[MUD-Dev] Moving away from the level based system

[Gabriel]

Paul Schwanz wrote:

> Even if you don't like any form of character persistence, I think it
> would be a good idea to use the quest-punctuated approach to
> skilling as a method for discouraging macroing.  Personally, I
> prefer to let everyone macro, since I don't like the idea of making
> characters do boring and repetitive tasks (alternatively, or even in
> conjuction with this system, it would be great if "skilling" were
> not so boring), especially not when such is used as a method to push
> back against advancement.
>
> --Phinehas

Which is why I prefere not to allow skills to increase through use -
no need to macro since using a skill over and over again won't
increase the skill.  The only reasons someone would go out and fight
is because they thought it was fun to do! It won't gain them any extra
experience. The only reason to log into the game at all would be to
have fun - it won't gain the character extra experience being logged
into the game.

Several Others wrote:

> various things about DragonRealms and GemStone from Simutronics

Both of these games took a year to come up with their current systems
for handling macroing/scripting and they are not perfect. For example,
in DragonRealms how many MoonMages are there these days and what is
their Intelligence rating?  How many Elothian or Elven Barbarians? 
Scripting was never stopped, it just went underground and to overcome
the system Intelligence and/or Wisdom are increased well beyond any
other statistic. It actually gets to the point where you have
characters the same level, year after year, because they didn't
increase INT/WIS beyond what they initially thought would be needed
and now they find it impossible to gain levels. It's a Catch-22, stuck
forever. The only thing they can do is start up a new character or
reroll.

Advancement becomes a matter of how much time the character can be
logged in and doing things. This promotes scripting, shared accounts,
etc. I don't want to design a game that promotes and encourages people
to share their characters or to script the actions of their
characters. The need to do so needs to be removed from the design - in
my case, I've decided that the only way to do this is to to remove
skill-use increases skill-ranks and to award a number of points for
the amount of time the character has existed. The more I think about
Simutronics handled it (which I'd forgotten about until it was brought
up), the more I want to change the base model!

In any system that skills increase through use, the designers will
face this sort of problem. I could duplicate what was designed for
Simu games, but it's not fixing the underlying issues, it's only
patching a flawed system.  From the ground up I could probably design
a fairly fool-proof design that would prevent scripting, but the issue
is about eliminating the need to do so in the first place. I want to
save time and resources, not increase them.

Actually, I'm glad I read some of the posts. It makes me realize that
the issues I have with my current system are nothing compared to the
issues faced by others using a skill-use-earn model. I doubt I'll ever
be completly happy with any system, but I can always compare one to
another and say, "This one suites me better!".

Regards,
Gabriel


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