[MUD-Dev] Playing catch-up with levels

[Sean Howard]

"Freeman, Jeff" <jfreeman at soe.sony.com>

> In SWG you could probably remove the skill-system altogether
> without making much of a difference.

I want to agree, but I can't. SWG has this stupid idea that you want
to be forced into a narrow career path. And because of it, there are
assumptions that if you play as a Tailor, being ONLY a Tailor has to
be a viable option - and they make it so by creating completely
arbitrary road blocks and dependencies that serve more to piss off
the players than "help" them.

Getting rid of the skill cap would be a step in the right
direction. SWG has the breadth to support varied and unforced
playing styles decided by the player and not the game system. But
there would be a lengthy period of rebalancing where unneeded
elements were removed and old assumptions are tossed out like the
garbage they are. But the SWG economy, such as it is, absolutely
relies on those arbitrary class relationships.

I will say that dumping the skill cap is a great idea and would
force the designers to start thinking towards a better future. Hell,
I'd probably start playing agian just because there were several
interesting sounding classes (like Entertainer, Merchant, or Droid
Engineer) which were completely dominated by the limit. I mean,
yeah, Entertainer sounds like fun, but you'd literally only get to
see one room for the rest of the game. Without combat skills, you
can walk outside without getting killed by a butterfly.

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