Well, good progress has been made. An entirely revamped stats system, spendable exp system (more on this in a second), and skill points system is nearing completion. The way I am setting things up will put the infrastructure in place so that additional changes to what items do what, what weapons create what amount of damage, etc. will for the most part require no knowledge of the code base by content developers and truly rely on the SQL database to build up the various content and skill systems implemented into Drasil.
Spendable ExperienceOne thing we have recently decided to change in Drasil is how stats are increased. In most (albeit not all) RPGs, you grind away and finally hit a 'level up' point after
X amount of experience is gained, at which time you are generally given some form of 'points' you can apply to increasing your various stats. But, we have a different approach that will offer more frequent, more finite tweaking of your character that doesn't require finally hitting the big 'level up' point after grinding for 10 hours. Using a different system, sandopan and myself decided to untie your stats from your level-up event almost completely. What does this mean? It means you don't have to wait to 'level up' in order to 'level up' your various stats. Rather, you will gain experience as normal (and in some ways that you might not of thought of), and then spend those '
experience points' at any time to level up your various stats, at any time. For example, from the beginning strength may cost 102 exp. to increase, quickness may cost 84 exp, so as soon as you've gained 84 exp. you can increase your quickness, or you can save that exp. until it reaches 102 and level up strength, etc. Does this sound familiar? yes? no? It has been done before.
In this system however, your lowest level skill will generally be the skill that cost the least amount of exp to raise, so in theory you could train Strength and Agility for ages and be a mighty hulk of a warrior, but then suddenly decide to get some magic skills and find that Wisdom and Intelligence are
dirt cheap to level. To a less extreme extent this type of mechanic could be interesting, but if left unchecked completely it would lead to characters that are too over-powered in everything and do not need other players assistance, etc. This is where a class system (or hybrid class system as has been discussed by the Drasil team) could be applied. A warrior would have a much toughing exp. price to pay for Wisdom and Intelligence right from the beginning, and a mage would enjoy a cheap exp price for those skills but a tough price hike in regards to Strength and Agility. etc.
When all is completed, this new system should offer a more frequent feeling of progress rather than waiting to touch up the smallest of skills. Don't be surprised if we start using some big numbers though compared to some other RPGs that have less debth *cough* WoW *cough*. Bigger numbers that count for less mean smaller incriments. Essentially the same system, but with more frequent more finite tweaking to keep the game more interesting and give the user more finite control.
In case you don't know what the broadcast message thing is, its just a little feature where the server operator can send a world-wide message to all players that pops up an in-game messagebox type of thing to notify the world if the server is going down for maintenance, etc.