| Original Message: Some things are connected. |
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Some of the differences between the Elder Scrolls games and the Might & Magic games leads to other differences. I.e. probably the first difference anybody will notice is the single character vs. party setup. These setups each fits better with a different skill development system. A system with allotable skillpoints (and degrees of skill mastery) makes it easier to restrict the skill development with the different classes, whereas levelling by skill usage more freely enables any character to become good at any skill. In a single character setup, the latter is better because you have only one character to learn and use the skills you want. With the party setup, however, the former is the better in that each party member will be more specialized in her/his area. Even in MM6 the restrictions on skill development was too loose (any character could master any skill they could learn) and the result was that Magic-based classes became much stronger than the Might-based classes. A bit off the topic of comparison here is that leveling by usage fits best in a game where your party is constant. 'Betrayal at Krondor' used this system, but you did not have control of your party members. As the chapters passed, you had control of different characters and might as well (temporarily) loose you favorite for certain 'jobs'. As you already said, the leveling by usage is a system that will adapt to the player`s style of play, which also is more important with the single character setup, but in itself, the effect of adaption to style also would benefit a multicharacter party. Further down the path, leveling by usage is a system where trainers and teachers are less important or even unrealistic, at least in skill development, but in the alottable skill points system, at least when you have degrees of skill mastery, teachers and trainers makes more sense. I`ve merely played myself out of the first dungeon of Oblivion as time does not suffice these days, so I cannot really comment on how the leveling of monsters affects the game play. However, in theory, this system should actually increase the level of unlinearity in a game. The MMs always boasted a high degree of unlinearity (and for good reason), but from the description of your experiences with Oblivion, it sounds that unlinearity has bee taken to the next level. Still, some sense of linearity should always be present in order for a player to experience the development of his/her character(s) and the unfolding of the plot and story. |
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