[MUD-Dev] Playing catch-up with levels

[Sean Howard]

This is not a response directed towards any one post. This is just a
general idea of removing the whole level concept altogether.

It seems that the RPG cliches can't be gotten over. We can dress them up
(City of Heroes has Enhancements and Inspirations instead of equipment and
items, Planetside isn't really an RPG so levels seem more interesting, SWG
has a slightly unique approach). I think the only real novel ideas on the
subject that I've seen so far is Puzzle Pirates.

Why not dump the whole level thing altogether? Every character is equal
from the time they start to the time they quit. You could still have
combat, but it would be decided by equipment and skills - neither of which
would be aquired through the process of grinding but possibly through
exploration. Limited inventory and equipment slots could force the player
to make interesting decisions.

For instance, you could get an armor which absorbs 5 pts of damage or an
armor which doubles HP to 40. The first you would want for relatively weak
enemies which attack frequently (such as ranged attackers), and the latter
for strong enemies that are not likely to hit you too much. A group could
involve any character in the game, no matter how old, if they had the
equipment, and a properly diverse set of abilities and tactics would be
required to explore deep into the world.

It just seems to me that a properly balanced level system means that at
level 20, you are doing roughly the same damage to other level 20 enemies
as you were doing at level 10 to level 10 enemies. All the level system
really does is force you into agreeing that there are certain enemies
which are too tough and certain enemies which aren't worth your time.

It does give you something to look forward to, but the grind is not
something that most people find enjoyable - they will look out for the
shortcuts. In SWG, there are FAQs in the crafting professions which
tell you that you can crank out 10,000 of one type which yield the
most experience for the resources used. There are also discussions
about which creature types to farm, like create X which yields a
decent amount of exp without being overly difficult or a group
animal. I'd rather the discussions be about interesting problems to
solve or decisions to make, not how to bypass designer implemented
roadblocks with the quickest time and least amount of effort.

--
Sean Howard - www.squidi.net
Webcomic: A Modest Destiny
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