The Ghost of Christmas Future, II

[Oddity]

cap attack deltas something something... (Maybe exclude characters that are below a certain level, eg. 50 UC or MC, so you still need to put some points into a combat skill)

Sounds like you've already got the idea here:

Up to N points worth of difference (in everything useful, per some metric) will cause improvements to your combat results relative a player who has less than yourself, but improving beyond N implies no further gain.

Under a regime like that there would still be every reason to grind infinitely to keep up with the joneses, but you will also never be more than N points better than a fresh n00b, and we can hopefully then work to balance N toward a number that seems reasonable.

[LadyV]

@Jorb In your original post video there is a scene of mining the wall next to a metal stockpile. A section is mined out but a thin wall of stone remains. Is there anew way to reinforce cave walls so as to make them walls and not break easily in mining or something else?

[jorb]

@Jorb In your original post video there is a scene of mining the wall next to a metal stockpile. A section is mined out but a thin wall of stone remains. Is there anew way to reinforce cave walls so as to make them walls and not break easily in mining or something else?

Not now, but I have considered it myself.

[bmjclark]

We will, under all circumstances, most likely be working with relative improvements from stat gains, i.e....

Up to N points worth of difference (in everything useful, per some metric) will cause improvements to your combat results relative a player who has less than yourself, but improving beyond N implies no further gain.

Under a regime like that there would still be every reason to grind infinitely to keep up with the joneses, but you will also never be more than N points better than a fresh n00b, and we can hopefully then work to balance N toward a number that seems reasonable.

Off the top of my hat I feel that a difference of N between two players of equal skill should imply perhaps a 70-80% win ratio for the better leveled character, ceteris paribus.

Even entirely new characters should then still have some potential use in combat, hopefully without causing too much problems on the alting side of things.

I'm just gonna put this out here. A 20-30% win rate is good enough odds that investing absolutely nothing into a character and fighting those who grinded their characters for weeks/months is a pretty tempting option. Why invest months into a character when i can invest a few days (or however long it'll take to get combat skills) and move on to getting another char those same combat skills and still stand an OK chance against people who have invested months into their character? This just seems like it's going to bring combat alt armies to a new level.

I assume things are going to be quite a bit different from now as far as stats and combat go, but if it was like this right now, i'd probably fight people with 1 UA and never bother studying any curios ever. Hell, i'd probably try to gang beat people with multiple 1 UA characters because of how little investment it would be.

[jorb]

I'm just gonna put this out here. A 20-30% win rate is good enough odds that investing absolutely nothing into a character and fighting those who grinded their characters for weeks/months is a pretty tempting option. Why invest months into a character when i can invest a few days (or however long it'll take to get combat skills) and move on to getting another char those same combat skills and still stand an OK chance against people who have invested months into their character? This just seems like it's going to bring combat alt armies to a new level.

Indeed, which is why I think it might keep absurd leveling to silly levels a bit in check. The incentive to arms race is still very much there, and I believe that 70-80% is still enough of an edge to be worth pursuing.

You do not necessarily invest to go after bigger guys, but to go after guys your own size, or smaller, and there will always be those.

Interestingly enough this is true for the top factions as well.

Also, perhaps 70-80% isn't the right number, but say it was 95%? I believe that there is some number that is reasonable, and that almost any character should always have some actual win percentage against any other to keep things a bit honest.

[jorb]

Yes, alting might be an issue. I have already displayed awareness of this concern, as you can see.

[jorb]

Ideally I think there should be a bit of a cyclical tendency in terms of what strategies are successful. Big predators can rise to the top by dominating others, but can in turn be taken down by horde strategies when they've pissed off too many people. A boy can dream.

I realize that the incentives to mechanize combat through bots may continue to grow.

I have considered a server requiring biometric verification from its players, and with hired personnel administering random Turing tests through a required live camera feed. ^^

Facial recognition, retina scan. Something like that. ^^

[bmjclark]

Ideally I think there should be a bit of cyclical tendency in terms of what strategies are successful. Big predators can rise to the top by dominating others, but can in turn be taken down by horde strategies when they've pissed off too many people. A boy can dream.

I realize that the incentives to mechanize combat through bots may continue to grow.

I have considered a server requiring biometric verification from its players, and with hired personnel administering random Turing tests through a required live camera feed. ^^

Facial recognition, retina scan. Something like that. ^^

My biggest concern would just be in the absurd cases that i outlined. I do like the idea of stopping people from grinding to a silly amount of stats and killing everyone with them with no chance for the newer characters. I do definitely agree that you should stand some chance against bigger characters with low stats. But if something can be abused it'll be abused. And i find the idea of living in a world where all these alts could of done some serious damage to be terrifying .



Either way, looking forward to seeing how it turns out

[painhertz]

topkek

[bmjclark]

Glad to see you and loftar posting actively in here btw. I'm sure everyone appreciates the little hints about haven 2 even if we kind of attack you about some things