[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point...

[Damion Schubert]

On 8/3/07, Caliban Darklock <cdarklock at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Imagine an orc wandering outside the city gates. (Use of AD&D terms is
> not intended to be restrictive.) Two characters, one first level and
> one eighth level, see the orc. If the first level character attacks
> it, the orc has 6 hit points and a THAC0 of 20. If the eighth level
> character attacks it, the orc has 40 hit points and a THAC0 of 14.
> Whoever deals the first blow sets the stats.
>
> The XP don't change. The orc is worth 4 XP no matter what. As the
> players figure that out, the higher level characters simply stop
> screwing with the little stuff. It's harder to kill, takes more time,
> does more damage, and you still only get 4 XP.
>
> Essentially, every mob has a lowest level which sets its XP value. If
> you're higher level than that, and you attack the mob, the mob scales
> its power to match your skill, but the XP don't change. If you're a
> lower level than the XP bar, the mob doesn't get any easier. You have
> to earn the XP. But you can't slum around the newbie areas to earn
> easy XP. There are no easy XP. Indeed, the same XP get harder all the
> time.
>

Things like this have been done before.  I believe the Elder Scrolls games
did some scaling, and I know the old Ultima games would scale monster
packs based upon your own party's size.

That being said, I think that it's dangerous - it creates a real sense that
you aren't making any progress.  One of the greatest joys of RPGs is
going back and utterly obliterating stuff that was challenging a few levels
ago.  This system removes that joy, and replaces it with a sense that
the player never graduates past content.

My own 2 cents.

--d