[CF List] New experience system on metalforge

[Todd Mitchell]

I wonder how much of the dislike of cooperative questing comes from the fact
that the combat system and much map design sort of discourages this style of
play.  I wonder if the fixes to monster sensing ranges (now they don't all
rush you from all over the map) will improve this?  I really like the idea
of co-operation, but I can see how play style would favour single player
currently.  Mob is not just a noun in this case, many monsters do not have
an adequate AI to make multiplayer work - they just rush.  Then again I did
get the chance to watch a level 100 paladin playing - he just hid around a
corner and lobbed seeking spells quite a lot.  Since the monsters were all
trapped in rooms, to avoid a mid map pileup, and could not reach him there
was no need for co-operative play there.  Using more varied attack movements
for monsters would be one solution.  I have suggested in the past that an
additional pass condition that would allow flying (creatures and objects) to
pass while blocking ground movement (walking players and monsters) would
encourage a lot more multiplayer fighting (more possible use of tactics and
missile weapons) as well as increasing the possible complexity of maps.

----- Original Message -----
From: Yann Chachkoff <
     
     yann.chachkoff at mailandnews.com
     
     >
To: <
     
     crossfire-list at lists.real-time.com
     
     >
Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 10:03 AM
Subject: RE: [CF List] New experience system on metalforge


>
     
      Some thoughts about all this...
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      Another alternate experience system was tested some time ago on my own
     
     server
>
     
      (chachkoff.dyndns.org): Maximum level of 29, for an amount of experience
     
     of
>
     
      934999998 points/skill at most.
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      The idea behind this was to make life harder for high-level characters
     
     (the
>
     
      experience progression stayed the same as they're in the standard scale),
     
     by
>
     
      making high level progression much slower.
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      Setting the maximum level for skills to 29 would make it harder to cast
     
     >
     
      powerful spells; it would also mean that common spells like Burning Hands
     
     >
     
      couldn't reach as much destructive power as before. The main wish was to
     
     push
>
     
      players to more cooperative work - A group could achieve tasks a single
     
     person
>
     
      couldn't.
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      Results were somewhat disappointing, although not entierly unexpected.
     
     Results
>
     
      could be summarized as follow :
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      - Power gamers generally didn't like the idea of lowering the maximum
     
     level of
>
     
      power one could gain, mostly because some quests would have become "too
     
     >
     
      dangerous to make". Few people were actually ready to make dangerous
     
     quests
>
     
      with their high-level character.
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      - Power gamers generally seem to avoid team-play if they can; cooperation
     
     in
>
     
      Crossfire appears to be more item/trade-oriented ("I give you this item to
     
     >
     
      help you") than direct "cooperative hunt" ("Let's regroup to kill those
     
     >
     
      dragons").
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      (I don't say there aren't exceptions - but those appear to be 'common
     
     rules').
>
     
      Both of the above points are directly related to the psychological profile
     
     of
>
     
      the average Crossfire power-gamer. Both are in direct contradiction with
     
     the
>
     
      ideas behind the tweaked experience scale. I - and some others - would
     
     have
>
     
      preferred a higher average difficulty level for Crossfire at high levels;
     
     >
     
      however, since too few people accepted the concept, I put an end to the
     
     >
     
      experiment.
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      Since it seems that the idea is showing up again, I restarted my server
     
     for
>
     
      those interested - it could be interesting to see concrete returns from
     
     >
     
      players on all those systems and try to take the better from it.
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      Y. Chachkoff
     
     >
     
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