[MUD-Dev] Exponential experience points and levels

[zgj22 at drexel.edu]

From: ceo <ceo at grexengine.com>

> I fancy playing a game where you get exponentially more exp per
> situation the more you are (statistically) outgunned. Is anyone
> running one? :)....

...

> If you beat someone of lesser ability, again you get nothing - and
> may even lose experience ("character grows accustomed to lesser
> opponents; character gets slightly lazy, slightly slower, slightly
> less alert" or similar).

> If you beat someone of significantly greater ability, you get
> experience. The more they are better than you, the more exp you
> get, exponentially (on the assumption that when one fighter is 2X
> better rather than 1X better they will tend to win a lot more than
> twice as often. YMMV according to combat system...).

Another lurker dropping out of the woodwork...

That is an interesting concept, however I don't think that players
of a Massive/MUD would necc. take to it very well... but only
because of the dropping XP bit. To penalize a player for something
that may be out of their control will be seen either as a bug, or as
bad game design.

An example:

  Bob is a 15th level warrior. He decides he is going to take on a
  17th level Doom Bunny. However, to get there, he needs to go
  through the Dark Carrot Patch, which is infested with 11th level
  Lesser Evil Rabbits. He goes through the patch, and is viciously
  assaulted by a virtual army of malicious
  fluffballs. Unfortunately, because of the sheer aggressiveness of
  said rabbits, he has to kill each one that approaches him,
  totaling 10 in all. After killing them, he realizes that he has
  just lost 3 times the XP he would get by going to kill the Doom
  Bunny in the first place. He gets PO-ed and stops playing.

A possibly better solution would be to use an algorithm similar to
the one that Wizards/the DCI uses for their Magic: The Gathering
tournament rankings [1]. This algorithm is designed to let a
player's ranking change based on the ranking of those they fight.

  p1 rank vs p2 rank | p1 win/lose | change p1 rank
  -------------------+-------------+----------------
  p1 = p2            | win         | p1 up medium
  p1 > p2            | win         | p1 up slightly
  p1 < p2            | win         | p1 up alot
  -------------------+-------------+----------------
  p1 = p2            | lose        | p1 down medium
  p1 > p2            | lose        | p1 down alot
  p1 < p2            | lose        | p1 down slightly

Depending on the system used for character advancement, change the
word "rank" accordingly.

  [1 ]See http://www.wizards.com/DCI/main.asp?x=UTRules Appendix A
  for detailed information.

Zachary Jensen
GPG Public Key:
http://search.keyserver.net (Key ID 0238F90D)
http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~zgj22/
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