Balance.

[Boaal]

As everyone who plays this game realises sooner rather than later that Planeshift has several areas, most notably the combat (because it's the main core gameplay mechanic at the moment), that are hideously unstable in terms of balance and equality. Here I will give my observations and try to give out some kind of suggestion for fixes.

Personally I think that the whole problem revolves around the rather messed up system of level/points/abilities/etc. It is kinda clunky and awkward and breeds imbalance.
Basically there's no set amount of points or skills that you gain, which ironically is what makes the whole 'character level' work well. I know that Planeshift is pretty much trying to avoid that, but so far the inbalance system messes it up.

Now I'll actually get to the point of this, which would be that levels also allow health generation and such like to advance in line with the character. At the moment the entire health / damage thing is entirely gimped. You either have one hit kill, and that's fine, in which case you'd need a fps/style system of combat to make it work well. Or you have weapon damage in line with health, on this case probably health in line with weapon damage.

As I see it, the system is pretty damn complex, needlessly so I think. In this way the system's psuedo-inventiveness becomes a great muddle through which no one can really get a great working of what happens per point, because there is no scale on which to judge it. Thus you could be good at everything and this further accentuates the lack of need to play the game with the community, you can solo everything with no hassle, it just depends on how dilligently you're prepared to grind.

I'm not suggesting we all walk around with overall numbers next to our name, but I think that the reason most games have level based systems, is because it's proved to be the most suitable method for balanced number based gameplay. As long as there is the active ability to manually assign the stats, and thus personallise your character, it works well, especially for a game as robust as plainshift aims to be. It does in a sense marginalise parts of the character creation process, but it's far more desireable than running around just maxing stats which in the end, makes you exactly like everyone else.

Honestly I hope that made sense, my head's a bit screwy right now.

[Wavan Levironk]

The game's aim is roleplaying. The fighting system was made before the EZ server, therefore, trying not to give it importance over roleplay.

I can't understand, however,what you call "unstable" when it comes to thsi system. If you kill by one hit is because you have a very good weapon (300Q) or that your weapon skills are much higher than your opponent's.

Levels are just useless when there are so many skills (even though they are not implemented, some day they will be).

And your character strength (at least as it is evaluated on the target information box) only depends of your character's stats I believe, you can say that's the level other characters see.

[Boaal]

I play on the original server, just in case you were wondering. Hell, I was playing the game years ago. The main aim is roleplaying yes, but then why go to all the trouble of implementing a fighting system, a game code, anything in the first place?
Why bother making anything more than a large 3D chat room?
Roleplaying in that respect is only a part of the game. I fact you could say that if you wanted role playing then you may as well have kept it as the text based game it was originally.

I call it unstable because it does generally feel that way. I say that it's unstable because there are no mechanics in place to make the 'end' game experience at all balanced (and please don't tell me there isn't meant to be an 'end game' experience, believe me I used to rattle the 'emphasis on role playing' thing off as much as anyone else and while it may be true, you cannot hide this game from being a game). Maybe I;m biased because I've been playing shadowbane for so long (and now it's dead I'm revisiting old haunts, yes I know it's an entirely different style of game), that I look for those general balancing guidlines. An open world is viable, but only, in practice, to an extent.

What I am getting at, is that without these boundaries, everyone becomes exactly the same in the end. There's nothing to differentiate between them, so they could be roleplaying your grandmothers uncles dead cousin twice removed, tied down with rocks and strings with arthritis and a wooden leg, without time or ability to do that much physical stuff, and still be able to one hit and ulbernaught - which as I understand it, is supposed to be the most powerful thing in the game and thus probably not prone to dying in one hit, by anything be it blade or magic or otherwise.

My concern is that everyone, for all the game focuses on character and individuality, will end up exactly the same. I.e.The Ultimate barkeeping, sword fighting, knife fighting, rock climbing, stealing, begging, gymnast, jester king of that funny little stalactite that looks vaguely offensive but no one can quite explain why who also happens to have mastered three different types of magic...

I'm not criticising because I dislike this game, I'm critising because I see that there is potential.

[Satha]

Well, I always thought, that once all the skills and such were implemented to choose from, you wouldn't HAVE to master everything. (Nor do you now, really) Sure, some people would, but if you're doing a bit of the RP thing too, you can choose to train the things you think your character would do.
Not everyone will be a cool monster fighting, spell casting super hero in the end. They could be, but it's player choice.