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

[Travis Casey]

Wednesday, December 27, 2000, 4:25:33 PM, Hulbert, Leland <LHulbert at czn.com> wrote:

> I have heard various arguments for and against skill deterioration,
> and I have to admit, I generally agree with.  My only 2 cents is
> that it should not be universal.  At some point, perhaps every 5th
> level, or x XP , or whatever, a player should be given the choice to
> 'dedicate' himself to a certain skill.  At that time, no ability
> would be lost in that skill, ever again.  We would assume that the
> character is practicing when not under active (player) control.  I
> just can't accept the martial arts master who takes a few months off
> to study Taoism suddenly losing his ability to fight...

But can you accept a martial arts master who takes a few months off no
longer being "on the top of his form?"  That's what this is about,
really... I don't think anyone is arguing that someone should go from
being a master to very little knowledge in as little as two months of
game time.

This sort of idea could also be used in conjunction with a time-based
or combination time-and-usage based skill advancement system.  Keeping
a skill "up" might require investing a certain number of points per
time period into it, with the exact amount depending on the skill
level; this represents time spent maintaining existing skills instead
of learning new ones.

With this, you then have a couple of different options:

The "dedication" option -- a player has to explicitly say that he/she
doesn't want a particular skill to go down.  If that's done, then the
points needed to keep that skill at the current level are
automatically deducted.

The "sliding" option -- it's assumed that players don't want any
skills to go down.  Points needed to keep skills at current levels are
automatically deducted, and only the leftover points are presented as
"advancement points".  A player can deliberately choose to let a skill
"slide", however; in that case, points will not be automatically spent
to keep it up.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_    Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)   


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