... or should I call it "Character development" ? The idea is (shamelessly) inspired by Diablo 2 and Morrowind, and was initially meant as a response to that Multiplayer RPG Experience thread in this forum (it just strayed too far from the original question). First, there are no levels per se, everything about the character is contained in its ability set. An ability set is a group of skills, properties, or techniques, that the player can master to a certain degree. A set can have subsets, and a given set/ability can belong to more than one superset. Before moving on, let's see a little example: Fighting : Swords (set), Blind fighting (passive) Swords : Slash (set), Stab (set), Short Swords (set) Short Swords : Short Sword Slash (ability), Dagger Slash (ability), Dagger Stab (ability) Slash : Dagger Slash (ability), Short Sword Slash (ability) Stab : Dagger Stab (ability) -------- So a player will have a tree of abilities. Some abilities or sets will be available from the beginning (for instance, basic stats such as strength, intelligence), others would require an initial training in order to be available (like operating a spaceship, or casting arcane spells). A player can use any activated ability (provided he has the resources that are required: material components for spells, the right weapon...), and doing so will increase his proficiency with it. The same is true for auto-activated abilities (which automatically activate when a certain situation arises, such as parrying, or deflecting a blow). Static abilities do not increase this way. When the proficiency of an ability increases through training, the proficiency of the player with all the supersets of that ability also increase by a small value. The higher the superset, the smaller the increase. In addition to the "base" proficiency of the player with an ability (that he reached through training), that ability also get a bonus from its supersets. The higher the superset, the smaller the bonus. An example of this: Slashing with your dagger will increase you proficiency at Dagger Slash, Slash, Short Swords, Swords, and Fighting. This will, in turn, give a bonus to Dagger Stab and Short Sword Slash, because of the superset bonus. However, the bonus given to Short Sword Slash will be twice as big as the one given to Dagger Stab, because slashing with a dagger teaches you to slash, and to use a short-bladed weapon, but not how to stab with it (in terms or rules, the two slashing proficiencies share two supersets, while the stab ability only shares one superset with them). --------- Now, you say, everything's been a ripoff or either Morrowind or Diablo 2 (or something I may not have heard of). Now here is my idea: obviously hacking at a dead body is going to teach you how to swing your axe well enough, but although that training will help you a bit with the axe, it won't be nearly as efficient as hacking at an alive enemy. So now we split up (away from the player) each ability into sub-abilities, that represent the various cases or combinations where this sub-ability could be used. For instance, for axe-swinging, it could be against a fast-moving, slow-moving, or a standing foe, against an unarmored, light-armored, or heavily-armored foe, or any other idea you could come up with. Each of these sub-abilities can only be increased to a given level, and grants the others a superset bonus similar to what was presented above. The global ability "level" would be displayed as the average of the proficiencies in each sub-ability. This way, a player could, for instance, train his fireball spell in the middle of a forest, with nobody around. This would give him good bonuses against flammable foes, standing foes, and better casting abilities in a situation without stress. Now, this training will come in handy once the player reaches a real combat situation, but it will be reduced because the player is in a situation with stress, the foes are not that flammable, and they're most likely moving around.

Sounds good overall, but i dont see how standing in the woods alone shooting at nothing could be fun. If you could make it fun, go with it.

In fact my "shooting in the woods" idea was not that the player should be training in the woods, idly blasting off random trees, but rather that he could do it if he ever wanted to.

Maybe the example is a little bit far-fectched. But, for instance, when travelling from one place to another (which happens a lot when you don't have the money to pay for transport), you could be at the same time training with your sword, slashing the air around you. This would naturally make you more familiar with your weapon, its weight, and while this would probably not prove incredibly useful in a real combat situation, it would be more than a negligible bonus.

Besides, it can easily get annoying when you're hitting on the back of the Dark Lord Of Darkness, Oblivion, And Bunny Slippers, and despite the carapace, dodging abilities, magic protections and whatever else your opponent has, swinging your sword brings you as much experience as slashing a pile of dead jello. With sub-abilities, you might get pretty good at slashing dead jello (so this wouldn't advance you a lot anymore), but still discover the art of hacking at a magical carapace (so you would advance more when you did it).

Quote: Original post by Mulligan
Sounds good overall, but i dont see how standing in the woods alone shooting at nothing could be fun. If you could make it fun, go with it.

I think the point of the system is to discourage people from standing in the woods shooting at nothing by making it less effective as a means of improving actual combat skills (though next time a tree needs to be shot, you'll be the man!)

Quote: Original post by Mulligan
Sounds good overall, but i dont see how standing in the woods alone shooting at nothing could be fun. If you could make it fun, go with it.

I think the point of the system is to discourage people from standing in the woods shooting at nothing by making it less effective as a means of improving actual combat skills (though next time a tree needs to be shot, you'll be the man!)

I say this is a great idea.Its like training in the fields.
Why not have an area for training?I add these spots in most of my projects anyways for these reasons.Plus you can add training guides or creatures or what have ya in any area or arena.I say if you hve the idea and you know what to do with it then by all means ad it to a program.Everyone does it in the pen and paper role-playing games.Learning everything they can with spells,weapons and whatever the character will need to understand his or her enemy more.Which secret of mana was an excellent game to say the least.