Character Classes - UO and EQ

Creating and Developing Characters

Character class is where these three games pull apart from one another. Each system is unique and places a certain degree of burden on the user, which I will explain in a moment. To begin discussing this area we need to look at not only the character classes themselves but also how skills progress and how players advance in skill as time marches on. I will start with Ultima since it was the first to be released.

A moon peeks out over the hills

A snowy pass

How Ultima Online does it

In UO, the character classes are moderately defined and do not really fit into a mold. During creation the user selects options that list skills to choose from and then has the option to slightly tweak the values before they enter the game as a newbie. The classes do not fit in molds mainly because every "class" has every skill. What makes the difference is the skills you choose at creation are the skills you have a decent amount of proficiency in to begin with. However, this game works in a very unique way. As you work with a skill, let's say sword fighting, it will slowly increase through use. Each skill ranges from 0 to 100 in value.

However, there is a "limit" to the total value of all of your skills put together. When so many skills added up reach that capped limit, you begin to leech off the other skills. What do I mean by that? Let's say you have 5 skills all at 100 and you are working on a 6th skill which is at 95. As you train that 6th skill, you all of a sudden hit the capped limit. Well the way the system works it will raise the skill up still, but it will subtract a value from one of the other skills. The cap stays the same, but your trained skills are altered in such a way to increase the skills you use most through training. So basically a person's class is defined as what skills they are very proficient in, since everyone has every skill.

Keep in mind though, that having every skill doesn't mean you are good with them all. With the skill cap in place, you are limited to being really good at only a few skills. These skills define your character's class and this brings me to my point about the burden. It is the player's job to decide what needs to be trained. This leaves room for human error and many players will end up working on the wrong skills, when others would benefit them the most. However, since the system is dynamic and allows you to just redesign your training efforts it is possible to simply work on the skill that is better suited for the role you wish to pursue. This is a difficult job since you will be working against the cap and having to deal with leeching off other skills, some of which could be the skills you wanted to keep high. However, in time your new efforts will allow you to eventually be as you had hoped. So I say there is a high burden on the user because it is up to you to choose how and what you progress in. Everquest takes the other side of the coin on character creation and classes. This is a low burden game but also a less dynamic one where your decisions at creation basically set your path in stone.

Crystal stalagmites

Partly cloudy today with a high of 73

Everquest's character system

In EQ you choose from different races that each have different unique starting attributes. After you choose a race you are allowed to choose a class. Some classes are even race specific and everything you choose here is set in stone for the entire character's game life. After you have chosen the race and class you are given a few points to allocate to your base attributes. This is the only time you will ever see these attributes go up without the aid of magic or magic items. So it is very critical that you choose the best attributes to help your class. Why is all of this so low burden since everything is set in stone? The answers are coming… In the game everyone gains experience and works towards gaining a level. At certain levels, based on your class, you get to train new skills from your Non Playing Character, or NPC for short, guildmasters. As you go up the level tree from 1 to 50, the max, you slowly gain new skills along the way. This includes skills to help boost your attack, dodging, and spell casting abilities. Also casters get new spells after they increase their levels past certain points. Where does this easy burden fit in? Well the Everquest system is very user friendly. Everything is laid out before you and the only choices you ever need to make are choosing the race, class, and how to spend your starting points at the beginning. Oh and I guess you could count choosing the starting town too. Other than that everything is pretty much set before you as a predetermined fate. This is why I think it is of low burden since you really have no choices to mess up with, other than the starting choices. It is very user friendly and the only drawback to it is everyone is basically the same with regards to the classes.

Ah a town

Targeting