Removing Experience Question

[Nolund]

Now, I know how to remove EXP from a game to make things more linear. My question is a little tougher than that.

I want to put in a system (for lack of a better term, we'll use Heroism for now) that creates a different way to "level". So, for every monster you kill you gain x Heroism, and when your Heroism level hits certain criteria certain bonuses are given (max HP, stats, etc). However, that's the most basic aspect of what I want to achieve. I was hoping to create a branching system with this system, so certain kills/actions get you stats in a different Heroism tab. Basically what would happen is that players would be creating their own class, based on how they play the game (fighting a lot of undead creatures would give you a path towards a Paladin class, whereas picking locks and stealing from others would create a thief).

I don't think I need a script for this, but I'm not sure how I would go about it. And if I DO in fact, need a script, I'll need to know that too.

 

[Nolund]

Bump.

 

[Nolund]

Bumpity.

 

[Sgt. Cookie]

Im probalbly just guessing here but what about not awarding exp for monters that you kill but I mean that obvously not what you mean.

 

[Nolund]

I know how to remove the gain of EXP (I mentioned that in my first post).

My question was regarding implementing a different "EXP-type" system.

 

[Sgt. Cookie]

Oh right sorry

 

[Unka Josh]

First question: Do you want it to matter what kind of monsters you kill and/or how you kill them? If it doesn't, that will make things much, much simpler.

 

[Nolund]

First question: Do you want it to matter what kind of monsters you kill and/or how you kill them? If it doesn't, that will make things much, much simpler.

Well I'm still playing around with things. In the end, I think what will happen is that it won't really matter what you kill, but how you kill them might (would just be the difference between magic and physical). Most of the changes would be done outside of battle (quests, lockpicking, etc).

 

[Unka Josh]

Okay, outside of battle is easy-- you just need to have your lockpicking event/quest event/whatever increase a variable, and test it to see if you level up. No problem there.

For spellcasting, you could do this: Have each spell call a common event that raises a variable (for the experience with that kind of spell), and then have it check to see if the experience is over the threshold for the current level, and raise their level if it's enough, just like with the lockpicking events.

 

[MarkDarkness]

To finish Unka's idea, you could then route the Attack command via script to be a spell too.

 

[Unka Josh]

That's a good point. (Doesn't come up in my games, since my battle system doesn't use the Attack option.)

 

[Nolund]

To finish Unka's idea, you could then route the Attack command via script to be a spell too.

How would I do this?

 

[xctive]

Ok I have an idea that is kinda different but I think it could be easy and a cool way to go about it. So the idea is say you have the player and then he/she pickpockets someone and every time that happens you give them some item called "1 pickpocket exp" and then run a parallel event that checks how many items they have an and if x amount is found change char level to whatever. If that makes since or need more info let me know. I thought this would be a cool idea.

 

[Sgt. Cookie]

I tried that but it just equates to lag.

 

[Unka Josh]

Does it need to be a parallel process event? Can't you have the event that gives the pickpocketing XP also check for leveling up? It would prevent parallel-process lag.

 

[Mikee]

This seems like a pretty fun idea. You know... you could probably save yourself some work and offer the player a choice every level at which attribute or class he wants to put his x amount of skill points in, thus leveling different jobs or classes, and unlocking new abilities.

Or if you do it the way you already have set up, it'll take some complicated eventing with common events... which can be done pretty easily if you know what you're doing.

If you're going to have generic levels then I'd combine all your exp points into a common exp to level your character. And I'd probably also multiply that and then add that much exp to your players ACTUAL exp, then tweak your exp curve til you get it right. That way you can actually have a real leveling curve that doesn't take fifty common events, or one EXTREMELY long one to check to see if you have enough exp to level.

I once made an avatar-based game where when you used skills you leveled in that "class" of bending, so wind skills would earn you wind exp. The more exp you got the more skills you learned. But I also had an ABS that only allowed you to use the skills when enemies were around. So you couldn't cheat too much. I also set it so after x amount of skills, low level skills didn't give you exp anymore. Oblivion made it simple for players to level their skills by spamming certain spells. I'd try to avoid that if I were you. : |

Good luck with this. I'm interested to see how it comes out!