What if you had an RPG-like game but could start out at any level of experience and power you wanted? It would seem to me that a game like this wouldn''t emphasize growth and leveling as the main reason to play, but rather something else (like questing, or story). I''m thinking about part of an RPG-like game (not a true RPG) where you can restart the game at any level you''ve already achieved. But this would require that either all the challenges automatically scale with you, or I accept the fact that where you once struggled to fight kobolds, now at startup you can take out dragons (uh, so to speak, anyway... I''m doing science fiction... but you get the picture I hope). I''m also thinking that such a philosophy would need at least SOME attribute that always started low, or there would be no fun of growth. So manybe when you enter the realm you can make up a character of whatever reserves, or stats, you like, but a few, like reputation, would always start at bottom. Thus, reputation would be more important in some cases than money. -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

There are games like Cronotrigger with the infamous ''new game+''
After you complete the game once you can start from the beggining, with the same stats, same money, same items and equipment from when you completed it. The only difference is that quest related items are taken away. Like you said, combat is no challenge, only in the way. But you do get the chance to try to find every single little sub-quest and secret in the game (of which there were plenty.)

Then there''s Lufia 2, where after beating the game once you can start a new game where you begin at level 1 as normal, but you level up at 4 times the normal rate of your first time through.

Just because the church was wrong doesn't mean Galileo wasn't a heritic.
It just means he was a heritic who was right.

If you could select skills and such before you start as if you had a chance to distribute a certain number of them, then you would be able to have a wide variety of starts. People who think that it is another hack''n''slash game can pump up their swordskill and people who are unsure can distribute to all of their stats/skills. This way the player sets their character along a path from the beginning and if they choose wrongly then they need time to compensate for it... Good idea though

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

I appreciate the term "rpg-like", Wav. Was that for the benefit of my recent rants? j/k

What if there was a skill-based system where you don''t get better. You''d be able to choose a certain number of skills that you are really good w/ and the other you''d be terrible w/. That way each time you play you can have different things that you are good at hence different ways to overcome obstacles.




"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be --Pink Floyd

"Though the course may change sometimes, the rivers always reach the sea" --Led Zeppelin

Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.

That would be good, on replayability value. Consider that when the player plays they see only what skills they are lacking when trying to pass obstacles, but when they change their skills for the next time through, they have other skills that are lacking. Depending on how they manage to accomplish their tasks with what skills they have changes what story they see. This has great potential...

P.S. I also appreciate RPG-like as a term

Naz - you meant ''our'' rants right?

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

Yeah, I was really thinking about using this idea in my RPG-like game. It could provide totally different experiences depending on what skills the player chooses.

Yeah, yeah, I meant our


"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be --Pink Floyd

"Though the course may change sometimes, the rivers always reach the sea" --Led Zeppelin

Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.

Make the game ''contraversial'' so that no combination of skills is better than another, they each provide adequate challenges with different results.

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

Yep, exactly. So, a char skilled in fighting would hack & slash their way through. Where a char skilled in thievery and stealth would have to be more careful and clever.


"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be --Pink Floyd

"Though the course may change sometimes, the rivers always reach the sea" --Led Zeppelin

Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.

Naz and dwarf... I''m not sure I''m understanding you completely.

If I start up an RPG, I often get to allocate points to skills (or have it done for me, in the case of some character class selections).

So say there is Stealth, Diplomacy and Combat. If I start up even on all, I''ll have a different experience than if I start up 10%/10%/80%

This helps vary the start up, but isn''t necessarily what I''m talking about. (It does apply to another post I just made about leveling up, so thx! )

Here''s specifically my situation: I have a weird, hard to classify design right now (heh, which is why it''s RPG-like ). In it economics, like in many RPGs, determines power.

Because there are strategy elements, and you can buy property, I thought... If you start without a penny to your name, you have to struggle to buy and outfit ships. But if you started out with a few hundred mil, you could buy a fleet.

Some things you do (by design) are different if you have a fleet vs. a single ship. Some areas aren''t open to you even though you''re more powerful. For instance, gov''ts don''t let you run around their territory with a warfleet, whereas a single, well armed smuggler goes unnoticed.

So why limit the player, when he can enjoy starting out as a lowly trader, or captain of industry, depending on his mood? Traditional story-based RPGs limit you so that you can enjoy leveling up in the quest to kill foozle and return the 4 magic doodads. But I don''t have story.

Does this make sense?

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

Hmmm...I presumed that there was a story...sorry...that''s what genres will do to ya

So you were thinking the player would start at different levels of power?


"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be --Pink Floyd

"Though the course may change sometimes, the rivers always reach the sea" --Led Zeppelin

Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.