Hi Guys,
I haven't read all the inputs on leveling, but wanted to throw my two cents in. I have seen high caps and low caps and played many games where the difficulty increased, or decreased according to where you went, what section of the city, say, or in a neighborhood that you load when you cross over.
Anyway, the short of it is this.
Is it possible to have characters that don't level at all?
I mean, say i am in the woods, in the dark, in the cold, and it takes me x amount of time, to draw together wood, light tinder and some way to make fire, say flint. So my character has to find this stuff, has to go into the woods and find broken branches, go out across the meadow to find dried grass and smaller twigs for tinder and go down to the stream and dig in the rocks at the edge of the water to find flint.
But once its done, i can make fire, now i've got a way to stay warm, a way to ward off some smaller animals when it gets really dark, a way to cook food so that i don't get sick from eating uncooked food that still has germs in it and it hasn't been killed by raising the temperature of the meat. Anyway, once done this skill goes in my basket. Since that is my first one, i'm really glad, it now means that i can travel further from the encampment because i won't freeze.
Second skill is probably how to use a tool, or weapon, like using a club to kill a slow moving beaver, then skin it and cook it, the furs could be accumulative, like say i get five and now i can learn how to sew and so i make a fur coat. Keeps me alot warmer, which means i can stay out in the weather longer before having to find shelter to bring my body temperature back up.
If i don't then i die.
Then my husband sets out to find me, he comes across my now cold campsite and finds nothing, the animals probably wouldn't leave anything anyway. But he does find a bracelet of mine, which gives him a value that he can trade with other people he runs across if he has to. Or lose if he is robbed. He finds my flint stones and tinder in a pouch and so he acquires the skill that i had for making fire. In addition he travels farther south, getting into thick woods and taking limbs and rocks from the stream he smashes one stone against another and creates a sharp edged stone, which he uses as a hand axe and later fastens it to a sturdy tree limb and fashions a handled axe, which allows him to cut down larger trees and build a shelter that lasts longer than the grass and tree limb lean to's that the village where we came from uses.
So now i have two characters, one which was me and lost when i was out in the cold without shelter too long, and my husband who has acquired 'some' of my skills, the flint stones and a bracelet, however the fur coat and the sewing skill that i learned after accumulating five or so furs he doesn't get because he didn't find my coat, nor the sewing kit in the leather pouch in the pocket.
The first ten days he is out traveling after he has left the village, is the hardest, his body isn't used to it, but as time goes on, he gets strength in his legs, he can now walk 5 miles a day easily, can ration a single waterskin of water for three days and rations his travel food to hard cured jerky and water. Which means he uses less the longer he is out in the country traveling. Which means those all go into his skill basket. Walking strength, less water and food usage as time passes. He is also tougher by about 20 days out, and his stamina against smaller animals is better. Large animals are still a problem, he either has to run, or have higher ground and use heavy boulders, or sharpened sticks, that he later learns to burn the scraped ends of, and eventually to fastening with leather strips sharp cut stones to the ends of long limber sticks which he uses for spears, and adds that to his inventory of skills, so even if he loses his supply, given an area that contains the right materials he can re-fashion spears, or find food, or water, or travel far afoot.
Staying in villages, offers other things, like being able to trade, or to meet other people and learn other skills, like singing, or banjo playing, which means he is less depressed after months in the countryside, because he has a way to entertain himself.
But the longer he stays in a village, the softer the skills get that he uses in the countryside, he can't walk as far, he gets tired quicker and drinks more water and eats more food and he doesn't move as fast and it takes him longer to get a shelter built.
What all of this is, is my way of saying, why level at all? Why not implement a system where skills are learned and go into an inventory, and each has a purpose, and it goes up when its used and down in slow degrees when it isn't. And for bears and mountain lions or wolves in the wild, maybe there isn't a good counter that a person can carry on themselves, except perhaps to climb trees, or to work yourself into a wedge and use a spear to get the mountain lion before it can get all the way into the wedge and get you. Or digging a hole and covering it over with twigs and leaves as a hole trap for larger animals?
If some animals are close to the stats of humans, and some are not, i mean no way is a man ever going to take on a bear, except with his wits and a trap, or using spear after spear on him from a safe vantage.
But what i mean is, in this way, the terrain right outside the village is still dangerous, even if i've been gone for three months and have a dozen skills in my basket. And the valley on the other side of the mountains is harder and will kill me quicker in some places or is easier and less dangerous in other areas in that same valley, as much as if i was standing on the edge of the village itself. In this way, the acquiring of skills is what broadens and enables a character to better deal with the world, but it doesn't mean that once leaving the village that i can come back and everything is way easy to solve or kill, because there is no level. And places are always a mix, by the natural disasters or swamps, or rock falls or dangerous animals that migrate through there at different times of the year.
Not to offend anyone, but to be honest, i really don't care for this leveling thing. And wonder why no one has figured out something like what i propose and make it fun and interesting, but not have to worry, oh, i'm level 85 now and i can't go back across the mountains because i can whip everything there.
Seriously, i'm just a player. I'm not half as smart or inventive as developers are.
But to be honest, i haven't seen anything like this yet.
I still hope.
I'm looking forward to AVWW and want to buy it as soon as it is available.
Even if it doesn't have my dream of a level-less world.
One of these days somebody is gonna do it, haha, maybe i'll have to learn how to code and do it myself.
Sorry if i sound antagonistic on levels, it has always been such a bother when i thought something else might have been more fun.
Just my opinion though,
Thanks for listening guys,
Cheers!
-Teal
