If you had to choose one of the below, which one you'd like most in a game.

1. By gaining experience you gain skill points that which you may spend on the skills you wish to raise.

2. By using a skill you gain skill points in that particular skill.

I kind of like Morrowind's spellswords and nightblade classes.

Though personally I enjoyed creating my own...an acrobatic destructive mage with a specialty in swords...

If you're going for realistic, micromanagement, then number two, yes...

But I actually have a soft spot for one, or even better:

3. You gain experience and your character learns abilities from a pre-determined skill set at set levels.

Like in Super Mario RPG or Revelations: Demon Slayer. There are much better examples, I'm sure. Ah, yes! Lunar! Lunar all the way! (though in Sega CD Lunar2 you were able to level up your skills...strangely this was removed in the PSX complete edition...)

It makes it a bit shallower, but also...kinda...neat. I like the incentive to level up. In that case, the customization would come from being able to control your proficiencies in other set classes (intelligence, agility...even more detailed...summoning, sword-fighting) so in the end some micromanagement is good, but I also like some skills the player *just learns*.

Did that make any sense?

Thanks for the answer, the truth about the project I'm working on is heavily inspired by Morrowind.

Buying skills feels unreal, you cut things with your sword in order to learn how to cast magic and so forth.

Learning skills as you use them lead to repetitive behaviour in order to max out one skill at a time.

Each 10th skill increase in your primary or secondary skills gave you a level, the bonuses to attributes were given according to the base attributes the skills had that summed those 10 increases up. If you only trained Magic you'd get (say) +5 Wisdom. However if you trained three Dexterity-based skills, three Strength-based ones and four Constitution-based ones you'd perhaps get +3/+3/+3 for that level.

You could also throw in a point/x-amount-of-time limit and perhaps a certain order you need to train things. Not being able to train "cross slash" until your Sword Skill is raised five steps.

I'm probably heading for #2, but I need to be sure I prevent that problem Gayo mentioned, because I also think it's annoying in such a system. I just need to work around it somehow I guess.

Thanks for your opinions guys.

I kind of liked how Morrowind would let you try to find trainers of higher ranks in order to train with a master for Gold instead. I'm going to have that as well, the only problem in the first seriously imbalanced version was that you can basically get however much gold you'd like.

I'm going to be careful and try not to repeat Morrowind's mistakes.

Quote:Originally posted by zaril

I kind of liked how Morrowind would let you try to find trainers of higher ranks in order to train with a master for Gold instead. I'm going to have that as well, the only problem in the first seriously imbalanced version was that you can basically get however much gold you'd like.

I'm going to be careful and try not to repeat Morrowind's mistakes.

Yeah, the trainers were great. The acrobatics rumour (jumping 'n' stuff) didn't actually happen half as much as some claimed. I tended to see a trainer about that and really only tended to jump a lot when making a hasty escape from some disgruntled wildlife. Besides, I had some boots of blinding speed, which got me from place to place FAST.

Troupe: well, that problem don't have to exist. basically it doesn't in my gameplan.

...er. You're suggesting that there be no skillcap? That's likely to be even more problematic if skills can be increased without bound.

the system i devised is that skill experience requirements are on an X³ curve. which means that in time you'll stop levelling your skill because you're satisfied with its level, not because you hit the cap. ofcourse there is a cap though, but if you reach it, i'm betting you put all your hours and effort in one skill.

basically the soft cap is 100, anything above it is a bonus but you're spending more and more time for less bonus increase. i don't expect anyone to hit the cap, and what the hard-cap is, will remain a mystery.

The global skillcap thing sounds just like Ultima Online, the granddaddy of the Graphical MMORPG (unless you are counting Meridian). Nothing is original. :D

I really liked the skill/level system in Morrowind. Yes, it's heavily flawed (I can LEGITIMATELY, without mods of any kind, level up to about level 25 and probably higher within about 10 minutes of the game... and most of that time is spent in the actual level-up menues), but most of the fun in Morrowind comes from being able to play the game how YOU like it. Don't like to level up that fast? Don't steal the soulgems from Galbedir. :D Granted, the temptation is there, so you have the option to remove them in about 2 minutes with a custom mod. Of course, verge games aren't usually that flexible (but could be), so doing that might not be an option.

So, I opt for option 2.5 - a fixed up Morrowind leveling system. How would I fix it you say? If I was going to specifically fix Morrowind, I would add several acrobatic moves you can accomplish - long jumps, flips, etc. Your jumping ability would be based on speed and acrobatics, but your acrobatics would only be raised by performing said acrobatic moves. Second fix - skills would only go up when performing them after a certain interval. For example, despite however many times you might be swinging that shortblade, the maximum ammount of skill you'd be able to gain from it would be 1 every 30 seconds or so. I think this would encourage more casual and varied use of your skills and discourage powerleveling at the same time. My third fix would be to completely decrease, across the board, the amount that trainers can train you. For example, whatever your starting skill, trainers would only be able to increase your skill by 10 more, and nothing over that. Since you don't gain levels by increasing your non major-minor skills, the maximum amount you could level through training would be severely decreased.

P.S. Revelations: Demon Slayer (Last Bible) had really wicked music for being released on Gameboy/GBC, particularaly the last bosses music. It's a shame you can't fight the last boss again without restarting the game. I need the GBS music archive for that game, but Zophar's Domain is mysteriously missing it. :(