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

[Vincent Archer]

According to Caliban Darklock:
> > That was an old bone in the original thread. People kept trying to
> > shoehorn the achievement model into a standard xp model.
> 
> You don't have to try. How is an achievement different from XP?

Because it has one very different property from classical xp.

It cannot be repeated.

In the classic XP, you kill a level 1 mob, you get xp. You kill a
second level 1 mob, you get xp. You kill enough level 1 mobs, you get
to level 50.

In the achievement system, you kill a level 1 mob, you prove you can
kill a level 1 mob. You kill another level 1 mob, you haven't proved
anything you didn't before.

> > they tell me my hammer is a poor excuse of a hammer.
> 
> And precisely how many people have to say this before you think "maybe
> I'm wrong"?

Because it's not a hammer. If you keep on trying to hammer a nail with
an umbrella, it's not going to work. And insisting that the umbrella
is a hammer will not make it one.

> What you're actually describing is a ranking system, anyway, and you
> can't really have that AND levels. Pick one.

That's because you want to define level in a very restrictive, D&Dish
perspective. The D&Dish level is the defining factor of your abilities.

But that's not what is interesting, from a MMO player's perspective,
in a level. People ask "looking for level X mage" because they want
a mage they feel capable of tackling a given "level" of content. The
level is a metric to gauge the ability of a character to do some
content.

In your perspective, a level achieves that by virtue of defining a
character abilities and stats. A level 40 ?mage is assumed to be able
to tackle the Dungeon of Aaargh, because he has a rank 7 fireball, and
mana pool to cast it 9 or more times on the ennemies.

In my perspective, a level achieves that gauge by virtue of having
proved that you can do that kind of content. You cannot be level 40
unless you've killed mobs in enough different circumstances, and/or
visited the dungeon, and/or tackled nameds.

-- 
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

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