Ok, I?ll tell you I have spent the last 14 days researching character progression. I will also tell you nothing is decided yet nor will it be for a while, but the direction we are going is pretty much set for now. (I?m writing about this as we speak)
What will the character get ?EXP? for?
Killing things.
Completing objectives
Completing tasks
Completing quests
In general in reverse order.
Objectives will be determined on a case by case thing, often changing for the spawn point.
An example:
Spawn point is a bandit camp.
Objectives can be?
Killing 10 bandits
Killing the bandit leader
Destroying the camp site
Killing a particular bandit
Stealing 5 bandit patches
Rescuing some hostages the bandits have.
As you can see, killing all the bandits ensures getting the objective completed, but by investigating the spawn a player might be able to determine the objective?.
If he kills a bandit that is away from the camp and it produces a patch?then he knows the objective it patches, if the bandit camp spawns with hostages then he knows it is to free the hostages, if a few named bandits appear it is likely a kill a particular bandit?
Also we will most likely give players a choice on how they use their exp. Exp will go into categories, and will be tabulated while you are in the ?Danger Zone?
So if your character buffs the party and heals the party?your exp for attacking that camp will go towards healing and buffing.
If you sneaked around and then got into melee your exp will be split in melee and sneaking.
Next you can chose to have the exp go straight to skill points, or have those exp become training points?as training points you find a trainer and train in that ?skill? you have training points for. we will probably also allow a type of training point pool, where you can transfer specific training points into generic training points, and then find a trainer for the skills you want to increase.
As far as efficiency. It will be in the following order.
Exp to specific training points based on skill used
Exp to skill used
Exp to generic training points
We are also considering on having ?Class Trainers? these would train you dependant on the template you want to follow, and this would work similar to class/level type games. As far as exp to skill efficiency it would fall between exp to skill used and exp to generic training points.
Of Note Trainers will cost money, better trainers will cost more, not just dependant on what you are training but dependant on how good of trainers they are.
Separately we may have craft skills, political skills, religious skills, merchant skills and a slew of other paths that players may chose to play?all with different types of progression?merchants for example won?t have many skills but Factions and money are what is important to them?merchants will be more your wholesale merchants?not your person to person merchants?but they may start out that way.
It is my hope that politicians and Merchants are the richest people in the game, not the adventurers. But being a merchant will be risky business, as will politics.
This is as much detail as I will post on the subject until it is final, leave it to say?the player will probably have many options and each has it?s benefit?but this is probably exactly how it will end up being, as we test and figure things?this will be changed.
I won?t answer questions on this, but I would like to see comments.
