Seems like a genius idea that not many MMOs have tried to run with well. Warcraft's skills are the pits.
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Is the skill system patented or something?
- Thread starter Gamer_Goblin
- Start date
- Watchers 4
OOC: Even if it were, you could make a game with a skill system, claiming prior art from, say, Wizardry Bane of the Cosmic Forge of 1990 which is more than 20 years ago.
It's definitely harder, it's much harder to balance individual skills vs class-based skill-sets.
The character creation/customization in UO is like no other, Level-based games are more like paper-rock-scissors.
UO you could make pretty much just about any template and if you play it right, you can win against anything.
Level-based games also tend to become item-based at the end of the leveling process. Some would argue UO is item-based (to an extent it really is), but it's not item based in the way the best gear automatically wins, like what you'd typically experience in most other level-based games.
UO, you can use low-end gear and still beat someone that's decked out in high end legendaries. it could be tough, but it's far from impossible.
/start sarcasm
Compared to pre-AoS, UO went from zero to 100% item based in under 2 seconds...
Having two players with the exact same (RL) skill, experience & char template and one is just wearing GM armor & weapon whilethe other has a maxed out leg suit, I would know on whom I'd put my money.
Also in a good and balanced level-system based game you can archieve quite a lot even with undergeard chars, if you know how to manage your abilites & cooldowns you have at your disposal. End content is usually raiding or challenge dungeons. In both cases you have to deal with mob groups and bosses with complex mechanics, like movement heavy bosses, dps checks, hps checks, heavy CC, role calls etc... That's exactly where high end gear is required, especially for dps & hps checks or tank avoidance/damage mitigation.
In UO bosses are quite stupid and thus are usually just huge bullet sponges. Plus you can resurrect as often as you want during an encounter.
Bottom line, that's just comparing apples to oranges.
Lord Trollo
Adventurer
I actually own the rights and have given everyone full permission to use them.
Like was said I imagine it's just far simpler to balance a class based game in both terms of power and flow of experience, and simper for people to drop into having to make fewer choices.
Only works in UO since there is no real End game content, in UO it was all about Role play and making it yourself.
New games are not designed to work with this system of skill increase as everyone would be moaning about being max level and bored with end game content within the 1st month of a new game being released..............oh wait, they do.
New games are not designed to work with this system of skill increase as everyone would be moaning about being max level and bored with end game content within the 1st month of a new game being released..............oh wait, they do.
Gotta agree the level of obvious cheating I have saw over this winter season back eclipses any I have seen in the past. It appears anything goes now days and the powers that be could care less. And I am not being sarcastic
That is entirely accurate since very powerful vanquishing weapons and later good runic-crafted weapons did have their heyday at various points prior to AoS. Still, the game's focus was a lot more item based afterwards, though template can still be very important. A sampire armor set doesn't just work on any random character for example. So it would be more accurate to say that after AoS, UO went from ~10% item based to ~75%. Part of this was insurance. Before insurance, there were powerful weapons, but people risked losing them, so often they only used what they could afford to lose. After insurance, it made sense to use the best gear for the task at hand always. I would also argue it is still possible to use an inexpensive set and be mostly competent in most aspects of game, except PvP.
As for the original question, I believe some game system mechanics themselves can't be patented or copyrighted, but the arrangement can be. While it can be a complicated issue (example: Scrabble/Scrabulous lawsuit), there are a lot of percentage-based skill systems (RuneQuest was probably one of the first to use the percentile die), so another game could have a similar skill system, though the exact list of skills and how they work would vary.