Re: [MUD-Dev] Getting stuck (was Re: Fantasy clichés)

[Greg Miller]

  Ananda Dawnsinger wrote:

> More damning, AC is definitely not accessible -- it's the most daunting of
> the Big Three.  Most people know just enough about Asian (Sho) and
> Middle-Eastern (Gharu'ndim) culture to not be quite comfortable playing
> characters of those races.  And the game system is a real trial-and-error,
> learn-by-doing sort of thing; unless you have a veteran helping you out,
> you're probably going to go through several characters before designing one
> you want to keep.  It's the kind of game where you never quite realize how
> much you don't know, which may be delightful for the hard-core explorer
> veterans, but will be quite daunting to those just starting out.

This is something I've done a lot of thinking about the last few days. 
My objective is to produce a skill system that encourages specialization 
without having players needing to refresh because they'd made permanent 
mistakes while creating their characters or raising their skills.

My current design calls for a system of skill rings. It's essentially 
similar to a tree, but a narrower skill can be associated with more than 
one broader skill. Initially, it's cheapest to raise the narrowest 
skills, but the cost increases rapidly enough that you quickly reach a 
point where raising a broader skill increases the narrower skill for a 
lower cost. This makes it most cost effective to grab related skills, 
but it's always possible to grab whatever combination you want, if you 
work hard enough.

It's not as flexible as a skill web, but the relations and interactions 
seem clearer. The whole system was inspired by Realm of the Dragon, a 
DiscWorld mudlib-based mud, which is similar, but has hard maximum skill 
limits and classes.

> EverQuest is an Independence Day, an Armageddon, a Jurassic Park.  We
> haven't had our Titanic or Star Wars yet.  I suspect that when it comes, it
> may well have more in common with Federation than with EQ or Gemstone.

I can't really speak to that, since I don't really understand what 
people like about Titanic.
--
http://www.classic-games.com/              http://www.indie-games.com/
Smarter than God? No, but I'm smarter than he was when he was my age.
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