Alrighty, I'm attempting to make an RPG but I can't decide what would be the best way to level up for the life of me. The first thought that comes to mind is of course, monsters. Kill said mobs, get a fair amount of experience. However, I'm having trouble finding a good balance on how much experience they should give or how much experience the person would need to level up. I don't want it to be to difficult, or to easy after all, I'm really just looking for somewhere in between.
Another thing that has been bothering me is stat distribuation. When you level up, should I make it a set amount you gain per level, statpoints, or random stat distribuation?
If you could help me, it'd be much appreciated. If you think there's a better way to approach something I've said, please do tell. I'm just lookin' for some input here before I go off willy nilly making things.
ID:151791
 Apr 10 2009, 8:14 am
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Apr 10 2009, 10:01 am
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T3h P3ngu1n
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Don't go for random. Either have it increase for a set amount for that level and class, or give a set amount of points for the player to spend. Could be other options out there too, but just don't go for random.
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Do -not- go for random stats.
I would recommend adding a fixed amount of points to each stat according to the player's class, along with a few points that can be spent on a stat of the player's choice. For instance: Knight Level Up: +2 Free Points Strength +2 Agility +1 Intelligence +1 Archer Level Up: +2 Free Points Strength +1 Agility +2 Intelligence +1 Mage Level Up: +2 Free Points Strength +1 Agility +1 Intelligence +2 | |
I like that idea. I think I'm going to use those formula's actually as well. What's your views on leveling though? Should I go mob or perhaps make a "sparring" type thing, where you need another person?
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Well, there's really a ton of different ways to do it, and it's mostly up to you. Here's one of the most unique ways that I've seen from one of the games I used to play awhile ago.
Exp requirements per level for level 1-5 = 10,000 Exp requirements per level for levels 5-10 = 20,000 Exp Requirements per level for levels 10-20 = 30,000 Exp Requirements per level for levels 20+ = 40,000 Kill a monster of equal level, get 100 points added to your "learning" pool. -10 points per level for lower level monsters, +20 points per level for higher level monsters (up to a maximum of level +5, 200 points. Maximum learning pool based off of stats, but somewhere between 700-1000. So if you kill a bunch of monsters, you eventually quit getting new exp. Every few minutes, convert set amount of learning pool exp to actual exp (depending on stats, somewhere between 20-60. This method forces players to take breaks from mindlessly killing things and kind of balances out the leveling speed. | |
Firstly, the amount of exp needed to level up, or the amount gained from doing stuff is irrelevant. Use any number you want, make it simple and just use a percentage if you really want.
These numbers only serve one purpose, and that is so players have a rough idea of their progress and can track this progress. What you should be measuring exp gain in is difficulty and time. The harder or longer something takes to do, the more exp it gives. Imagine it this way. If at level 10, it should take a person 1 hour to level up using easy methods, or half that using hard methods. If they kill easy enemies at a rate of 2 per minute, they need to kill 120 to level up. If they kill hard enemies at a rate of 1 per minute, they need to kill 30 to level up. If you need 1000 exp at level 10 to level up, easy enemies would give 8 exp per kill, and hard enemies 33 exp per kill. You can apply this same theory to everything in the game that gives exp, from killing monsters to doing quests. | |
Your right to worry about this, it is essential to good game design.
Heres MY answer, take from it what you will and leave the rest. Experience: reward the players for doing fun and interesting things, killing some specific monster that gives loads of experience gets old fast. gain experience from quests and valuable items or quest materials could come from monsters. Then again if it were me not giving monsters exp would be insanity. But you get what im poking at: reward them for doing fun things! the experience curve should get really hard really fast, you wont be ready for your characters to be max level for a long time upon initial release. later you can reduce the curve if you want and everyone will be a few levels higher and happy about it. Stat Distribution: why not use all your ideas? my system grants a few points toward class specific stats, a few points randomly, and a few points for the player to distribute. its the best of all three worlds. just make sure you dont give too few or too many points! maybe some points for completing quests also. Final Thoughts: try not to reward players too much for doing any one thing, you dont want them to HAVE to do quests to level up or to HAVE to kill specific monster to level up in a decent time span. Allow them freedom and choices. Also watch out for balancing your stats, if strength is the best then people who want other stats will be punished for it. Confomity sucks, dont let it ruin your game! | |
Some Class System Advice:
1- if you have classes make sure all the stats are equally good, all the classes have equal points, and all the points are equally given to the classes (dont make the average strength higher than the average intellegence for example) 2- allow your players freedom with thier classes, you dont want a mage always spending both his points on intelligence for example. | |