# Representing Offline Hours in MMORPGs, Knowledge/Training

This topic is 4820 days old which is more than the 365 day threshold we allow for new replies. Please post a new topic.

## Recommended Posts

Quote:
 Time Points & Training The time points (TP) system grants every character points over real-world time regardless of whether a player is online or offline. Players may use these points to perform actions which would usually be repetitive and boring instantaneously. Time Point Accumulation and Basic Uses - A player gains 16 TPs per day (a point every hour, minus 8 hours to represent sleep) - TPs may be used to 'move around' secondary attributes (within the domain of the respective primary attribute). 2 TPs may move one secondary attribute. This represents 'specialized training', which continues the balance of attributes. - TPs are required to craft, repair and enhance items. - TPs may be used to harvest resources. - TPs cap at a number dependant on a character’s intelligence, this is to represent time management ability and also to prevent people from hoarding up TPs. When a character hits max TPs, any other TPs normally gained are lost forever. Training & Knowledge - Training is emulating the use of a skill in an artificial environment to practice that skill. - With the proper equipment and knowledge, a character may use TPs to train a skill. - Training a skill prevents skill decay. To prevent skill decay, a character must invest 1TP per 2 skill tiers in a particular skill every day. A character may choose to automatically commit TPs every day to skills. - Knowledge is your conscious awareness of what is happening when you use a skill. It is a very important statistic in training, and structure of knowledge mirrors the actual skill levels, following the same percentage based tier system. Knowledge can be obtained through reading certain books (based on intelligence and a character's current skill level), tutoring through other players or NPCs (based on the intelligence and current skill level of the student, and the knowledge and charisma attributes of the teacher), and also follows the progression of your actual skill levels at a rate of 80% (for every 10% in skill you gain your knowledge raises 8%). Knowledge has no actual affect on action rolls, but it affects training. - If a player has a knowledge level above that of his actual skill level, he may actually raise his skill through training. Equation for training (assuming anti-skill decay TP has already been spent): Skill gained per TP = 1 + ( 1[Knowledge – Actual Skill Level ])% Eg. If my knowledge is 110% and my skill is 100% the equation is: 1 + ( 1 [110%- 100%]) = 1 + (0.1) = 1.1% bonus Note: The bonus for a bigger difference between knowledge and skill levels is capped at 50%, each % you gain calculates SPs dependant on the tier level of your skill. - If you look at the equation closely and compare it to the actual skill system, you will see that knowledge is the best way to gain skill at higher tier levels. Knowledge is NOT an unlimited resource that everyone can copy and share, in many instances they are unique items (only one of that item per server) that must be in your possession if you want the knowledge bonus. Knowledge is also not something that is easy to gain. - You cannot gain skill through training if your knowledge level is underneath your actual skill level. - When the knowledge level of a skill is significantly higher than the actual skill (if the knowledge level is 30% or more than the actual skill level), an information overload is triggered. A character can no longer raise his skill through training at this point and must use repetitive use of the skill to increase its proficiency until the conditions for an information overload are no longer met. Note: 10% is not say 500% + 30% it is 30% of 500%. So if a character had 650% knowledge or more and his actual skill was 500% then an information overload is triggered. Revelation - A revelation is when a character experiences a significant boost in skill based on their knowledge level. - Revelations happen randomly, and only during actual use (not training). - Revelations can also be triggered by achievements made by the character (primary attribute changing accomplishments) as well as the use of skills during extremely intense situations. - A revelation can occur during a time of information overload.

##### Share on other sites
Ummm..., First I must confess I didn't read your other post. Just this one was enough to begin to trigger information overload. By the way, I also skipped the formulas as that would prolly be very implementation specific.

If I understand the system you've described correctly, Time Points basically give the player the chance to perform actions off-line, retroactively. However, the total amount of Time Points he can accumulate while offline are capped, so he actually has to DO something with them.

This sounds like a good idea. If I'm to make any suggestions it would be these

1. Why not let him use the TP pro-actively (in advance). ie instead of waiting until he logs back in before asking him what his character would have been doing while he was offline, why not have him create a queue or list of things he would want his character to do before he logs of. Sort of like an RTS construction queue. Then when he comes back, depending on how much time his character has had, some of then would have been completed and some wouldn't.
Or he could just indicate what percentage of his time the character should spend training his different skills, and when he returns the character would have gained experience depending on how long he has had to train.
To be fair someone doing offline training would have to gain experience more slowly than someone adventuring online. Which can easily be explaining by the fact that you learn better in real life adventuring than you do training in a safe environment.

2. Addressing the fairness issue some more. It would seem unfair for someone who has been playing the game regularly to only be able to achieve more or less the same things as one who logged on at roughly the same time and only manages to log in just before his time points reach thier cap.
You've already mentioned Knowledge and Equipment which are two items neccesary to train offline. If these are items which can only be acquired while online then it automatically balances the effort issue. That is, the result you get out of your time spent offline is dependent of the effort you put in while you were online (ie the effort necessary to acquire said knowledge and equipment).
This could be even extended to other issues: e.g. the amount of gold you get while offline is equal to the number of trade routes you had established while online - OR - *shucks just forgot the second example*.

I hope I was able to be of some help. Sorry for skipping chunks of your post, but truth is I only speak mathematics as a second language and tend to grasp things more quickly when they are described in english. :->

##### Share on other sites
Hey thelurch, I'm very happy you replied because it seems you are the only person who at least gets part of what I'm trying to say. Guess I need to convert it to more clear english!

Anyways, there is nothing I can really argue with you about, what you said is completely true :) Thanks again for replying!

##### Share on other sites
You're welcome. :)

##### Share on other sites
"if the knowledge level is 30% or more than the actual skill level), an information overload is triggered"

You need some endcase conditional logic to cover the cases
where initial skill is 0 or the knowlege acqisition quantum exceed 30%

##### Share on other sites
i read all of it, understood most of it and totally like it :)

##### Share on other sites
Actually skills already start off at 50%, could you explain what this condition means: "the knowlege acqisition quantum exceed 30%"?

##### Share on other sites

This topic is 4820 days old which is more than the 365 day threshold we allow for new replies. Please post a new topic.

## Create an account

Register a new account

• ### Forum Statistics

• Total Topics
628721
• Total Posts
2984394

• 25
• 11
• 10
• 16
• 14