"ville" said: Back to the topic of experience gaining, have you ever played a game where experience is only awarded for quests, and killing enemies gives you something else than experience, like items or skills? I've thought about separating the two because it would be easier to balance. One of the best games ever, Deus Ex is an RPG. It has experience and a lot of killing, but the experience is only given on these ocassions: Accomplishment bonus Progress bonus Exploration bonus Area location bonus
I don't think there is any experience for killing. Most of the enemies give a modest loot (if they aren't completely exploded) in form of ammunition or less or more basic weapons. Sometimes they hold a key. Therefore, a player with full arsenal (who has no use for crude pieces like shotgun or assault rifle) can with clear conscience sneak past by crowds of enemies without suffering any penalty in later progress. The player is also motivated to use fully the capabilities of 3D space and discover some unusual locations, like air vents, rooftops, ledges, underwater tunnels, usually providing some kind of loot. (often next to remains of a previous explorer) For example, a high ledge in the city hides someone's forgotten sniper rifle and night vision goggles.
Experience can be only used on increasing skills. Special abilities are determined by augumentation canisters which are not easy to find.
As for Driftmoon, I think that things like accomplishment bonus or area location bonus are fine. But Driftmoon is basically 2D, there is not so much exploration to be done, so getting XP from killed enemies is fine too. Besides exploration, there might be XP bonus for some really ingenious solution for a quest. Instead of straightforward killing an enemy, it might be more XP-profitable to do something indirect, like loose a big boulder on a hill above the enemy's house, or throw some poisonous mushroom into the enemy's water source. Or sprinkle some magical gigantifying dust over ants crawling in his house
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