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Why can't RPGs be more like DBZ? flame on!
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Kakarot! We need to keep bringing ourselves to near death and getting healed for real ultimate power!
Didn't Asheron's Call have a similar system? There was no level cap in the game; although there were limitations on what you could achieve until people started running dozens of accounts and using the monarch system in the game to whore their level out to unbelieveble levels.
As I see it there are only a couple options to keep bringing new challenges to you:
1. Power scaling: IE stuff levels up with you, meaning more powerful harpies to fight as you progress in power. But this, in turn, defeats the point of leveling entirely outside of gaining abilities you want since you'll always be in the same relative power level.
2. Microtransactions. Alright so now your all powerful, so buy some new super-powerful content for a couple bucks and get to tackling it.
3. Dynamic encounters. This, I think, would be the most interesting. If you are running around abusing your powers and destroying entire towns with a single spell, there would likely be resistance factions rising up to challenge you, other adventuring parties/etc. Alternatively, new villans could challenge you for your spot in order to make a name for themselves. These things would happen based on what you do in the world and who you piss off, rather than elements of the main game's storyline.
My experience playing skill-based games is admittedly limited. I've only played two that really fit the bill -- EVE and Dragonrealms. While most people are familiar with the former, I'll explain the latter as DR, during peak hours, has maybe only 500 people on it at once, so it's probably not a game everyone is familiar with.
It's text-based, and its skill system is based on repetition. It works like this: say you find a longsword. The first time you use it, you're lucky that you didn't slice off your other hand while trying to kill that damn ship's rat. But as you continue to use it and kill mobs with it, your skill with it increases. Eventually, your character can become a master at using the weapon. Every skill in the game works like this. There are levels in the game, called 'circles', but those mainly serve as a way to gain access to new abilities (spells, and such) and TDPs (time development points, which you slowly gain by learning skills, as well), which are used to increase stats. You gain a circle by meeting skill requirements, some of which are incredibly tedious to get (I'm looking at you, teaching and magical devices).
There have been two fundamental problems with DR's approach. First, the diminishing returns is rather steep, especially if you don't know how to min/max skill gain. Learning the first 20-40 ranks in a skill is a breeze, but learning quickly levels off. This is partly because of the skill tier system -- every guild (character class) has certain skill sets that they learn quickly, and others that they learn slowly. So, a Warrior Mage, for example, learns magic very easily, and weapons and lore at an okay pace, but sucks learning armor and survival. And, of course, there are armor and survival requirements to meet in order to circle. The developers also put in 'wall ranks,' which are basically skill plateaus. Learning slows to a crawl when one hits one of those ranks, making it incredibly difficult to gain the next rank in that skill. Again, with low skill ranks it's hardly noticeable, but once you get to that rank 40 area, things really slow down. I'm not sure what the formula is for when a wall rank appears, but it really affects the tertiary skill tier.
The other problem is basically what I envision a DBZ-esque MMORPG to have, which is a huge gap between the old players and the new. There are DR players who have been playing the game since it was on AOL, which was in the mid 90's. These players have gained thousands of skill ranks. I believe, back then, the circle/level cap for the game was 50. In the late 90's/early 2000's it was raised to 99. I believe it's now around 125. DR is 99% PVE, so I'm not entirely sure how PVP would be affected by this, but I think I can guess if the GM-run events are any indication.
Since the elite are so powerful, and since the game world isn't divided into zones (there are no lowbie/newbie zones like Elwynn Forest in DR), it's difficult creating events that the majority of the players can enjoy. The elite players have characters that are powerful enough to kill swarms of mobs aimed at mid-circle characters in mere moments, so they do, especially spellcasters who have AOE spells (chain lightning, anyone?). The result is often a frustrating mess. The elite kill most of the mobs aimed for the mid-circle guys, leaving them with few targets and less loot. The newbies often get killed by the stragglers remaining. Those that stay alive are relegated to draging corpses back to the healer, a dangerous, but incredibly tedious and non-rewarding, job if Joe Newbie doesn't have the strength to drag Dead Midbie around with his pounds of mail and weapons quickly enough. The only people who have fun in those instances are the elite.
I do get what the OP is saying, though. There's nothing quite like being the baddest ass on the planet and not having the environment react in a proper fashion. "I killed the dragon, saved the whore...err...maiden, and I now wield, as my sword, a shard of the Dark One, and I can't even intimidate the innkeep, let alone burn down the village, if I choose to?" I just think, given my admittedly limited experience, that this sort of thing would be very hard to pull off in an entertaining manner in a multi-player setting without going the EVE route with player-driven economies and politics. And in that case, it's not about being a bad ass but being cunning and having good connections.
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Honestly the game you want is Disgaea - if you like turn based isometric strategy games with a sick storyline you can sink hundreds of hours into powerlevelling and face bosses of hysterical power - I think the secret boss of Disgaea has several billion HP and hits for laughable amounts of damage.
You get to fight 4 of him AND the Prinny version at the same time in Disgaea 2.
And I think there's a way to force them to max level.
Win.
where the term experience actually fucking meant experience, so that as you, the player, played through the game your skills in combat, your control of the game mechanics and your experience at knowing the situations that can arise actually count for something.
So that there is no difference between the hit points of a first dungeon mob and the final boss, only the way in which you must attack and the strategy to win, which has no regard for how much arbitrary strength or agility or intellect your character has, but is dependant on remembering a gradual difficulty incline throughout the game. Your own experience.
Pick up Final Fantasy II for the GBA - I'm not sure if you level up at all - I do know that you skill up based on what weapons / skills you use.
1. Select "super ultra mega quadruple overkill blast" from a menu
2. Wait 45 minutes for it to charge up
3. Hope that the imp you're trying to kill doesn't get bored and thump you in the back of the head in the meantime
In all seriousness, the majority of RPGs I've played have had level caps that were much, MUCH higher than a person progressing through the game naturally would achieve. I can only imagine how much time it would take to max out a Dragon Quest 8 character. It's only the limits in a few games like the Bioware ones that most normal humans will bump up against.
Or, if you are REALLY powerful, you could summon the dragon of the dragonballs and fight him.
I'm sure the game could be designed in such a way so that no matter what power level you are, there are always NPCs a bit stronger than you or just as strong as you somewhere around the galaxy.
But at the end of the day, you can choose to either use your power for evil (crushing all the noobs, killing everyone, etc) or for good (defending the weak from those who have attained massive power), and that in itself creates enough conflict to make the game interesting for a long time.
Oh man, and what if for every hour you are logged out, your character gets a little bit weaker? Man, I could see people that just wouldn't stop playing if they really got addicted. And if you cancelled your account your character wouldn't be deleted but he'd get A LOT weaker.
Hmmm, for what it is worth KOTR II is even easier than the original. Might give you that badass feeling you crave.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Think about it. If someone could one shot kill some of the raids in WoW, this would lead to a collapse of the trade economy...hard to get items would be plentiful, and a slew of other problems would come up.
Level caps are good.
Star Ocean. You won't hit the level cap in that unless you try, probably. And they're all amazing.
Steam!: BrocksMullet http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972421669/
Steam!: BrocksMullet http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972421669/
Level capping truly apologetically sucks.
IMO, some people strongly prefer finite games, where the game is over once you've completed the plot and all the quests; other people enjoy leveling for the sake of leveling, and it services as motivation in of itself. For that latter group, as the Ars Technica article puts it, without the ability to keep leveling the entire reward system is broken. I'm one of the former group; my reward system is based around completion of plot events, and I could happily go an entire RPG without leveling once.
To each their own.
EVE Online has this problem to a degree, but they get around it by making most of the really useful skills attainable in your first 6-12 months playing the game, with the rest of the time taking exponential amounts of time to train for 5% extra effectiveness.