Conumdrum with new project!

[Aphurea]

Hey guis. I am starting a new project (Well I have sort of worked on it for a while but I am not really starting it) which is a double project of sorts. One half is a Battleground type play; multiple maps of different scenarios for the usual 5v5 gameplay. Also, at the same time I will be doing to an 'instance' type of game which will consist of many dungeons belonging to the same set.

When I first started the instance project my idea was to have a tonne of instances leveling you from 1-xx and then when you hit max level you would be able to get into groups of larger members and do raids (10 players) and get better gear: basically a WoW knock-off. Here comes my problem, I decided that due to problems (Not with save/load code, but with balance and hero creation) I have changed it so that you characters are set level and all the raids/dungeons are just of different difficulty and the battlegrounds are the ones where you level from 1-16. So here comes my question: Shall I do it the original way and have it that you level and get items or shall I make it that every dungeon is its own game or should I have it a mix of both?

I am not sure if this was enough information, so if you have any questions or are interested in making some suggestions feel free to ask/comment.

 

[ZiggyMcjoney]

The idea of levels woul dgive people something to look forward to, instead of just a big set of instances that you just grind once you've tried them all.

However, without levels then you'd have the advantage of having more endgame content, which would give more options.

If it makes it easier for balance and such, it might be a good idea to go without levels, and just have items. But if you can lvie with a bit of balancing, go for the levels. Perhaps make heroic dungeons, again like WoW, for the early game dungeons .

 

[Aphurea]

See, there's problems with either side. My problem with having them all stay low level is that they will have less of a level they are looking to strive for, but then theres the whole thing of hero skills. Let's say max hero level is 50, that means with 3 or 4 skills with 1 ultimate. Each skill will go to approx level 12+... Which means either I make it that you get a new skill level every 2nd level or every 4th or whatsoever, problem with the first is that one skill gets high really fast and the rest stay weak, and the problem with the second is that the people get bored 'cause they aren't getting much 'stronger' with each level, or so it feels.

The problem with having only items or just a small amount of levels to level is that once you do do a crawl, you get items and you're onto the next, people won't feel like they are advancing. An idea I had was to make you goto level 16 fairly easily then at level 16 you can go onto raids and such for items. Problem with that is you will quickly get to level 16, then do your raids, but people will get bored of their characters rather fast, disallowing people to get to higher end content. This one seems best for Battlegrounds but I don't know.

I guess that's why I made this post.

 

[ZiggyMcjoney]

You could have a low level cap that rises fairly slowly, and make abilities scale with attributes or some other source to an extent.

 

[Aphurea]

That's actually a fairly intelligent idea.
So instead say for a healer's main skill being like
Level 1 - Heals 200
Level 2 - Heals 350
Level 3 - Heals 500
Etc
It could be like
Level 1 - Heals 4x Int
Level 2 - Heals 4.8x Int
Level 3 - Heals 5.6x Int.

That would make it possible to keep it to say cap at 16 while with every new instance you do you really would get stronger..
I originally was planning on doing DD spells as doing a percentage of your main attack but good idea.. I'll think on that.