About Skills and Time

[Stroker]

Just wondering - if you practice your skills and then stop for a long time, do they get worse I mean code wise? And if they don't it'd be interesting if this could be implemented.

[crymerci]

I don't think we have skill decay in Arm. Personally, I hope we never do. Here's why:

-Unlike in other games, our characters do not have an infinite number of lives. Therefore, extremely skilled characters are rare.
-Skill decay will make some people spend more time focused on skills.
-It's really not realistic for most skills. There are things I haven't done in years that I'm sure I could pick right up again as if I'd never stopped.

[Sandlord]

yeah, i agree with crymerci

crafting that shield or swording fighting is like riding a bicycle, you never forget how to do it

[Rindan]

There is no skill decay, and as far as I know, no intentions to put it in.  I just don't see it as helping to further RP.  It takes years for you to forget how to do something, and most PCs die well before 10 years of IC time.  People are too likely to get skittery if they don't do their daily sparring in fear that they are losing progress.  I just don't see anything good that could come out of it other then force people to RP less and worry about skills more.

[Stroker]

Thank you for answering my question and for your input.

[Swordsman]

Even when you aren't playing your PC (i.e. actually on-line and logged into Arm), your PC still exists virtually in the game world, and still works, sleeps, practises skills, etc. Making skills decay with lack of actual (player-initiated) use makes as much sense as making PCs starve unless players log in and get them to eat something. *shrug* If you can't play for a long time, that doesn't mean your PC suddenly decides to stop practising his swordplay just because 10 IC years have passed with little excitement (i.e. player-initiated action) ... and if his life depends on that skill, he'd be a fool not to keep on the edge.

Swordsman

[God]

Making skills decay with lack of actual (player-initiated) use makes as much sense as making PCs starve unless players log in and get them to eat something.

Which makes sense, by the way, if it could be coded. It would make Zalanthas a hell of a lot harder, but be unrealistic. This wouldn't be the same, however, because the skills would only decay when you were logged in. Just to clarify.

[God]

But be realistic, not unrealistic. I'll add that its not feasible, however it does make sense.

[EvilRoeSlade]

But be realistic, not unrealistic. I'll add that its not feasible, however it does make sense.

I really don't think it would make sense.  That would assume that while you aren't logged on, your character is just an inanimate husk when you aren't logged on, blissfully allowing himself to waste away instead of trying to get food.  In truth, your character is a living, breathing, part of the virtual world.  I've always assumed that if a character is able to feed himself during the time he's logged on, then he also finds a way to feed himself during virtual time in much the same way he's been getting food.

[God]

More what I meant is that your sid is deducted for getting food and water. If you don't buy food, I suppose your fine. It wouldn't make sense for your person to waste away, of course.  :wink:

I'll reiterate: it makes sense for the sids to be deducted. You have to drink to live. This would make it damn hard to survive, though. Some of the wages that sound so nice wouldn't sound so nice after people had to automatically lose 20 or so sid each day. Wonder if 300 sid a month would even pay for that, let alone food.

[Angela Christine]

No, it wouldn't work out.  The general consensus is that your character is active when you are not logged in, but all of his activities end up leaving him in exactly the same condition he was in when you left.

Your plan would be like just walking away from the computer, still linked to the character.  He would stand there dumbly, slowly wasting away from hunger an thirst.  That isn't what he does when you are logged in.

Every few hours I'm logged on I can, if I want to, participate in activities that will earn 50-200 coins, and have a chance of killing me.  Except for times when I have been robbed, I've never been in danger of dying of hunger or thirst because I couldn't afford food and water.  So in my case, instead of deducting 20 sid for food and water every IC day that passes without me logged in, the mud should actually deposit 50 coins into my bank account!  Sweet!  With a small chance, say 2%, that my virtual activities will have killed my character while I was logged off.     That would be fun, eh?   :roll:  I might log in in the same condition I logged out, fully rested and healed, or exhausted and bleeding, and never be sure what virtual activities lead to my condition.  Perhaps log in location could even be randomized, so that you return to the same region you logged out in, but not the exact same room.  After all, it isn't realistic that I would stand in the Gaj dorms for three weeks, is it?

Then again, I like things the way they are now.

AC

[God]

As I said, it isn't feasible. It is realistic, and it does make sense that you would eat and spend IC as days passed in the world, though. A virtual budget is something that I've thought about, but it is a hassle.

[Anonymous]

I don't think we have skill decay in Arm. Personally, I hope we never do. Here's why:

-Unlike in other games, our characters do not have an infinite number of lives. Therefore, extremely skilled characters are rare.
-Skill decay will make some people spend more time focused on skills.
-It's really not realistic for most skills. There are things I haven't done in years that I'm sure I could pick right up again as if I'd never stopped.

Just how good an a char get i mean can one person thats been playing for 30 ic years hack a person down with one slash that has just started?

[creeper386]

Everyone has skill caps. So if they keep playing and keep playing sooner or later they well stop getting better. Also skills only get better when you fail so once you get good it gets harder to get better.

Can an experienced character kill someone new in one hit? An assassin can. I'm sure a half giant could in the right circumstances. Ordinary person? Probably not.

Creeper