[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[msew]

At 11:43 02/25/2001 +0000, Richard A. Bartle wrote:

>> This presupposes that the game system in question would tie all of
>> your assets to your character, so that when the character goes, so
>> does all of your "advancement".

> You certainly won't have lost any of your personal (as a player)
> skill.  As a rule of thumb, if someone dies at level X it should
> take them half as long to get back to level X as it did to reach it
> in the first place.

One of the problems with this method is that classes that die more
often are going to be really harmed.

ie that tank of yours in the group is going to be really far behind in
lvl and power and skills than all of his friends because he is going
to be dying, on average, more than the others. :(

Certainly, you can give tanks classes an exp bonus or something but
then you are just changing the mechanic and that allows for me to go
and power lvl my tank super fast as I get an exp bonus.

<tangent>
This same concept of: some classes are affected by the mechanic more
than others.  works for damaged equipment.  tanks get their equipment
just absolutely beat on, and will have a higher cost to repair their
items and their items will be destroyed more often than non tanks.
</tangent>

Also this rule REALLY REALLY influences / constrains the death
mechanics of the game.  In everquest this would never work as you die
SOOOOOOOO much.  And clerics would become ultra powerful, as dying and
then having to spend 10 days to remake my exp would not be
acceptable. (ie pay both arms and a leg for that res as it saves you
10 days)

I have played one mud that had this death mechanic and it worked
really well, but it did suffer from the above listed issues: tanks
were always weaker, on average, than other classes.  As a side effect
the play style of people was much more careful and willing to flee and
run like the wind when bad things occurred.

msew



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