DraQ
Arcane
(To avoid grinding)
Use based systems are fairly attractive - they are inherently more logical than XP based ones and they allow for large degree of automation of the gameplay mechanics which results in greatly improved flexibility in cRPGs where there is no GM who could reward player who came up with an unorthodox solution to a problem. They also have virtually no limitations (apart from things like preventing a barbarian from learning alphabet from his all-day head bashing session, that is) compared to XP based ones - you can manually (as in "by the hand of GM") add points to individual stats where it's applicable too, which can be used analogously to plot-based XP rewards.
There is only one problem - most (if not all) implementations suck horribly by allowing egregious exploit in the form of grinding. The problem is so prevalent one would think the use-based is beyond all help, were it not for the fact that dreaded RL uses similar kind of mechanics, yet, no matter how many hours of your life you devote to stabbing hamsters, it won't turn you into expert swordsman. Something is very clearly wrong with the implementation, not the underlying principle. And I know how to fix this:
Thoughts?
Discuss!-ion?
Andhaira?
Use based systems are fairly attractive - they are inherently more logical than XP based ones and they allow for large degree of automation of the gameplay mechanics which results in greatly improved flexibility in cRPGs where there is no GM who could reward player who came up with an unorthodox solution to a problem. They also have virtually no limitations (apart from things like preventing a barbarian from learning alphabet from his all-day head bashing session, that is) compared to XP based ones - you can manually (as in "by the hand of GM") add points to individual stats where it's applicable too, which can be used analogously to plot-based XP rewards.
There is only one problem - most (if not all) implementations suck horribly by allowing egregious exploit in the form of grinding. The problem is so prevalent one would think the use-based is beyond all help, were it not for the fact that dreaded RL uses similar kind of mechanics, yet, no matter how many hours of your life you devote to stabbing hamsters, it won't turn you into expert swordsman. Something is very clearly wrong with the implementation, not the underlying principle. And I know how to fix this:
DraQ said:The simplest way around it would be making experience gain in given skill dependent on the chance of failure. The experience earned from successful use could be directly proportional to the chance of failure (hence when you can perform given task fully reliably it's trivial to you and won't yield any experience), while experience earned from failure might be proportional to the probability of success (a bit fuzzier logic here - if you can only fail epically in given situation there isn't much to learn from such failure, but technically it works the same as in previous case, being simple inversion of aforementioned mechanism).
Second stopper to unlimited self-improvement would be time, or, more specifically, time that matters in game.
Third one - limited (but flexible - we don't need no rigid classes) character potential. It can't stop self improvement, but will direct it, preventing characters from becoming identical, infinitely versatile jacks of all trades.
Thoughts?
Discuss!-ion?
Andhaira?