I think it’s no secret that character development, acquisition of new capabilities and other types of improvements are present in almost all modern games. And not only in modern. And what? After all, the players like it. Increasing some important characteristic or acquiring a useful ability is, of course, not a victory in the final battle, but still a step forward in passing the game. And in general, it’s nice that you can do something faster, stronger, or something that you couldn’t do before.
Therefore, I decided to break down what character development is like in various games. Indeed, in some cases the character develops the way you tell him, in others you can only push him in a certain direction, and sometimes nothing depends on you at all. The development itself, again, can be linear, and with many forks, and in other cases, each characteristic develops independently. And in general, you can develop not only characters, but also, say, your base or an entire army at once. In general, pumping is different from pumping.
A little history
As you know, the first leveling game (at least among those that are really known to many) is chess. A pawn that reaches the enemy edge of the field increases its level and improves to any other piece of the player’s choice. However, it is worth noting that chess (like checkers) is a rather abstract game, although it is, nominally, a reflection of the confrontation between two armies.
But among board games that are closer to reality (such as Kriegspiel, by playing which Prussian officers of the 19th century polished their strategic skills), such things are not observed. And there’s a reason for that. How long does a real fight last?? Usually a day. A few days maximum. And in reality, during such a time, an ordinary soldier will not improve his weapon skills. In any case, so much so that it was noticeable against the background of what he learned before the fight, during his preparation. Therefore, board games simulating real combat (and those were the only ones that existed at that time) did not provide for the possibility of leveling up. Moreover, in almost all of them there were no individual fighters – only units.
It’s another matter when we are talking about a game where the player controls individual characters and they do not participate in one separate battle, but explore dungeons, travel around the world, and do not only combat, but also other things. In this case, playing time can be calculated in weeks and even months. Moreover, the game Dungeons&Dragons, which was the first to develop this direction, according to the authors’ plan, was supposed to allow players to feel like heroes of works of the Sword&Sorcery genre, to which the novels of Robert E. Howard and Edgar Burroughs belong. And, as you probably know, at the beginning of these novels the hero is most often an ordinary noob.
This hero goes in search of adventure (or, alternatively, in search of the killer of his loved ones), gains experience along the way, turns bad, and at the very end becomes a legendary warrior and defeats the main villain. And this aspect of self-improvement during the course of the plot needed to be reflected in D&D.
And it should have been done quite simply. In board games, the players (and the game master) themselves must monitor everything that happens, remember (or write down) everything, and if most of the time they spend most of their time doing calculations, then this will not add excitement to the adventures. So the creators of the game simply introduced several (dozens) levels of coolness for the characters. And experience was made into a simple numerical characteristic, the value of which grows as you perform feats and other things. When a certain amount of experience is gained, the hero moves to a higher level – it’s simple.
This development system is called linear, and it stands apart. Not because it is somehow very different from other systems, but on the contrary – it is a simplified version of all pumping systems at the same time. And other systems come from it.
A little theory
If we consider pumping systems from the point of view of mathematics, then we cannot do without such a concept as a graph. A “graph” in mathematics (for those who don’t already know or no longer remember) is a collection of points (called vertices) that are somehow connected by lines (called edges). There is a whole “graph theory” that studies the patterns and properties that different graphs have. Most often, different ways of “traversing” graphs are considered, when we seem to have an object that can move from one vertex to another, provided that these vertices are connected by an edge.
In addition to simple graphs, where it is important only which vertices are connected and which are not, there are also more sophisticated ones. In particular, edges can be directed – that is, you can get from one vertex of the graph to another, but you cannot return back the same way. Edges and vertices can also have different characteristics, which again can be related to whether it is possible to go to a certain vertex or not.
Actually, the basis of each pumping system is a graph (or as it is often called, although not entirely correctly, a tree) of development. In some games (for example, the Final Fantasy Tactics series), we move the character himself along the graph. In others, we gradually receive “talent points” (or whatever they are called in each specific game), which we place on the vertices of the graph corresponding to the skills we need.
In graph theory, a “tree” is a graph in which all vertices are connected to one “root” either directly or through intermediate vertices. But of course, leveling “trees” can be much more diverse. In the same FFT there are cycles, that is, a character can “walk in circles” from one profession to another (a graph with cycles is not a tree in the mathematical sense). In systems such as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. the pumping graph consists of several linear segments, each of which corresponds to the development of a characteristic (again, in mathematics, only a graph is considered a tree, all of whose vertices are connected). Linear development (the most basic type of leveling) – has the form of vertices connected in series (however, if instead of one character we imagine a set of chips-characteristics, then again we get a system like in S.P.E.C.I.A.L.).
However, for most players, studying leveling graphs is important only from the point of view of the optimal path to obtain the necessary skills. And they are much more occupied with the other side of the process – the actions that the character must take in order to “advance” along the desired path. That is why, in my opinion, it is necessary to sort pumping systems primarily on this basis. In this case, they can be divided into three types.
Conscious choice
Explicit choice systems are undoubtedly the most popular leveling systems today. In a game with such a system, the player receives a reward from time to time – an improvement resource. It doesn’t matter when and how he receives it (collects it himself, automatically receives it when he reaches a new level, or simply according to the plot) and what exactly this resource is called (skill points, ability points, talents, or simply indicated by a number), the essence remains the same – the player “buys” improvements for his character with it.
Moreover, there are so many options for such systems that already in the category itself there is a certain classification. For example, according to the relatedness of parameters. In the already mentioned G.U.R.P.S. and S.P.E.C.I.A.L., as well as in other “old school” systems, all parameters were independent. It was possible to at least put all the improvement points into one intelligence or, on the contrary, strength (if intelligence is not needed). And also acquire various kinds of “perks”, independently of each other.
However, then (mainly due to the success of Diablo 2) skill trees began to gain popularity, where one ability unlocked others, and those in turn opened up others. Such systems allowed developers not only to limit the choice of players, preventing them from getting an obviously idiotic character, but also to make learning skills more consistent and believable. Now a character has learned archery or pistol shooting, then he is offered a “perk” to improve accuracy or rate of fire, rather than swinging a two-handed hammer.
Another classification is by the number of parameters. The more there are, the more accurately each parameter corresponds to a skill. And vice versa, the fewer parameters, the more aspects of the character each of them is responsible for. The minimum is one parameter – class level (in this case it all comes down to linear leveling). Then there is the option when the character belongs to several classes, each of which is responsible for the growth of certain characteristics (from recent games you can remember Dungeons of Dredmor). And finally, at the opposite end of the “scale” – systems based on independent skills (the same G.U.R.P.S. and her followers).
Pros and cons
The advantages of such systems are obvious. Firstly, it is easy for the player to follow his desires. The player thinks that he needs to increase his strength and amount of health – he takes it and increases it, he wants to acquire the skill of hypnosis to influence NPCs – he acquires and influences. There is no need to do anything “extraordinary”, “train on cats” or look out for hidden ingredients. You just need to gain a certain amount of experience and that’s it. Therefore, a player who has chosen a certain path of development spends on improving the character exactly as much time as he considers necessary and no more.
Secondly, the manual distribution of characteristics and skills allows you to “fine-tune” your character to suit you. If the chosen style of play and favorite tactics require certain abilities, then you can develop them to the maximum, saving on exactly what you don’t need. In addition, for many, games (and not just RPGs) are a way of self-expression, which means the opportunity to create a unique (in terms of characteristics) character is also part of the appeal.
The disadvantages of choice systems essentially https://coinsgamecasino.uk/withdrawal/ stem from their advantages. There are a huge number of development options? This means that developers will not be able to test many of them. Hence the problems with balance, when one of the options is practically useless, the other, on the contrary, tears everyone apart. In single-player games, this is generally not so critical – you just need to keep track so that the game can always be completed, and if the path turns out to be very difficult / easy, then these are the consequences of the choice – the player must understand that not everyone in the world is equal. But in multiplayer, where the first place is not immersion in the atmosphere and setting, but the pleasure of battles, even a slight bias towards a certain class is a serious problem that can alienate players (or, alternatively, cause hysterics on the forums).
Against the background of these difficulties, the second disadvantage is that the departure from realism looks, frankly, insignificant. Just think, after killing a hundred sharks or bears, your character could improve his hacking skills.
According to the laws of nature
The second category of pumping systems is based on the “principle of organ exercise” once derived by Lamarck. Lamarck believed that evolution occurs due to the fact that animals, during their lives, train those organs that they often use, and their offspring already receive such “trained” organs by inheritance. This is actually nonsense – it has long been proven that this is not so.
However, if we are not talking about evolution, then training does help improve skills. If you run regularly, you will be able to run faster and further, if you practice shooting, you will become more accurate. It’s not surprising that in many games character development is arranged this way.
However, it’s worth mentioning that the bulk of computer games with similar leveling systems are not “purebred” RPGs, but hybrids. Most often strategic, where you need to control several characters. And there are reasons for this. However, there is one character stat that is always leveled up this way, especially in story-based CRPGs. It’s karma.
Agree, it would be strange to see positive karma for bad deeds and vice versa. Therefore, karma in all its manifestations (reputation, decency, inclination to the light or dark side) changes according to the principle – what you do is what you get.
Pros and cons
The first advantage of systems with natural character development is realism and believability. A character shoots from a machine gun – increases accuracy, breaks electronic locks – improves hacking skills, and not vice versa.
This leads to the second plus – intuitive development. In games with a choice of skills, this very choice often leaves a person in difficulty. What to choose – increasing the speed of strikes or their strength? Spells that hit an area or multiple enemies? Which ability will allow you to most effectively use a newly purchased/found weapon?? Such problems do not arise during natural development. You simply give your protégé the right weapon, use the right techniques, and by doing this you know for sure that after a while he (or she) will be better at wielding this particular weapon and these techniques. This is especially convenient when you manage a large number of characters and you don’t have the time (or desire) to manually develop each of them. This is why such a system is present in tactical games like X-com and Jagged Alliance.
The main disadvantage of “natural” systems is natural development itself. You can’t just take them and improve your mastery of magic or diplomacy. It is imperative to train, and in this specific area. Do you want to defeat powerful magicians?? Fight specifically with magicians, because resistance to magic can only be increased by getting hit in the face with a fireball. You yourself are a powerful magician and suddenly you met monsters invulnerable to magic? Please return to the previous location and improve your combat skills on the hogs. The most telling example was in Quest for Glory, when to complete the story quest you had to have a pumped-up telekinesis spell, and you could only upgrade it by completing this quest. That is, in fact, the bulk of the time was spent simply trying to grab the desired thing with telekinesis until the skill was pumped up so much that it was possible.
However, there is another, less obvious, at least for players, problem. The point is that if developers use a natural progression system to achieve realism, then they should make it realistic. Obviously? Yes, but it’s not as easy as it seems. Here’s how the character wields a sword, what skills and characteristics he should improve? Strength (the sword is heavy), agility… Although wait, if he just waves the sword, then this is not training for dexterity, but if he is fighting with another character… However, if the hero swings the sword at the enemy, the hero does not hit him, how does this differ from simply waving the sword? That is, agility increases only if you hit? Or trying to hit a moving target still trains agility? And if the goal is big, it’s such that you won’t miss? So you need to take into account the characteristics of the target? And so on and so forth. And note that this is all reasoning for only one type of action and pumping up one characteristic. Imagine a less obvious connection – using a sword and leveling up your intelligence (after all, complex techniques require its presence). But all this still needs to be balanced..
The last minus is also associated with balance, which actually affects both the interestingness of the gameplay and the realism. At the beginning of the game, of course, it is not obvious, but at the end, when you train your characters to be generalist terminators… Make sure that the player has restrictions that would not allow him to upgrade EVERYTHING and force him to choose between a specialist in one field or a less powerful “jack-of-all-trades”, so far they have not learned. True, in some games (for example Final Fantasy 2), a character who does not use certain skills for several battles lowers the corresponding characteristics (and the higher the characteristics, the more often this happens), but even there it does not work very well.
In the first/second Allods, it was not difficult to pump any skill to 100.
Collect them all
The third type of leveling is in a certain sense close to the second, since here the player must also perform certain actions to obtain the necessary skill. However, unlike “natural growth,” here skill improvements do not occur in order, but depending on specific actions. Drank a potion – got a character boost at night, performed a magic ritual – became invulnerable to a certain type of magic, collected a bonus – increased the amount of health.
Of course, this boost is used primarily in action games, platformers and similar games. Collecting magic cards and amulets in the Castlevania franchise, completing side quests in Painkiller, finding upgrades for energy drinks/plasmids in the BioShock series. However, there are corresponding examples in CRPG (more on them below).
One of the most interesting examples is perhaps the fighting game Sonic Battle. In each battle in which he participates, a Gizoid robot named Emerl receives “data” of the techniques that his opponents used most often. And this information is stored in the database of techniques in the form of cards, after which these cards can be loaded into its memory, creating a new combat configuration. So, for example, you can make Emerl hit like Knuckles, run like Shadow and at the same time fly like Rouge.
By the way, it’s not for nothing that the subtitle refers to Pokemon. The basis of this jRPG is to collect Pokemon, each of which has certain strengths and weaknesses. The larger your collection, the more room for tactics your hero (Pokémon trainer) has when meeting a new non-standard opponent. Of course, this mechanics is not limited only to this series of games. Various creatures that "attach" to your party or unique spells obtained from special characters are present in many Japanese RPGs, including some parts of Final Fantasy.
Yes, and in RPGs of the Western school such leveling is present, although it is not mandatory. In Arcanum, for example, a similar principle is used to receive blessings from the gods of the pagan pantheon (each of them gives their own bonuses), as well as ranks in certain skills. That is, having upgraded several skills, you can also find people whose training will give you a title in this field and a certain bonus. The title of expert can be obtained in almost any city, the title of master only in the capital, and in order to become a Grandmaster you must not only find some legendary hero in this matter, but also complete the corresponding quest for him.
Pros and cons
One of the advantages, as with natural development, is realism. If you were given a new Pokemon, then you can now summon this Pokemon in battle, and if you were taught the freeze spell, then you can freeze enemies. It is logical that this is exactly the case, and not vice versa.
Another plus is the incentive for players to explore the world. Very often we go along the plot without turning off the path, because everything that awaits us on the side (at least in terms of gameplay) is just additional experience. It’s another matter if there are some unique opportunities scattered around the world that cannot be obtained in any other way other than exploring the world and completing tasks. And there you can listen to conversations that reveal the depth of the setting.
However, this plus can also turn into a minus – not all players belong to the category of “researchers”. Many of them just want the next level of awesomeness or the next chapter and they have no desire to explore the world far and wide. That is why bonuses hidden or received when completing unique tasks are most often made optional.
Hybridization and bells and whistles
As you understand, each game does not have to be limited to one of the above categories. Moreover, many games not only combine several methods of leveling up, but can also combine them in various ways. Here are a few, in my opinion, the most interesting and illustrative examples.
The Witcher
The game is notable for the fact that leveling up here is carried out both by increasing the level and with the help of potions. The main method here is free choice. As you level up, you are given several talents (bronze, silver, or gold) that you use during meditation to unlock certain skills or abilities. Interestingly, the game also has a non-standard explanation for this – your hero does not so much learn as return what he lost with memory loss. Memories emerge of some monsters, making bombs and oils for the blade – all these are separate “leaves” on the skill tree. The body itself “remembers” the necessary reflexes and metabolic reactions.
But there are other opportunities for self-improvement. For example, talents can be obtained by drinking certain potions made from the ingredients of unique monsters. And there are also skills that can only be obtained by drinking the required mutagen. True, to do this, sometimes you have to kill a monster who could (and should) be left alive, but this is how the authors managed to maintain a balance.
Soul Hunters
This is a game for smartphones where we need to collect a collection of heroes who must be united in parties of five and sent to fight. With mobs or other players – the fight always happens automatically, you can only order when to use the ult. ability. And that’s not always the case.
But the pumping in it is really sophisticated. Firstly, you need to collect “soul stones”, their own for each hero. When you collect enough, you can get this hero. After which “soul stones” must be collected to increase rank (and, accordingly, characteristics).
To increase your level (this is a different thing from rank), you just need to send a hero into battle or use an “experience potion”. If the hero has gained enough experience, he increases his level. However, the catch is that the level itself does not mean anything. It simply determines the maximum level of abilities and equipment. You increase your abilities by purchasing skill levels with gold. But the equipment still needs to be found. Either it drops out in battle (and these can also be fragments of equipment that need to be assembled into a single whole), or it is sold in stores (the assortment changes randomly every few hours), or you can find something in loot boxes.
But this, of course, is not all. There is also a “hero academy”, which opens when you reach level 80, where for special resources (wood, metal and crystals) you pump up passive improvements for characteristics. Plus “enchanting” equipment, again increasing the hero’s characteristics. The truth is that the equipment is strictly tied to the hero and his development. In each of the six cells you can place only a strictly defined item, and when all the cells are filled you “fuse” all the equipment, increasing the “coolness” of the hero and opening slots for new gear. So another question is whether it’s worth spending money on “enchantment” if then the bonus from it will disappear anyway.
Actually, using this game as an example, you can consider leveling up in all mobile phones. As you understand, its sophistication is not accidental. All types of leveling require resources, gold, equipment (and the cooler it is, the more difficult it is to “knock it out”). Therefore, you have to grind for hours and come in every day for the next portion of daily freebies. But you can always save time and effort if you donate..
Final Fantasy X
An example of one of the most (if not the most) sophisticated pumping “graph”.
After each battle, the character who was present in it for at least one turn (the fact is that during the battle the composition of the main party can be changed) receives ability points (AP). Having received a certain amount of AP, the character receives Sphere Level (S.Lv), and this is not even exactly a level, as the name suggests, but rather a “move point”. For every S.Lv character can move on the “Grid of Spheres” along an edge to a vertex that has not been visited. Or return along the already “painted edges”, then in one S.Lv can be moved four times. There are indeed special top-locks that need to be unlocked using Key Spheres. And only then will it be possible to get into some parts of the “Grid of Spheres”.
And this is just the basis – the rules of movement! In order to improve the character’s abilities, each vertex must also be activated! Moreover, there are as many as 19 types of vertices and to activate each one you need its own sphere. Accordingly, you need to look for these areas. And if some types of spheres (Power, Mana, Speed, Ability) drop from ordinary monsters as trophies, then rarer ones drop only from bosses. Or found in chests in certain areas. Or the sphere can be obtained from monsters only if they themselves give it for money (you must use the opportunity to “bribe the enemy”). Some spheres are sold in stores for crazy money. Others must be won in mini-games.
Oh yeah, and some vertices can be activated with multiple types of orbs, giving them different stat boosts. There is even a special sphere that “frees” the activated vertex, so that an orb can be placed in it to increase stats. This is the only way to level up your character to the maximum.
Civilization V
And one last example to show that development patterns in games don’t just apply to characters. In "Civilization" you pump up an entire people. At the same time, we are not only talking about the development of cities and Wonders of the World – this is rather an analogue of equipment, since constructed buildings can be sold or lost along with the captured city.
However, your civilization also has attributes that, after receiving, remain forever. First of all, this is, of course, technology. In essence, the “technology tree” is not much different from the “skill tree” – except that in rare places you can get another skill not only for experience points (in this case scientific), but also as a randomly found bonus on the map. And, by the way, the science points themselves in the game are also obtained in two ways – produced in cities and through agreements with other civilizations.
And the second area of development is public institutions, which you purchase for “culture points”. Actually, culture is also “farmed” at the expense of cities and controlled territories, or due to certain events. By the way, unlike scientific research, the volume of which for studying each technology is fixed, the number of points for acquiring a new institute, on the contrary, does not depend on the institute itself, but is related to the number of your cities and the number of already researched institutes. Well, the public institutions themselves are already ordinary skill trees. Yes, trees in the plural – there are several categories of institutions, and some open only with a sufficient technological level.
Skill management
Once upon a time, I was translating an article about the so-called “equipable skills”, and since this was the initial reason for me to make a material about leveling, I could not help but mention this thing.
So, despite what is written in that article, equipping skills has nothing to do with leveling up. Why? Judge for yourself. Essentially the thing about “equipping” skills is that you have a limited number of slots, and only the skills that are placed in those slots (i.e. “equipped”) you can use or benefit from, in the case of passive skills. Other skills that your character has, but are not currently equipped, do not affect the course of the game. Pay attention to the phrase “your character has”. This already shows that he has skills. Either because leveling is not needed to get them, or because you have already received/leveled them. This means that the pumping ended when you received these skills, that is, you got the opportunity to equip them.
The most illustrative example is The Secret World. This game has abilities that you buy with "ability points" (upgrade resource gained by gaining experience). And this is where the pumping ends. Yes, before the battle you need to place a certain number of abilities in special slots and these are the ones you will use. But the fact that “unequipped” abilities have no effect has nothing to do with what abilities you have already acquired.
Moreover, the game also has weapon skills. They are not equipped anywhere and are always displayed the same in your leveling window. It seems that this has nothing to do with equipment, but you equip the weapon! And since you can only use two types of weapons at the same time, out of the nine skills to wield them, only two are used at a time. This means the situation is no different from the “equipment” of the skills themselves.
By the way, “by pulling an owl onto a globe”, the same reasoning can be applied to the “redistribution” of skills. Using World of Warcraft as an example, this means that leveling up in it should be considered gaining experience and leveling up, but not developing skills for the talents received when leveling up. After all, the latter can be changed more than once in the same way as active and passive abilities in TSW. The only difference is that each change of “build” in WoW is paid.
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