May 2000
- Interesting online game Brian Green
- Bayesian statistics Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Client Technology Jon Morrow
- Client Technology Todd McKimmey
- Client Technology Andrew Wilson
- Client Technology Ben Greear
- Client Technology Greg Munt
- Client Technology Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Client Technology Joel Dillon
- Advogato J C Lawrence
- tdbm etc. J C Lawrence
- text user interface Eli Stevens
- text user interface Chris Gray
- Legends of Kesmai, RIP Raph Koster
- Legends of Kesmai, RIP Clevmut@aol.com
- Medievia ads in PCGamer? Schubert, Damion
- Medievia ads in PCGamer? Rasdan
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) adam@treyarch.com
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) David Bennett
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) adam@treyarch.com
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) David Bennett
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) Chris Gray
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) Chris Gray
- Addressing newbies Johan J Ingles-le Nobel
- Addressing newbies stoddart@slip.net
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies J C Lawrence
- Addressing newbies Chris Gray
- Addressing newbies Powell, Warren
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies Chris Lloyd
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies Chris Lloyd
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies Christopher Allen
- Addressing newbies J C Lawrence
- Addressing newbies J C Lawrence
- Addressing newbies Raph Koster
- Addressing newbies Christopher Allen
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies J C Lawrence
- Introduction Ian C. Smith
- constructive quests Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- new email address Travis Casey
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) J C Lawrence
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) J C Lawrence
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Matthew Mihaly
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Par Winzell
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Matthew Mihaly
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Matthew Mihaly
- Critique: Realms of Despair adam@treyarch.com
- Critique: Realms of Despair David Bennett
- Critique: Realms of Despair Kevin Scott London
- Critique: Realms of Despair adam@treyarch.com
- Critique: Realms of Despair Andrew Ritchie
- Critique: Realms of Despair adam@treyarch.com
- Critique: Realms of Despair adam@treyarch.com
- Critique: Realms of Despair Marc Bowden
- Software combinations Ian C. Smith
- Software combinations David Bennett
- Software combinations Erik Jarvi
- Software combinations Ian C. Smith
- Software combinations Scatter
- Software combinations J C Lawrence
- Hobby Muds and Money Maarten van Leunen
- Hobby Muds and Money Mordengaard
- Mud Clients Mud Imp
- update on selling Godhoods Matthew Mihaly
- update on selling Godhoods Brian Green
- update on selling Godhoods Richard Woolcock
- update on selling Godhoods Matthew Mihaly
- update on selling Godhoods Jeremy Hovance
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Raph Koster
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Dan Shiovitz
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Brian Green
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Matthew Mihaly
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG AR Schleicher
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Mud Imp
- Ten Commandments for the next MMORPG The Inquisition Administrator
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG David Wruck
- MudDev FAQ 2 Marian Griffith
- MudDev FAQ 2 Wes Connell
- The great myth of broadband Brian Green
- The great myth of broadband Madrona Tree
- The great myth of broadband Par Winzell
- The great myth of broadband John Bertoglio
- Effective use of the third dimension Richard Ross
- Effective use of the third dimension adam@treyarch.com
- Effective use of the third dimension Richard Tew
- Ten commandments for players of the next MMORPG Ananda Dawnsinger
- Free Speech Jeff Freeman
- Free Speech Ananda Dawnsinger
- Free Speech Par Winzell
- Free Speech Jeff Freeman
- Free Speech Jon A. Lambert
- Free Speech Schubert, Damion
- Free Speech Matthew Mihaly
- Free Speech Jessica Mulligan
- Free Speech Darren Henderson
- Free Speech kitkat@marcus.pants.nu
- Free Speech Gary Whitten
- Free Speech J C Lawrence
- Free Speech Geoffrey A. MacDougall
- Free Speech Jeremy Hovance
- RPGPlanet article: The Evils of Character Progression Raph Koster
- More storytelling - And also game secrets Chris Lloyd
- Marketing text-based games (was: Ten Commandments for the next MMORPG) Andrew Ritchie
- java performance questions (fwd) J C Lawrence
- MUDs as art (was A footnote to Procedural Storytelling) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- MUDs as art (was A footnote to Procedural Storytelling) Lee Sheldon
- MUDs as art (was A footnote to Procedural Storytelling) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Any hungry Java GUI programmers out there? Par Winzell
- Any hungry Java GUI programmers out there? Par Winzell
- Supporting multiple output formats Nolan Darilek
- The 10 basic rules of a good PvP system Raph Koster
- Player storytellers? Travis Nixon
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims J C Lawrence
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Raph Koster
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Mordengaard
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Justin Rogers
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Brian Green
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Zak Jarvis
- Advancement considered harmful (long) J C Lawrence
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Zak Jarvis
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Raph Koster
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Zak Jarvis
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Charles Hughes
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Zak Jarvis
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Dave Rickey
- Advancement considered harmful (long) J C Lawrence
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Travis Nixon
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Miroslav Silovic
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Batir
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Buehler" <johnbue@email.msn.com>
To: "MUD-Dev" <mud-dev@kanga.nu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 5:37 PM
Subject: FW: [MUD-Dev] Advancement considered harmful (long)
>
> One big problem with PvP is that newbies typically are
> trivial prey for more experienced players. Why? Because of a vast
> differential in personal power in characters. This is something that
> must change as far as I'm concerned. As characters advance, their
> personal power cannot be increased significantly. That's PERSONAL
> power. A first way that personal power can be constrainted is by
> eliminating or drastically reining-in the increase of damage that a
> character can withstand. In EverQuest, a 50th level character has
> roughly 50 times the damage resistance of a 1st level character -
> 50 times as many hit points.
I am by no means a proffesional, and not even to the hobbiest level yet, but
I've been playing with an idea on advancement. It involves skill aptitudes
set by the player when the initialy create a char. Your stat's all start at
100 (that being an abrutary number I came up with as being average). By
setting your Aptitudes you change the stats, but not to a large level (I
believe what I have worked out so far has the max a stat can go at 140, and
conversly, the low end is 80). For instance, raising you 'Combat/Armor'
aptitude increases your strength and dexterity. Those stats are with you
for life. Aptitudes range from 1-10, 1 being in effect a mental block on
that subject (skills in that area are very hard to increase, by what ever
means; be it cost in skill points in games where you buy skills, or by
requiring more usage to increase for games that have usage tracking for
skill gain.) and 10 being and idot savant (very easy to learn those skills),
and 3 being average. I have it set up in a way that only one aptitude can
be set at 10, and that means the rest must be on 1. It scales down from
there, with the ability to have all of them set on 3 (the average). For
most 'typical' char types, you require more then one aptitude, such as a
warrior would want high 'Combat/Armor' (the fighting skills), 'Body Control'
('withstanding pain' is a skill I like, lets you take more damage to your
arm before it's useless to you and so on), and would probably want a decent
amount of 'Outdoor Skills' (for such things as camping, tracking and what
not). A Mage would want high 'Magic', 'Knowledge', and a decent 'Body
Control' (for the meditation skill, which would regen mana faster).
Some things to note with this system is that I see mana storage not to be a
directly related to the Intelligence stat, but a learned skill (still based
on Int, but not Int=mana). I also am working on a system where combat would
not be a matter of how much damage you can take, but where it's mostly
defensive. In this system, a single landed blow, after much clashing of
weapons mind you, could cut off a head (or break your sword arm, or what
ever other crit you can think of). The hit and hit and hit till one persons
HP's are gone kinda sucks, IMHO. The combat system does require 'area HP'
and the ability to have crits in the game. Your arm gets hits rather softly
(relitively anyway) with a mace, didn't break or anything, but sure does
hurt. After so much 'pain' in one area that area is useless (varies area by
area); using the arm hit softly by a mace example, after a few such blows,
your arm would hurt to much for you to move it (making it hard to swing that
sword).
I'm sure this is nothing completely original, just some things I've put
together from all those games that have influenced me (with a little realism
added in ;-p ). FYI, I currently have 12 aptitudes, 8 stats, and am
thinking of a usage based skill gain system. I am looking at a very large
skill list too (I have in the neighborhood of 200 skills right now, it needs
to be trimmed, but each spell is a skill, as is each weapon (sub-skill
really, 'swordsmanship' is a skill, a 'broadsword' would be a sub-skill,
allowing player to specify in one weapon (faster gain, and cheaper in skill
cap cost), or to range it out to weapon type (more versatile, more costly in
skill cap cost)).
I have rambled on quite enough now (and strayed from the topic quite a bit).
The point was (in case you missed it, not hard to do in all that) that
stat's really shouldn't change that drastically. One does not generally
become smarter (raw IQ) by learning something (please don't respond with
'Playing chess raises your IQ'. I have seen these studies, but how much
does it really rise? Nothing compared to how much your int stat can rise in
most games). They become more knowledgeable (which is reflected as skills
in games). This system would not completely reduce the difference in skill
level, but would allow even a newbie to have some sort of chance against the
veterans (i.e. no one swing, one hit kills if done right).
Batir,
Strat's & Stat's, UOSS
http://uo.stratics.com
- What I want, what players want Andrew Ritchie
- What I want, what players want Chris Jacobson
- What I want, what players want Jeff Freeman
- What I want, what players want Nicolai Hansen
- What I want, what players want Darren Henderson
- What I want, what players want adam@treyarch.com
- Domain Names and Trademarks Jon Morrow
- Domain Names and Trademarks J C Lawrence
- Domain Names and Trademarks Sellers, Michael
- Narratology WAS: Self-Sufficient Worlds Zak Jarvis
- Narratology WAS: Self-Sufficient Worlds J C Lawrence
- Narratology WAS: Self-Sufficient Worlds Zak Jarvis
- Narratology WAS: Self-Sufficient Worlds Christopher Allen
- narratology WAS Self-Sufficient Worlds Angela Ferraiolo
- FW: Advancement considered harmful (long) John Buehler
- Narratology and its application to VR, multi-player games, and the like J C Lawrence
- FW: Advancement considered harmful (long) John Buehler
- coordinate systems Richard Tew
- coordinate systems Jon Leonard
- coordinate systems Kerem 'Waster_' HADIMLI