An Idea

[shorty13]

I had this idea and I am wondering what the players and GM's thought of it.  I honestly think it is a good idea, but I can see that some people would not like the change, so in me stating this, please don't flame.  critique/criticism is great though :-)

Now many many players like to come in the game RP'ing as if they are already at least a half-way decent mage, swordsman, crafter, etc.  Honestly, I believe more players than not like to, though there are still some who do not.  This got me thinking that maybe during character creation, a player should have a set amount of 'levels' they want to use, say 50, 75, or 100.  Prior to entering the game for the first time, the user will be able to distribute these points as he or she wishes to whatever skills they want, such as putting brown way up to 60 and alchemy to 15, if 75 points are allowed.  This, I think, would make a better RP environment and help bridge the increasingly large gap between the true RP'rs, the PL'rs, and those who lie between.  This can also help cut out much of the grind that most players can't stand with the current method to advance in rank.  If players still wish to get stronger, then they will have to grind for cash and progression points, but they may be happy where they are.  Of course, the best way to implement this would be after a full character wipe so it is fair for everyone, but that is not the subject of the topic and even so, it is not completely necessary.

What do you think of this idea?

[Mythryndel]

The idea is not bad... and the character creator does this already to a smaller degree. The problem really is where to draw the line. Is giving someone 60 levels really a good thing? Is giving someone 20 levels not enough?

This idea, or similar ideas, get tossed around ever couple of months... They just don't usually get very far.

[Donari Tyndale]

I vote for maxing certain skills and stats on creation, that'd really help roleplay a lot. Or rather remove PPs and implement player training.

[Parallo]

UTM talked about this mostly I think, wasn't it? I agree though.

[Bamko]

within about 10 hours of play I was able to kill ulbers...

Touchs on some good points, esp if one should have to pick and chose which skills to train, or just train everything, etc.  It is so hard to play PS for long, as it is without killing rats being boring, thus making much of the game moot, as it is.  Once again, maybe I enjoy the process too much, but I think if they were to do something like that, then it should make it even harder to take even rats.  Want to put all your levels into mining?  well, you better be ready to mine for a long time to get the PPs to hunt Kikiri for a few days before daring to take those nasty rats on... Want to put all your levels into cooking... ok.. but good luck.  oh, and go ahead and put your levels into lockpicking or some other non-implemented skill.  hehehe, OOPS.

Otherwise most will end up just being able to kill Ulbers and trepors from the start, making rats, gobbles, clackers and yes, even kikiri obsolete.

I guess the devil would be in the details.  I sure would like to know who developed those cool rats, even the robust ones, and see what they think about how few pple hunt them anymore.  If this was real-ish, the rats would be running out of the sewer and there would be a bounty on their tails, to encourage hunting them... unless Gorbiak and his family are eating them all, eh?

[Mathy Stockington]

Not to go off topic here, but I cannot help but wonder what happened to the role play that I learned when I first started that was more about the characters then the PP, grinding and stats? In those days we did not care about those things. It was more about the story WE were creating in game and the friends we had.

[Bamko]

Mathy, I am unclear how working on, or even just discussing the mechanics of the game is mutually exclusive to RP.  Infact the original post cites helping RP'ing for the reason for the post. 

I do wonder who this "WE" are, but I do not see how this idea prohibts anyone from making freinds or even would have an effect on anyone's current RP storyline.

[Mathy Stockington]

Mathy, I am unclear how working on, or even just discussing the mechanics of the game is mutually exclusive to RP.  Infact the original post cites helping RP'ing for the reason for the post. 

I do wonder who this "WE" are, but I do not see how this idea prohibts anyone from making freinds or even would have an effect on anyone's current RP storyline.

Bamko I wish us not to argue this point because I think of you as a friend. In any case 'WE' were the characters of long ago that RP'ed in a very different way then it is done today. Yes, I mined gold in those days, I even killed a rat once, but that part of the game rarely became part of the role play. It was different then.

[zanzibar]

When people enter the game as a skilled or famous person, they're actually in violation of the settings.  PlaneShift was supposed to be a game where you started off as a nobody and then worked your way to fame and fortune.  The slogan has been abandoned though since all the players ignored it.

[Mathy Stockington]

When people enter the game as a skilled or famous person, they're actually in violation of the settings.  PlaneShift was supposed to be a game where you started off as a nobody and then worked your way to fame and fortune.  The slogan has been abandoned though since all the players ignored it.

I remember that zanzibar and you are correct. It was part of our role plays as a matter of fact.

Though we should allow this thread to go back on topic. Sorry for the diversion.

[shorty13]

Zanzibar and Mathy, I believe both have good points.  First off, this would not inhibit those who roleplay, like the good ol days when stats didn't matter, at all and if anything will help support it as players can actually somewhat act/use skills in-game as their character should be able to according to how/what they are roleplaying as.  Also, those who feel they need to have some ranks in specific skills before he or she can adequately RP his/her character will be able to RP straight off the bat.

As for Zanzibar's statement, I do find that interesting, however that is very old and something that didn't stick.  If little to no players stick to it, than it really cannot be enforced too well.  This is how things, such as games, evolve and change a little, and should be tolerated and allowed to keep it going.  Therefore I do not believe this is much of a problem, setting wise, unless GM's and Talad strongly believe players must start as peasants, with no room for exceptions.  Also, if a player does want to start from scratch, he or she does not have to use all the points allotted at all.

Another point was brought up: How many ranks would be allowed? What is the cut-off? This would ultimately be up to the settings team, however think of it like this.  How many ranks of magic, weapons, crafting, or armor do you need to be successful, not just against npc's but against other players as well.  When you claim to be an excellent mage, or master of axes and someone tells you to prove it, how high do you need to be to do so?  Personally I believe a lot should be used, such as 75-100.  Many players have higher stats than 100 in several skills, but 100 is also very high in itself.  However, a player who puts 100 in one skill will have nothing in others, such as armor, which may force smart players to split it between 2+ skills.

This also does not include the main attributes such as str, end, int, etc. but I believe in choosing races at character creation is sufficient as those attributes change with each rank (may also think about increasing the amount of ranks per attribute since the cap has gone up significantly since the attributes coming with each race was first implemented)

[Dajoji]

Maybe instead of points one could choose a certain number of main and secondary skills. These would be a lot easier to train than other skills making it possible to max them out quickly. The secondary skills would take longer and the other skills would just be as hard or harder to train as they are now. This way you'd start off a peasant but with the innate talent for the skills you chose and with a reasonable limit as to how many skills a character should be able to master in order to keep realism.

[Prolix]

I know lets just adjust our stats and skills every time we log on and again when we log off, that way we can play anything we want and not have to bother with unseemly training.

[Donari Tyndale]

That is worse than the current system in my eyes, Dajoji, except if your character was able to change his main skills through some effort. The limitation to them staying main and secondary skills would be purely OOC.

[Mythryndel]

Monkey wrench time... Let's say you give 100 levels... what is to stop one person from completely breaking the system by creating an alt for each skill/way? Start with a 100 level metallurgist and a 100 level miner... then augment your other characters however you want with the trias earned by those two characters...

How does this help the game? I'm not trying to say that this is a bad idea, I've just been thinking about it and this is just one way that I can think of for this to be abused.