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

[cruise]

Thus spake Caliban Darklock...
> What if the level and stats of a monster were dynamically scaled to the player?
> 
> 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.

Would work - CoH has a similar-ish system that means a mob can con the 
same to any level player - a level 1 and a level 50 can fight the mob at 
the same time and they'll hit it and receive damage as appropriate for 
their level.

I'd like to see a game that doesn't use levels at all - difficulty is 
simply set by the abilities and skills enemies have. It's an offline 
game, but Dark Messiah did this quite well - no xp and no levels - just 
skill upgrades for each task completed.

I doubt doubt the exact mechanism would work for an online game, but I 
think the principle is worth considering.