Long-term RPG progression system: Ancient Skill Scrolls

[tangar]

I wanna suggest pretty new end-game skill gain system, quite different from quite well-known 'power scroll system' ( http://www.uoguide.com/Power_Scrolls ). Thisi dea inspired by existing 'Skill Scroll system' ( http://www.cataclysmuo.com/features/scrolls ).

The most important feeling while you play MMORPG game - feeling of your character progress. Currently we got pretty interesting 'skill scroll system' which gives possibility to gain all battle GMs in no time. It's fun to have it - so newbies could catch up with old players and go PvE/PvP almost right after they start to play. But we got a gap cause of it - not much feeling of RPG progression in long-term perspective.

But actully common 'power scroll system' which used at most modern shards isn't really change anything. People get 120' skills by macroing pretty fast and it still do not give certain feeling of progress. Macroing killing feeling of RPG in UO so I suggest different approach:

1) add possibility to gain skills past 100, up to 120.
2) the only way to be able to raise skill after 100.0 - to get special Ancient Skill Scroll; it's similar to http://www.cataclysmuo.com/features/scrolls , but gives only +0.1 skill per use.
3) This scroll could be found only at High lvl monsters (like dragons, deamons & etc) with quite low ratio, like 1:5; also could be found at treasure chests and some other activities
4) Make this scroll stealable/lootable for more fun

What it would give us?

1) almost endless character progression (you would need 200 ancient scrolls to max one skill; it's killing ~1000 dragons).
2) newbie friendly system stay the same (you get all 100 skills pretty fast with current 'Skill Scroll system'). Difference between 100 and 120 skill efficency (spell damage & etc) not really much, you could kill all end-game monsters and be successful in PvP with 100 skill.
3) it motivates players to hunt in deep dungeons and give awesome feeling of true RPG game.

[tangar]

Era is important. But we need do not sit at one place forever, server has to go forward or players would eventually quit.

What it would change to Era battle system? Nothing actually. PvE/PvP mechanics would be the same. This suggestion wouldn't influence much at game balance, but would return RPG feeling, feeling of character progression, back to UO. The only progression which most of servers have - filling your house with rares. It's pretty dull and that's why people quit UO to return sometime later to a new server, where they getting RPG feeling again.

There is no feeling of RPG character progression. Without it MMORPG becomes MMOsimulator and players loose their interest pretty fast to it

[tangar]

Thanks for active discussion. Let's continue brainstorm!

First, I wanna answer some questions, which people asked in-game and discord:

1) "Is it ok to make such endgame stuff; maybe after a while new players would complain that veterans are too strong to compete with them?"

It's totally normal for UO to have end-game goals. For example, even at OSI there is not only 120 system, but also veteran stat system which gives you +5 stats each 6 months, up to 260 ( http://www.uoguide.com/Stats ). So any new player @ OSI got 225 stats when he starts to play; with vet bonuses it could eventually become 260. 35 more stat points - it's 15% more stat points. And it doesn't influence much at game balance, everyone happy with it (even with this, quite unfair, way to get this bonus).

So yes, it's good to have end-game goals; they wouldn't ruin game balance if implemented correctly; veteran players wouldn't have too big advantage over newcommers. And also note, that it's really end-game goals; players would achive them after veeery looong time.

2) "What skills are available to go to 120?"

Battle skills, which already exit in 'skill scroll system':

Archery
Fencing
Mace Fighting
Parrying
Swordsmanship
Tactics
Wrestling

Anatomy
Healing

Evaluating Intelligence
Magery
Meditation
Resisting Spells

In future it would be interesting to add there more skills, but for now it's enough (content for several years of playing for regular player).

3) "how would scaling these skills work?"

We need to take into consideration that we don't have skillcap, so 100 vs 120 skill has to be not too much difference or it would make too big impact at game balance. So I suggest to start with careful numbers, like ~7% (5-10%) bonus for 120 skill. How it would influence game?

Example: right now Flamestrike do ~50 dmg; with 120 magery+eval could to do ~55 damage VS 100 resist; and VS 120 resist spells' it would be ~52. Changing not much, but still good to have extra bonus; it's good motivation to continue playing, right?

Of course, this will take a lot of time if we are to balance all skills to scale up to 120. The good thing there - it could be made 'on fly'; this isn't hardcoded and devs could reassign it anytime if there would be balance problems. It will be a big project for sure, but it will help keep players motivated. It's would be not just another macroing paradise, but actually true adventure. Hunting monsters in UO it's not just 'grinding'; there would be a lot of PvP action around grind, so its perfectly interesting gameplay and unique situations, not just repetition like in most other MMORPGs.

[tangar]

No gap there. It's such small influence to the gap which already exist - when if newbie would fight guy in Moon Rock armour and top artifact weapons XD And nobody complains. Why? Cause most important thing in UO - your playing skill and coordination between players. It's what matters, not +- 5 damage from flamestrike. If you know how to play - you would kill Moon Rock guy beign with iron

Also, note that it would take soooo long for people to gain this skills; years actually. Power Curve wouldn't get high fast this way.

And another very important thing - this would make server very unique place; the only place with real RPG progression, not afk-macro-sparrying nonsense.