Practice % - Training Potential

I would like to make a proposition on the percentage of skill learnt when practicing.

Intro:

Its always been a 'pet peeve' (but nothing serious if you know what I mean) about the amount of time spent training which we all know is the backbone of any solid character. No one will survive without having trained to 100% in the crucial skills needed to survive.

Problem:

I've asked a few people around the mud in different aspects of play, from the hardcore rp'ers to the hardcore pk'ers and all those in between.

Its in general concensus that whilst training is needed, its a pain in the ***.

Now dont get me wrong. Training is NEEDED in this game. If everyone just practiced to 100% then it would be nigh pointless rolling alot of things.

But all in all, people agree that training does take a large chunk of time by the most part - time many of us with busy lives would prefer spending in the mud, creating memorable battles and experiences.

The Solution:

How about we change the %'s of practices.

I propose we change the standard training of 33% for one practice and 75% for two practices.

How about we make it **44% for one practice **and **85% for the second **- elves/gnomes still learning to 85% in one.

Reasons to consider:

1. People do not have time to spend hours and hours on training, and it can be a bit of a put off.

2. Newer players do not know the most effective ways to train and it can seem like an impossible task for a long time.

3. It will allow more people to spend time ranking - a problem these days as our numbers slowly increase from a smallish pool.

Results on and in the mud:

1. The people who want to train to 100% will still do just that.

2. The people who want to train from one practice can still do just that.

3. It will give newer players a much better fighting chance not only

at training, but at surviving without training (which they may not know

how best to do)

1. It will reduce the amount of time trianing over all.

2. It will in no way "unbalance" the mud.

3. It will allow newer players who want to play and learn more then they want to train a better fighting chance at the top. - it most certainly wont prevent them from being killed by the likes of triathix, but it may help just that little bit more in many regards.

Please, I'd really like some thoughtful and serious discussion on this, tear it apart, build it up, but for the love of bryntrysts momma - keep it productive.

What do you consider crucial skills?

Also, will all races be able to learn in two? Or are you just speaking in terms of the 17-21 Int score races?

As for new players not knowing how to train... share the knowledge. Tell them. If you see them doing it wrong, let them know in game. "you tell newbie, "I see you honing your skills... I happen to know a better way that will drastically shorten your time." if you're evil, "you tell newbie, "HAH! You think that is the best way to do that? It's no wonder your race is notoriously regarded as idiots... you don't even know that is better!"

I find the biggest pain in playing FL is to be rolling a character, spending any more than 10 minutes at the roller screen upsets me. What would upset me if I was a newbie is if I spent 20 minutes there, got what I thought was a good roll, got to 40 with a guy I loved only to find out that I screwed myself with a 44 on a human mage.

That is what the forums are for. A wealth of knowledge can be found here and all new players should be sent here. This is where they'll learn about everything, really.

But.. in all things. This is how we channel our dedication as a player to get that extra stat, or that extra hand up in the game. We put in the time. Yes, you need to train... but in my eyes, the only crucial abilities are defenses and maybe half your weapons... maybe. And weapons will master has your rank, defenses take no time.

Mages... they're easy. Sit in a savant area and spam. You'll level and you'll get masteries.

Why do we have things like rolling a character or hours of training? I dunno, I guess it's a throw back to the hay day of RPGs, MUDs, and everything similar. Other systems work well without them, but we hold on to them for nostalgia reasons.

I feel the system is fine. But I understand your frustrations and points.

a-g

Yeah I don't know about this. To be honest, I always favored a system where you don't practice anything, you just train it up from 25% but the training goes much faster depending on your int. What you're proposing is basically just a small decrease in training time, since everybody knows 90-100 takes way longer than 75-85, and the difference in your skills' effectiveness is negligible also.

I know training is annoying to some people, but come on. So is ranking, questing, dying, re-equipping. Does that mean we should all start at level 20, get double xp from quests, and be automatically given a suit of mithril/tainted upon resurrection? Cutting the time it takes to get to the "good part" of the game is admirable, but without the grind, you lose the attachment to your character. It is a price you pay to have something good.

I seriously dont even see how those two arguments are valid.

Im not saying remove training all together, Im just saying reduce the amount of training needed as well as give those who dont train (particularly those new to the game) a better chance at survival.

I have always trained and will always train no matter what the time it takes to train. This isnt about me cutting down the amount of train time because "I find it annoying," or because "I want life made easier." I've suggested an idea that will help settle the score. Those of us who choose to train detect invis to 100% can still do that. Its the way you excell and thats common knowledge.

This is about a VERY minor change, nothing as crazy as what you've suggested Anoneemus. Increasing 2 practice training from 75% to 85% us hardly what I would call game breaking, but it will give many people that needed edge/respite from our busy schedules.

EDIT: For someone who spends 100% of their mud time on the newbie channel on all their pinns, I can tell you now that I dont see hundreds of people directing people how to do things better IG. Alot of people have their own agenda and rightly so and many newbs dont know who to ask for what. Plus, playing a game where you have to sit and do the same thing for 30 hours training can be off putting i'd say. We all did it, but for every 100 players that come through, how many see that and are put off? -food for thought-

I like the idea a lot.

I like the idea a ton.

i dont like the idea. but i understand why you're proposing it. just cant bring myself to support easing training anymore than it has been. MUDs in general are a shut-in's world.

I'm not saying it's crazy, it will obviously be a popular suggestion because everybody wants to spend less time training. I also would love to practice my skills to 85% instead of 75%. However, I don't think it's right. FL is already incredibly fast with training, ranking, everything compared to other MUDs and MMOs. You can speed it up a little, but where does it end? Once people get used to 85% they'll start to think it still takes too long and they'll want 90%, and then 100%, and then every day is Halloween. I just believe what we have now is already a good balance of time-wasting, if not too fast as it is.

I'm not trying to come off as confrontational, I respect you Aulian, and even I would love the extra time I'd get from this change. I just think, y'know, everything you do to improve your character takes time, and the wasting of time in order to improve your character is the whole basis of RPGs.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just boost skill/spell learn rates across the board?

Wouldn't it be simpler to just boost skill/spell learn rates across the board?

Now that's what I'd like to see, more accurately a deeper curve for how int affects training time. Drows will train way faster, humans a little bit faster, minotaurs about the same. That way if you don't have a lot of time on your hands you can always choose a high-int race. Might have to change some xp penalties with that idea though.

Im not saying mine is the best option - just what I managed to come up with.

I think anything that affects everyones ability to compete would be a good addage, as long as it doesnt effect the balance of the game.

I agree with Pali. I'd rather just see a global increase in the rate at which things are learned. It would make a lot of the current training issues better, such as training weapons on monks, training spells on heavily spell dependent classes (battlemages & shamans, two classes I will probably never play again just because of the sheer amount of **** you have to train), etc.

I find Batlemages not that hard to train. Shamans on other hand, ouch!!!.

Other than Defences, some favorite weapons and Word of Recall, you don't need to train that much. 75% works good enuff on most cases.

Many times i see people at 30 mastering things... that is a boring way to do it.

Training a bit of the above and then Poweranking to 50 makes it go a lot faster.

I'm impartial, I haven't trained a character in years. Most things needed will get there from ranking(aslong as your the tanker). Though I do remember past characters training, and to be honest I never thought it was all that difficult or time consuming. Though, thinking back on the amount of hours those characters had, I probably just had a heck of a lot more free time back then and enjoyed seeing You have Mastered ^*^$&|! I will agree shamans though were a pain to train compared to most others. I trained both Covus's I had, and both times it took twice as much time to train as most melee's i trained, and Covus was a drow!

So, in short, training? pfft! who needs it?

There is a sickly perk

a-g

Monks training weapons is insane.

Going from playing a berserker and having all my weapons

Mastered within a day, then going to having mastered one weapon

with my monk in 2 days.. the reason it took so long getting that one

weapon is because it was soo slow i couldn't get the motivation to

watch my single attack every tick, it was just way to slow

Rage does wonders for Zerk weapons...

If you know which mobs are immune to what, shamans are VERY easy to train. Battlemages are also very simple to train... most of their spells you can do just on your own somewhere.

Perhaps we could add a new perk, defensive. It will start you off with all defenses mastered? This won't unbalance the game, because everyone (not new) here already masters all defenses relatively quickly.

Maybe a new type of "perk" called a "Learning path" or something along those lines.

Base it on your character's RP (or powergaming stand point).

What you do is at creation pick one of a few choices. Martial, Temporal, or Holy. Then, from there you pick your school of interest. You learn things from those schools faster, however, you may have a learning disability because of your concentration in that school. Basically, you trade having an easier time training some things for having a more difficult time with others. The trick is to balance it out so that it isn't always going to help you to do one thing over the other, it just depends on personal preferance.

So, martial might break down to:

Martial:

Subterfuge:

-Skills that increase your ability to do things unseenly: Dirt Kicking, Trip, Hide, Sneak, Back Stab, Haggle, Extort, Riposte. You suck at: Charge, Fast Healing, Two Handed.

Leadership:

-Skills that make you a natural leader: Rescue, Warcry, Charge, Enhanced Damage. However, you suck at:

And the break down for Temporal (mage) or Holy (Communer) would be similiar, but be based off things they use.

I dunno, just an idea that sparked in my head. Just examples, btw, nothing I feel is balanced by any means (the skills I picked, that is.)

a-g