Idea: nonviolent sources of experience

[Prince of Kitties]

Because it would be nice to make the game a little friendlier to non-scumbag adventurers.

 

(Taking some hints from Sil...)

 

- Successfully applying any magical effect to a monster or NPC - charm, sleep, curse, etc. - gets you 5 XP.

- Identifying an unknown item yourself (without help from a sage) gets you 10 XP.

- Encountering any creature or NPC for the first time in a scenario gets you 15 XP.

- Entering a new dungeon, town, or wilderness square gets you 20 XP.

 

Also: add an option to require an extra keystroke (probably 'a' while in combat mode) for melee attacks.

 

tl;dr you usually have to kill at least one person/critter to finish a scenario, but it would be nice to not have to kill *every* hostile thing you encounter just to gain experience.

 

Sound cool?

[Agnessa]

As I recall, there was another non-violent experience gaining action in "A Gathering Storm" wherein one member of the party participated in a fashion show and there was a fairly hefty xp bonus for completing that (along with learning some plot-relevant info and managing to swipe a necessary key).

[Tonweya]

Agnessa: You're correct about the "Fashion Show" in "Gathering Storm", but then most Scenarios have Quests that do not involve "Damage" to Life Forms.

I, too, prefer Scenarios that at least minimize the "Damage". However, I play these "Short Stories" primarily for the Story-Line and as a way to keep my mind and hands active in my "Later Years". I make elaborate "Walk-Throughs" which include documenting the Scenes, Monsters, Items, etc. It began before the release of the Source Code when the number of experienced Authors and Players was rapidly dwindling. I try to keep an eye on this Board to assist any newer Player, if possible.

There are many locations where we can voice "Non-Violent" preferences, but this is not one of them. The Platform for these Scenarios is one of "Imperialistiic" humanity and should not be take seriously. Although these are "Games", a great many are really great stories; dare I say "Novels"? I often refer to the series we all know as, "The Arrc" by Alcritas. Until you have played that series from beginning to end, to completion, you've missed the whole point of what I'm trying to say here.

Please don't take these, or any others like these, seriously. In the long run,t will only bother you and no one else.

me

 

P.S. Imagine my surprise in "Gathering Storm" with an all-male party. ;^{

Edited March 30, 2014 by Tonweya

[keira]

This would certainly be possible--a long-term planned feature I have is a greatly simplified way of adding "hooks" or "callbacks" to many party functions. these would allow a developer to set up node chains to do anything from adding XP to all sorts of stuff.

[DeltanAmbassador]

I remember when Everquest was still in beta (I'm an old guy heh) I asked if this sort of thing was going to be possible since I'd like being a cleric and being able to level without necessarily slaughtering every little thing like fighter classes and others. Seemed much more 'in character' if I could get levels healing and curing. As it turned out there was some experience and early levels to be had, but ultimately not in any solid way. Bottom line with these kinds of games is you get further into it, and more capable at the expense of another's life (much like real life sadly whether via business or otherwise exploiting others for our benefit.) A game where you could level as high as your hack n slash brethren would either create an exp exploit, or just be too easy. And an overly easy game is a bad game.

 

An alternate option is as many do, make the game harder on yourself by not using things in the game that'd advance you quickly, or make you rich (like Alchemy in Exile 3 and Blades) or getting things you know your lower-level guys shouldn't have yet (like Major Blessing in Exile 3) until at least some higher level when it's not the spoiler it would be to a lower-level party. Correspondingly, if an exp for 'being nice' is something you desire, use the character editor to give yourself the levels or exp once in a while if you feel youd eserve it playing your party that way. Though 'cheating' if done on your honor it's a good make-shift compromsie on it actually being in a game or scenario.

 

Related idea is the 'specials' in the trainer scenarios for Blades where you get a big hunk of experience hitting them. Place those in scenarios you can trigger after doing a quest or some other notable thing besides the conventional big fish eat little fish method of gaining exp. To help resist temptation, can have them hidden and their locations revealed after completing a quest in the scenario. Haven't devled into scenario creation yet so dunno what's possible, but would assume it's doable.

[Celtic Minstrel]

It's definitely doable, and it has been done. In fact, Exile III had a pool near Fort Emergence that gave you about enough experience for one level (provided you got it early), so even Jeff has done it.