Comments on: Single Player RPGs: Character Advancement Part VI http://www.epicslant.com/2009/06/single-player-rpgs-character-advancement-part-vi/ MMO design and industry commentary with a high end twist. Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:36:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Tesh http://www.epicslant.com/2009/06/single-player-rpgs-character-advancement-part-vi/comment-page-1/#comment-978 Tesh Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:59:06 +0000 http://www.epicslant.com/?p=851#comment-978 Oh, and the empty nodes in the Sphere grid were fantastic, too, as it allowed a high degree of control over your character progress. It did seem a little grindy sometimes, moving around the grid, but all in all, it was a great system. Oh, and the empty nodes in the Sphere grid were fantastic, too, as it allowed a high degree of control over your character progress. It did seem a little grindy sometimes, moving around the grid, but all in all, it was a great system.

]]> By: Tesh http://www.epicslant.com/2009/06/single-player-rpgs-character-advancement-part-vi/comment-page-1/#comment-977 Tesh Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:55:49 +0000 http://www.epicslant.com/?p=851#comment-977 The Sphere Grid was excellent, especially in the late game where you could take your character and branch out into other "classes", teaching Tidus some Black Magic or Auron some White Magic. You could also play a "no sphere grid" game and effectively limit your character's progress at any arbitrary point, for whatever reason. (Or skip uninteresting grid tangents, or go back to forks to pick up bypassed options, whatever.) I'm not really sold on the group bonus for character advancement. I don't mind groups getting bonuses or better earning potential, but I'd keep it in the gear and gold arena. Character advancement should have a standard palette available to all, and it's just the player choices that make the difference, not whether or not they were grouped up at the time. The Sphere Grid was excellent, especially in the late game where you could take your character and branch out into other “classes”, teaching Tidus some Black Magic or Auron some White Magic. You could also play a “no sphere grid” game and effectively limit your character’s progress at any arbitrary point, for whatever reason. (Or skip uninteresting grid tangents, or go back to forks to pick up bypassed options, whatever.)

I’m not really sold on the group bonus for character advancement. I don’t mind groups getting bonuses or better earning potential, but I’d keep it in the gear and gold arena. Character advancement should have a standard palette available to all, and it’s just the player choices that make the difference, not whether or not they were grouped up at the time.

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