[MUD-Dev] Geometric content generation

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: rayzam [mailto:rayzam at home.com]
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com>
 
>> A better comparison in my mind, would be with Starcraft. It has
>> three distinct sets of pieces and a reasonable semblence of
>> balance even though the tactics for each team are both different
>> and deep. Of course starcraft slipped several years due to this
>> balancing, and they only had three sides to balance instead of
>> the 10-20 classes most RPGs seem to go for.
 
>> Perhaps the easiest way to approach balancing is to throw out
>> classes, make everything skill based, and allow reallocation of
>> skill points. That way players can explore the system, discover
>> the lesser skills, drop them and stay happy. It also allows you
>> to modify skills without players getting too upset since they can
>> always add and remove it. Hmm, isn't that what SWG is doing
>> anyway?
 
> Wouldn't this just lead to even more min-maxing? I'm fuzzy on it
> at the moment, but I thought even in the new big skill based
> systems, there were classes of skills, so you could get the lesser
> skills without it costing from the overall. Not sure if that was
> for SWG or for one [or more] of the upcoming commercial releases.

Well without remembering the specifics of a given game, there are
degrees of subtletly in the newer systems. Such as trade skills
being from a seperate pool of skill points and skills being tree
based. My point was that if a skill isn't any use, no one will use
it, and you can prune it out the game, if its good, someone will
want it. If every single player is developing a character to exactly
one archtype, then the pricing of those skills is wrong - they
should be more expensive so you can't get everything desirable.

Whilst class based games are easier for the designers to pigeon hole
roles in, I think true balance is more likely if you let the players
do it. After all, they are just one massive genetic
algorithm. Allowing the re-investment of points is key however, as
this allows people to go against percieved wisdom of a given
archtype and see for themselves. I don't believe people should ever
have to re-roll a character because of decisions they made early in
their game career - its just an possible exit point from your game.

Dan
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