Hi.
I Just joined as a Knight's Pledge and I would like to share some thoughts and ideas after reading the "Grinding -- Good or Bad?", if I may.
Gaining Reputation/Faction points from killing mobs when no one except ones group is around to notice/see it feels plain wrong.
How would said faction even know what just happened, really? After all I bet not a single faction uses scrying glasses, magic, or any other means, to check on every single character (Player as well as NPC) in the game all the time.
Now on larger battlefields or near villages, towns, outposts, where there are scouts and spotters able to see and report what is going on I can understand it, or losing faction standing against a mob that was attacked but not killed, if one managed to flee to report who it was that attacked, but otherwise Faction gaining/loss from killing mobs might be able to be changed to something else.
Smaller quests to change faction makes more sense, and scaling up to be larger and larger quests for larger changes once reputation exceeds certain levels.
Quests, and who does them, are easily noticed by both those liking it and those disliking it and could therefore be the way to work with a faction system.
Maybe selling trophies of certain mobs could too, and I'm sure there are other things, like reporting on an area one has explored, or stealing/liberating/finding certain objects or materials or crafting and giving/selling to them to aid in their efforts, or stopping mobs that are charging towards a town with people in it, and so on.
In short working more closely with a faction rather than simply killing said factions enemies.
I also got to thinking about XP from killing mobs and the 2 paths to chose from and got an idea that might be both fun and interesting as well as accommodate this problem (apart from level changes making lower level mobs give less XP).
Partly got this from the twitch broadcast where one could see that using weapons levelled said weapon, and spells, and so on.
What if you got "Knowledge of this mob" XP, levelling a skill about that particular kind of mob, and possibly even the subgroup of that mob? A part of that XP would go to general levelling XP but the higher your level in "this mob" the less general levelling XP would be gotten.
At some point that mob would stop generating general levelling XP completely (though not necessarily when at highest "this mob" skill level).
This would remove the normal XP/advancement grind (but maybe add in a way to get an edge over that "Giant Crustacean Spider" boss in the swamps by figuring out how to kill "Armoured Arachnids") as you would gain less and less from killing a mob, but for those that like to get that extra edge or just enjoy the game aspect of hunting a lot, there's still things to gain from killing the x amount of mobs needed to max the "this mob" skill out. And it gives another option for bored players.
Subgroup could be "Humaniod", or maybe Archai if Humanoid is too broad, while the "this mob" would be the class of the mob.
Subgroup "Soft Arachnids"; "Green Pochin Wood Spider", "Black Widow Skeleton Spider", for instance, or
Subgroup "Undead"; "Wraiths", "Unrelenting Ghoul", "Risen Cleric", and so on.
With higher "this mob" and "subgroup" levels the more bonus with fighting or handling with them too. After having hunted 200 wolves one knows their weaknesses and strengths so you'd take less damage and deal more damage to them (small percentages, not total negation), as well as maybe being able to capture them for whatever purpose, taming or breeding or selling. Might need a certain level in "this mob" to be able to capture, another to breed, and a third to tame them.
With higher level the character (perception system) would be more understanding of what kind of weapon would damage it more too and get hints of that in the Perception system. Might be good when the kind of weapon might not be fully clear (like bashing skeletons and stabbing platemailwearers and cutting or piercing most animals) but am more thinking about vulnerabilities like cold, heat, acid, and so on.
I at least would feel this to be more natural than gaining faction points from killing.
Thanks for reading all that. *grin*
Jody said:Gaining Reputation/Faction points from killing mobs when no one except ones group is around to notice/see it feels plain wrong.
How would said faction even know what just happened, really? After all I bet not a single faction uses scrying glasses, magic, or any other means, to check on every single character (Player as well as NPC) in the game all the time.
Now on larger battlefields or near villages, towns, outposts, where there are scouts and spotters able to see and report what is going on I can understand it, or losing faction standing against a mob that was attacked but not killed, if one managed to flee to report who it was that attacked, but otherwise Faction gaining/loss from killing mobs might be able to be changed to something else.
Quests, and who does them, are easily noticed by both those liking it and those disliking it and could therefore be the way to work with a faction system.
Maybe selling trophies of certain mobs could too, In short working more closely with a faction rather than simply killing said factions enemies.What if you got "Knowledge of this mob" XP, levelling a skill about that particular kind of mob, and possibly even the subgroup of that mob? A part of that XP would go to general levelling XP but the higher your level in "this mob" the less general levelling XP would be gotten.
This would remove the normal XP/advancement grind (but maybe add in a way to get an edge over that "Giant Crustacean Spider" boss in the swamps by figuring out how to kill "Armoured Arachnids") there's still things to gain (trade skill items perhaps?) from killing the x amount of mobs needed to max the "this mob" skill out. And it gives another option for bored players.
Might need a certain level in "this mob" to be able to capture, another to breed, and a third to tame them. (Making this benefit, crucial for a certian crafting path- having your own source of livestock to harvest)
There is alot I Ilke about this idea, My comment sin italics and underlined.
I bolded some of your statements to take it off in a tangent. those "trophies" could also be sold by PC's to other PC's as a quick way to earn faction BUT- because the trophy was bought insted of earned- when you go out to finish a quest the event is much harder because you do not have the experience perception of killing the mob and learning form it- also thwarting those trying to take a shortcut to faciton instead of earning it.