July 2007

• [JOB] Linden Lab Brighton Party 26th July Jim Purbrick
• • [JOB] Linden Lab Brighton Party 26th July Christopher Lloyd
• [BIZ] Forum software? Mike Rozak
• • [BIZ] Forum software? Caliban Darklock
  • • [BIZ] Forum software? Adam Martin
  • [BIZ] Forum software? Chan Yong Wei
  • [BIZ] Forum software? Michael Chui
  • [BIZ] Forum software? David Johansson
  • [BIZ] Forum software? Dana V. Baldwin
  • • [BIZ] Forum software? David Johansson
  • [BIZ] Forum software? Morgan Ramsay
• [DESIGN] Will players pay for public services? Nicholas Koranda
• • [DESIGN] Will players pay for public services? cruise
• [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Nicholas Koranda
• • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
  • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
  • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Travis Casey
  • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
    • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Travis Casey
      • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
      • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
        • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
          • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
            • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
              • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
                • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
                  • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
                  • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
                  • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Aurel Mihai
                    • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
                      • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
                      • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Michael Chui
                    • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                    • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
                      • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                        • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
                          • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                            • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
                              • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
                                • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                                  • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
                                  • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                                    • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                                      • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
                                  • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                                  • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
                            • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Michael Chui
                            • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                        • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
            • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
          • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Arras
          • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
            • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
              • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
              • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
                • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
                  • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
                    • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
                      • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
                      • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
                      • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                        • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
              • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Acius
                Caliban Darklock wrote:
                > On 8/2/07, John Arras <johnarras@gmail.com> wrote:
                >> What if you did this as an ELO system where the monsters or tasks
                >> are given a dynamic level and your gain/loss is based on this?
                >
                > To get just a little insane...
                >
                > What if the level and stats of a monster were dynamically scaled to the player?
                >
                > Imagine an orc wandering outside the city gates. (Use of AD&D terms is
                > not intended to be restrictive.) Two characters, one first level and
                > one eighth level, see the orc. If the first level character attacks
                > it, the orc has 6 hit points and a THAC0 of 20. If the eighth level
                > character attacks it, the orc has 40 hit points and a THAC0 of 14.
                > Whoever deals the first blow sets the stats.
                >
                > The XP don't change. The orc is worth 4 XP no matter what. As the
                > players figure that out, the higher level characters simply stop
                > screwing with the little stuff. It's harder to kill, takes more time,
                > does more damage, and you still only get 4 XP.
                >
                > Essentially, every mob has a lowest level which sets its XP value. If
                > you're higher level than that, and you attack the mob, the mob scales
                > its power to match your skill, but the XP don't change. If you're a
                > lower level than the XP bar, the mob doesn't get any easier. You have
                > to earn the XP. But you can't slum around the newbie areas to earn
                > easy XP. There are no easy XP. Indeed, the same XP get harder all the
                > time.
                
                This seems to partially defeat the point of leveling up. To wit: As I
                level up, I get progressively *more awesome*. Part of being more awesome
                is that stuff which used to kill me (oh, those mean and nasty orcs!) can
                now be bulldozed over with ease (Aha, foolish orcs! Take that!). I'm
                completely OK with getting a pittance in experience points (or even none
                at all) for bulldozing the peasants, but there's something inherently
                unfair about 'my low level friend has to hit it first so that it doesn't
                get the magic buff'.
                
                Even worse: It becomes heavily to my advantage to carry around a low
                level alt player (playing off the laptop, perhaps?) whose job it is to
                give monsters the magic debuff before I squish them with my main's uber
                leetness. As long as he gets the first hit off on everything, my main
                can grind his low-to-mid level xp with ease. And supposing you hand out
                experience penalties when the low level guy dies from aggro-ing
                something too hard for him? Actually, we call that the experience bonus,
                because it would destroy his purpose if he were to gain any levels...
                
                Note that the apparent fix (switch to the strong player's scale as soon
                as they hit the monster) is also a highly entertaining method of
                griefing (no, no, it's your kill, my mistake....).
                
                That was a fun "what if," but I think there are a few flaws in the model
                that would have to be addressed ;-).
                
                -- Adam Helps
              • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
          • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
        • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Tom Hudson
        • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Caliban Darklock
    • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Jarod Reid
    • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
    • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
    • • [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point... Travis Casey
• [DESIGN] Believable NPCs (was Natural Language Generation) Nicholas Koranda
• [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Nicholas Koranda
• • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Travis Casey
  • • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Jon Leonard
    • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Peter Keeler
    • • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Caliban Darklock
      • • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Peter Keeler
        • • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Michael Chui
          • • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Caliban Darklock
            • • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency John Buehler
              • [DESIGN] Active and Inactive Currency Johnicholas Hines
• [DESIGN] Expected value and standard deviation Nicholas Koranda
• • [DESIGN] Expected value and standard deviation Travis Casey
  • [DESIGN] Expected value and standard deviation cruise
  • • [DESIGN] Expected value and standard deviation Darryl Woodford