I want to talk about a battle system once more. I’ve got a balancing idea that removes a leveling system entirely. It solely depends on seven branches of magic. No stats, just the player acquiring spells, which he/she can equip 6 at a time onto their spell book.
There are seven schools of magic, each with seven spells. That makes for a total of 49 for the lazy. Keep in mind that this includes passives.
The player acquires 1 skill point per rank. There are a total of 10 ranks, which are gained through completing main story quests. The player uses a skill point to unlock a spell from any branch they desire. The spells are not in a tree, so you can pick from any of the seven any time you like.
So one could say, choose 10 of the biggest most hard hitting spells from any school.
The drawback would be that they can only equip six at a time, so when they want some variety, they will have none. And the cool downs and mana costs would be so huge; they would be left incapacitated while their opponent finishes them. They would also have no means of healing, stunning, or anything of the sort. That player would also miss out on any sort of passives.
So out of 49 total abilities, 10 can be learned through normal means of skill points, and 6 can be equipped to a spell book for use at a time.
All spells would have one effect regardless of the users rank. So say a fireball will only do 5 damage no matter the caster, but in return for the damage weakness it would have a low cool down, or maybe more range.
So it’s up to the player to combine spells based on there own play style, to create their optimal character.
With no leveling up, and ridiculous stat systems, the new players would have a chance to take down a seasoned player if they have more skill, there will be no more PvP domination through grinding.
So imagine all players start with 100 health, 100 mana, and would stay that way forever.
The player only gains spells, and that magic works the same for every player.
It’s up to the user to create a spell book most effective for their play style.
Does this system sound fun/viable? Thoughts?
Jun 26 2012, 5:27 am
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Raruno
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I like it. I think the downside is players would get bored after unlocking all the spells they could unless you have other things to keep them busy
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That's a very extreme approach to limit how powerful players can be. Giving all players the same health and mana doesn't mean the playing field is any more level. A player with a full set of 10 spells still has a huge advantage over a player with only one spell - and that's an advantage that was gained by having played the game for a longer amount of time. Even though you don't have levels or stats, you're still giving higher "level" players an advantage. I'm not sure the extreme approach helps you.
It seems like it'll be hard to make the PvE content challenging since you won't know what spells the player will have. Also, after the player is rank 6 they can have the six best spells and be as powerful as they'll ever be. You're out of ways to make things more challenging. You can't require certain spells because the player has such a limited number of spells they can learn. | |
Just make it so you have to accept a duel invite in order to fight. That way low levels aren't forced to fight level 100 1337hax OP guy that never logs off the game.
And then add some sort of arena or area in the game where it's open PvP. That way if someone gets owned by someone with 10 skills, it's their own fault. | |
Well I had hoped that the difficulty wouldn't depend on stats, but the AI of the enemies, and the techniques I think up for them. I mean sure buffing up stats to scale with a player would be an easy way to make enemies more difficult, but it doesn't exactly branch from the norm if you know what I mean.
Also I know it was probably hard to get from my writing, but when I said they can learn 10 spells from normal means, I meant that there are some spells earned through quests, and found through exploring the game world. I do see what you mean about the playing field still not being leveled though. A player with a better number of spells certainly has the advantage. I realized this early on, but figured that would be one of the few perks of playing longer than a fresh player. Maybe I will think of a way to increase health and mana through things you find from creatures. That wont exactly translate to levels, just a form of crafting. | |
Boxcar wrote:
Well I had hoped that the difficulty wouldn't depend on stats, but the AI of the enemies, and the techniques I think up for them. I mean sure buffing up stats to scale with a player would be an easy way to make enemies more difficult, but it doesn't exactly branch from the norm if you know what I mean. Ah, that makes sense now. I do see what you mean about the playing field still not being leveled though. A player with a better number of spells certainly has the advantage. I realized this early on, but figured that would be one of the few perks of playing longer than a fresh player. If you offer a way for players to progress through the game without having to worry about PvP (offline play, non-PVP areas, etc.), you avoid most of this problem. It's jut not worth ruining the rest of the game to make PvP more fair. If it makes the game more interesting to have players able to increase their health, you should have it. It might make your game a little more "typical", but these kinds of things are typical for a reason. | |