Leveling system
by Nathan Kent · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 11/24/2007 (6:00 am) · 8 replies
In the game I'm making, I think that a discrete leveling system would be perfect. It's really unrealistic how you grow levels, I mean, if your fighting a war, some mysterious voice isn't going to come and tell you that you grew to level 10! So:
In the game, each weapon has a class (sword, axe, staff, damaging fire spells, etc) and the more you use it, the more "talent" you have with that class. Talent would be divided into two catagories: Attack (gained by attacking enemies) and skill (could be gain just by swinging the weapon, but givin more if used to attack), and you would need to max out both to level up your talent. Now, the only way to see what your talent is, is to go to a trainer or a blacksmith, and have them test you, and they would tell you stuff like "That was the best swordsmanship I've ever seen!" or "You're getting there, but you need more practice." The more talent you have, the more damage you'll do with that type of weapon/spell.
The next type of levels would be Aptitude, and it is for a specific weapon. Almost the same as talent, but aptitude determines how much the talent affects your weapon. At level 0 in aptitude, you would get 0% of the talent boost, at level 1 you would get 10%, and at level 2 you would get 20%. See the pattern? There would be 10 acheavable levels in Aptitude, and no way to find out what yours is.
The final type of leveling is actually a stat, while defece and attack would be determined by your armour and weapons, each equipable item has elemental resistances and weaknesses. Once again, no way to see that, but it would effect damage.
Now for the shops. When you go to a shop, the owner will ask to look at the scorecard the last person who tested you gave you, and when you want to buy an item, if you aren't talented enough, they will warn you that you won't be able to use it properly. I've added this so that you wouldn't be able to use the Uber stuff without training first, so when you use an item you don't have enough talent for, it will do barely any damage, and when you use a spell to powerful, it'll just fiz out. Each time you go to a trainer, they will give you a new scorecard, and if you drop it, you have to go back to a trainer to get another one before the shop keeper will let you buy their stuff.
In the game, each weapon has a class (sword, axe, staff, damaging fire spells, etc) and the more you use it, the more "talent" you have with that class. Talent would be divided into two catagories: Attack (gained by attacking enemies) and skill (could be gain just by swinging the weapon, but givin more if used to attack), and you would need to max out both to level up your talent. Now, the only way to see what your talent is, is to go to a trainer or a blacksmith, and have them test you, and they would tell you stuff like "That was the best swordsmanship I've ever seen!" or "You're getting there, but you need more practice." The more talent you have, the more damage you'll do with that type of weapon/spell.
The next type of levels would be Aptitude, and it is for a specific weapon. Almost the same as talent, but aptitude determines how much the talent affects your weapon. At level 0 in aptitude, you would get 0% of the talent boost, at level 1 you would get 10%, and at level 2 you would get 20%. See the pattern? There would be 10 acheavable levels in Aptitude, and no way to find out what yours is.
The final type of leveling is actually a stat, while defece and attack would be determined by your armour and weapons, each equipable item has elemental resistances and weaknesses. Once again, no way to see that, but it would effect damage.
Now for the shops. When you go to a shop, the owner will ask to look at the scorecard the last person who tested you gave you, and when you want to buy an item, if you aren't talented enough, they will warn you that you won't be able to use it properly. I've added this so that you wouldn't be able to use the Uber stuff without training first, so when you use an item you don't have enough talent for, it will do barely any damage, and when you use a spell to powerful, it'll just fiz out. Each time you go to a trainer, they will give you a new scorecard, and if you drop it, you have to go back to a trainer to get another one before the shop keeper will let you buy their stuff.
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#2
11/24/2007 (6:12 am)
Thanks, just one question, what exactly do you mean by 'hint'? Like saying the element in its name, or using an animation that's blatently obvious about what element it is? 
#3
say if your sword has a strong lightning presence to it
have a little bit of particles coming from the edge of the sword
11/24/2007 (6:23 am)
What i mean is..say if your sword has a strong lightning presence to it
have a little bit of particles coming from the edge of the sword
#4
11/24/2007 (6:33 am)
Oh, okay, I under stand now, that would be good.
#5
I especially like the not-being-able-to-know stats. This kind of thing really makes the player take more risks.
(OT: Fable rocks.)
11/24/2007 (7:23 am)
I really like this type of leveling system. I especially like the not-being-able-to-know stats. This kind of thing really makes the player take more risks.
(OT: Fable rocks.)
#6
torque already has energy bars and health bars so I think a system like this would work nicely with the current system. You dont actually see any real numbers but you could use different colors as the bar keeps getting full and going up. That way you dont need to use level numbers at all. Anyway its different great idea.
Edited:
heh I didnt the see the whole aspect of not-knowing part. Well It would be great you go to attack with a sword and you realize you havent use a sword in a loooooong while. Can you even score max hurt on that troll coming at ya.
11/24/2007 (10:32 am)
I really like this idea as well. Lets say there is a general skill set for all the players in the game. These skills are the same for each player at the begiining. Ok you see a cool looking sword and pick it up. Now you run around with the weapon trying to use it. Now you just activated the sword use skill. It would be kinda like Warcraft you have a skill bar that grows with weapon use until it reaches the maximun points for that skill at your current level. I think it would be similiar as you activated different skills you see the skill bars for that grow as you use it. However the down size would be if you dont use it then the bar starts to go back down until eventually its back to zero again. torque already has energy bars and health bars so I think a system like this would work nicely with the current system. You dont actually see any real numbers but you could use different colors as the bar keeps getting full and going up. That way you dont need to use level numbers at all. Anyway its different great idea.
Edited:
heh I didnt the see the whole aspect of not-knowing part. Well It would be great you go to attack with a sword and you realize you havent use a sword in a loooooong while. Can you even score max hurt on that troll coming at ya.
#7
11/24/2007 (12:55 pm)
Could you explain that a little more, I'm not getting it.
#8
11/24/2007 (4:46 pm)
Ok, I forgot to add this to my original post, but I've added the shop system too. 
Torque 3D Owner Scooby Brown
but for the weapons elemental stat i think that maybe a particle effect (like the augmentations in fable) could be used to hint what kind it is without just downright telling the player.
other than that i think this system is very nice and has alot of potential, IF implemented right.