May 2005
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMO community? Jaycen Rigger
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMOcommunity? Barry Kearns
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMOcommunity? Jaycen Rigger
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Matt Mihaly
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Barry Kearns
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Jaycen Rigger
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurttheMMOcommunity? Matt Mihaly
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurttheMMOcommunity? Barry Kearns
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheatinghurttheMMOcommunity? Tom Hunter
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheatinghurttheMMOcommunity? Steve "Bloo" Daniels
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheatinghurttheMMOcommunity? Jon A. Lambert
- SOC: Will company sanctionedcheatinghurttheMMOcommunity? Freeman, Jeff
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Morris Cox
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMOcommunity? Chris Richards
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMOcommunity? Paul Schwanz
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMO community? Peter Harkins
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMO community? Sean Marshall
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurttheMMOcommunity? P J
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMO community? John MacQueen
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt the MMO community? Peter Yu
- Concerning "Groups" Paolo Piselli
- Concerning "Groups" Jeff Gaskill
- Concerning "Groups" Koster, Raph
- Concerning "Groups" Jason Downs
- Action Figures John Buehler
- Action Figures John Buehler
- Action Figures Tom Gordon
- OT: UO Robin Hood Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Matt Mihaly
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy John Buehler
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Chris Richards
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy cruise
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Paul Schwanz
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Paul Schwanz
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Paul Schwanz
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy benton
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Rayzam
- DGN: Lords, Vassals, Serfs and the Clergy Jaycen Rigger
- DESIGN: Loot on demand (was: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity?) Freeman, Jeff
- DESIGN: Loot on demand (was: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity?) Cosmik
- DESIGN: Loot on demand (was: Will company sanctionedcheating hurt theMMOcommunity?) Koster, Raph
- DESIGN: Loot on demand (was: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity?) Jaycen Rigger
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games Shannon Appelcline
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games Joseph Hewitt
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games Mike Rozak
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games Jaycen Rigger
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games J C Lawrence
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games Paul Schwanz
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games Mike Shaver
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games J C Lawrence
- Guest Voices #2: Griefing in Online Games John Buehler
- [ANN] Solipsis, a shared virtual worlds in python J C Lawrence
- SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurttheMMOcommunity? ghovs
- Mud Dev FAQ - Part 2 Marian Griffith
- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Otis Viles
- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? David Wright
- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Otis Viles
- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? J C Lawrence
- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Michael Hartman
- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Adam Spivey
- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Jaycen Rigger
- DGN: Absolutes, percentages and ranges cruise
In the original Rock/Paper/Scissors, win or loss is an
absolute. Rock /always/ beats scissors, and /always/ loses to paper.
What happens if instead, there is a percentage chance of
winning/losing, instead of the absolute? Obviously once this chance
becomes 50%, then there becomes absolutely no point in picking
anything, but at say 90%, how much does that occasional rare
surprise win add, if anything?
In D&D, a +1 sword is basically a 5% bonus, but no one would pass
one up. Does a 5% resistance to fire really affect gameplay in any
significant fashion, or is it too small to really matter?
While the answers admittedly depend a lot on your game mechanics,
the underlying decision between large, important and potentially
unbalancing effects versus subtle, minor but arguably insignificant
buffs applies to anything.
Do you let your players have up to 10,000 health, or 10? What
happens if they start at 10 and end at 10,000? In WoW I've seen
pretty much every character guide say that starting race doesn't
matter, as the difference in initial stats makes absolutely no
difference by the high levels.
Personally I favour bigger effects, for the simple expedient of
making player choices matter. If have to pick between an elf with a
+5% to hit, and an orc with +5% to health, am I really going to
notice the difference? But if the differences are 40%, then the
choice becomes much harder, and therefore more meaningful. This also
means that ranges should be smaller. I tend to work on a scale of
1-10 in prototyping. While a range of 100 seems to offer better
granuality, how much difference is there really between 63/100 and
6/10?
The counter argument is if someone boosts their strength by one,
that's a noticable and sudden increase in power, which can feel
"unfair". If 5xp gains you that next level at which a new power is
gained, it creates a sharp jump in the ability scale. Having a wider
range, that slowly but continuously increases, can soften this
change; in turn this helps balancing as the differences between
players are minor at any point of the "power-scale."
I've also noticed there is a lack of "absolutes" - 100% resists to
cold damge, for example, or immunity to sleep effects. Here that 1%
between highly resistant and immune makes a big difference. Anything
that is less effective can still win, if you throw enough of them at
the target. And while it's nice to always feel you have a chance,
it's arguable having that chance weakens the importance of your
choice. If you can still win, whatever sword you pick, then why
pick? Equally, however, if you can only beat mob A, but mob B is
immune, then you are restricted too. Where do you want the choice to
be? What the challenge is, or how you overcome the challenge?
I know I'm probably coming across as amazingly wishy-washy again,
but if I had a glib answer to this, I wouldn't need to post this in
the first place, right? :P
--
[ cruise / casual-tempest.net / transference.org ]
"quantam sufficit" - DGN: Absolutes, percentages and ranges Paolo Piselli
- DGN: Absolutes, percentages and ranges Brian Hook
- What level maximum do players like best? Eric
- What level maximum do players like best? Mordengaard
- What level maximum do players like best? Pandora
- What level maximum do players like best? cruise
- What level maximum do players like best? Jaycen Rigger
- What level maximum do players like best? Damion Schubert
- Comments on Griefing Article J C Lawrence