Quote:Original post by Jannes I see u are from Germany. Do u have a website? i am interested in your project ;)
Just a closed forum for developers. And actually we are not accepting new developers (or can you do bone-animated fantasy models? ;) )
No, i cant :). Dont want to join a team at all (for now). Still need to get more programming experience. But i am hoping for a really cool new RPG. I think the genre has come down to just hack&slay for too long (with Morrowind as exception, which i think is best RPG in years).
I was thinking about this a bit last night. The whole experience system seems to be borrowed from D&D (yeah there were probly earlier pen&paper's but none as well known).
The problem is, D&D was designed for a small group of players who are all expected to be around the same level, and if someone is too weak for a mission, the dm could let them 'RP' around it.
MMORPG's simply arn't like that, they arn't advanced enough to reward roleplaying, and they involve players of any level interacting, yet they use an experience system that was never ment for that kind of situation.
Personally I think the the UO skill system has been the best attempt at a solution.
The only thing is, skill based progress just doesn't feel as rewarding as levels. Levels are such a simple and easy to understand concept of power, that it's hard not to feel cheated when you invest too long in a game without getting that sort of feedback.
Oh yeah I don't have a solution, I didn't get that far. :P
I think skills based systems are more realistic and reward players for attempting the tasks their character is intended for. It has never made sense to me that thieves in experience based CRPGs don't gain levels from picking locks or sneaking past enemies, but they do if they kill things.
Morrowind also gives rewards other than skill increases. When a character raises his/her primary skills by a certain number of points (s)he then goes up a level and is given points to add to related attributes.
As long as skills can be increased by attempting to use a skill (regardless of whether it succeeds), then the system is a lot more balanced and does encourage roleplay to a greater extent.
Morrowind would have been my favourite CRPG if I hadn't already played Daggerfall. As it is, I think they "dumbed it down" a little too much.
As for higher level characters helping out lower level ones, they could still do that by casting protection or healing spells on them whilst they fought for themselves.
I think a really nice answer was already proposed here :) Instead of generic experience and levels, you can have skill experience and skill levels. This way you have all the rewards of a level-based system, but it's one for each skill. UO is on the right track but they forgot this tiny little detail :)
[EDIT]
I think that a system like this already has balanced party experience, for example a healer that heals lots of people will obviously improve that skill. I think that the biggest problem now is how to distribute loot :p
