Re: New study idea

Carl Edman (cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu)
Tue, 18 Aug 92 18:24:55 PDT

Carl Edman:
> Well, I wouldn't expect you to add much (or any) additional stuff beyond

> level 10 (though someday that might be nice). Levels above 10 should just

> give you higher skill bonuses by the standard formulas. So a Level 11 trader

> would gain just about as additional advantage in trading over a Level 10 as
> a level 10 would above a Level 9. In and of itself this would often not be
> economical, but I think the same can be said of most skills above level 6
> or 8.

> But there are some reasons why people would still study beyond level 10,
> even if that was very expensive. For one thing it is ego. I believe quite a
> few people would pay just about any price to be able to claim to be eg. the
> most powerful mage in Olympia.

> The other factor is practical. Being a level 11 mage not only means that you

> can cast spells a little bit better than a level 10 mage, but it also means

> that you can teach other level 10 mages to reach level 11 in just a few

> months. If you are the only level 11 mage than this might be worth quite a

> lot and you could charge high prices (in gold or otherwise) for offering
> your teaching services.

Rich Skrenta:
> I agree with all of this. But my concern about requiring teachers for
> reasonable study advancement is that the game will progress too slowly
> in the beginning, when none of the players have researched skills yet.
>

> And don't say "npc teachers."

OK, here are the solutions in my order of preference:

1. Initial teachers and bodyguards with faction set to the guild. These would
function as normal units and would take orders from the current guild master.
That would make guild mastership _really_ mean something again. The guild
master can do whatever he wants with those units, but he has to face
re-election every year, so if he tries to pull any nasty stunt he is very
unlikely to get reelected (This is the same situation as currently exists with
respect to guild funds). Members will expect most teachers to teach them most
of the year. After all, they want return on their investment.

2. The solution which i shouldn't mention. :-)

3. Varians solution. Essentially the return of the "magic" guild towers.

4. Consider it a non-problem. Maybe it is nice if all of magic actually has to
be _discovered_ at the beginning of the game and the structures only develop
inside the game itself.

Carl Edman


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