourages them to start begging more powerful
players to fetch gear for them, rather than seek out the best they can
get, and so forth, ad naseum.

A number of muds implement limits on what you can use for these reasons
(some level based, some skill based, and so forth). Most of these limits
feel very artificial though - especially levels, but skills too.

For instance, I have 34 sword skill, but cannot wield Freddie's big sword
(tm). As soon as I have 35 though, I can happily use it. I prefer the
system that I plan to use - anyone can in theory wield anything they're
strong enough to lift and swing, but if it's a high quality, or difficult
to use weapon, they don't do very well with it.
 
> > In my current projectw e are purposefully designing it so tehre are
> > inetrsting things for ALL levels to do, and "maxing" will be EXTREMELY
> > difficult.  Our goal is to encourage the expereinced character to have at
> > least 3 characters at any time, one "high" one "moid" and one "low", so
> > that they can particpate in teh entire game.
> 
> This is common, on good muds.  In fact, I usually tend to think that
> the mid-levels are the funnest time on a level-based mud.  At low level
> things are just too hard (you can't walk more than 10 ft without collapsing
> from exhaustion, you're constantly droping your weapon in combat, you get
> the hell beat out of you by squirrel and fidos).  At high level everything
> gets competative; you've got everything to loose and very little to gain.
> At mid-levels you can actually do things and be relaxed in the meantime.
> I don't see any reason why *any* mud, level-based or not, would make
> any part of the game not be fun.  As near as I can tell, the attitude is
> that you have to 'work' for a while (low levels) before you get to 'enjoy'
> the fun parts of the mud (mid and high levels).  Yeah, whatever.

*brief ripple*

Any game should be fun to play - no matter what. The newbie stage is bound
to be surrounded by an amount of confusion and such while you get
accustomed to the game - but thats no reason why it shouldn't be fun (ie
it shouldn't be too complex to learn.. nice even learning curve).
 
> Our goal is to make a mud where you can do whatever you like, and you'll
> get exactly what's coming to you.  If you want to be an all-powerful mage,
> you're going to have to work *hard* at it, people are probably going to
> be constantly coming after you...etc etc.  If you want to socialize, explore
> a bit, maybe even get into an occasional fight...you can do that too.
> Sure you'll never be as powerful.  Likely you'll live longer, too.
> I guess our whole philosophy is that we'll just design a world full of
> interesting and engaging stuff to do and see and visist and be.  What you
> as a player want to do with that is completely up to you - there's no
> default "game", persay.

Yup. Quite right. This is the sort of things I want to see more of out
there, and the sort of thing that I want to achieve. If you want to linger
around, help people out, and such (say as a healer), you can. If you want
to be a lone adventurer, you can. If you want to be a hero, go on bold
quests, and save things from other things, you can. You could be an
outlaw, or a bounty hunter, or strive to join the ranks of the nobility
and raise your own army for whatever purpose.

As long as you have fun, you win.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Fishing is complete and utter madness."  -Spike Milligan