I have an idea that will help discourage lowbie spamming. Make the improvement rate of a skill or spell affected by the difference between the level attained and the character's current level. From an IC perspective, while it might be difficult for that level 5 warrior to master dirt kick, a level 51 warrior could master such a simple 'introductory' skill in no time flat.

This is especially helpful for the player when considering skills like hand to hand and such which are a PAIN to practice at higher levels because any mob you could learn on will be likely to kick your butt. Also, for defenses it discourages a waste of time. At least it postpones the waste until the twenties or thirties and then shortens it. Back to PK/roleplay!

Doing this might also encourage the use of 'dumber' races. I know I often take practice time into account when making up a character.

>Doing this might also encourage the use of 'dumber' races. I
>know I often take practice time into account when making up a
>character.

The dumber races don't really suffer for popularity, FYI.

I suppose I knew that already. They do, however, suffer from me not playing them. I may not be a notable player, but I have to have a role I'm REALLY interested in trying to play a giant. Not everyone roleplays well enough to get quest int ya know. :P

The dumber races don't really suffer for popularity, FYI.

And the usual caveat that if practice difficulty is too low, people would play nothing but the dumb races, because INT would be largely meaningless relative to the physical stats.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Number of truly useful skills learnable, strength &/or affect of certain skills such as artery that would rely on knowing where and when to strike as much as how hard, I'm sure there's a dozen other ways you could make high int beneficial and low int a drawback rather than how quickly a character gets 100% proficiency in a skill.

The current system rewards the Rooqweaz's of CF in that they have the patience to spam-perfect riposte with a duergar, getting all the benefits of the strengths of a low-int race while not being handicapped by the low intelligence from a skill percentage viewpoint.

I disagree. The dumber races would only benefit from learning lowbie skills like kick, various weapons, etc. And they would only benefit at the higher levels for those low level skills. The most powerful skills (those in the thirties and forties) would still be equally difficult to practice.

There's plenty of ways to fudge the numbers.

if(current_level - level_attained > 10)
chance_of_learning = old_chance + (current_level - level_attained - 10) * some_multiplier
else
chance_of_learning = old_chance

So... you only gain a benefit if you're greater than 10 levels over the level you learned the skill.

It's not just warriors and dumb races that benefit either. Invokers could spam maybe 2 paths and then wait until much later to spam the rest. Shapeshifters also benefit (many see their final form before picking the other focus). Necros don't need to sit and spam sleep at rank 10. Assassins could get through those kicks faster. Everyone benefits.