[MUD-Dev] Variant Methods for Related Skills

[Travis Casey]

Friday, January 19, 2001, 8:23:11 PM, Christopher Allen
<ChristopherA at skotos.net> wrote:

Some general comments and questions:

> After surveying various skill systems, I've notice that the approach
> to 'related skills' are very different and that that I don't
> understand the merits or problems of the various schemes.

> In some systems, if you gain skill in an advanced skill, the lesser
> skills will go up too. For instance, if you gain skill in two-handed
> sword, your basic sword skills go up as well, but to a lesser
> extent. Say if you practiced two-handed sword from 70 to 75, your
> basic sword skill might go up from 35 to 36.

I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, and I think it's
because of terminology.  What do you mean by an "advanced skill"?  Is
this a skill that you can only learn after having learned another,
more basic skill?  Or is this a specialized skill?  Or a narrow skill
in a skill tree?

>From the description, I'd guess you mean a narrow skill in a skill
tree, but I can't be sure.

> In other systems, if you gain in a basic skills, your advanced
> skills will go up. For instance if you gain skill in basic sword,
> your two-handed sword skill will be slightly higher, but not as much
> as your basic sword skill.  Say you practiced basic sword from 70 to
> 75, your two-handed sword skill might go up from 35 to 36.

> In a mix of those two systems, you raise the advanced skill or the
> basic skill, and the other skill will go up.

> In a different kind of system, you can't gain in an advanced skill
> without first raising your basic skill. For instance, in two-handed
> swords unless your basic sword skill is higher then your two-handed
> sword skill. Thus if you basic sword was 75, you could practice
> two-handed sword as much as you wanted, but you'd never pass 75. A
> variation in this system is that the advanced skill can't be higher
> then half your basic skill.

I can't think of many situations for which this sort of limitation
would seem realistic to me.  IMHO, a better approach would be to use
the concept of limiting skills that I mentioned in a post a day or two
ago.

> Has anyone tried any of these variants and then pulled it out because
> something broke? Has anyone discovered long-term problems with one of
> these variants in a game played for a long time?

The descriptions you've given are really too general to be able to say
much -- I think what problems might arise would depend a lot on which
skills are considered to be "advanced skills" of which other skills,
the rate at which gain is transferred to other skills, and other
variables.

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