Surf Solar
cannot into womynz
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2011
- Messages
- 8,831
So, as SCO, Destroid and Dogffdog explained the idea of not having experience points for the act of killing things here, I tried to look at the existing encounters and quests to see if it would work.
It does, though the problem is that there is lots of branching, you'll never see the entire game and all quests in one playthrough. This makes the number of quests/stuff to do appear a bit smaller than the sum of them all is on the paper. This would mean, that I either have to increase the xp values gained through these actions Destroid described, I do even more quests (time consuming but will do anyway), or the game stays entirely as a low level campaign (which could be interesting too, but I'd prefer the players having access to late game perks and mechanics to make the character progression more interesting.
So, here's a scenario what could happen with random encounters:
- You'll still meet them on the worldmap just like the ones you know from Fallout/Fallout 2. They are a bit fewer, but the travelling speed is a bit slower (depends on more factors than just outdoorsman, I will later explain) - the chance to avoid them (making them optional) is much higher though because: They aren't those open plain maps like you know from Fallout (where you could just escape in all directions to the next exit grid), they're rather large (most of them) and use the terrain (different heights, places to hide) much more. This was again inspired by various Infinity Engine games (mostly IWDII) - I wanted to design those random encounters more like traditional encounters there, not just the "shoot thing xy till its dead - or you" approach fallout did, because quite frankly, it gets boring after a while.
- You'd get no xp for killing creatures in these encounters, but (provided you have the knowledge) can loot an animals hide, the claws and whatnot to use for crafting your own stuff or for bartering.
- There'd be multiple ways to go through those encounter maps (sneaking, setting traps and luring the critters in, taking the more dangerous route across a hill etc) and upon leaving the map, you'd get xp for solving the encounter (as if it was some kind of adventure).
- Due to the more increased amount of crafting components then, you'd get little to no xp for crafting (so no one can collect hundreds of molerat claws and upgrade some gloves (=creating a new item) like a madman to level up..
Another option would be to scrap the encounters on the worldmap completely and implement some "hunting grounds" - maps you can buy from trappers which then pop up on your worldmap to go hunting. This would completely remove the "barriers" on the worldmap discouraging low level players to travel to higher level areas, but I have already inserted some small barriers in the level design, so one cannot go directly from the first to the last location without preparation.
Option three would be to mix them both, not sure.
As for the no-xp-for-killing mechanic in actual quests, this is pretty straightforward. As Destroid described, depending how you solved the quest (sneaky, diplomacy etc) you'd gain an xp reward. This'd be the easiest thing to do, aswell as removing the actual (*gained n-xp for slaughtering this creature) mechanic.
Tell me what you think.
It does, though the problem is that there is lots of branching, you'll never see the entire game and all quests in one playthrough. This makes the number of quests/stuff to do appear a bit smaller than the sum of them all is on the paper. This would mean, that I either have to increase the xp values gained through these actions Destroid described, I do even more quests (time consuming but will do anyway), or the game stays entirely as a low level campaign (which could be interesting too, but I'd prefer the players having access to late game perks and mechanics to make the character progression more interesting.
So, here's a scenario what could happen with random encounters:
- You'll still meet them on the worldmap just like the ones you know from Fallout/Fallout 2. They are a bit fewer, but the travelling speed is a bit slower (depends on more factors than just outdoorsman, I will later explain) - the chance to avoid them (making them optional) is much higher though because: They aren't those open plain maps like you know from Fallout (where you could just escape in all directions to the next exit grid), they're rather large (most of them) and use the terrain (different heights, places to hide) much more. This was again inspired by various Infinity Engine games (mostly IWDII) - I wanted to design those random encounters more like traditional encounters there, not just the "shoot thing xy till its dead - or you" approach fallout did, because quite frankly, it gets boring after a while.
- You'd get no xp for killing creatures in these encounters, but (provided you have the knowledge) can loot an animals hide, the claws and whatnot to use for crafting your own stuff or for bartering.
- There'd be multiple ways to go through those encounter maps (sneaking, setting traps and luring the critters in, taking the more dangerous route across a hill etc) and upon leaving the map, you'd get xp for solving the encounter (as if it was some kind of adventure).
- Due to the more increased amount of crafting components then, you'd get little to no xp for crafting (so no one can collect hundreds of molerat claws and upgrade some gloves (=creating a new item) like a madman to level up..
Another option would be to scrap the encounters on the worldmap completely and implement some "hunting grounds" - maps you can buy from trappers which then pop up on your worldmap to go hunting. This would completely remove the "barriers" on the worldmap discouraging low level players to travel to higher level areas, but I have already inserted some small barriers in the level design, so one cannot go directly from the first to the last location without preparation.
Option three would be to mix them both, not sure.
As for the no-xp-for-killing mechanic in actual quests, this is pretty straightforward. As Destroid described, depending how you solved the quest (sneaky, diplomacy etc) you'd gain an xp reward. This'd be the easiest thing to do, aswell as removing the actual (*gained n-xp for slaughtering this creature) mechanic.
Tell me what you think.