Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

KaVir · 01-25-2006, 05:14 PM

If someone follows the exact same branches as you then yes, they'll end up the same - but with the D&D feats or the Diablo2 skills there are still going to be literally millions of possible setups, at least several of which will be completely different; a diablo2 Amazon who focuses on spears will play differently to one who focuses on bows, just as a Sorceress who focuses on fire magic will play differently to one who specialises in ice magic.

If everyone has all of the abilities, then that results in cookie-cutter characters. Fireball might be better against mob X, icebolt against mob Y and earthquake against mob Z, but if every mage has all of those spells then there's no variety - all mages are basically the same. If you've four classes and they're all designed that way then in effect there are only four possible character builds.

Tell someone in God Wars II that you're a "mage", however, and that really doesn't narrow it down much. Do you specialise in a particular type of elemental magic (or perhaps focus on mind magic)? Do you use one of the four elemental forms, or maybe rely instead on elemental infusion? Do you take people down from a distance with ranged spells, or do you summon a soulblade, enchant your armour, cast stoneskin and go hand-to-hand? Or maybe you use summoned elementals to do your fighting while you remain invisible and watch the show? People will have an idea of the sort of things you might be capable of, but they'll have no idea what you actually can do.

Many muds try to encourage a variety of mages by having a selection of different types - perhaps there's a pyromancer, a necromancer, a mentalist, a wizard, a sorcerer, and so on. But each of these is still generally implemented as a cookie-cutter, whereby two characters of the same class will usually be almost exactly the same. The God Wars II approach instead simply says "there are many different types of mages, with the following powers available - select which powers fit your idea of a mage". It's pretty much a "create your own character class" approach.

ROM also does something along these lines, so the original poster might also consider doing a search for ROM muds.

01-25-2006, 05:14 PM	#4
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	If someone follows the exact same branches as you then yes, they'll end up the same - but with the D&D feats or the Diablo2 skills there are still going to be literally millions of possible setups, at least several of which will be completely different; a diablo2 Amazon who focuses on spears will play differently to one who focuses on bows, just as a Sorceress who focuses on fire magic will play differently to one who specialises in ice magic. If everyone has all of the abilities, then that results in cookie-cutter characters. Fireball might be better against mob X, icebolt against mob Y and earthquake against mob Z, but if every mage has all of those spells then there's no variety - all mages are basically the same. If you've four classes and they're all designed that way then in effect there are only four possible character builds. Tell someone in God Wars II that you're a "mage", however, and that really doesn't narrow it down much. Do you specialise in a particular type of elemental magic (or perhaps focus on mind magic)? Do you use one of the four elemental forms, or maybe rely instead on elemental infusion? Do you take people down from a distance with ranged spells, or do you summon a soulblade, enchant your armour, cast stoneskin and go hand-to-hand? Or maybe you use summoned elementals to do your fighting while you remain invisible and watch the show? People will have an idea of the sort of things you might be capable of, but they'll have no idea what you actually can do. Many muds try to encourage a variety of mages by having a selection of different types - perhaps there's a pyromancer, a necromancer, a mentalist, a wizard, a sorcerer, and so on. But each of these is still generally implemented as a cookie-cutter, whereby two characters of the same class will usually be almost exactly the same. The God Wars II approach instead simply says "there are many different types of mages, with the following powers available - select which powers fit your idea of a mage". It's pretty much a "create your own character class" approach. ROM also does something along these lines, so the original poster might also consider doing a search for ROM muds.