Massively

GDC Online 2011: KingsIsle's Sara Jensen Schubert talks RPG math

Karen Bryan — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Endgame, Massively Event Coverage, Miscellaneous

I'm sure many of us have wondered how game developers decide upon item stats, experience amounts, damage per second, and all of the other numbers that we come across in our favorite games. Actually, it might sound more like, "Why the heck is my uber sword of uberness only doing X amount of damage?!" At GDC Online this week, Sara Jensen Schubert gave a rare glimpse into the math behind MMORPGs. She has worked on games like Shadowbane and DC Universe Online and is now a lead designer at KingsIsle Entertainment. Her background and focus is a traditional RPG viewpoint, and she builds from there to go through the process of designing and building stats, character attributes, experience rewards, the leveling curve, and itemization. While her talk is aimed at those in the industry, it offers a unique perspective into what goes into those stats behind our gear and why it takes us so long to level up. Read on for highlights from the presentation.

Continue reading GDC Online 2011: KingsIsle's Sara Jensen Schubert talks RPG math

GDC Online 2011: KingsIsle's Sara Jensen Schubert talks RPG math originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lost Pages of Taborea: Elaborating on XP gain and leveling alts

Jeremy Stratton — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea

This week I want to elaborate on experience gain, the honor party, and other ways of leveling alts. I received some great feedback from last week's article that suggests to me an interest in a much wider discussion of power-leveling. But before I get to that, let's clear up XP gain in Runes of Magic.

Most MMOs that I know of -- including RoM -- dish out XP based on the character's level and the level of the mob being slain. If your character is the same level as the mob, the game will give you an adequate amount of XP as a reward. If the mob is higher, you'll get even more experience, but you'll get less XP as you out-level a mob. If you've played any MMO, you're probably aware of this. In RoM, you'll stop collecting XP from mobs 10 levels lower than you. Naturally, fighting mobs slightly higher than you can be more efficient. You can continue to fight increasingly higher-level mobs, but at some point, there's just no way you'll be able to survive, which is why you may want to get a higher-level player to take you just about anywhere in RoM to power-level you. When a high-level player starts towing you around, though, the XP you gain will be based directly on the amount of XP that player would get from any mob he kills. Read on to see more about this and alternative ways of power-leveling.

Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: Elaborating on XP gain and leveling alts

Lost Pages of Taborea: Elaborating on XP gain and leveling alts originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Skill-based MMOs: Passive vs. active gain

Brooke Pilley — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Darkfall, EVE Online, MMO industry, Opinion

There are two main progression models in MMOs: Level-based and skill-based. In level-based MMOs, you kill things and complete tasks to earn experience. This experience leads to new levels and the new levels generally lead to newer and more powerful skills. In skill-based MMOs, it isn't you who "levels up," but your skills. The more you use a particular skill (e.g., swimming, shield-blocking, axe-slashing, etc.) the better that skill becomes. At a basic level, both models are just different interpretations of the "experience point" system.

While traditional, level-based MMOs don't usually allow you to earn XP while logged off, some skill-based systems do. EVE Online, for example, has a passive skill-leveling system, where players choose a queue of various skills that level up in real-time whether they are logged in or out. On the other hand, Darkfall uses an active skill-leveling system. The more you slash with a one-handed sword, the better your skill with one-handed swords becomes. If you switch to a two-handed hammer, you won't be as good until you start using it more.

Syncaine has started an interesting discussion on his blog about the pros and cons of passive versus active skill gain in MMOs. While the original article favours one over the other, the comments really show both sides of the argument.

Skill-based MMOs: Passive vs. active gain originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

No experience, no levels in Final Fantasy XIV

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Game mechanics, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV

Yes, you read the title correctly. You aren't hallucinating from shock or anything like that. In a recent interview with Famitsu, the development team behind Final Fantasy XIV has revealed that the game will not run on an experience and leveling system. This marks a major departure for the Final Fantasy series, as levels have been a staple to the gameplay experience.

While the new system of progress has not been confirmed, the development team has said that the new job system will focus primarily on weapons rather than a "class."

"We want to afford players enough variety to choose a different way to play on any given day," said Nobuaki Komoto, FFXIV's director. "If they could practice one skill one day, they could work on another one the next."

This statement seems to support the idea of a skill system, similar to Ultima Online and Darkfall, becoming the main drive of FFXIV. However, as we've said above, the final system used for progression in the game has not been confirmed. For the full interview, check it out over on YouTube.

[Via Eurogamer]

No experience, no levels in Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

World of Warcraft players will earn experience points in PvP

Samuel Axon — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Game mechanics, PvP, News items

We almost missed this major revelation on our sister site WoW Insider -- we might not have caught it if Eurogamer hadn't. Deep within WoW Insider's excellent liveblog of the World of Warcraft PvP panel at Blizzcon, you'll find that Blizzard reps let slip that players will soon be able to earn experience points in addition to honor in PvP.

That's already possible in WoW's new competitor Warhammer Online, in which it is essentially just as viable to level up to the cap in PvP as it is in PvE. The WoW devs are likely responding to the competition, knowing that they might lose big fans of PvP to WAR. In that vein, they're also ensuring that daily PvP quests are available from levels 10 - 80.

It's hard not to look at this as a good change. The only argument against it we can think of is that if a player levels from 10 - 80 entirely in the battlegrounds, he or she will not have the necessary experience to run instances and raids at later levels if a change of course is desired. But that seems like a fairly minor criticism of a long-needed addition to the game.

World of Warcraft players will earn experience points in PvP originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments