From: sichen@knuth.uwaterloo.ca (Simon Chen)
Subject: Re: Skill System
Keywords: skills
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 03:01:46 GMT

In article <Bx9p7p.DI5@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> danic@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Steve) writes:
>My favorite muds ever were Gateway for it's fluid stat system, where stat
>points increased automatically based on usage, and Kingdoms because it has
>lots of cool skills which any player can get.

I, too, liked Gateway... good MUD with good atmosphere... 8)

>My idea was: why not combine the two systems so players have skills which
>improve automatically based on usage.  It seems easy to do.  Just give
>each newbie player 5% in every inherent skill.  Then, each time the skill
>is attempted, it improves very very slightly, about .01 or .005%.  This
>way players develop their characters based on play style instead of
>"purchasing" skills with generic experience.  This could remove the need
>for levels and guilds.  Or guilds could serve only to improve the rate of
>learning of certain skills.  (A guild would charge a union fee to members)

Yes, that is a good idea, except I don't agree with the increase in skill even
in that slight amount with every usage.  I've always like the RuneQuest way of
skill improvement.  The system is (or was) as follows... you can only increase
your skills through usage if you roll a critical success at 5% or less.  When
you get a critical success, you're chance of improving by 1% is equal to 100%
minus your current skill %.  So, in effect it'll be harder and harder to
increase your skill as it gets higher and higher, but the chance is always there
unless you've already got 100%.

>For this system to work there has to be a maximum amount of total skill
>points for each player, so you can't get 100% of everything.  Also, skills
>should decline over time.  The rate of improvement is much greater than
>the rate of decline, so you have players getting better at skills they
>use, and worse at skills they don't use.

Skill decline system is quite realistic.  In addition to that, I think there
should be a racial maximum for skills, or at the very least, make it harder for
some races to increase beyond a certain level.  Guild/class could also have
more restrictions as well..... 8)

>One problem i see with this system is cheating.  A player logs on a second
>character and picks their pocket until the pick pocket skill reaches 100%.
>You could either implement a penalty for the sucker or you could make the
>increase in skill dependant on the difficulty of the task (ie: the level
>of the victim).

True, but with the above system, it would sure waste them a lot of their time.
8)

>If a player wanted to change the skills of the character, the player would
>just change his playing style and watch as the old skills slowly declined
>and the new skills got better.  Even a maxed out character could change
>his skills because they're all declining slowly to allow room for
>development of whatever skills he/she wants.

Hmmmm.. now I think about it, there should be a lower boundary for the decline.
This`ll probably apply to some skills only.  An example is riding a bicycle or
swimming, no matter how long ago you've learned it, you'll always remember how
to do it to a certain degree even though you're no longer as good as you used
to be... 8)


							Simon + $0.02
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