[WIPz] Skyrim XP

[AndalayBay]

 

 

Skyrim XP

 

 

Skyrim XP is a levelling system replacement aimed at bringing the Dungeons & Dragons character progression ruleset to Skyrim. Unlike in Oblivion, skills are no longer tied to attributes, but the levelling system is still easily exploited in some areas and unnecessarily difficult in others. There is also no experience reward for completing quests or tasks, other than money and equipment.

 

With Skyrim XP, you gain experience points for performing a variety of actions, including but not limited to completing quests, defeating enemies, picking locks and smithing weapons & armour. When you accumulate enough experience points, you will gain a level, granting you points to spend on improving whichever skills you prefer, instead of advancing skill levels by using them. Each level allows you to increase health, stamina or magicka, and pick a single perk, just like in Skyrim's original system.

 

Dungeons and Dragons Style Levelling

 

Even if you've never played a game using the Dungeons and Dragons ruleset, you're most likely familiar with the core principle its based on. The experience point system is used in almost a majority of titles featuring any kind of character progression (also known as RPG elements), from Dragon Age to Mass Effect, Deus Ex to Battlefield, Fable to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, this way of improving the proficiency of your character through experience points is and has been almost a standard in video game for many years.

 

In short, each accomplishment such as killing enemies, completing quests and finding secret locations grants you a relative number of experience points, of which you need a certain amount to get to the next level. With each level up, you improve your character in ways that are thematically unrelated to how you acquired the experience points. Given the significant differences between Skyrim's levelling system and the Dungeons and Dragons ruleset, Skyrim XP includes balancing measures taken to ensure that the player levels at an appropriate pace along with the rest of the world and its challenges.

 

Design

 

I will be working on the design of Skyrim XP over the next few months. I need to devise the levelling algorithm — how many points you need for each level — and I also need to determine how many points quest rewards should give, as well as all the other point earning opportunities. At this point, I think that the miscellaneous tasks that grant experience points will be restricted to activities like smithing, creating potions and enchanting, in other words activities that require skill. However, I would like your opinions on what should give the player experience points.

 

I will be updating this thread with details on exactly what tasks will grant the player experience points. Also, once I start designing the level-up screen, I will post screenshots and ask for feedback on that as well.

 

Features/Details

 

I'll post the design decisions or features here as I progress.

• Unused training sessions will carry over to the next level.

Edited October 19, 2015 by AndalayBay