[MUD-Dev] The Best Guy on the Mud Thing

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Dundee wrote:
> At first we thought of putting in classes - but I don't like classes and
> that's really just a kludge to prevent every player from being little
> carbon copies of one another: each with the same "best" (point for point)
> skillset.

Not necessarily. Different classes/races can open up for a design with
beings of radically different natures. That is, the diversity involves more
than just different flavours of "human" beings.

It may also be regarded as a tool to enforce some kind of roleplaying...

[...] 
> But that, in turn, really screws the people who don't play very often... so
> now I have this sort of half-baked idea to base skill success on the rate
> of use of the skill over some unit of time.  If you logout, your rate of
> usage wouldn't change, but if you stop using a skill and continue playing,
> then your rate of use would drop - and measured relative to the other
> players rates of use, that would result in a lowering of your skill.
> 
> Ehrm... what a nightmare that would be.  Well it is half-baked.  Maybe
> we'll just stick-in some classes.

It would fry social players.

Anyway, some possible main goals based on what you wrote:

1. Player A, who only play (say) 6 hours a week, should experience
reasonable progress over a (say) 3 months period.
2. Player B, who play play 80 hours a week, should experience reasonable
progress over a 3 months period.
3. Player A should be able to feel like a peer of B.
4. Players should be allowed to choose and change their play style without
perceived punishment.

Doesn't 1-3 suggest that you should look into making a more diverse system
that provide some mechanisms that favour B (playtime over real time), and
some that favour A (real age over playtime)?

(You dislike the system where older skills levels are "consumed" by newer
skills? :-)
--
Ola




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