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Skill vs LvL Poll.
Lt.Deadend
Member Posts: 325
I choose skill based games,. I play them longer.
I have not seen this poll befor I think its a good one.
Comments
Skill for solo.
Levels & class for groups.
For raids or PvP or tradeskills, I dont care as long as it dont affect the grouping & soloing world in any form that my twisted mind may consider is affecting wrongly.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
This poll has been done before, but I agree not many times.
The main thing is:
1. There are very few Skill Based games out.
2. Even fewer gamers have played both Skill Based and Level Based games. So it means almost no one is elgible to even take such a poll.
UO, EvE, SWG, (and I have heard Horizons - but I have never played it so I am not 100% sure) are all 100% skill based games. SWG is unofficially UO2.
EQ, FFXI, DAoC, are examples of Level Based Games.
AO is intresting in that it is 50% Skill Based and 50% Level Based.
I personally enjoy Skill Based more, because the player has greater control and say. One's character really does have a chance to be unique. And not Paladin # 34995
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Ya,. I can see why this poll is not elgible,.But had to see if the LVL based fans out vote the skills based fans,. seeing how 99% of the games are lvl based.An Im confused as to why Developers are turning a blind eye to skill games.
Iv been waiting an waiting for that next great Skill based game,. UO,EVE,SWG Are the only games I sat down with pen an paper an charted out the best pvp build possible for my style.
Made strong characters in SWG,. but as I met the best PVPers on the server I seen they had close to the same builds,an they seems just as unbeatable as me,.came down to godly weapons. All in ALL I dont like to say bad things about SWG its one of the only games that got more than 3 months out of me.To bad,Maby ill go back in see what the huff is about the new change.
UO is just to old,. an P2P servers are ,. well ya never mind that,.My builds in UO are the ones I miss the most,.Never had a mage,axe fighters killed me the most.
Fencer/Mace/Healing/Anatomy/Tactics/Magic resist/60 hide/40 magery. had got the most kills ever for me in a pvp based game.an I used balaced stats to fend off mind blast.man that was fun.
Eve-online is where I play mostly,. but the Sci-fi can only do so much befor I need to swing a sword or cast a spell,. Im going to get GW, sounds like it can fill the void for now.
Think im turning into a forum junky with a long lost search for that perfect game lol.
Quite clearly you shouldn't have to choose.
Both should be important.
SWG proved that having no level advancement makes skill advancement only highly overpowered and unbalanced. If you can shoot for 15,000 hp, but you can only have 3,000 on a player, this makes for a very lame game.
Plenty of other games showed that putting too much emphasis on gaining more HP, abilities, and resists from levelling can make many parts of the game unbalanced as well.
Overall you need to find a balance between the two. Especially if you plan to mix PvE and PvP in the same game.
Everyone wants to become more powerful as they level. Thus it is important to have some levelling aspect that makes you more capable as you advance. At the same time, you don't want people just a few levels away from each other to be out of each other's leagues so to speak. For both grouping and PvP they should still be able to put dents in each other and make combat mechanics interesting.
Habit is not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed down the stairs one step at a time. - Mark Twain
Skills are superior in almost every way in my opinion...
Easier to balance
Easier to add/remove
Prevents the "grind effect" of having to kill the same mob 100000 times to ding
Allows for more emphasis on character customization
Allows casual gamers to compete better against powergamers
Makes AFK leeches less popular and promotes active involvement
I'm sure there's more, but I'm at work and have to go.
What greater tribute to free will than the power to question the highest of authority? What greater display of loyalty than blind faith? What greater gift than free will? What greater love than loyalty?
DAoC is both a skill and level based game. You progress through levels, but you get points each level to buy skills, and the way you spend those points can drastically alter the style of your character.
I think there are really three things involved and they can be mixed and matched as well. Levels, skills, and classes. For me, I think having classes makes it easier to balance a game (although some companies can't even get that right), but I am open to games based on skills, levels, classes, or any combo of the three as long as the end result looks fun for me.
Anarchy Online Has kind of a mix You gain a lvl u get points to put on which skills are better. But still it really dont matter. If you just do skills yeah you have more custimization of your character.
If you use the lvl system it automaticly picks the best things for that class. You still have skills that get upgrades you just dont do it yourself.
It its just a pain to lvl up yourself by puting points on what skill expecially when there is like 6 pages of skills while your in a party and you are fighting or your waiting on pple to get there stats up. Thats why I like games that do it for you.
I see no point on doing skills your self, you want to make the best possible character dont you? Why not let the game do it for you.
erm. no. that is still a Level based system or then every game out there is an hybrid of sort.
Skill based means that your character is not measured by level but by a selection of skills, which progression is measured not in how many monsters you kill/quest you complete but on how often you use said skill.
As such, DAoC is a 100% level based game as much as combat is concerned. it is a skill system for crafting (as many others).
As for the main discussion. A skill system tends to gives some more freedom of choice to the player, but the progression of both is not exactly different.
We are speaking of killing 10000 monster to achieve level 50 or kill same number to achieve Master pistoleer. They boils down to the same thing, differences are in how the Devs set up you gain those advancements.
Also, the freedom of choice is relative. Ususally it pays off to be a specialist more than a jack of all trades. Go ahead and try, for example, in UO to have 70 skills at 10 level instead of 7 at 100. or in SWG to use all your points on the first 6 base professions instead of getting any advanced.
In both cases you are left with a crappy character able to do nothing well and everything badly.
Skill system has an advantage, however. it is remarkably simple, ususally, to pick many things up at start, so having a taste of things to come and then drop what you do not want. And yes, it has some more freedom of choice, limited by the Devs as much as they please. (for example, again in SWG, it is easy to be a master combat profession and something else. so many different possibilities are open, but for how pre requisites are set, some classes are almost exclusive. namely commando and Bounty hunter)
My ex Bio-engineer in SWG tried all the 6 basic professions as the skill points allowed me to do so, so trial and error are a good positive point for skill system.
At the end of the day, i slightly prefer the skill system. Not that much, though, to not consider a level based game. Not at all. I think both system can lead to great advancement of characters.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
erm. no. that is still a Level based system or then every game out there is an hybrid of sort.
Skill based means that your character is not measured by level but by a selection of skills, which progression is measured not in how many monsters you kill/quest you complete but on how often you use said skill.
As such, DAoC is a 100% level based game as much as combat is concerned. it is a skill system for crafting (as many others).
As for the main discussion. A skill system tends to gives some more freedom of choice to the player, but the progression of both is not exactly different.
We are speaking of killing 10000 monster to achieve level 50 or kill same number to achieve Master pistoleer. They boils down to the same thing, differences are in how the Devs set up you gain those advancements.
Also, the freedom of choice is relative. Ususally it pays off to be a specialist more than a jack of all trades. Go ahead and try, for example, in UO to have 70 skills at 10 level instead of 7 at 100. or in SWG to use all your points on the first 6 base professions instead of getting any advanced.
In both cases you are left with a crappy character able to do nothing well and everything badly.
Skill system has an advantage, however. it is remarkably simple, ususally, to pick many things up at start, so having a taste of things to come and then drop what you do not want. And yes, it has some more freedom of choice, limited by the Devs as much as they please. (for example, again in SWG, it is easy to be a master combat profession and something else. so many different possibilities are open, but for how pre requisites are set, some classes are almost exclusive. namely commando and Bounty hunter)
My ex Bio-engineer in SWG tried all the 6 basic professions as the skill points allowed me to do so, so trial and error are a good positive point for skill system.
At the end of the day, i slightly prefer the skill system. Not that much, though, to not consider a level based game. Not at all. I think both system can lead to great advancement of characters.
/signed
What greater tribute to free will than the power to question the highest of authority? What greater display of loyalty than blind faith? What greater gift than free will? What greater love than loyalty?
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A poll like this really makes you wonder. 20% of the voters perfer level based games but 90% of the games on the market are level based. Something doesnt add up, either voters just clicked the first choice just to get the results, or a great deal of voters havent even played skill based. If these are accurate results, more games need to be listening. I find it hard to believe that after 4-5 years of great MMO game increases, and if the number of people who perfer skillbase is this high, that more skillbased MMO's are out on the market.
^sorry about this post, its a little confusing lol
I greatly perfer skillbased myself, i refuse to play a level based anymore...
-currently waiting for Darkfall-
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
The thing is that most game makers are pansies and they just make something exactly like what was a success before. In this case, it's Everquest. But the things is, if you make the same thing over and over, then people will get bored of it. Which is what is happening with the market.
There are games out there that innovate that are being made right now, but you have to dig to look for them. They're using different methods for making their games, in every aspect. Roma Victor is one of those.
Not only that, Roma Victor has combat that is basically like Morrowind's combat, but even more sophisticated. It's going to be a great game.
_______________________________________________________________________
Looking forward (cautiously) to: Age of Conan, Dark Solstice, Armada Online.
Will soon try: Guild Wars
Overall: Amazed and bewhildered at the current sad state of the artform of gaming.
I like a skill based MMORPG... I play RYL and thats a good skill based MMO game for me.. Even when it comes to PvP, skill must be the priority..
Sweet, Just Sweet
Danaya, RYL is a LVL based game bro,Not skill based.
Maby alot of people taking this pole have no idea,.Maby Im Just old, an skill based is old school.
Gaming today is not what it used to be... but everything constantly evolves, and there will still be good games coming out all the time. The market may even change to something where innovation and taking chances is more accepted.. it's pretty much a sure thing that it will.
The beauty part is, too, that basically anybody can make a game if they want to. This is why you've gotta dig to find the good ones now. The ones that are the most hyped are 99% of the time the ones that don't innovate. But the ones that innovate are a majority of the time the ones that aren't hyped.
The thing is, it's worth the dig to find the good stuff, and when you do, it's not something that will be spoiled by the game makers being the types of people who will bend to whatever the masses want them to do.
There's lots of people out there that will just accept whatever is "supposed" to be good as good. Developing a discerning taste and being able to find the good stuff, regardless of what the people with the money say you should think about it, can only be a good thing.
_______________________________________________________________________
Looking forward (cautiously) to: Age of Conan, Dark Solstice, Armada Online.
Will soon try: Guild Wars
Overall: Amazed and bewhildered at the current sad state of the artform of gaming.
In skill-based games, the devs have to individually design every creature for battle. This is much harder and contains more work than just give yuor standard mob some attack points and a skin. Thus, lvl-based games rule even though people prefer the opposite. This is also why $OE converted to lvl-based in SWG in the Combat Upgrade, and to get away with implementing the routines from their other milk-cow, EQ. No heart, only business. As someone said, the corporate deathgrip.
After UO and pre-CU SWG, I'm just waiting for the next good-looking skill-based mmo(r)pg. Wow I wish someone like Obsidian for example could take up the flag and show how things are done. Funcom does a good job, but I really want to get out of my ship and move my avatar freely before I will get bothered:)
Darkfall is 100% skill based so it might be worth a look.