My game design idol is most definately Miyamoto san...so some of this may seem wierd to you RPG fans who are more influenced by other game designers... Anyhow the RPG I''m working on has much in common with FF type games...centered around the story and 5 main charactors...however I''ve been experimenting with real time combat along the lines of the Zelda games …and I want to get away from the repeditive "level-up" design structure found in many RPGs…So I''m useing a skill basied system tree…idealy when players are successful they recieve experience points, they can then use these to increase a given skill [say the current skill level is 21…to raise it to 22 costs 22 EXP…a skill can only be raised one point at a time]. When a skill gets maxed out [skill level 99] it then splits into two new skills related to the original [for example the skill "attack" could split into "stab" and "swing"…"stab" could split into "stab head" and "stab body",etc..] Altho it would be cool to have such a system develop onword to an infinate number of skill sets…It would be more reasonable to just limit the size of the tree… Also the player can only control one charactor at a time [single player game], this will allow the use of EXP in different ways for each of the five charactors…for example…one of the charactors is a fighter…while under the players control, if they press a "use EXP" key…time in the game will slow down for everything except that charactor…this would only last for 3-4 seconds and use 1 EXP…example: charactor is fighting a few creatures…the player is a bit overwhelmed and hits the "use EXP" key…now the game world moves at half speed while the charactor moves normaly…this allows the player to effectively give the charactor a short "speed burst", hitting one creature multiple times, etc until the 3-4 seconds are up…each of the five charactors have a different "use EXP" power..slow time flow, increase strength, etc… I know this is far from realistic, and that some will think it a waist of effort…but from pure gameplay design would this work?

quote: Original post by MSW
My game design idol is most definately Miyamoto san...so some of this may seem wierd to you RPG fans who are more influenced by other game designers...

I''m not influenced by any game designers. Rather, I influence myself with a myriad of experiences.

Anyway, as for your ideas, they sound pretty darn good. How about this for food for thought? Have the program keep track of how many times the player engages in certain activities. For example, 49 head shots, 17 kicks to the groin, 9 lockpicking sequences, whatever. So let the player accumulate experience at whatever they seem to engage in the most. That makes sense, doesn''t it? In other words, if you want to be better at sword thrusts, then by gosh, perhaps you should do sword thrusts. Just an idea, anyway.

Not a bad idea ...But the way I had things planned was to give out only a few EXP when killing a creature [basied on how important it is] and giveing out more EXP when players complete certain plot specific tasks..an example:

players may have to sneak into a castle...there are 5 guards in the way...if players are successful at getting past the guards without alerting ANY of them they may only recieve 50EXP...else if they draw the attention of the guards they may only recieve 3EXP and 10GP for each one killed...thus the game experience can be more diverse...

Your idea is pretty sound but I see one problem...suppose the player beats some creature within a inch of its life [thus gaining some experience]...then casts a "heal" spell on the poor thing...and continues beating on it...repeating at infanum...sure it may takes hours to build up to 50EXP [from the example above]...but it sort of nullifies the effect I wanted to have of finding ways around combat while still allowing the player to develop the charactors...

anyway, thanks for the input and..er...that original post may have come out wrong...altho Miyamoto is my major influence, I too, draw inspiration from many others.