[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when.

[Justin Robinson]

Andy Cink wrote:
> So it may be something like: (highest offensive skill) + (highest
> defensive skill) + (highest profession skill) + (each point an
> attribute has been raised over the racial norm x 2) = the char's
> eval. Eval is kept in a toplist format, so anyone can check the
> list (which is updated every 5 minutes or so) and see exactly
> where they stand in the mud's playerbase. Which is kind of cool,
> to know you're ranked 264 out of 2000 players, or whatever.

I'm currently going through some of the same problems with a "leveless"
system, with a mud I've been putting together for the last couple
months.  Everything is based on a proficiency rating and characters gain
statistics as they go.  I still give out xp, however the player never
really sees this.  Every 'x' number of xp points, they can gain a
skill-point to put towards a particular skill (xp is typed, so if you
gained xp in attacking, the point it produces MUST go to an attack
skill, not defensive, etc).

To take care of "level-restricted" items and weapons, I can require a
certain "knowledge" of that particular item before you can use it; or at
least before you can use it correctly ;)

To give players a "level" to make them happy and feel all superior (or
inferior) to everyone else.  I do some calculations with the xp they
have gained (different types of xp counts as various amount depending on
how hard it was for that character to gain it)...then based on the
"xp-gained" number, I can rank the characters with either textual or
numeric ranking...

This is kinda an annoying implementation, but I'm hoping it will all
work out in the end  :)

Justin Robinson
jmrobins at vermontel.net