p122

The key to this is it not being grindy, i think. Yes, you do get better at a task if you have done it a few times. You also get very bad at it if it is all you do. (which is one of the reasons why assembly line workers get rotated.) But I digress: If I get a "reward" for doing a good job as a player so my skill advances quicker, then I am all for it. If it is just a number game that a bot could do better than me, then I am feeling like I am being jerked around. But I think we are not really disagreeing here Same as above: I do not think we are disagreeing: The key balancing fact here is that newbie A should have a hard time, but it should not be impossible for them to score a victory against Veteran in Steel Armor even if they are not equipped similary. Admittingly, they might have to gang up on the veterans at least 2 : 1 if they still have stone axes, probably *nodnods* Being able to run as fast, but depleting your stamina faster in heavy armor might be the key here. Drawing/charging up the bow would slow you down, which means that with every shot, the melee guys draw closer. Yes, you can outrun them, but you cannot run-shoot-run forever. Eventually they'll catch up and then it will be quickly over. I just dislike mechanics that force you to use one tactic only: e.g.: You need to have a bow as well as a sword, otherwise you can't ever catch the light archers, or you have to do immersion breaking stuff like quick-swap your heavy plate for leather, mow down the archers, then quick swap back

Shields would be a good compromise: If plate is too powerful in defense that archery becomes non-viable, you end up with everyone wearing plate and melee again. It is a balancing act. Metal arrow-heads is a good idea, of course, but I suspect an ingot will make a stack of arrows (whatever a stack ends up being: I suspect around 16 or 24). If it is too expensive, again, people will just not make arrows (tho, if they are potentially reuseable like javelins, that might be offset.) I also really really want to see metal-tipped javelins. Alternatively: If they break, let them drop their javelin/arrow heads as an item: That way you can run out of arrows without it bankrupting you. It also would make metal tipped archery weapons viable for hunting. It can even combine the ideas: Each arrow/javelin fired has a chance of being "lost". If not lost, it has a chance of breaking and dropping an arrow/javelin head which can then be recrafted (though perhaps not by just combining with a stick, but at a carpenter table with a proper shaft made from sticks) Of course that would open up a whole new thing with arrows and javelins being dependant on what wood had been used to craft them, what feathers they use for fledging. Not even to mention different tiers of bows depending on what wood they have been crafted from, etc.

The problem with speed modifiers is the usual scenario: Player A is in plate armor and alone. Slow, lumbering. Player B is in leather, with a bow. What will happen now is that Player B will now continually run away from A, shoot an arrow, and rinse and repeat. Since A cannot run as fast as B, there won't be a way from him to catch him with a melee weapon no matter what he does. So now he has the options of switching out armor mid-combat, changing to a bow himself, or die.

As for Skills factoring into combat: There is the believability aspect and the game aspect to be considered. Skills that depend only on grinding is the main reason I personally am disgusted with most MMORPGs. I find nothing rewarding about killing 2000 rats for the next level, be it character or "Hunting"-skill. Especially if the only input the game demands from me is "click enemy, wait, rinse, repeat." That said, the Smithing system for instance provides a good example for a more "skill-based" Skill system. As it is now the closer I get to the marker, the better the worked item. It would be easy to also increase the amount of bonus to one's skill based on how good the item had been completed. That would allow experienced _players_ to level up quicker. How would that translate to the combat however? Established long time players already have the advantage: They have the better armor, the better swords and maces. How can one - without Hitlocations -factor the player skill into the character skill progression? One idea is to 'penalize' button-mashing and the odd bunny-jumping that Minecraft combat tends to end up as. With similar mechanics of the bowdraw, charging up swings and blocks might become a viable alternative to just hitting Player A repeatedly. If the only hit locations are also 'front' and 'back' blocking only becomes viable if one is not facing two opponents, as one could circle around. That said, skills should increase the fastest not for each hit, but for well placed, charged up hits. Likewise, for blocks. (What the benefits of a charged up block is might be fun to determine: Perhaps a moment of unable to attack again for the blocked player/mob?) Additionally, charged up shots should have a higher percentage to penetrate and/or negate armor (or perhaps strike the least protected hit location(s)?) Basically it are stronger, well placed blows instead of randomly plinking away at armor.