Day 4 thinking's.Basic scheme of character progress in roguelike:
1. Do something for
2. Gain experience points (Exp), then
3. Spend Exp to improve character’s stats/skills/perks/etc
4. GoTo 1
5. …
6. PROFIT!
Exp value easily balanced for combat actions. For non-combat actions, determine Exp value is little bit complicate.
In EliteRL player have two main activities: Fight and Trade. And I think, I know, what and how using for measuring of experience. Money
Money = Experience points
Successful trade operation gives you money.
Successful combat operation gives you bounty (Money) and/or loot -> money.
Unsuccessful actions take away you money.
Money is a measure of character (player) success.
Money can be spending for buy weapon, goods (for sell late and increase money) or skills.
Balancing.
Test variant 1.
Player spends all time for trade and accumulate huge amount of money/Exp
a) Skills/Stats/Traits limited by combat rating and can’t be increasing unlimited.
b) Huge cash in ship’s safe will attract swarm of low-caliber outlaws.
Test variant 2.
Player spends all time for combat and fast grows in combat rating.
a) High combat rating push player to face high danger enemy. Without adequate skills/equipment player will have lot of troubles in combat.
Looks fine for me.
Add:
After another meditation, after idea about experience in EliteRL, I found my previous plans about character’s class incurious. “Trader”, ”Pirate”, “Adventurer” - is too primitive.
At start, player wills choice a ship. And the ship is a class of character. Depends of type, ship has different cargo hold, weapons class, speed, turn rate, etc. And ship’s type impacts a player behavior in game. So, ship’s stats/”skills” can be improved for money, without discordance.
Probably, ship can be changed during play. For example, if ship has been destroyed and character escapes in escape pod, after docking, player can choose new ship type.
