Level up system

[ezze]

You might remember yalsm, a mod of mine that tries to change the level-up system.

The script system is really broken in Morrowind and so I had to write some ugly looking code and still it cannot work in all cases. So after a while I gave up, leaving the mod in public domain and beta status.


However, even after all this years I think that the idea behind is "THE WAY" to manage the level-up and OpenMW of course allows (or will allow) to implement it correctly.

So, in short (some of those are not in yalsm since the limitations of Morrowind):
- all Skills are equally easy to increase
- to increase a Skill both successes and failures count depending how difficult (chance of success) the task is. Hard tasks mean you learn by succeeding; easy tasks mean you learn by failing; ideally the character should seek for average difficulty tasks
- all Skills increase seamlessly increase Abilities (each Skill influences greatly one Attribute [the governor one in the original system], a little a second one, and almost nothing a third one and Luck)
- Skills become harder to increase the higher they are
- No caps on Skill or Abilities
- If you do not use a Skill for a while its value degrades
- Health is based on Abilities alone
- Levels are just for the random encounter and random loot

Feature request? Obviously a modding system that allows to implement this stuff with ease and comments about the idea.

[Ace (SWE)]

Well, I guess I'll have to say I'm all for having this in the game. Might be because I've been playing Morrowind with Yalsm, and it's easily the best leveling improvement mod I've tried. For all of the TES games.

When we come to a point where the modding system is complete enough for adding these types of mods, then I'm sure I'll be using this for my OpenMW playthroughs

[b15h09]

Looking forward to seeing this mod in OpenMW. I never used yalsm, due to the occasional fickle behavior, but it did intrigue me. Sounds like the perfect thing to let me put aside my compulsive min/maxing and just enjoy the game, but I tend to avoid anything that isn't properly stable. Just wanted to spitball a couple ideas on it.

"You gotta learn to walk before you can run."

If possible, maybe make skills have a 'sweet spot' for how quickly they increase? So, if using a skill that there's really very little chance of success, you don't learn much, regardless of success or failure, since you don't have the necessary fundamentals to glean full knowledge of why you failed or succeeded. Along the same lines, if you have a very high chance of success, you don't gain much knowledge.


"Luck is a skill for the ill-prepared."

Kinda extending on the other thing, if you're trying to do something with an absurdly low chance of success, it's mostly just luck that will allow you to succeed. Reflecting this, rather than making a little of all skills add to luck, how about something like, if the success rate is 20% (arbitrary number) or less, the majority of a success adds to the luck attribute (or maybe a hidden 'luck' skill that affects the attribute), rather than the skill used, and nothing gained towards luck on failure. So, if you're trying to cast a spell that only has a 6% chance of success, you don't really learn much about casting the spell, but you did get lucky.

Just some thoughts. Can't wait for OpenMW 1.0 and all the future possibilities it can bring.

[ezze]

I never though about point (2), but about point (1) I think that is essentially what I wanted to do.
Check this old topic of mine.

The best way for learning is doing action where you have 50% of success, because you equally gain both by succeeding and failing. On the other extremes instead you learn almost nothing succeeding in something with a very high success chance or failing in something you are very lousy at. This pushes the player to seek challenges at its level.

About point (2) in my "vision" Luck is slowly increased by all Skills and represents your general ability of doing everything, in fact in yalsm characters tends to be more luck than in vanilla Morrowind.
I really dislike that in many RPG characters become hyper-specialized: genius at one thing, useless at all others. So Luck is your "Jack-of-all-trades" soul. After all the Luck mechanics are exactly this, it helps you a little in everything.
I think I will change Ability name "Luck" to "Jack-of-all-trades" like in yalsm I changed the word "Class" to "Background."

[b15h09]

That makes more sense now that I understand it a bit better. I was under the impression that doing something very hard would yield better results than doing something intermediate relative to your skills. As to luck, due to the implementation, I definitely see your point, and why you'd want it raised as a general booster involving all skills (since that's what it is). Thanks for taking the time to explain it better.

[ezze]

It is true that you learn a lot succeeding in something you had a very little chance or failing something very easy. The idea is that very difficult to do so.

Anyhow, the overriding concept of my level-up system is that you are pushed looking for challenges at your level. Instead in Morrowind it would be normal to see the archmage igniting a match for improving his Destruction skill or the supreme swordmaster fighting rats to keep the touch.
In my opinion it does not make sense, the archmage have to cast well more powerful spells to improve his Destruction and the supreme swordmaster must fight or train with much more capable adversaries to keep the touch.