|
Experience System in Vives
Posted: 30 Jun 2003 12:37 AM |
Experience System in Vives
In Vives we have our own Experience System differ from that of default Neverwinter Nights game engine. This is done to address the following features we'd like to see:
(i) Class-based rewards. Wizards and warriors pursue different paths, and as such, should be rewarded differently for the same action, reflecting the different contribution such actions have on their growth.
(ii) Balancing of game-mechanics. A multi-player persistent world obviously have challenges unforeseen by the single-player oriented XP system; problems such as unbalanced parties/summons need to be addressed.
(iii) More encouragements to Partying. The default XP system minimally rewards PCs from partying, as it simply splits (and hence drastically cut) the party rewards by the number of players in the party. We'd like to see something that would actively encourage and give incentives for players to party and interact.
(iv) Encouraging diversity and exploration. The default is 1 monster = 100 xp, 20 monster = 2000xp. This indirectly encourages PCs to stay at one site, continuously and repetitively slaying the same monsters in order to 'grow'. This is hardly realistic, and definitely not the mentality we'd like to see.
In short, we wanted a system that frees you from the game mechanics - time is better spent having fun and interacting than clicking on monsters, no?
Our solution is the Vives Extensible Experience System, a unique in-house system made possible by linking with an external database (via QNX/QDB) for persistency.
Overview. In Vives, experience is rewarded for actions in 5 different categories: Questing, Combat, Discovery, Ability-Use, Crafting and Magics-Harnessing; each class is rewarded for them differentially. For example, a fighter may gain full 100% experience for combat, but only 5% of experience for using magics, as opposed to a Mage who'd retain full experience for spell-casting but close to nothing (20% of full experience) for battling goblins. This is weighed for multiclassed characters (a level 4:1 Mage/Fighter would gain 36% for combat whereas a 1:1 Mage/Fighter would have 60%), and the particular split for your character can be found as server messages on login/level-up.
Questing encompasses both rewards for completing quests, as well as role-play 'bonuses'. It is set to 100% for characters of all builds, so completing the quest should be equally rewarding to all members of a party. Quests completed are non-redoable (even across resets; report using Bug Reporter if any otherwise is observed).
Combat indicates the experience gained from defeating hostile adversaries. We use a modified version of David Bill's Persistent World XP-System to filter the variety of game-mechanics issue (such as imbalanced characters/summons etc.). The combat XP rewarded is approximately 10% of PnP rewards (compared to 4% for default NwN); as well a more party-oriented system is introduced. 2 equal level fighters would be having 4 hands, but each would receive about 75-80% XP of what he'd gain if he was on his own.
Another salient feature (perhaps the most salient) of our combat-XP system is the degradation of rewards. The experience you get for defeating the same creature decreases with the number of times you've conquered them; for example, if killing one goblin netted a PC 100xp, the second of the same goblin would only be rewarding 90xp, third 80xp, and so forth. This not only reflects the Power Law of Learning (also that you don't learn as much killing the 657th goblin as you would for the first one), but also address game-play issues ('camping'), as well as encouraging our adventurers to be bold and... adventurous. Growth is about exploring boundaries... not doing the same thing over and over.
Discovery rewards a variety of knowledge-based actions; for example, acquiring (and understanding) long-lost tomes, and discovery of uncharted areas both belong to this category. Again the rewards received are one shot and non-renewable across resets.
Ability-Usage are awarded to character-dependent actions - for example, lock-opening and trap disarming for rogues, wilderness/tracking for rangers, successful persuasion...
Crafting. This is currently in place but have yet to be linked to our 'item-creation system' (tradeskill equivalent). More info will be published as our plans solidify.
Magic-Harnessing. A subset of Ability-Usage with enough importance to be set out on its own, this reflects the character having that 'touch' with the untouchables. This is an area still under development (the functions that allow a full implementation according to spell-level will be available with XP1), currently it rewards spell-castings based on caster level; each subsequent casting receives a 10% deterioration, down to 0%, persistent across resets.
The above outlines the basic scheme for our Experience System, and will be updated as it matures and develops. It have been in place for about 2 months now running quite smoothly.
[Edit below added]
BardSong Tracking/XP-Grant
Rewards for Bardsongs is now implemented, with the experience granted as follows:
XP-Rewarded = Square(#PCsBenefited) x #BardLevels x PercentageBardSongRemain
PercentageRemaining is persistently stored in DB, and is decremented by 1% on each use, down to 5%. |
Aria
So talented, so troubled. |
|
|