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

[Caliban Darklock]

On 7/27/07, Tom Hudson <hudson at alumni.unc.edu> wrote:
>
> Vincent's proposal was more to say "As a level 5
> character, you received level 2 XP for killing a level 2 mob - which
> doesn't do you any good - and level 5 XP for killing a level 5 mob -
> which helps you towards level 6." This means that farming easy targets
> all day gets you nowhere, at least in the XP department.

Here's the question that comes to my mind.

Ten level 1 characters get together and gang up on some level 8 mobs.
Can they use the resulting level 8 experience to skip levels 2 through
8 and go directly to level 9?

Because however you answer that, it doesn't make sense the way we view
levels at present.

If you say "no, they can't"... well, that's not fair. I beat a bunch
of level eight mobs. If I were level 8, I would be level 9. But
instead, you're going to make me stay on level 1? That's a bug.

If you say "yes, they can"... well, that's not fair, either. By
skipping all those intervening levels, I can level faster than other
players who play the way the game was designed. That's cheating.

Now, I *can* see a way to potentially resolve this. Instead of level 9
being a set of statistics and abilities that incorporates everything
prior, have it ADD statistics and abilities as a differential from
level 8. So once you earn enough level 8 XP, you get the abilities and
bonuses of level 9, but since you haven't earned the abilities and
bonuses of levels 2 through 8 - it's not all that impressive. Your
stats would say "Level 9", but that wouldn't mean you learned
everything else.

For example, imagine that at level 1 you have some arbitrary skill
with a rating of 15, at level 8 you have a skill of 75, and at level 9
you have a skill of 83. If you earn a bunch of level 8 experience at
level 1, you would get "Level 9" on your stats and your skill would go
up to 23. If all you care about is what your stats say, you'll be
happy. If you want the skill of 83, you need to go earn different
experience.