alright, relating fire based magic was a poor example  relating fire based attack spells with similar effects would probably be better, since part of the spell involves conjuring fire and controlling it.  also, different \'similarity\' ratios might apply to spells.  flameshield and fire wall might be rather similar, they\'re both conjuring flames and holding them in place.  neither of them are very similar to fireball, which is more of an explosion.  and the only thing they have in common with \'create fire\' is that you\'re conjuring fire.  so, i guess being really good at casting fire wall would make you at least somewhat better at creating normal fires.  you concentrate, and where there was no fire, now there is fire.

actually, i did search, and found 3000 threads...  was hoping someone could direct me to the most active one.  anyway, feel free to delete this thread.

Sorry to start a new thread on this, but is there already a discussion about the combat system for PS?  If there is, admins, feel free to delete this thread.  If not, I\'d love to hear more about the how combat will work.  I love throwing ideas around, but I\'ll wait to see if there\'s a better place to do it.

a thought, since this is a skill based game...  let\'s say, first off, that exp is not a general statistic, but each skill has its own exp level.  you gain exp in a skill each time you use it.  the amount you get is determined by how much of a threat is immediately upon you.  if you\'re a spellcaster, healing yourself while sitting in town with no one around won\'t make you get better at healing very quickly.  but, doing it in a high pressure situation, while a horde of orcs is charging down the hill at your party, will increase the amount dramatically.  the reasoning is, that you\'re not just repeating the same old method of casting that you learned in mage school, you\'re frantically trying to do it as fast and as well as possible.  the same would apply to combat-specific skills, if you swing your sword at the single pathetic little kobold, you won\'t learn much about using your sword.  swinging it while a dragon is breathing down your neck (doesn\'t matter if you\'re swinging it *at* the dragon, the threat is still there) will make you better, faster.

this solves a couple of problems.  it helps to eliminate botting, since practicing without the threat of death gives little to no experience.  the game stays skill level and not character level based, which all in all makes more sense than some games, imho.  there are probably more upsides than i\'m listing, depending on your point of view.

the downsides...  well, i\'m not very good at picking out flaws in my own logic, but i\'m more than happy to listen to people with different points of view do it for me  one thing i see is that it changes how characters can choose their path.  rather than gaining a level and saying, \"hey, i\'ve always wanted to be a little better at the fireball spell, i\'ll dump some points into that\", they only get better at what they use and practice with.  i\'m not sure if this is a bad thing, but it does require more determined efforts by the player to advance their character the way they envision.  care would have to be taken to make each skill useful, because players won\'t use stuff that\'s not.  without some planning you could end up with a lot of very similar characters.

let\'s throw grouped characters into the mess.  simple, really, when a member of your party performs a skill, the other members gain a small amount of experience in that skill, by watching.  this does away with a set figure like 20% bonus exp for grouping, because it now has it\'s own benefits, that of watching others perform their skills.  this also works out for guilds... let\'s say that there was a skill that involved fabricating widgets.  your guild decides that they must make thousands of widgets for the upcoming annual widget sale.  the guild gets together at the hall and goes on a widget making spree.  you get better at it faster, because you\'re able to see others do it.  in a more realistic sense, the characters are sharing their knowledge and new ideas about widget making, something that is tedious to roleplay and almost impossible to factor into experience through roleplay.

anyway, there\'s my rant for tonight.  loving the discussion, by the way

If you\'re in the vicinity, you\'re not doing nothing, because you\'re a potential target.  Realistically, just seeing you there might have caused the enemy to react differently, change his tactics, possibly giving the uber-PC better odds of winning.

SnowWolf\'s idea does work, rather well, I made a similar system on a MUD I ran a while back.  One or more characters versus one or more other characters are taken into an equation that judges \'power levels\' of each individual.  Basically, it takes into account each characters stats, including armor and weapons, enhancing spells, and skills used during combat, and then keeps track of the length of fight and what characters were present and for how long.  In the end, the combined power level of the group over time vs the monster determines total experience, which is divided depending on how much of that power each character contributed and how long each spent there.  So, since I usually don\'t make much sense writing, I\'ll throw some numbers:

The party, consisting of uber-PC A and semi-newbie B, takes on a troll.  Based on stats, current health, and a few other things, it is determined that PC A has a power rating of 100, and PC B has a power rating of 20.  The troll has a power rating of 100 also.  Let\'s say they both team up and take on the troll.  That\'s 120 power vs 100 power, we give them 80 exp.  (just making up a number)  Now, let\'s say that PC A decides he has better things to do, and leaves at exactly halfway through the troll\'s death.  Assuming that PC B defeats the troll, we have 120 vs 100 for 50% of the fight, and 20 vs 100 for 50%.  Do the math and you can come up with a real number, it\'s morning here

One thought...  would you only receive experience if you actually killed the thing?  If you fight for a while and then flee, haven\'t you learned a bit about combat regardless?  Maybe exp can be awarded when you leave the scene, it would make the above equation go something like, PC A leaves halfway through, he is immediately awarded a chunk of experience (the game can just judge the troll at half dead based on hit points).  This puts the other character(s) fighting in a new fight with exp carried over from the last, PC B vs a half dead troll, with, say, 15 exp carried over from the first half.  We end up giving him a few hundred when he finishes.