[MUD-Dev] Removing the almighty experience point...

[Vincent Archer]

According to neild-mud at misago.org:
> On Fri, 17 Sep 2004 11:03:41 -0700 brian at thyer.net wrote:

>> How is this really different  than an experience system?  You  go
>> out,    you kill  a bunch    of  things, you accomplish something
>> (becasue  killing  150,000 goblins  for  your  next level *is* an
>> accomplishment) and you get your level.

> If you look at it that way,  there is no difference.  "Achieve ten
> tasks  to  reach level  10"  is the same  as   "each task  gives 1
> experience point, get ten experience points to advance".

Quite a lot of people seem to miss the  difference between my system
and a quest system like that.

> The problem with this, as  Vincent said, is that experience points
> are   fungible.    There's no difference   between   xp earned for
> whacking rats, saving the princess, or  killing the troll king--it
> all goes in the same pot.  It's this  form of fungible achievement
> that is the problem.

It's also  a problem if you use  the classic way,  using only quests
that give XP (and no XP from mobs themselves).

If you're level 10, and  you complete a  level 15 quest for example,
you get  more xp  than a level  10  quest (obviously). However, once
you've levelled  to 11, then   you  have nothing   to show for  your
efforts. Someone who   did only level  10 quests  levelled like  you
did.  It all depends   on how  longer a level   15 quest  plays out,
compared to a level 10 one, for the xp bonus to be worth it.

Worse, if you  haven't  placed enough  quests, then  if somebody, by
accident, does a lot of higher level quests, then he might be faced,
once he gets into the  levels where those quests  are normal, with a
lack of suitable quests. All the remaining ones are even higher, and
this time, he can't do them as easily. He's stuck.

In  a classic system, you just  grind, till you  can get to questing
again. But  if there's no grind,  you  can dig yourself  a hole from
which it is very hard to get out. Unless you really have an enormous
amount of quests at each level.

But, if the  achievements  are intended  to measure  your ability to
rise to challenge of a given level, instead of being a cash payment,
what happens?  A  level 20 achievement completed   at level 15 means
that you're "a  bit"  worthy of advancing  to 21.  You're worthy  at
level 15, but also at level 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 as well.

In other  words, a level  20 achievement gives  you a  bit of XP for
your level 15, but it  also gives a bit in  level 16, and 17, and so
on...   When you  get level 16,  you  don't start  with an  empty XP
bar. You  start with as many achievements  for 16 and above  you had
completed before.

An achievement is not  1 xp, gained  at  whatever level. It's  1 xp,
gained at each level, up to its intended difficulty.

That's how higher achievements are more attractive than easier ones.
You take longer to complete the higher challenge, and thus longer to
finish your current level, but, in exchange, all the levels at which
you could do that one are shortened.

--
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

All men are mortal.  Socrates was mortal.  Therefore, all men are Socrates.
							(Woody Allen)
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