[pythian] Re: DESIGN - Experience
- From: Bernard Osmond <Bernard.Osmond@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pythian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 01:21:53 +1000
hey,
> Our previous discussions about experience, from a long time ago,
> resulted in the idea what we would not have XP.
aagh, mayybe i should go digging around in the mailing list archives...
> Instead, you would have "attributes" for everything. Each
> character has
> "physical attributes", "intellectual attrbiutes", and "skill
> attributes".
> "Physical attributes" include strength, dexterity, etc.
>
> "Intellectual attributes" represent the inherent ability of your
> brain,
> such as memory, intuition, etc.
>
> Skills represent your mental and physical ability to do stuff,
> such as
> reading, writing, decoding, coercing, sword-swinging, blocking,
> jumping,
> running, etc.
>
> Skills derive their value partially from your physical and
> intellectual
> attributes, and the rest comes from use.
so basically what you're saying is that your attributes are at the
root level of the "experience tree" ( i couldn't think of any other way
to describe it ), and then your skills are derivatives of either these
attributes or other skills ( i'm thinking diablo skill tree style here
-- ie you need a skill at a certain level before you can become
proficient at another skill )
> In our system you start having all skills in your knowledge, but
> at zero
> ability. That is, if you tried to use it, you would suck so bad
> as to
> be functionally incompetent. But by attempting this, you learn a
> little
> about it, and get a little better. Of course, we would start the
> player
> character with some skills at "average" or even "good" so he can
> fight,
> run, and perform other basic skills. You can train your skills,
> and you
> can use them, both of which increase the skill attribute value.
>
> The skill system is quite complex, and as with all things pythian,
> poorly documented. I can explain it another time, when we need it.
>
> Ok, that was the background, on to the experience part.
> Typically, you
> spend time collecting XP and spend that once you've accumlated enough.
>
> Every RPG system has some variation of this to drive character
> advancement. As with most game concepts, it's an approximation of
> real
> life to keep the rules simple and to simulate "real" character
> development without having to roleplay every last bit of your
> life. For
> instance, instead of having to roleplay finding a Level 7 Ranger
> with
> the double-weapon skill, and roleplaying training with him, etc.
> I
> suppose there are other reasons to collect XP, and ways to spend
> it, but
> you get the idea.
>
> For us, the use of your skills directly benefits your skills and
> develops your character "naturally". Thus, we have no need of
> literal XP.
maybe you are making it a little too complex here. i think that the
player needs to be able to 'head' his character in a certain direction (
ie -- necromancer; so they become a mage and start using/learning spells
and stuff like that until they are proficent enough to specialise into
the specific area they want ) currently i dont understand how you are
going to make it obvious enough to the player where they are heading.
with numeric experience, or a numeric based system, the player can
specify a skill set that they want to enable / upgrade and work from there.
maybe we could find a way to combine the two systems by letting the
user choose which tree "branches" he wants to enable.
i really think this needs further discussion, and from more people;
since it will be an integral part of our game, we want it to be simple
for our players to understand and rock-solid.
- n30n
[ http://n30n.amok.dk/ ]
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