I''m trying to design an online multiplayer gravity fighter game. The idea was that it would be cool if the server remembered the state of the ship and its weapons and equipment. This way the player would keep playing because he could look forward to getting that cool weapon or device. The problem with this idea is that it would make old players semi-gods to new players. A new player with a standard gun would not have a chance against a player with minigun and homing missiles or whatever. One way to make the situation better would be to make sure that experienced players with a high rank would get very few points for killing low-level players. And low experienced players could perhaps be extremely rewarded for killing people with a high rank. But even though the high ranked player would not get any points at all for killing a new player he might get a kick out of it. It’s always fun to be superior. Maybe I should just forget about this idea ? What do you guys think ?

I think the problem lies not with the idea but with the weapon balancing. If the power difference between newbie and pro weapons is no more than say 50% then you won´t ever have problems like that. You could also make the more advanced weapons harder to use, more focused, etc. thereby avoiding "superweapons".

If the advanced weapons does not make the player much more destructive then what is the point? There would be no real use for them.
If they are hard to use then why use them in the first place ?

They should give the player more destructive potential, but at the cost of harder use. This way experienced players can have their edge, but will never dominate the game in a way which indiscriminate +400% weapons will cause. Besides, harder-to-use weapons will automatically gain status, as with the knife in many of the hl-mods. An example of an expert weapon is the grenadier class in DoD, it comes with a carbine which has a very low rate of fire, a small magazine but high accuracy and very high damage. A new player will have problems achieving anything with such a weapon, because you need a certain amount of experience and skill, but an expert player will have an edge with it.
These are the types of weapons advanced players should have access to. The newbie weapons should be easy to use and easy to aim, at the cost of power and range.

Hmm....How do you make a weapon hard to use in a gravity fighter type of game ???

You could define areas according to level. For instance, you could have a newbie area where higher level ships were restricted from firing upon weaker ships (a small area of your universe preferrably), and designate the rest as free for all.

I think I''ll just drop the idea. I don''t want to split up the game in zones for different levels. That would be a hack and not a solution.
What''s the point in being powerful if all the people in your zone are equally powerful ?

Thanks for your input...

I think you''ve got a fine idea - I wouldn''t scrap it unless you''re sure you can''t balance it. Not knowing the details of what you plan to build, I can offer a few basic suggestions:

1) Instead of encouraging veteran players to feast on newbies, reward them for helping assisting.
2) Encourage teamwork - make the game such that a half dozen well-organized newbz can take out a more advanced player.
3) Give super-weapons a weakness (eg. if you use carbonic-fusion-cannon, you cannot use high-gloss-super-shields which are heavily resistant to newbie weapons).
4) Have a rock-paper-scissors dynamic to the weapons and armour such that, all things being equal, everything has a weakness to something else (and a strength over something else). This is like #3, but slightly more elaborate.

Just some random thoughts - don''t give up, though.

Cheers,
Russ

Here''s an idea:

Instead of trying to find a way to balance the game, make the players buy their weapons and they get paid for killing enemies only. You kill your friends and you get minus points, kill enemies, get a number of points equal to (your level^2)/their level, dropping fractions. Sure, you can get a good amount of points for killing people a couple of levels below yours, but you get a LOT more for killing people above your level.

example: you''re level 2, you kill

level 1 enemy, get 0 points
level 2 enemy, get 2 points
level 3 enemy, get 4 points
level 4 enemy, get 8 points
level 5 enemy, get 12 points
level 6 enemy, get 18 points
etc...

higher level example: you''re 10th level, you kill

level 3 or lower enemy, get 0 points
level 4 enemy, 1 point
level 6 enemy, 3 points
level 8 enemy, 6 points
level 9 enemy, 8 points
level 10 enemy, 10 points
level 12 enemy, 14 points
level 14 enemy, 18 points
level 16 enemy, 25 points
level 18 enemy, 32 points
level 20 enemy, 40 points

Now for the penalty, make the calculation (your level^2)/ally level, raising all fractions to the next point.

This way you will always lose a point and the higher the difference between levels, the more points you lose until you''re broke.

Just an idea, you can make it more than just a 2 side game too and put modifiers in enemy zones, so the closer to a capital it is that you kill someone, the more points you get, so it''s worthwhile to defend your capital (newbie area) from enemies, and worthwhile to dig deep into your enemy area.

Just some thoughts, take some of them, drop some of them, just ideas that are completely independent of each-other.