Ring - The Scoring System

[thurgond]

Here's Marjo's explanation of the scoring system for the ring:

http://www.ryzom.com/documentation/f...coring-system/

I see two problems with this:

1) It's totally based on the use of combat skills and so means story telling and other non-combat scenarios will provide neither reward for players nor rankings for authors.

2) It penalizes lower players for using skills lower than the scenario level, but rewards players for using skills above the scenario level.

Let's use an example to illustrate how it works. You are level 80 in 2H melee, 101 in heal and 183 in elemental. You enter an adventure of Advanced class (101-150):
- Each time you use your melee skill in this adventure, you won't earn RRP, as your skill is lower than the class of the adventure. However this won't prevent you from playing and enjoying the adventure itself.
- Each time you use your heal skill or your elemental skill, you will earn RRP of Advanced class because both of these skills are above the 'Advanced' level limit of 101.

I'm working on a story telling scenario that can be completed by any character that can follow dialog and no longer finds suckling yubo's a chalenge. The only kill task now is for three flegling izam (less if you guess which izam drops the reward). It includes lots of tasks and a few puzzles designed to show the different npc's point of view on the situation and lead to a reward of a long dialog from long-forgotten historical figure. Nothing that will lead to ring rewards for the players or rankings for me, no matter how engaging a story I tell.

I could up the rewards/rankings if I add a step for the slaughter of 100 suckling yubos. Everyone gets lots of RRP's, except the AoD's who kill all the yubos with a couple bomb spells. But yubo slaughter wouldn't fit the story.

On the second point, the system makes it hard to make a chalenging hack-and-slash scenario for players with skills under 200. Say you design an "advanced" 100-150 scenario balanced for 3-4 players with combat skills in the 100-150 range. The scenario could be completed by a team of 9 with skills in the 70-100 range, but they wouldn't get any RRP's. If your team of 3-4 includes a couple players who are Avatars of Something but also have 100-150 level skils, there is no penalty for getting past a tough situation using level 250 skills. The scoring system rewards the high level players and penalizes low level players. Scenarios like Rosidera Forest would get top ratings and generate lots of RRP's for players with 200+ skills and nothing for any player with sub-200 skills. It's the lower level characters who need the cats, not those with max skills.

[aardnebb]

Also the "no-trade" aspect means that you cannot use them to benefit your friends as part of a social gaming experience.

These rewards are _more_ limited than the PvP versions, take more time and effort to aquire and will unfortunately lead to "hack-n-slash" scenarios designed only for farming, while social, puzzle and other scenarios are left out in the cold...

*facepalm*

Still, it _is_ a step in the right direction and I look forward to future revisions and balancing...

[johntf]

Yay more cats ingame...

That makes my month...

(there's irony in this post btw)

Edit:actually lower levels dont need cats as much as high levels, less skill tree's, faster levelling, most lower quality cats produced by op's and ingame. In general I've found its the older players who don't get the cats in preference of the new players in guilds and game too as they can live without them but the new players all crave them inguild. Perhaps a chance for higher levels to earn some cats for themselves might not be too bad if its implemented well.

[grimjim]

Originally Posted by johntf

Yay more cats ingame...

That makes my month...

(there's irony in this post btw)

An alternate way to get them than OPs is a good thing.
The byzantine and combat-only, non-tradable way of getting them... less good.

[bradcook]

Just completing a scenario should grant at least a point. While this would still favor the hack and slash, it would at least give the RP types something without being easily exploitable.

This would also help people with lower level combat skills.

[vguerin]

Originally Posted by bradcook

Just completing a scenario should grant at least a point. While this would still favor the hack and slash, it would at least give the RP types something without being easily exploitable.

This would also help people with lower level combat skills.

I don't think anyone wants to NOT give points, there just needs to be balance. I hack and slash thru some scenario's with risk of respawning... if all I do is chat, where's the beef ?

[kaetemi]

Originally Posted by thurgond

there is no penalty for getting past a tough situation using level 250 skills

you're supposed to be rewarding people with high levels, duhh