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Development Log / Re: Dev Log #26: Alternative Experience System
« on: January 18, 2014, 03:36:00 pm »
I guess what I'm trying to say it that the neither of the XP systems should be treated as "standard" or default, because one XP system is better for certain playstyles than the other, and vice versa. The oddity system is disengaging and unadventurous for combat style characters while the classic system is unrewarding for passive players. No system is perfect, I understand that and I'm not asking for a perfect system, it's more or less the way the game treats the system that I have a slight problem with.
New players that are getting into the game and play the game "the way it's meant to be played" will pick oddity system and most likely find their choice of activity disengaging and unrewarding if they choose to play an aggressive playstyle.
I'm not trying to bash the new system, I'm laying out the potential problems it can cause down the line and explaining my experience and thoughts about it. And while the system is not supposed to be realistic my view on it is that getting better is one of the main goal of the game (because that's the way you gain access to new content traditionally) and when the activities that you choose to participate in don't progress your character, it disengages me and I spend more time collecting oddities to progress than actually doing stuff I like.
What I mean is that this system doesn't really reward all playstyles but it feels like an easy solution to another problem. And that problem is that passive playstyles don't get rewarded enough in classic, so instead of creating mechanics and reward stealthy players for their stealth playstyle (or diplomatic), the oddity system simply paint it over with a one-dimensional XP gain system that all playstyles benefit from, and from a single activity no less, without actually utilizing their playstyle, see where I'm coming from?
And I don't really know if killing stuff was the primary way to gain XP for me, it was quests (and lockpicking/hacking), killing was a part of XP gain yes but it never felt like I was required to kill stuff to progress. And I played primarily stealth characters.
New players that are getting into the game and play the game "the way it's meant to be played" will pick oddity system and most likely find their choice of activity disengaging and unrewarding if they choose to play an aggressive playstyle.
I'm not trying to bash the new system, I'm laying out the potential problems it can cause down the line and explaining my experience and thoughts about it. And while the system is not supposed to be realistic my view on it is that getting better is one of the main goal of the game (because that's the way you gain access to new content traditionally) and when the activities that you choose to participate in don't progress your character, it disengages me and I spend more time collecting oddities to progress than actually doing stuff I like.
What I mean is that this system doesn't really reward all playstyles but it feels like an easy solution to another problem. And that problem is that passive playstyles don't get rewarded enough in classic, so instead of creating mechanics and reward stealthy players for their stealth playstyle (or diplomatic), the oddity system simply paint it over with a one-dimensional XP gain system that all playstyles benefit from, and from a single activity no less, without actually utilizing their playstyle, see where I'm coming from?
And I don't really know if killing stuff was the primary way to gain XP for me, it was quests (and lockpicking/hacking), killing was a part of XP gain yes but it never felt like I was required to kill stuff to progress. And I played primarily stealth characters.
