A DBZ game I helped code on for awhile added in a cool feature where you could level up your skills a la Diablo. I always thought was kind of cool. I think it'd be another neat way to spend ability points. So, every time you leveled a skill up, it's cost droped and it's damage increased and the chance for it to be dodged/evaded would go down.
I dunno how this would go over, but maybe...5 ability points could be 1 level up for a skill. Skills would cap at level 10 or 20. Depending on how high the cap was would change how big a boost it got...probably not giant per step, maybe +3% per step. So at +20, it'd be a 60% damage increase and a 60% cost reduction, but....that would cost 100 ability points.
So, players could spend practices to put them to ability points, then spend ability points to power up skills they like.
Level up Skills
Level up Skills
Gatz Seijuro,
Owner of NarutoMUD
Owner of NarutoMUD
Re: Level up Skills
There does seem to be some support for this in the series. Early in season two, Kabuto mentions someone only getting what they need through a 'rank 10 medicine'.
I was thinking to myself earlier that one of the odd things about the way this mud is set up skill-wise is that while clearly not all things are equal on the skills, to some degree. At first I didn't consider that some skills can't be untrained, some give PSM's, some LOWER stats, and other costs inherent in some skills, there are still plenty of occasions where some skills by and far are better than others, in almost every circumstance. Regenerate is almost always a must-have. (poor Sand) Not having Regenerate just doesn't seem smart. Sure, you don't want to make it your only skill and be useless very early on, but it's so good to have, and an easy way to crush Genin exam (level 26 or 27 here), though I am sure it's just as possible there are other, easier ways to beat it. (Protip #1- set yourself up close to level and go all out early using the level as a super buff)
Anyway, The meat of this is to say that there is a lot to consider when selecting skills. So much so that I even believe that -without- being able to train and untrain this game would be impossible to play without holding hands throughout the entirety of my character.
This is also true for how Ranks should probably perform. I'd personally like to see a much more interesting system where different ranks had different costs and benefits within each skill. This could be a great lead in for Elemental attributes too. You could have two rank systems where each rank level was set-up coded to have prerequisites and modifiers.
Your first rank should be very basic, plain ol' skill, named Basic, Power,<skill name> Rank, or whatever you want to call it. This, in my opinion, has to take your jutsu category level into consideration. If there are 20 ranks, I would say something like 10 to 1 should count towards your standard rank level in every skill, so up to half.
On one end of this, it means at a minimum you would always have a lot of ranks in higher level skills, but you can just make additional ranks more expensive, plus remember we have a system where most high level skills will have multiple rank systems.
On the other end, you give low level skills the ability to rank up with many more rank levels than higher level skills, so they can be cheaper and have smaller affects. In the examples you gave, Shoumei would cost less per tick for each rank, ikioidzuku give better returns and eventually even give you more than 50%, souken would last longer at the higher ranks
Some skills, like Karyuu could have multiple Rank systems.
To understand where all this would be coming from, we expand on the levelup command to breakdown each known jutsu into it's components and how they work, code-driven.
Pretty simplistic examples, I apologize. The idea is that every skill could have ranks, and additional abilities could be added that enhance or alter jutsu. In a hypothetical skill that I like
Rasengan:
Regular ranks would simply increase power / decrease chakra cost per levels, depending on how you decide to break them up.
Power would have 2 levels at least, the first one would do something like unlock big ball Rasengan. Level 2 would be a Prerequisite (and more powerful Big ball if used that way, perhaps) for Rasen Shuriken.
Elemental could work a couple ways, but somewhere along the line it would unlock Rasen Shuriken, and perhaps give it more power with additional ranks, but you get the idea.
The point here would be that you dont need to spend a lot of time devising all these levels for skills that won't need that many, you can build upon this system to make every skill more interesting, which cuts down on development time for expanding skills once the framework is in. If you decide you need to change something, the levelup / leveldown system would allow players to redo themselves at a minimal cost, maybe even for free for a period of time if deemed appropriate, so players wouldn't have to stress out over it
I was thinking to myself earlier that one of the odd things about the way this mud is set up skill-wise is that while clearly not all things are equal on the skills, to some degree. At first I didn't consider that some skills can't be untrained, some give PSM's, some LOWER stats, and other costs inherent in some skills, there are still plenty of occasions where some skills by and far are better than others, in almost every circumstance. Regenerate is almost always a must-have. (poor Sand) Not having Regenerate just doesn't seem smart. Sure, you don't want to make it your only skill and be useless very early on, but it's so good to have, and an easy way to crush Genin exam (level 26 or 27 here), though I am sure it's just as possible there are other, easier ways to beat it. (Protip #1- set yourself up close to level and go all out early using the level as a super buff)
Anyway, The meat of this is to say that there is a lot to consider when selecting skills. So much so that I even believe that -without- being able to train and untrain this game would be impossible to play without holding hands throughout the entirety of my character.
This is also true for how Ranks should probably perform. I'd personally like to see a much more interesting system where different ranks had different costs and benefits within each skill. This could be a great lead in for Elemental attributes too. You could have two rank systems where each rank level was set-up coded to have prerequisites and modifiers.
Your first rank should be very basic, plain ol' skill, named Basic, Power,<skill name> Rank, or whatever you want to call it. This, in my opinion, has to take your jutsu category level into consideration. If there are 20 ranks, I would say something like 10 to 1 should count towards your standard rank level in every skill, so up to half.
On one end of this, it means at a minimum you would always have a lot of ranks in higher level skills, but you can just make additional ranks more expensive, plus remember we have a system where most high level skills will have multiple rank systems.
On the other end, you give low level skills the ability to rank up with many more rank levels than higher level skills, so they can be cheaper and have smaller affects. In the examples you gave, Shoumei would cost less per tick for each rank, ikioidzuku give better returns and eventually even give you more than 50%, souken would last longer at the higher ranks
Some skills, like Karyuu could have multiple Rank systems.
> skill kayruu
Karyuu Endan:
Rank: ||||||||
Focus: |||
Elemental: ||||
Hitting with 3 forms, at a cost of 80 percent less chakra, for
80 percent more damage, and 40 percent elemental damage.
To understand where all this would be coming from, we expand on the levelup command to breakdown each known jutsu into it's components and how they work, code-driven.
Code: Select all
> levelup kayruu
Kayru Endan
[R]ank: Cost PreReq Description
level 9 5 -- -90% base chakra cost, +90% base damage
level 10 20 [R]9 +120% base damage, 95% base chakra cost
> levelup shoumei
Shoumei
[R]ank: Cost PreReq Skill Description
level 4 1 -- -- -40% Base Chakra Cost
level 5 2 [R]4 -- -50% Base Chakra Cost
level 6 5 [R]5 [P]1 100 -60% Base Chakra Cost, 1 Room Range
level 7 10 [R]6 [P]2 100 -75% Base Chakra Cost, 2 Room Range
[P]ower:
level 1 2 [R]5 100 1 Room Range
level 2 5 [R]6 100 2 Room Range
Pretty simplistic examples, I apologize. The idea is that every skill could have ranks, and additional abilities could be added that enhance or alter jutsu. In a hypothetical skill that I like
Rasengan:
Regular ranks would simply increase power / decrease chakra cost per levels, depending on how you decide to break them up.
Power would have 2 levels at least, the first one would do something like unlock big ball Rasengan. Level 2 would be a Prerequisite (and more powerful Big ball if used that way, perhaps) for Rasen Shuriken.
Elemental could work a couple ways, but somewhere along the line it would unlock Rasen Shuriken, and perhaps give it more power with additional ranks, but you get the idea.
The point here would be that you dont need to spend a lot of time devising all these levels for skills that won't need that many, you can build upon this system to make every skill more interesting, which cuts down on development time for expanding skills once the framework is in. If you decide you need to change something, the levelup / leveldown system would allow players to redo themselves at a minimal cost, maybe even for free for a period of time if deemed appropriate, so players wouldn't have to stress out over it
Re: Level up Skills
Well, I was thinking of making it a bit simpler than that. Just because that level of complexity makes my head spin, I'm not sure folks would appreciate that and I'm not sure I'm that big of a fan of it. Now, I was thinking based off this, that certain levels could give you bonuses. For example, getting a skill to level 10 could boost its elemental effects.
Also, in the D2 vein, items could boost levels for things. Maybe a special charm that gives +2 to God Fist, or just +1 to Taijutsu. That could be pretty cool. My only worry is I want to avoid making it so players find 1 skill they like and go into spam-fest mode. Right now, the discouragement for that is repeatedly spamming the same attack on an NPC will rapidly reduce the damage it does. However, if you can one shot it because you spent everything to max Daibakufu +20, it doesn't matter.
I keep thinking this system might actually encourage just focusing on one skill. While, one could argue that is the "Naruto" model, it makes the "Kakashi"-type model useless if it just takes a ninja who can do one very powerful skill to one shot you.
Also, in the D2 vein, items could boost levels for things. Maybe a special charm that gives +2 to God Fist, or just +1 to Taijutsu. That could be pretty cool. My only worry is I want to avoid making it so players find 1 skill they like and go into spam-fest mode. Right now, the discouragement for that is repeatedly spamming the same attack on an NPC will rapidly reduce the damage it does. However, if you can one shot it because you spent everything to max Daibakufu +20, it doesn't matter.
I keep thinking this system might actually encourage just focusing on one skill. While, one could argue that is the "Naruto" model, it makes the "Kakashi"-type model useless if it just takes a ninja who can do one very powerful skill to one shot you.
Gatz Seijuro,
Owner of NarutoMUD
Owner of NarutoMUD
Re: Level up Skills
I really like this idea, it makes it sound as though it would give characters a chance to specialize in a skill they like, which creates character variety.
I'd like to see it so every time a skill reaches 100% you get a chance to level it up at the cost of some type of points (ability?). When you level up a skill you'd get a few options: Do more damage at the cost of more stamina use, do about the same damage but use your stamina more efficiently, or perhaps something else.
I think another aspect to consider would be making it so skills evolve as you level them up. For example, kick -> double kick -> triple kick.
The neat part about doing this is you would create a skill tree that would encourage exploring different skill options and combinations.
I'd like to see it so every time a skill reaches 100% you get a chance to level it up at the cost of some type of points (ability?). When you level up a skill you'd get a few options: Do more damage at the cost of more stamina use, do about the same damage but use your stamina more efficiently, or perhaps something else.
I think another aspect to consider would be making it so skills evolve as you level them up. For example, kick -> double kick -> triple kick.
The neat part about doing this is you would create a skill tree that would encourage exploring different skill options and combinations.