Alright, I have put a bit of thought into this concerning my new game.

I am definately going skill-type due to the abundance of class driven games on BYOND.

The outline to my level system are as follows:

You will select a skill/s to begin with a higher number than the rest.. For example it will ask for a class, if you say Blacksmith your smithery and smelting will start off at 30.

You will be able to gain skills in any class you wish, with a limit on the maximum skills you may learn.. for example I may cap the most amount of points you can put at 500... so all your skills combined cannot exceed 500.

To start a new "skill" you need to learn the basics of that skill from someone with sufficient knowledge of it. Im deciding wether to allow players to teach other players skills, with a pre-defined cost. For example 1 blacksmithery skill point = 5 gold. I would allow the player to choose the cost, but the problem exsists of him "cheating" his friends..

Tell me what you think, and any revisions and/or ideas you have..

James

I do not enjoy the skill cap, but I prefer the method of the more skills a player has, the harder it is for them to learn and maintain a new, or unrelated one, while maintaining the old ones.

For most players that is simply another implementation of a skill cap.

Most likely it is one that rewards power players and penalizes more casual ones.

Haven's system is simple -- a cumulative penalty, starting out very small, but increasing with every new point you gain in any skill. Thus, if you have a combined 200 points' worth of progress in all of your skills, then it is n amount more difficult to get another point to bring your total to 201.

Since gains for a single skill are cumulatively more difficult and have logarithmic returns, this means it's actually more effective to spread out your skills to a few well-defined categories than to focus on a single skill.

I'm also considering adopting Leftley's brainchild -- an enforced minimum number of skills, which increases as you gain in talent. (One problem with Haven's architecture is that even if you just practice a skill once, you will be considered to possess that skill. I might need to think of some way to tweak that system -- maybe something along the lines of having to "learn" a skill before you can actually gain in it, but without actually "learning" the skill you can still use it as an unskilled labourer.

Well, I had it so that trainers teach skills to players, but only certain trainers can teach to a certain level. After that, you have to find the master-levels, and after that the Codexes, books that teach certain skills whenever read. Of course, you still have to have the total experience in order to advance, but you no longer have to pay the fee for training.

My system is simple, every time you use a skill, you get better, so you gain experience, (usr.experience += X) So, let's say you have just gained 1000 experience from five days' mining. This experience is referred to as "fresh", and can now be "used" to attain skill points.

So, this character goes to town, and has himself a right ol' time buyings skills, of course using his earnings as a miner to pay the trainer. (standard rates for training is variable, but generally it is 1/10th the ammount of experience cost for the skill (in gold)) He spends 900 experience, but instead of subtracting from the player's experience, it adds to another variable, called usr.trained_exp. This varaible is now equal to 900, while usr.experience is still equal to 1000. so, the equation usr.experience - usr.trained_exp is equal to "fresh exp." only fresh exp can be spent on skill points. As you progress in these skills, the experience cost increases, as well as, logically, the gold cost. Then, the character goes out and clears a kobold den, (not a good example, but hey!), amassing him a total of 2000 moe experience. He now has 2100 fresh exp, get it? Nuff sed.

Anyway, The system of gold calculations is pretty simple. There are four classifications of skills, Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Unique. Next, are the experience penalties. The character's statistics make the skill easier or harder, so let's say we have a skill called swim. Swimming is based off of strength, so the character's strength score modifies the experience challenge of learning it. After the skill experience cost is totaled, the skill rarity comes into play. The skill cost is divided by ten, and then multiplied by each successive increase, for Common: 1, for Uncommon: 2, for Rare: 5, and for Unique: 10. So, if we have the swimming skill, the experience cost is:

var/e_cost = (10 + (round((usr.strength-10)/2)*(-10))) * usr.skills["swimming"]

var/g_cost = (round(ecost/10)) * skill_rarity_mod

well, there's all the technical stuff...