I have a slightly different approach, for a slightly different type of game....
Whatever the new name of the MUD is going to be, it's always been about hit-the-ground-running total-pk, which usually implies a classless, levelless, raceless world. All players walk in with every skill at an arbitrary value (probably 50% or so) and increase skill level with "learning", which has a lot of facets; watching other people do it, failing at it, succeeding at it, etc.
A while ago (this project has its very large peaks and valleys) the team was discussing "getting rusty" with lack of use. In effect, a player will start to lose %ages (or however we measure your ability in the area) after a certain amount of time. This has the same effect that some of the other systems proposed; your character evolves into a specific skill set because he/she simply doesn't use the other skills enough to maintain a high level of ability in them. (Having skills drop to 0% and fall off your list of usable skills, and then only get back on through watching other people use that skill has been discussed. It's a fun one to think about; that, and having mobs learn and use skills as they see them performed.)
My couple of bits.
-Visko
<PK flag> -- the flag I'd like to see Synozeer implement to forewarn of the perhaps less broad focus of our ilk. |