Experience Points by Target Practice
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stillnotelf
- Posts: 131
- Joined: March 1st, 2005, 9:03 pm
- Location: Uncertain Velocity: Known
Experience Points by Target Practice
I had an idea while playing the Undead campaign (Dark Hordes…the one with Gwiti Ha’atel)...I had a whole bunch of leftover Walking Corpses that I didn't need, and I wished I could attack them with my other units, so that my useful units could get free experience. Letting players attack their own units would be waaaay too powerful, not to mention sadistic for non-Undead, but it got me thinking that there could be some sort of “target practice� to let units get experience away from actual combat. Real armies do tons of training outside of battle, so it’s not unreasonable.
I thought up several implementations, and I think the best of them might be the creation of a generic unit, the “straw man�. It would have no attacks, no movement, and infinite HP (or just a ton of HP and a lot of regeneration). Since it is essentially unkillable, and since you’d have to recruit it, you would be sacrificing a recruitment slot for the remainder of that level. I would suggest that units gain 1 exp per turn that they attack it…however, to make the unit expensive enough to prevent abuse, the unit itself would need to be level 10 or so. We want it to be expensive to the player, and not give out a whole lot of experience, so that it doesn’t unbalance anything too badly.
I think in the long run this is too powerful, no matter how expensive we make it, it’s exp for 0 HP risk.
There's an archer's target in this thread:
http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 2&start=30
That'd work great if we wanted to make this work only for ranged attacks.
Someone let me know if this has been discussed before, I tried to search for it, but "target practice" generates a lot of hits. (pun not intended)
I thought up several implementations, and I think the best of them might be the creation of a generic unit, the “straw man�. It would have no attacks, no movement, and infinite HP (or just a ton of HP and a lot of regeneration). Since it is essentially unkillable, and since you’d have to recruit it, you would be sacrificing a recruitment slot for the remainder of that level. I would suggest that units gain 1 exp per turn that they attack it…however, to make the unit expensive enough to prevent abuse, the unit itself would need to be level 10 or so. We want it to be expensive to the player, and not give out a whole lot of experience, so that it doesn’t unbalance anything too badly.
I think in the long run this is too powerful, no matter how expensive we make it, it’s exp for 0 HP risk.
There's an archer's target in this thread:
http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 2&start=30
That'd work great if we wanted to make this work only for ranged attacks.
Someone let me know if this has been discussed before, I tried to search for it, but "target practice" generates a lot of hits. (pun not intended)
Usque adeone mori miserum est? After all, there's always a continue...
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entropomorphic
- Posts: 65
- Joined: March 18th, 2005, 9:01 pm
- Location: Boston, MA
How about a farm-like "training lodge" terrain element that gives XP to a unit sitting on it? Perhaps at the cost of some amount of gold? I think this could be tweaked to be not overpowered; 1 XP per turn for free barely seems worth it if the unit needs to be resting and out of the sphere of battle, and the amount of XP and cost could be adjusted to make it an interesting addition.
If you like this idea, just put it in a map! I'm sure it's quite possible to do in WML. This way, it can be added as a added as a strategic map feature (capturing and holding a castle with a few training lodges inside/nearby would be a neat multiplayer map) without worrying about unbalancing the current campaigns/factions.
If you like this idea, just put it in a map! I'm sure it's quite possible to do in WML. This way, it can be added as a added as a strategic map feature (capturing and holding a castle with a few training lodges inside/nearby would be a neat multiplayer map) without worrying about unbalancing the current campaigns/factions.
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Pythagoras
- Posts: 72
- Joined: February 17th, 2005, 12:53 pm
Re: Experience Points by Target Practice
I think the main objection to this sort of idea is that there is no risk involved for the player. Wesnoth's philosophy toward XP revolves around risk for several reasons:stillnotelf wrote:I had an idea while playing the Undead campaign (Dark Hordes…the one with Gwiti Ha’atel)...I had a whole bunch of leftover Walking Corpses that I didn't need, and I wished I could attack them with my other units, so that my useful units could get free experience. Letting players attack their own units would be waaaay too powerful, not to mention sadistic for non-Undead, but it got me thinking that there could be some sort of “target practice� to let units get experience away from actual combat. Real armies do tons of training outside of battle, so it’s not unreasonable.
I thought up several implementations, and I think the best of them might be the creation of a generic unit, the “straw man�. It would have no attacks, no movement, and infinite HP (or just a ton of HP and a lot of regeneration). Since it is essentially unkillable, and since you’d have to recruit it, you would be sacrificing a recruitment slot for the remainder of that level. I would suggest that units gain 1 exp per turn that they attack it…however, to make the unit expensive enough to prevent abuse, the unit itself would need to be level 10 or so. We want it to be expensive to the player, and not give out a whole lot of experience, so that it doesn’t unbalance anything too badly.
I think in the long run this is too powerful, no matter how expensive we make it, it’s exp for 0 HP risk.
There's an archer's target in this thread:
http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 2&start=30
That'd work great if we wanted to make this work only for ranged attacks.
Someone let me know if this has been discussed before, I tried to search for it, but "target practice" generates a lot of hits. (pun not intended)
1) XP is a resource, something to be gained for tactical advantage. If it is free, and no contest/risk is required to gain it, then Wesnoth becomes less of a game.
2) It builds the heroic-ness of each of the rest of your units, including your emotional attachment. You recall the time that that unit was on the brink of death defending your right flank from hordes of trolls when all of the sudden he/she levels, gaining back all hp, and handily manages to defend the flank single handed. You feel a since that that unit, due to the risks and dangers it has undertaken, deserves to its rank/level, and it adds to the story element of the game.
Wow, Pythagoras' explanation for the levelling phenomenon of BfW is so perfectly worded, I want to get a brass plaque to engrave it on. Really, I think this should go into documentation somewhere...
Try some Multiplayer Scenarios / Campaigns
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Pythagoras
- Posts: 72
- Joined: February 17th, 2005, 12:53 pm
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Deathtenks
- Posts: 83
- Joined: November 19th, 2004, 5:07 am
O-0 I am afraid I don't understand this...I think you meamn you will make a Vampire unit and make it able to absorb HP from WC's but not get any Exp?Monkey wrote:I'll making vampires, and I'll make that vampires can absorv the energy of a corpse, killing it and healing hp. But he will not gain experience from it.
Victory to those who do not fear death!
