I'm starting to develop an online RPG game, like “Mafia Wars”. I'm taking a look at some level progression charts (Farmville, Baldur's Gate, WOW (Wrath of the Lich King), Mafia Wars, …) The only conclusion that I can draw, is that they don't use a simple function... Some start with a kind of geometric progression at first levels and continue with linear equations reducing slope and others like WOW start increasing differences between levels, and abruptly changes at level 60 and 70. My questions are : ■ Which criteria do you consider when creating a level vs experience function ? ■ Is it a good idea to set a level cap, which one ? Has anyone tried a dynamic level cap ? ■ What kind of function would be good to use at first levels to encourage new players to continue ? What's better, start with an easy progression and end with a harder progression or the opposite ? Thanks in advance. [Edited by - Alejandr0 on April 10, 2010 9:49:05 AM]

wow changes at level 60 and 70 because that is the highest level a player could achieve before the expansions came out. so the progression set up for 1-60 was the original, then they changed it for the expansion having seen how the first way of doing it worked out. In any case though, basing your progression off other games won't help you unless you are making those games. Those designs, if they were well thought out, were made to attend to specific goals and needs in the game. You need to identify your own goals and what the game needs to achieve those, and design your progression to attend to that.

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Original post by Alejandr0 Which criteria do you consider when creating a level vs experience function ?

Does it suit my game and the goals I have in mind for it?
What kind of power ratio do you want between low level players and high player ones? And between low level monsters and high level players?

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Original post by Alejandr0 Is it a good idea to set a level cap, which one ? Has anyone tried a dynamic level cap?

Which one? How about 42? It really depends on your game, doesn't it? ;)
I had to check up dynamic cap. It's an interesting idea, but it can be hard to foresee side effects like people not wanting new players to join since they lower the level cap. Maybe you could have a level cap based on the size of your guild (or gang in your case I suppose).

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Original post by Alejandr0 What kind of function would be good to use at first levels to encourage new players to continue ? What's better, start with an easy progression and end with a harder progression or the opposite ?

Almost all games makes it easy to progress at first, right? In the beginning you will probably make lots of mistakes and get p0wned and so you might need some comforting leveling to keep you playing.

1) Stats are most meaningful in conjunction with the equations that use them. Linear growth, but equations like damage = strength ^ 2 are the same as quadratic growth but equations like damage = strength. Thus you should be mostly optimizing the combination of the two. The one place stats on there own does matter is in player perceptions: The latter example should feel like your character is getting much stronger then the former.

2) Stat growth will define the playable region: the faster stats grow, the smaller the level-appropriate region. Do you want the player to fight new monsters every level, or should an enemy slowly decline in difficulty as you gain levels?

3) Another important dimension to optimize is build vs. level effect on stats. Should a level 30 wizard be stronger then a level 5 warrior? This is a combination of how divergent different stats grow, and how big a level increase is in comparison to your starting values.

4) Different formulas at different levels lets you fine tune these considerations. Starting exponential and switching to linear (or even logarithmic) gives new players the ability to grow in power quickly, but evens things out between mid-high level players. Going the other direction and speeding up the rate as you enter higher levels creates specific level regions that are more significant, e.g. level 5 vs 7 is fine, 11 vs 13 is fine, but 9 vs 10 is very one-sided.

5) Level caps can discourage long term players who hit them. Lack of level caps can discourage new players who have no chance of catching up with the current elite. With level caps you need to make sure there's still ways for a player to continue to accumulate power. Without level caps, you should probably use a very weak formula after a point so that there's always competition even if one player is higher level than anyone else.