The problem with a lot of MMORPG’s is that within a month or six, there are recipes for how to build this type, or that type. Where is the fun in that? We here consider the discovery of this or that in relation to character development to be a challenge, and part of the game itself. There is absolutely no benefit to being able to simply follow a recipe for building your character. There is another big thing at play here: experimentation. One of the things I actually like about testing abilities is doing so with others. Experimentation with skills, attributes and abilities with friends is always fun.

So, what are we doing with the character system in Emerald Kingdom? A number of fun things. Let me break out a few things here:

  • No numeric stats: This one is easy. Public facing numerics are, in our opinion, bad. They lead to recipes, but more than that, they lead to stat whoring. We don’t like stat whoring. It annoys us. In place of client facing numerics, we will simply move the numbers to the back end, and used named attributes. There are other games which do this, so we are not exactly breaking a mold here.
  • Your attributes and stats are not static: they can go up, they can go down. Same with skills. There will be no class locking in Emerald Kingdom. Mainly because, we don’t feel you should have to start over if you are unhappy. This, along with static and numeric stats that can’t be changed amounts to punching the player.
  • Plug in attributes: we are working on a system where you can combine the usual and basic six attributes (STR, DEX, INT, VIT, CHA, LUK) into different permutations. Originally, we started with a table like this:
STR

DEX

 DEX

STR

 CHA

STR

 LUK

STR

 INT

STR

 VIT

STR
STR

CHA

 DEX

CHA

 CHA

DEX

 LUK

CHA

 INT

CHA

 VIT

CHA
STR

LUK

 DEX

LUK

 CHA

LUK

 LUK

DEX

 INT

LUK

 VIT

LUK
STR

INT

 DEX

INT

 CHA

INT

 LUK

INT

 INT

DEX

 VIT

INT
STR

VIT

 DEX

VIT

 CHA

VIT

 LUK

VIT

 INT

VIT

 VIT

DEX

But then, someone (Amesha) pointed out something crucial…

“Unless you plan to weight one stat in each pair more than the other (which I didn’t think you were) those would be a duplicate combination. To put it another way, is 1 + 2 is the same as 2 + 1?”

Great point. We let that sit for awhile, to think about it. We came up with another wonderful table at that point, (this time with some ideas for the names of the stats):

STR DEX CHA LUK INT VIT
STR NULL Power Magnetism Appearance Resoluteness Vigor
DEX NULL NULL Artistry Aptitude Cleverness Quickness
CHA NULL — NULL Glamor Charm Serendipity
LUK NULL — — NULL Guile Presence
INT NULL — — — NULL Verve
VIT NULL — — — — NULL

But then, as we were getting StoryTeller to connect to the main server, I made mention of the whole 1+2 = or != to 2+1 argument. To which someone pointed out: using a system where STR+DEX does something different than DEX+STR would make for an awesome discovery moment for a player. Especially because there are no numerics visible to the player. It provides for an “oh wow” moment. Another made a comment that, until this is play tested we have no real way of knowing.

I think, however…this is how I am going to lean in terms of Attributes. So, we will probably wind up with a table that looks like:

STR DEX CHA LUK INT VIT
STR NULL Power Magnetism Appearance Resoluteness Vigor
DEX Named NULL Artistry Aptitude Cleverness Quickness
CHA Named Named NULL Glamor Charm Serendipity
LUK Named Named Named NULL Guile Presence
INT Named Named Named Named NULL Verve
VIT Named Named Named Named Named NULL

Of course, we will need to come up with some more names for attribute permutations. Another thing we will have to think about is, which stat wins in a permutation? Backend wise, if STR has a weighted average score higher than DEX, how does that work not only for STR+DEX, but how does that affect DEX+STR? Something we need to carefully think about. But in the end this will give us a great spread for the Mark system.

For every major NPC (In the world of Emerald Kingdom, these are called “Sprites”, not to be confused with the term “sprite” or gamesprite”), there is a mark that can be attained. Confusia can mark a player with “The mark of curiousity”, Beatrice has the “Mark of Beatrice”, etc. These will act as attainable buffs for attributes and skills. This is important, because it allows for a great deal of flexibility. Marks will have other subtle effects as well, in terms of how people or other NPC’s view you in the world. People will percieve you differently based on whether you have been marked by say, Colleda as opposed to Taranis.

The Attribute and Skill system is still in the design phase, to be sure. But we have some pretty nifty ideas we want to play with here. Balancing it will be a big thing on the to-do list. But, overall…we believe it’s going to allow for maximum customization, without the need for a really complex interface to do so.

Now to come up with some more names for that table…