Stats

Stats/Attributes is where I'm always interested in. It has th e symbolic meaning that my character is developing into a stronger person, getting better and better.

The main thing that I disagree with most MMO's is that these stats are too easily obtained. Some games gives as much as 10 points per level. And more often so, that these stats have a linear relationship with the secondary attributes like attack. There is where the problem lies for new players. They will never be able to beat high level players with a viable chance.

People would say that's a given for high level characters, because they would be disappointed and disgraced if they lost to someone younger. Being unbeatable is their reward for their efforts. Having unbeatable characters is fatal to games that allows Player Killing (PK), because new players could never enter the game, and the game population could only reduce, and never increase, and it becomes another Ultima Online.

A revamp is necessary, to not only keep a reward for characters where effort has been put into, but also be able to accommodate new players. Providing such power to old players has to based on something other than levels now. Getting a level these days are nothing more than placing boring efforts into getting experience points, either by grinding or completing quests. Getting power should no longer be based on numbers, but on the selection of skills.

So what would be stats for in this revamp? As players are still attached to the intuition that stats are required to fulfill requirements : wielding a weapon, wearing an armor and even obtaining a skill, it is imperative that it should still stay that way. A game that answers to common sense is the better game for new players to learn.

On the part where attributes are too easily obtained, the solution would be to tone down the speed that it is given to players. Right now, the speed depends on how fast the player could get experience points.

That translates to the more active a players is, the faster he gets it. Such requirement of efforts is detrimental for casual players. These players cannot afford to spend so much time on a game, but they are the players that consists the major population of gaming markets, and the hugely untapped girl market. World of Warcraft suggested to disallow points allocation altogether and fixed it by race, and provide power to old players based on drop rates aka drops in PvE raids. Eve online provide power based on how long the character have been created, because development of skills are passive and depends on real time. It is smart because it keeps some players for a longer time, especially those who want to be the best and be known.

This revamp can be interesting. It could be used to provide more incentives to players. Some areas in the gaming world needs them, for example production skills. By tying the procurement of attribute points to the gains in production skills, players would be more tempted to put effort into production skills. But the crafts available in production skills have to be revamped too, if not it would be replacing one boring method with another boring method.

This way, attributes would be more important and more significant. But given that levels are always one of the benchmark of power, how can stats relate to level anymore once it's procurement are also based on production skills? And now that more effort are placed into getting production skills, we could have lots of overpowered characters for their level, because their stats do not commensurate their level. These are new problems created, but they could be turned into new opportunities.

The most important aspect of all the following suggestions would be to place a cap on attributes. For example, a level 10 person would have a cap of 50, spread over 7 attributes. Obtaining more than that, would not be used in a normal times, but kept as reserve. Players would be able to choose which 50 points are the normal points. I'm pretty sure that most people have seen or read comics such as DragonBall, where the characters are able to increase their power by charging up. In real life, we would relate to that as courage. These 'unlockable points' can be used in a similar way, by charging up in a fight, with a long cooldown to follow or similar. Now this could be feature !

For players who are not interested in production skills, I would still give attribute points as a reward for obtaining a level. And to give an additional reward called 'Training Points'. These 'Training Points' allows players to get additional attribute points after a certain amount of offline time. This have the effect to reduce server load, and encourage casual players to keep up.

This would leave those who pursue production skills at a disadvantage, depending on how attributes are gained from production skills. As we would know that crafters are often richer than most people, they could then use the power of money to get attribute points, such as training in a barracks. Then in addition to the those points gained, we could also introduce 'Reputation Points', which could improve certain attributes of the player.

Amongst these measure, those who stand to gain the most are probably the players who do both leveling and production skills. As such, trade offs have to be done. Their trade offs would lie in 'Training Points' and 'Reputation Points'. For a leveler, the Training Points can be bundled and obtained in less time than otherwise separately. This is an advantage for those who pursue it full time. As for a crafter, the larger gain of Reputation Points are obtained at the higher end of the scale, rewarding those who pursue it full time, but not entirely detrimental to determined newcomers.

Having said that, the concept is this.

1) Toning down the speed in obtaining attribute points. My 2 methods to coexist are:
a) A certain but slow method aka leveling.
b) An uncertain but highly beneficial aka production skills.

2) Reducing the purpose of stats into fulfilling requirements but keep the relationship of stats = power indirectly by revamping.