Citadel of Sorcery Forum » General Discussion » Leveling Curve, Diaries and Maps?

I have several things want to ask starting with the most important one which is the Leveling Curve. What I mean by that is how does leveling work in the game? I'm not refering to getting xp (although an idea of where experiance is gained is good).

What i want to know is does leveling get progressively harder as in it takes 100 xp to get to level 1 but 1000 to get to level 2 basically this is  how most mmo's with levels work and it works well for their system because they have set classes with specific skills which means that it makes sense to show progress that way.

However in a skilled based MMO this should not be the case for the simple reason that players can chose what skill they want to improve so the game designers can't tell when Timmy who was making a  knight is shining armor decides to train his knight into a spellsword character as such the system of levels costing more xp becomes unreasonable in the amount it punishes players who decide to try to do some thing new at higher levels.

As such I feel that a leveling curve where the levels are the same length i.e. cost the same xp should be implemented however conversely skills should cost more as you srengthen them meaning using our earlier example Timmy may have a knight however it is easy for him to become a aprentice in the area of magic yet if he wishes to become a master of it he has to invest more time into it instead of his sword skills.

My other less vital questions involve the creation of a players personal diary which they can write notes to keep track of what they know and other things they have learned this feature could also be tied into a in game library where books written by the player for the public can be judged for quality and how well they fit the game and how usefu they are (without being spoiler-ish)  then given access to the public in an entirely player made but GM controlled (i.e. they decide whether a book matches the feel of the game and has correct information) library .

The final thing is maps can we have maps that players can make based on the areas we have explored thus someone can show the general shape of an area but not details like guards to someone else who has never been there If thats not possible or not a high priority can we at least have a way of noteing important places on our personal world map i.e placing a point with a reminder that we attacked this evil warlord castle so were not welcome there or that we helped this town so free beer at the town pub so on ans so forth basically a function to us mark where our important locations are.

There are no levels so how can there be a leveling curve?  (my bad, apparently there is some new and improved level system) The progression of difficulty in leveling is mostly an illusion of numbers as the cost and rewards as you progress continue to increase. What really matters is the time it takes to progress. Your second argument about punishing players who branch to new things at higher level is a balance issue. How do you balance the challenge of an encounter for your high level knight who decides to develop spell skills? Given more hit points and better equipment than a starting caster, your high level knight should have no problem overcoming the sewer rats that are a challenge to a beginning caster. The proper balance is achieved when takes you the same amount of time to improve your casting abilities as it does for that initiate caster. This kind of balance is not easy to attain in most games as it will completely vary by class and level.

The website and Jatar have yet to provide info on progression. Hopefully we'll have that soon :) The info so far is that there are 5 schools. So unlike multi-classing in class-based games you have a greater amount of leeway in your characters progression just within your primary school. Previous information implied that it costs to be in a guild and that cost increases as you apply to more schools. Since the game is not bound to grinding kills for xp, I think it will be easier to balance the progression of a character who has specialized for some time in a single school then tries his hand at another.

Leveling in CoS involves a new system that I can't talk about quite yet, but ignoring that part... I can still answer your question in more general terms.  Going up levels in CoS does use a familiar increased EXP system.  Example (though these numbers are pulled out of a hat) 1,000 for level 1, 2,000 for level 2, 4,000 for level three, etc.

There are good reasons why this sytem is used in CoS and many other games.  It has to do with level balancing in groups.  If a high level PC comes down and joins a low level adventure, they will gain the same amount of experience as the other members of the group, but since the other members are lower level it will benefit them more, thus helping to 'catch them up' to the higher level player.  

However, don't dispair, yes it takes more EXP to level as you get higher up, but the amount of EXP given in adventures increases as well.  Thus the speed in which you level up does not slow, but hopefully remains constant thorughout the game (as long as you are taking on adventures that match your level of experience).  

The fact that we allow PCs to create their own character 'class' really doesn't change the dynamic of this system.  Going up levels gives you points to spend on Abilities.  These points can be spent on ANY ability you wish to improve, with a couple caveats.  You must have the Tomb of Knowledge for the Ability (gained through adventuring for it) and you must currently be a member of that League, in good standing.  However nothing stops any player from doing these two things and therefore, gaining any Ability for their player that they wish.

Your worry about 'Timmy' changing his mind later on is no problem.  An Echelon 1 Ability cost the same number of Study points when you are level one as it does when you are level 200.  The number of Study points awarded at each level is the same.  So, since you gain levels at a constant rate, and are given Study points at a constant rate, and can learn any Ability at any time, there is no disadvantage to learning a new line of knowledge later.

Now, the personal diary.  We call it the Journal, and each player has one.  They can write whatever they want in their journal, and place markers on maps with links to information.  Thus they can mark a place on their map and write something about it.  When the hover their mouse over that marker it will show the title, and if they want they can click on it and expand to whatever they wrote about the place.  They can even share markers with other group members if they wish.  (Example: "Meet me at the cave I marked on the map", and when the group member looks at their map they will find a marker placed there showing the location of the cave).

Sorry, but when it coms to writing large books that players wish to share with other playrs, there will be no 'GM" based reviewing, etc. here.  We're not going to spend the time to read books that players wrote to make sure they fit the world, etc.  If players want to write that kind of thing they will need to run their own web sites and police themselves.  We have enough to do writing our own stories and ongoing changes to the daily evolving world of CoS without having to police player writing..

They also said that zones would open up based on your over all power and if you went back to a lower power zone the emenies would still be challenging as they are based on your power.

Basically the lving curve is your character build.

Originally posted by Jatar

 

There are good reasons why this sytem is used in CoS and many other games.  It has to do with level balancing in groups.  If a high level PC comes down and joins a low level adventure, they will gain the same amount of experience as the other members of the group, but since the other members are lower level it will benefit them more, thus helping to 'catch them up' to the higher level player.  

So then what's to stop high levels just powerleveling everyone? I'm assuming you plan to have some sort of check and balance for this system? Otherwise, the game will be filled with "Powerleveling 100 gold per level" and noone really playing the game.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by Jatar

 

There are good reasons why this sytem is used in CoS and many other games.  It has to do with level balancing in groups.  If a high level PC comes down and joins a low level adventure, they will gain the same amount of experience as the other members of the group, but since the other members are lower level it will benefit them more, thus helping to 'catch them up' to the higher level player.  

 

So then what's to stop high levels just powerleveling everyone? I'm assuming you plan to have some sort of check and balance for this system? Otherwise, the game will be filled with "Powerleveling 100 gold per level" and noone really playing the game.

When higher level players travel with lower level players they have to come 'down' to their area of play.  This is governed by the Citadel Tier system.  And though the challenges scale to the groups overall 'power' the amount of experience awards don't change.  Therefore, a higher level player traveling with a lower level group cannot help them advance quicker than normal, but they can join their lower level friends and go adventuring.  As a side note, you'll notice that the higher level player will be getting negligable EXP gains while doing this, so it's for the fun of it, but they won't choose to travel in lower Tiers normally if they want to advance their character at a decent pace.  Also, lower level players cannot go up to higher Tiers until they earn their way up.

All this means that power leveling assistance won't be possible.  Everyone must earn their character's progress.