Sorry for being late to this thread.

No, you can''t copyright systems. So if you see something you like in another RPG, steal it! And tweak it to suit your game.

Personally I am tending towards the ''actions gain bonus points, bonus points increase skills'' route. This is a continuous progression rather than a discrete one like in Baldur''s Gate/AD+D. The main disadvantage of continuous advancement is that you remove the ''milestones'' that players always look out for, leading to a lack of excitement. One way I get around this is by making my important in-game events require absolute skill levels, rather than successful ''skill rolls'' or whatever. For example, there might be a lock that requires 60% or higher in Lockpicking skill. So the targets the players aim for are not levels, skill percentages or any other statistic, but in-game goals that interest them. I don''t believe in hiding numbers to increase immersion, as the players will always work out the numbers if they need to. Instead, I believe in taking the focus away from the stats and onto the content, and this is how I intend to do it.

Finally, being able to arbitrarily spend bonus points on skills can often seem a bit unrealistic - like when a warrior hacks 100 goblins down with a sword and spends his bonus points all on spellcasting. I will probably try and reduce this problem by restricting bonus expenditure to the skills you have used since the last time you upgraded that skill. This isn''t foolproof, but I believe it strikes a good balance between playability and believability.

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I guess experimental character advancement ideas require some context to work. On a modern/futuristic game, most any idea can work provided its down well, but with a strict D&D medieval rpg, you have a little less freedom. In either case though, you still have the problem with balance, since those enemies a few dungeons back will be childs play.

Anybody play Star Ocean 2? They had a unique idea that wasn''t totally expanded on, where levels gave a set of points and those points went to item creation skills, which in turn translated into attribute bonuses, like "Kitchen Knife" translated into 10 strength. WildArms2 also had this thing going, sorta. Its an idea to play with.

-> Will Bubel
-> Machine wash cold, tumble dry.

quote: Original post by Kylotan
Finally, being able to arbitrarily spend bonus points on skills can often seem a bit unrealistic - like when a warrior hacks 100 goblins down with a sword and spends his bonus points all on spellcasting. I will probably try and reduce this problem by restricting bonus expenditure to the skills you have used since the last time you upgraded that skill. This isn''t foolproof, but I believe it strikes a good balance between playability and believability.

Asheron''s Call had an interesting solution to that problem by combining the two. You gained a small amount of experience when you used a skill (such as cooking or sword combat), and another bunch of exp points when you successfully finished a task (such as baking a cake or killing a monster). The first type was automatically added to the skill that you were using, but the other type was placed in an "exp pool" that you could use on whatever skill you wanted.


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Sounds good, but I think that could be overcomplicating things. I dont think a system like that is very "beginner friendly"

Spectre Software - RPGs, strategy, puzzle games, programming

What''s complicated about having skills rise through use, and giving you points to spend on them too?

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Nothing for you and me, but to someone who has never played an RPG before, you are asking them to understand the system, whereas if the computer assigns upgrades (randomly, or through skill - use), it can be almost transparant.

Spectre Software - RPGs, strategy, puzzle games, programming

I think the goal here is to give the player another step of involvement in the characters. In the games where this involvement is incorperated, you have the situation where the character''s personality develops according to a linear story, and the narrative doesn''t allow interaction there. Simply turning the game into a adventure game, where you simply carry the character along and tell him what to do so he doesn''t die, well, there are twenty other threads complaining about the absense of branching stories. What I''m getting at is that the game needs several other areas of interaction, lest it be the next up in front of the firing squad.

-> Will Bubel
-> Machine wash cold, tumble dry.

My own personal preference for "leveling" is slow and sparse, with super-cool rewards.

PS It might be a good idea for everyone to credit the gamasutra article they''re quoting from.

-- Aikido? Here we call it oribito

My own personal preference for "leveling" is slow and sparse, with super-cool rewards.

PS It might be a good idea for everyone to credit the gamasutra article they''re quoting from.

-- Aikido? Here we call it oribito

Apologies for the double post everyone.

ObReply:
Kingy, perhaps you should think of using something similar to Legends of Dragoon, where character skills improved with use, and their "main" levels increased in a slow and steady pattern?

-- Aikido? Here we call it oribito