Frostburn hit the nail on the head.

You don't have to worry about some kind of arbitrary xp reducing scheme. In a typical level system the xp requirement for the next level increases in some fashion such that killing the same creature gives you less of a return on advancing to the next level.

So you're going to have to kill more and more mice to level up as you get more powerful. And if players REALLY want to "waste" their time doing that, why stop them?

Take care.

A number of computer/console RPGs have implemented a similar scheme in the past. The two that spring to my mind are Diablo and Shining Force.

The first time a particular type of enemy is killed the character receives a certain number of experience points, the second time they receive slightly less and so on until the point is reached where one or zero experience points are earned each time.

A sliding scale is still used for experience levels, so that (for example) 1000 total points are needed to reach level 2, and 3000 points for level 3.

There are two main problems with this type of system. First of all, you need to provide a wider range of enemy types to keep the player interested. Secondly, you need to make sure that the player doesn't have to repeatedly go through areas containing creatures of a type they've killed multiple times in the past, which makes respawning less desirable.

However, if you can get the balance right, it does make for a more interesting and realistic game with a greater emphasis on strategy, particularly if it is party based.

There is another solution to this problem. Maybe instead of decreasing experience gain you could base gained experiace on ratio of your level to pawn's level. Ofcourse, only on relative scale because level100 mice should equal level5 cat :-).

I dislike ideas of exponential curves in expereience. Problem is that you become too powerfull. if you return to beggining of game after you complete 2/3, you are able to kill monsteres with single blow and before you had to trouble with them. This is common problems in all RPGs.

I don't intend to make perfect game, I just want to reduce impact of some issues on game.

Yet another idea is to increase player's strength rapidly but not endurance (e.g. HP, dmg resistance). This way, monster could deal same damage irrelevent of your level but you'd deal more damage with higher level.

I remember that "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" went that road.

Each monster had some exp points and a level associated with it. When you killed it, you gained exp. points based on what it's worth, and the difference between its level and yours.

Example: let's say a bat is worth 100 pts and has level 3. If you killed it when your level is less, level 1 for instance, you gain more points than it's worth (since it's supposed to be hard to do).
If you come back later (your level is now 50) and kill it, you gain much less points than it's worth, because it's now something too easy for you.

careful!

ffx, if I'm not completely mistaken that was a big flaw in ff8 [lol].
People tried to avoid leveling up because if they did, the enemies leveled up as well and it became harder for a high level character to kill beginning monsters than for a low level character (relatively. 10 hits for a level 1 character, 15 for a level 30 character. The numbers are made-up examples).

How about setting up a Hunting/Hiding system?

Basically, every creature has a level depending on their strength...

So a grasshopper is Level 1, a mouse is level 2, a cat is level 4, and the cybernetically enhanced legendary dragon of doom would be level 100.


Then, each predatory creature hunts creatures that are... say, half or so of its own level. So a cat would hunt mice, but it wouldn't bother with grasshoppers.

Likewise, each animal tries to avoid creatures stronger than it. So mice try to avoid cats.

What this amounts to, is that if the player is level 3, they will get into fights with mice and grasshopper (which they are "hunting") and they will also get attacked by cats (which are hunting the player).

Once the player levels up to level 5 they will run into less and less mice and grasshoppers and will start hunting cats and then start running into dogs and bears and stuff.

This way, as you get stronger and stronger, you will see less and less of those annoying little animals you fought before (because you're not "looking" for them and they are now running away before the battle starts) and see more and more monsters that have just started noticing you.

This also means that there could always be powerful monsters near the starting village... they just weren't interested in fighting with you because either they were'nt interested in you or they were afraid of all the soldiers guarding the place.

Quote:

Original post by The Shadow Nose How about setting up a Hunting/Hiding system? Basically, every creature has a level depending on their strength... So a grasshopper is Level 1, a mouse is level 2, a cat is level 4, and the cybernetically enhanced legendary dragon of doom would be level 100. Then, each predatory creature hunts creatures that are... say, half or so of its own level. So a cat would hunt mice, but it wouldn't bother with grasshoppers. Likewise, each animal tries to avoid creatures stronger than it. So mice try to avoid cats. What this amounts to, is that if the player is level 3, they will get into fights with mice and grasshopper (which they are "hunting") and they will also get attacked by cats (which are hunting the player). Once the player levels up to level 5 they will run into less and less mice and grasshoppers and will start hunting cats and then start running into dogs and bears and stuff. This way, as you get stronger and stronger, you will see less and less of those annoying little animals you fought before (because you're not "looking" for them and they are now running away before the battle starts) and see more and more monsters that have just started noticing you. This also means that there could always be powerful monsters near the starting village... they just weren't interested in fighting with you because either they were'nt interested in you or they were afraid of all the soldiers guarding the place.

That would be the cure for FF7/Pokemon type of games.

frostburn:
I don't mean leveling up monsters. My idea was to increase dealt damage (as if you were more experienced) but slash of tiger would still be slash of tiger, no matter what level you are). Items qould increase dmg resisitance.

With regards to MUDs, I had once considered implementing a system in which you gained experience doing specific things, which would also work in a tree system. Killing 500 rabbits would make you really good at: Killing rabbits. The more rabbits you kill, the better you get at killing them. You also improve your aim, since hitting fast little buggers is hard, and you gain a little experience just swinging the sword. In this way, you learn specific monsters, the way to hunt specific things.

Never did implement it to see how it worked, but I eventually stopped coding MUDs anyway.

Morrowind's sytem of leveling in concept is one of the best, and killing 500 rats being equal to killing 1 dragon (though they are invincible) is realistic. Everytime you successfully swing a sword it's level increases and the higher the swords level the less hits it takes to kill a rat or dragon. Eventuly killing a rat takes oen hit and you don't level fast from that well a dragon might take a few more.