04-30-2004, 04:22 PM
Hi,
First, there's the realism factor. Experience points were a way to simplify bookkeeping in pnp games. They really don't represent anything in reality (or, rather, they represent too many things -- such as talent, training, technique, intelligence, education, blah, blah, blah). To tie experience rather than strength or agility or almost anything (yeah, even intelligence -- we all get dumb when we get tired) to fatigue is putting one crappy implementation on top of a crappy concept. It just doesn't feel right, and I think that that is at the basis of most of the gripes about this system. People would take a "you're tired, so you aren't as strong" argument better, I think.
But, second, there's the skill points. The skill points are tied to the base experience from kills. So, if a character gets most of their experience from quests and well rested kills, that character will be skill point poor, perhaps to the point of attributes suffering, but definitely to the point of not having good trade abilities. Indeed, the best way to get a good character is to get as many experience points as possible when totally wasted by killing mobs. That way, you effectively quadruple the skill points per level (another senseless abstraction from the pnp days).
Blizzard is making a great game, but at this point it's your father's RP game with graphics.
--Pete
First, there's the realism factor. Experience points were a way to simplify bookkeeping in pnp games. They really don't represent anything in reality (or, rather, they represent too many things -- such as talent, training, technique, intelligence, education, blah, blah, blah). To tie experience rather than strength or agility or almost anything (yeah, even intelligence -- we all get dumb when we get tired) to fatigue is putting one crappy implementation on top of a crappy concept. It just doesn't feel right, and I think that that is at the basis of most of the gripes about this system. People would take a "you're tired, so you aren't as strong" argument better, I think.
But, second, there's the skill points. The skill points are tied to the base experience from kills. So, if a character gets most of their experience from quests and well rested kills, that character will be skill point poor, perhaps to the point of attributes suffering, but definitely to the point of not having good trade abilities. Indeed, the best way to get a good character is to get as many experience points as possible when totally wasted by killing mobs. That way, you effectively quadruple the skill points per level (another senseless abstraction from the pnp days).
Blizzard is making a great game, but at this point it's your father's RP game with graphics.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?