作者：Josh Bycer

第一环节，解析动作RPG之道具与战利品设计问题

当我在玩《火炬之光1》时注意到游戏中一些设置不当的机制问题，所以我希望借此好好研究这些问题。

当提到动作RPG类型时，任何玩家应该都很熟悉游戏套路：打败敌人获得战利品并因此升级，然后继续重复。简单而言，这类型游戏就等于：战斗，战利品和升级。只要任何一方面 设置不当，都将严重影响玩家的游戏体验。在本文中我们将先忽略“战斗”元素，因为任何人都清楚它的重要性。

战利品是游戏中一个很重要的环节，也是任何动作RPG吸引玩家的关键元素。关于战利品主要有两种设计类型：固定和随机性。固定的战利品意味着设计师明确编出了游戏中的每件 道具，装备和武器。《恶魔之魂》和《黑暗灵魂》便是这种战利品设计的典例。

固定的战利品所具有的优势是，设计师了解游戏中的每个装备，能够更加自由地发挥自己的创造性。就像在《黑暗之魂》中，每种武器类型都具有自己独特的风格和功用。这种类 型的战利品也让设计师能够更加轻松地设定玩家获得装备的速度，并且平衡玩家遭遇敌人的时间。

但是固定的战利品也具有两大弊端。首先是这些战利品中都被冠以一定的头衔，如“游戏中最厉害的剑”或者“最棒的盔甲”。这就意味着玩家不能够追求更厉害或更有帮助的道 具，从而导致许多玩家退出游戏。就像在玩《恶魔之魂》时，我因为找不到更厉害的新装备而不愿意再继续玩这款游戏。

另一大弊端则与PvP模式有关，固定的战利品将让PvP变成是玩家间争夺最佳战利品的竞赛。就像我在《黑暗灵魂》PvP模式中发现，无论我多么巧妙地避开对方的攻击，任何拥有更 高级武器的玩家都能够轻易地打败我，我不得不退出PvP模式直到后来获取更厉害的武器。

很多动作RPG设置了随机战利品以取代固定的道具。设计师为这些战利品的生成设定了相关模式。以《暗黑破坏神2》为例，游戏中的每个道具都拥有特定的属性或奖励，并伴随着 一定的前缀/后缀，如“燃烧的”或“尖锐的”。这些用于定义奖励类型的形容词始终附着游戏道具，如此便可能出现更多不同种类的武器。这就意味着我的“冰火斧”可能与你的 “冰火斧”并不相同。同时这些道具还会按照稀有程度进行划分。如此玩家便可以根据这些形容词更快速地判断哪些设备更强大并且能够带来更多奖励。《暗黑破坏神2》的战利品 列表中拥有各种变量，能够生成更多不同战利品，因此属于最优秀的战利品设计类型。

显然，随机战利品的最大优势是重玩性。玩家永远不知道哪个箱子或者哪些敌人能给自己带来超级道具。新的道具将帮助玩家提升外观（游戏邦注：即更好的道具等于更耀眼的角 色）并提高角色属性。就像在《暗黑破坏神2》中，玩家能够在更困难的关卡中找到更稀有的道具，从而鼓励他们进一步玩游戏。

而随机战利品的弊端，也是《火炬之光》所面临的问题，游戏不只是创造随机道具那么简单。为了让战利品激励玩家，游戏也需要让道具随着时间发展呈现威力上升的趋势。也就 是玩家越深入游戏，他便能够找到越厉害的战利品。

《火炬之光》的战利品列表远没有《暗黑破坏神2》精细。例如当我在玩硬核模式时，我在整个游戏只能一直使用在前5个阶层中所获得的一件胸甲。尽管从理论上看来，让玩家在 游戏中的任何地方都可能找到任何装备是个非常有趣的设置，但是却会引起两个问题：

首先，这么做会破坏游戏的进程。厉害的敌人有可能在一般道具周围出现，这就意味着如果该地区最厉害的盔甲只能够抵挡3点破坏力，那么就不该让敌人的每次攻击力超过30个破 坏点。如果战利品列表不能够合理地平衡战利品与敌人的威力，这会将玩家引向或许能够破坏所有内容，或许难以求得生存这两种极端。除此之外，这也让设计师难以判断该在什 么区域引入新敌人或者加强现有敌人的力量。

这也引出了第二个问题，即带有随机元素的游戏对玩家来说并不利。在《火炬之光》中，我的第一个角色并不幸运，只能勉强找到一些新的手枪和盔甲。所以在前面5个阶层我一直 都是使用相同的手枪和盔甲。而当我进入一个新的领域时，我便没有足够的能力去杀死那些更厉害的敌人（甚至它们的每次攻击都几乎致我于死地）。

与《暗黑破坏神2》相比，《火炬之光》所面临的一个问题便在于战利品并不能随着游戏的进程而发展。如果我分别在《火炬之光》的第3个阶层和第5个阶层找到2个稀有道具，我 会发现之前的道具甚至比后来的更强大。相反，在《暗黑破坏神2》中，玩家越往后发现的道具总是比之前的道具更强大。

深入探索《火炬之光》，我还发现了一个关于类别不足的问题。不算一般武器或白色武器，《火炬之光》拥有以下武器类别：绿色代表魔法，蓝色代表稀有，金色代表独特的，紫 色代表组合装置（游戏邦注：即那些汇聚在一起的道具）。而问题就在于，较少的的武器类别将让玩家很难再找到更棒的道具。

如果你有幸能够在游戏早期获得金色装备，那么在较长时间内你便不会再去找其它替代道具（例如在第4阶层或者在第5阶层，甚至更高阶层）。同样的，如果你拥有蓝色或绿色道 具，你将不断寻找更多这类道具，但是你却不知道它们是否比你所拥有的道具强大。因为找到蓝色道具的比例较低（只有找到并打败某些独特的怪物才能获得），如此便大大降低 了绿色道具在游戏其他阶层所呈现出的价值。

《火炬之光》所面临的另一个问题便是——战利品的数量远远高于其质量，也就是在相同级别范围内，任何特殊的敌人或箱子带给玩家的可能是一些相同类型的装备，玩家在找到 新道具时会发现自己已经有了这种东西。有时候玩家会发现一些比自己现有道具更强大的装备，但是有时候也会找到一些相同的道具，或者比之更没用的战利品。例如，我在第11 级打败敌人后获得的战利品却远远不及我在第8级所获得的。如果游戏能够提升战利品的质量，那么这些问题也许就能够一一解决了。

而《暗黑破坏神2》则拥有以下类别（不包括标准或低质量道具）：高质量，魔法，稀有，集合和独特。它比《火炬之光》拥有更多类别，这意味着玩家能够更容易找到道具。在《 火炬之光》中，我几乎不可能找到一个独特道具去取代原来的稀有道具；但是在《暗黑破坏神2》，我却能够轻松地获取更厉害的道具以取代高质量的道具。并且游戏的战利品质量 升级较快，这能够进一步推动玩家去追求更多强大的战利品。

将战利品作为一种激励机制的最大挑战在于，不可让玩家频繁更替道具，但同时又不可以让他们一直使用同个装备。

第二环节，解析动作RPG之技能与升级系统设计问题

升级机制所面临的一大挑战便是它应该如何影响游戏玩法。大多数关于升级的动作类RPG都允许玩家完善自己的角色属性并解琐更多游戏技能。尽管角色属性不影响游戏玩法，但是 却能够影响玩家所选择的装备。而技能非常重要，因为它将影响玩家所拥有的实用道具。

在技能设计中应该考虑到等比例提升的问题——玩家何时会遇到更强大的敌人，以致他们必须多次挑战游戏？如果角色的破坏性技能一成不变，如“20-30火力伤害”的技能，那么 当他们反复玩游戏时，这些技能的威力就会显得越来越弱。在《暗黑破坏神2》中，敌人难度的提升也会让玩家这种固定的破坏技能逐渐变得毫无用处。

克服这一问题的最佳方法便是逐渐引入技能。很多动作类RPG都有“X%的武器DPS（DPS代表每秒伤害值）”之类的技能设置。逐渐提升的设置可保持技能的可行性，并让玩家获得更 好的回报（如果玩家获得了更好的装备，那就等于他拥有更强大的技能）。

《恶魔之魂》和《黑暗灵魂》都使用了等比例提升的机制，但执行方式并不相同。在这两款游戏中，各种不同的武器都拥有可逐渐提升的属性（游戏邦注：例如，魔法棒代表智慧 ，弓代表敏捷）。而各自的属性也将根据F至S不同规模等级进行划分。等级越高，该武器所具有的破坏性就越大，并且能够为玩家争取到更棒的奖励。同时我们还必须注意，在这 两款游戏中，到达50个点数左右，等比例提升机制就会失去效力。这可能是游戏想以此阻止玩家想通过升级而增强威力的欲望吧。

现在我们来关注一下某些动作RPG中使用的升级模式。从最受欢迎的《暗黑破坏神2》说起。在这款游戏中，每一种职业的角色都拥有3个完全不同的线性技能树，而每棵树上根据从 上至下或者从下至上的排列方式罗列不同技能。最后的技能将出现在第30级别，而玩家在完成了这个级别后仍然能够继续挑战接下来的级别。每次升级能够让玩家获得5个属性点以 及1个技能点。并且玩家可以通过各种方式多次完善自己的技能。

《暗黑破坏神2》的游戏进程中需要解决的一大问题便是如何解琐各种技能。除了要求玩家达到一定级别之外，每个技能都要求玩家必须获得之前游戏中的某种特殊技能。如此设置 就导致游戏中很多技能都只是玩家为获得更好技能的踏板。例如，巫师拥有两个能够迷惑敌人的技能。第一个技能是诱导敌人攻打其他敌人，而另一个则是陷害一个敌人成为附近 所有敌人的攻击目标。如果从可用性来看，后者的优势明显大于前者，但是为了获得这一技能，玩家就必须先获得第一种技能。

而可产生破坏性的技能在这一点上的问题更为严重。为什么当玩家进入骨精灵（第30级）时仍然还要使用骨牙技能（即死灵法师在第1级别中的攻击法术）？暴雪尝试在游戏后来的 更新内容中添加协同奖励去解决这一问题。一般来说，如果玩家能够使用一些技能去争取更多奖励并获得更强大的技能，他们就会更愿意使用厉害的技能吧。尽管这么做具有一定 的功效，但是这一问题却仍然是《暗黑破坏神2》所面临的少数问题之一。

我曾经谈到的《火炬之光》在游戏进程这一方面做得很好。与《暗黑破坏神2》一样，这款游戏中的每个角色也拥有3个技能树，并在升级时能够给获得属性点和技能点。然而与《 暗黑破坏神2》不同的是，玩家在此并不需要任何必备技能，玩家等级才是最关键的要素。这就意味着玩家不需要为了不断前进而去争取一些自己不想要的技能。

《火炬之光》中还有一些比低级别技能更棒的技能，并且比起《暗黑破坏神2》，它反而为玩家提供了更多可用性的内容。除此之外，游戏中大多数技能都可以逐渐提升。唯一让我 不满的是，《火炬之光》中有一些三种职业共享的技能，这削弱了游戏内容的多样性。

我个人最喜欢的进程系统来自《丁神的诅咒》。这款游戏的开始与其它ARPG在角色发展方面有所不同。一开始，玩家可以选择一个预先设定好的角色类型或者自己创造一个混合式 角色。而不同之处就在于，预先设定好的角色拥有3棵技能树，而混合式角色却只能选择任何2种技能。如果你想要成为一名弓箭手巫师，这款游戏便是你的最佳选择。

每个技能树都带有2个不同类型的技能。第一种是精通，即决定你的角色能够套上何种装备并获得何种特殊奖励。另外一种是你能够在游戏进程中掌握的真实技能。与之前的ARPG游 戏一样，这款游戏中的技能也是从上至下按照便宜到昂贵而排列。并且它与其它游戏的最大不同点在于，技能对于玩家等级没有特定要求，玩家可通过升级获得金钱和技能点。

取消了等级要求的游戏赋予玩家绝对的自由来定义自己的角色。让玩家能够从选择廉价技能开始玩游戏，或者为了获得更昂贵的技能节省开支。这种不强迫玩家获取技能的设置让 设计师能够创造出更多可用性的技能，从而赋予游戏角色更多个性。有些玩家甚至不会选择技能树上那些最昂贵的技能，反而更喜欢不断完善每棵树上的技能。

任何一款优秀ARPG都必须能够在升级过程中为玩家提供一些有意义的选择。

第三环节，解析动作RPG之间歇期设计问题

间歇期对任何游戏来说都是个很重要的层面，可用来调控游戏节奏。如果游戏持续不断发生动作，玩家会感到厌烦。但是，如果数小时不发生任何事情，结果也是相同的。在动作 RPG游戏中，间歇期有许多作用。

首先，它是战斗休息时间。多数ARPG中都有某些城镇或中心，让玩家进行战斗准备。待在这些安全区域中，玩家无需担心会突然遇袭，可以自在地为动作做准备。存储和道具修理 之类的选项往往会被放置在这里。

安全区域的另一个用处在于，玩家可以更进一步调整他们的角色。在《恶魔之魂》和《黑暗之魂》中，游戏永远不会暂停，所以玩家在战斗中根本无法进行仓库管理之类的动作。 就《恶魔之魂》和《黑暗之魂》来说，这两款游戏都设置了不同的包含间歇期的机制。

在《恶魔之魂》中，Nexus就是游戏中的中心和主基地。提供法术学习和道具存储的NPC就设置在这个地方。玩家在游戏关卡中开展某些动作后，激活的新NPC也会显示在这里。在 Nexus中，玩家只能进行升级和法术分配。Nexus的作用就是让玩家能够清晰地分辨“主基地”和战斗，或安全和危险之间的界限。

相比之下，《黑暗之魂》修改了主基地概念。这是款开放世界游戏，游戏地图中四处分散的篝火就是安全点。停在篝火旁边会使游戏中所有的普通敌人复活，而玩家可以修改法术 和升级。

游戏中充当技术性主基地的区域只有一个，那就是firelink圣地，但是该圣地也不是整个游戏中永久性的主基地。与《恶魔之魂》不同的是，这款游戏中无需进行道具存储，因为 只有穿上的装备才会占用角色的携带重量限制。

在这两者间，我更偏爱设计Nexus作为中心基地的做法，而不是以篝火的形式提供安全点。原因在于，我比较喜欢所有的间歇选项集中在同一个地方，而不是要自行在游戏世界中寻 找。这也同我的节奏偏好有关，我更愿意在单个区域的间歇期内完成所有事项，而不是在探索时间中偶尔停下和重新开始。

《丁神的诅咒》的间歇期设计显得很独特。与多数ARPG不同的是，玩家在城镇中时并非完全安全。对于那些对游戏不熟悉的玩家来说，他们需要从一个城镇移动到另一个城镇，由 此来体验所有随机出现的地下城。每个地下城中都有个BOSS，只要BOSS还存活，游戏就会随机为城镇制造难题，比如食物供应被劫持或有大批怪物轮番攻城。玩家必须平衡自己打 通地下城和执行任务来帮助城镇的时间。你不会想要在城镇中休整过多时间，因为你在那里待的时间越长，意味着你在地下城中毫无进展。

间歇期的另一个层面是充当金钱消耗的角色。游戏中的东西要有价值，就必须有一定的用处。多数RPG游戏中会出现一种情况，货币的数量超过玩家的消耗力。ARPG中这个问题尤其 严重，因为道具的种类比较少，所以这种情况会更早出现。这便是金钱消耗出现的缘由，这种机制的目标就是让游戏中的金钱发挥作用。重要的是要先澄清，购买补充生命值或魔 法值道具的行为不属于这个类别。原因在于，无论玩家处于何种游戏状态下，都需要购买这类道具。

金钱消耗有两种形式：积极和消极。积极消耗指玩家通过消耗金钱来让他们的角色或装备变得更加强大，消极消耗指用来惩罚玩家的机制。在我们开始列举范例前先要指出，这两 种类别并非像我们猜测的那样相互对立。

最常见的消极金钱消耗是耐久度，装备的耐久度会随玩家的使用而逐渐减少。当装备的耐久度减少到一定数值以下时，道具的属性就会受到影响。通常情况下，当游戏中装备耐久 度为0时，道具会失去其全部作用。含有耐久度的多数游戏需要玩家回到城镇花费金钱来修理道具。耐久度还是种对技能较差的玩家的惩罚和鞭策，因为玩家每次死亡都会导致装备 耐久度减少。

有趣的是，耐久度的金钱消耗是可以缩放的，越好的装备在修理时需要越多的金钱。但是，将耐久度作为主要金钱消耗方式的问题在于，它只适用于经验不足的玩家。一旦你对游 戏熟悉且提升了技能，你死亡的可能性就会大大降低，而装备普通使用造成的耐久度减少是很小的。这种金钱消耗方法对专家级玩家来说，效果并不明显。

《恶魔之魂》和《黑暗之魂》中设有积极消耗。这两款游戏都允许玩家在铁匠铺升级他们的装备。升级装备需要大量的材料和灵魂。升级武器能够大幅提升基础攻击力。玩家还可 以根据武器的当前升级方向为其添加独特的属性，比如增加魔法恢复值或闪电法术伤害。

这是种纯积极消耗，因为提升武器效能毫无坏处。关键在于，你只有花费金钱和资源尝试每种升级方向，才能知道最终能够获得何种特别属性（游戏邦注：除非玩家拥有游戏指导 手册）。因为提升装备对角色来说完全没有坏处，所以设计师在这个系统中添加了两个限制条件。

首个条件是，将能够最大化升级链的材料设置为极稀有的物品，在整个游戏过程中可能只会掉落1到2次。第2个条件是，每件装备的升级次数存在限制。这意味着，最终缩放效果将 成为你提升伤害输出值的唯一来源。

在我们继续探讨其他问题前，要先特别指出的是，这两款游戏不含有其他ARPG所具有的货币问题。敌人的灵魂既可以换成金钱也可以换成经验值，玩家在游戏中可以自由做出选择 。在这个方面，我更为偏爱《黑暗之魂》，因为升级能够改善角色的基础防御值。而在《恶魔之魂》中，你必须提升特定属性才能改善防御。

有些APRG和MMO中有锻造系统，这也是种可缩放的积极金钱消耗机制。在制造系统中，玩家需要花费金钱和资源来制造装备或道具。通常情况下，游戏中还会有提升所制造装备质量 等级的方法。有些游戏需要玩家花费金钱来提升制造经验，有些游戏让玩家通过不断制造道具来提升经验。坚持将锻造系统提升至高等级的玩家往往能够获得很强大的制造图纸。

还有一种金钱消耗既是积极的也是消极的，这显得更为有趣。在许多ARPG中，有个“投机商”NPC。玩家可以看到投机商出售的装备类型和价格。这个价格往往要高于从商店中直接 购买同类型装备。但是，玩家只有在购买后才能看到装备的稀有度。投机商出售的剑可能是极为稀有的武器，也可能只是垃圾，只有你花钱后才能够看到所售道具的质量如何。

《火炬之光》中的附魔师是种特别的金钱消耗方式。附魔师可以提升任何你给予他的装备。附魔的结果可能是为装备添加新属性或增加插槽。附魔价格取决于装备成功附魔的次数 以及道具的基础等级。但是，附魔也可能付出代价，附魔后装备有可能失去全部新增属性，只剩下基础属性。每次成功附魔都会增加失败的可能性。

对任何ARPG来说，间歇期都是必要的内容，让玩家可以得到休息，同时查看其它游戏玩法系统。

相关拓展阅读：篇目1，篇目2，篇目3（本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao）

The Devil Is in the Details of Action RPGs – Part One: The Logistics of Loot

Josh Bycer

While the title may suggest otherwise, I am not in the Diablo 3 beta. As I’ve been counting the minutes for either Diablo 3 or Torchlight 2 to be released, I ran through Torchlight 1. Playing it, I noticed several things that didn’t seem right with the mechanics that I wanted to take a closer look at.

When it comes to the action RPG genre, any fan knows about the cycle: you fight enemies to get loot to help you level up and repeat. In other words, the magic phrase is: Fight, Loot, and Level. If any of those three are not represented correctly, it can bring the experience down. We’re going to ignore “Fight” for this post, as everyone should know what is good or bad about it.

Loot is the big one, and is one of the main draws of any action RPG. With loot, there are two schools of design: set or random. Set loot, means that the designers hard coded every item, piece of equipment and weapon in the entire game. Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls are currently the best examples of this practice.

The advantage of set design is that by knowing every piece of gear in the game, it gives the designers freedom to get creative. In Dark Souls, each weapon type is unique in its feel and utility. This also allowed the designers to easily set up a general pace of getting equipment and balancing it out with enemy encounters.

There are two disadvantages to set loot design. First is that it has a cap, there is such a thing as the “best sword in the game” or “best piece of armor ”. Meaning, that eventually the drive for better loot disappears, which is one third of the pull of playing action RPGs. Playing Demon’s Souls; I lose a lot of the motivation to continue playing new game +s as there is no new equipment to find.

The other has to do with PvP; set loot largely turns PvP into a race to get the best loot before anyone else. When I played PvP in Dark Souls, no matter how great I was at avoiding damage, all it took was one hit from someone’s high level weapon to kill me instantly. This forced me out of PvP until I could grab better weapons which would take awhile.

Randomized loot design which is used in most action RPGs, is that instead of defining set pieces of gear in the game. The designers set up algorithms for loot generations. If you look at Diablo 2, every item that has unique stats or bonuses comes with a prefix/suffix or prefixes, such as “burning” or “spiked”. These adjectives defined what kinds of bonuses are attached to the gear and from there the weapon is given the amount of that type. That means that my “freezing, burning axe” could be different from your “freezing burning axe”. Items are also graded in terms of rarity. This allowed the player to quickly see what equipment is more powerful and affects the bonuses from the adjectives. Diablo 2′s loot table is still one of the best of the genre with all the variables that go into generating loot.

Obviously the big advantage of randomized loot is replay ability. You never know if that chest or enemy will drop some super piece of gear. New gear provides both a visual boost (better gear = shiner avatar) and of course the stat boost. With Diablo 2, the harder the difficulty level, the chance of finding rarer gear is increased further encouraging play.

The problems with random loot and where Torchlight fits into this post, is that there is more to it than just creating random gear. In order for loot to motivate people, there must be an ascending trend of power over time. Meaning the further the player gets, the better the loot they find.

In Torchlight the loot table is not as refined as Diablo 2 was. For example while playing on hardcore mode; I used a chest armor I found within the first 5 floors of the game, as my only piece of chest armor for the entire game. While the idea of being able to find any equipment anywhere in the game sounds good on paper, it does cause two problems.

First is that it breaks the flow of the game. Enemies are designed around the generalized loot in the area. Meaning, if the best armor in the area can only block 3 points of damage, then enemies shouldn’t be set at dealing 30 damage per hit. If the loot table isn’t balanced with the enemies it can lead to the player either demolishing everything, or barely able to survive. Not properly balancing loot and enemies also makes it difficult to determine where to introduce new enemies or strengthen existing ones.

That leads to problem two, having the randomized element of the game work against the player. In Torchlight, my first character on very hard difficulty did not get lucky finding new pistols and armor to use. I went 5 floors using the same gun and armor. When I arrived in a new area, I could barely kill anything and enemies were nearly killing me with each hit.

The problem with Torchlight is that the loot table is not ascending as much as Diablo 2. If I find a rare item on floor 3 in Torchlight and another on floor 5, there is a good chance the former is as powerful or stronger then the later. However in Diablo 2, finding a rare sword at the beginning of an act and at the end, you are practically guaranteed that the latter is stronger than the former.

Looking deeper at Torchlight one of the problem areas I saw has to do with the types of rarity. Ignoring normal or white weapons Torchlight has the following categories: green for magical, blue for rare, gold for unique, and purple for set items (items that go together.) The problem with this is that with only a few categories, it makes it harder to find better gear.

If you get lucky and get gold equipment early on, chances are you won’t find anything to replace it for a long time (such as 4 or 5 floors or more). Likewise if you are stuck with a blue or green item, you’re going to find plenty of them which may or may not be better then what you have. Due to the rate of finding blue items which most unique monsters drop, it lowers the value of green items outside of the very beginning of the game.

Another issue with Torchlight is that there is more quantity then quality with loot, some unique enemies and chests drop multiple pieces of the same equipment type all within the same level range. This makes it a crap shoot when it comes to getting new gear. Sometimes you’ll find something that is miles above what you have, and other times you’ll find 2 or more pieces of equipment equal to or worse then what you have. As an example while fighting level 11 enemies, I saw loot as low as level 8 dropping. If the quality of loot increased at a faster rate, that would elevate some of the issues.

Going back to Diablo 2 it had the following categories (not counting normal or low quality): high quality, magical, rare, set and unique. That’s 5 to Torchlight’s 4, meaning there is a greater spread of items to find. In Torchlight my chance of getting a unique item to replace a rare is low. However in Diablo 2, I have a much greater chance of replacing my high quality item with something better. Combine that with the quality of loot rising at a fast pace, makes the hunt for loot an enjoyable one and not an act of necessity.

The challenge of using loot as a motivator is that the player shouldn’t be surviving from one piece to another, and at the same time, going hours using the same gear also doesn’t work. That does it for part one, in part two we’ll take a look at leveling and see if Diablo 2 still stands as the best in this areaIn the last part, I talked about the importance of loot as a motivator and game mechanic in action rpgs. The other half of the equation when it comes to character progression is leveling up. Improving characters through leveling has not changed all that much over the years. Probably because many designers copied Diablo 2′s style, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the de facto best way.

The challenge with the leveling up mechanic is how much should it affect the gameplay? Most action rpgs on level up, allow the player to improve their character’s attributes and unlock/improve a skill. The attributes won’t affect the gameplay but have an effect on what equipment is available. Skills are a big deal, as they affect the utility the player has.

One of the issues with designing skills is with the issue of scaling: where players will run through the game multiple times with stronger enemies. If a character has skills that do flat damage such as: “20-30 fire damage,” those skills become noticeably weaker on repeat plays. In Diablo 2, each higher difficulty boosts the stats of all enemies which made set damage skills a waste.

To combat this, the most popular way is to implement skills that scale. Many action RPGs have skills that do: “X % of weapon DPS,” where DPS stands for damage per second. Scaling allows skills to keep their viability and feeds back into loot as a motivator as now better equipment also equals more powerful skills.

Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls also had scaling but it was done differently. In both titles, various weapons had an attribute that it would scale to. For example: magic wands with intelligence, or bows with dexterity. The respective attribute would also be graded on a scale of F to S if I remember right. The better the grade the more of a bonus that attribute would apply to damage. It’s important to note that in both titles, there is a dropping off point of around 50 where the scaling will stop being as useful. This was probably done to prevent players from just power leveling through the game.

With that said, we can turn our attention to a few of the leveling formats used in action RPGs. Starting off with the most well known which is Diablo 2. Here, each character class has 3 completely unique linear skill trees. Each tree has the skills in order from top to bottom, or from lowest level to highest. While the final skill unlocks at level 30, players can continue leveling much further than that. Leveling up gives players 5 attribute points to distribute and one skill point. Skills can be improved multiple times with different boosts based on the skill.

The problem with Diablo 2′s progression comes at how the skills are unlocked. Besides having a level requirement, each skill requires a point in a previous skill on the specific tree to use. Because of that, it led to a lot of skills that are more or less a stepping stone for a better skill. For example, the Necromancer class has two skills relating to confusing enemies. The first one will cause one enemy to attack other enemies. The second one makes one enemy the target of all nearby enemies. Now in terms of utility, the latter is miles above the former, but you still need to waste a point in the former to get it.

This issue is even worse for the damage causing skills. Why would anyone use the bone teeth skill (level one necro attack spell) once they get access to bone spirit (level 30)? Interesting enough, Blizzard tried to fix this issue with a later patch that added synergy bonuses. Basically, some skills would provide bonuses to more powerful skills giving the player a reason to pump them up. While it helps, this issue is still one of the few problems with Diablo 2.

Torchlight, which was talked about in part one, fared better in terms of progression. Like Diablo 2, each character had 3 skill trees and received attribute and skill points on level up. However unlike Diablo 2, there were no prerequisite skills, instead only the player’s level was the factor. This meant that as a player, you would not need to take any skills that you didn’t want to in order to progress through the game.

There were still some skills that were better than lower level skills, but there was more utility offered compared to Diablo 2. What also helped was that many skills were built around scaling with fewer exceptions. The only real knock I have with Torchlight’s progression is that several skills are shared between the three classes, which do cut into some of the diversity.

Our last example for this post and my personal favorite progression system comes from Din’s Curse. The game begins differently in terms of character development compared to other ARPGs. At the start you can choose from either a predefined class or create a hybrid one. The difference is that a pre-made class comes with 3 skill trees, while the hybrid lets you choose any two that you want. So if you ever wanted to be an archer necromancer, this was your chance.

Each skill tree had two different types of skills. The first are proficiencies, which determine what equipment your character can wear, along with any special bonuses. Second are the actual skills you can learn over the curse of your game. Like previous ARPGs the skills are arranged in order from top to bottom going from least expensive to most. The big difference is that there are no level requirements for skills, only money and skill points which are earned at level up.

Without any level requirements, it gave the player complete freedom in defining their character. Allowing them to either get several cheap skills starting out, or save up for an expensive skill. By not having to set strict limits on acquiring skills, gave the designers the option of creating more utility skills to make characters personalized. Some players may not even get the most expensive skill on their tree and instead favor improving skills from each skill tree.

Providing meaningful choices in leveling up is an important part of any good ARPG. For the next part I’ll be examining downtime in ARPGs and money sinks.

Downtime is an important part of any game and helps with pacing. Games that have constant action, will lead to the player becoming bored. While not having anything happen for hours on end will produce a similar result. When it comes to Action RPGs, downtime serves several purposes.

First is simply a respite from the combat. Most ARPGs feature some kind of town or quest hub that the player starts in on loading a game. By starting in these safe areas, the player doesn’t have to worry about being jumped the second they load up and can take time to prepare for action. Options like stores or item repair are usually placed here to keep things centralized.

Another use of save zones is that they are the perfect places for players to take a closer look at their character. In both Demon’s and Dark Souls, the game is never paused which makes it impossible to do any kind of inventory management during combat. Speaking about Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, both titles have a different mechanic involving downtime.

In Demon’s Souls, the nexus acts as the game’s hub and home base. NPCs that offer spells and item storage are situated here. New NPCs will show up here after certain actions are done in the levels of the game. The player can only level up and assign spells in the nexus. What this does is give the player a clear understanding of “home base” and combat or safety and danger.

Contrast to Dark Souls, where the concept of a home base has changed. Since the game is open world instead of level oriented, bonfires spread throughout act as safe points in the game. Stopping at a bonfire will revive all normal enemies in the game and is where the player can change spells and level up.

There is only one area in the game that technically acts as a home-base: firelink shrine, however without spoiling it, the shrine won’t remain a home-base for the entire game. Unlike Demon’s Souls, item storage is unneeded as only worn equipment will factor into the character’s weight limit.

Between the two, I prefer having the centralized location of the Nexus as opposed to checkpoints in the form of bonfires. The reason is that I like having all the downtime options featured in one area as opposed to having to find them in the world. This also has to do with pacing, I’d rather do everything that involves downtime in one area as opposed to having to stop and start while in the world.

Another game that had a different view of downtime was Din’s Curse. Unlike most ARPGs, the player is not truly safe while their in town. For those not familiar with the game, the player travels from town to town clearing out the randomized dungeon underneath it. Each dungeon has a boss and while the boss is alive, the game will randomly create problems for the town. Such as a missing food supply, or raids by monsters. Players have to balance between making
headway in the dungeon while performing quests to help the town. You don’t want to be resting in town, as the longer you’re there, means that you’re not making progress in the dungeon.

The other aspect of downtime has to do with money sinks. In order for something to have value in a game, there must be a use for it. Currency in most RPGs will always reach a point where the player has more money then they know what to do with. ARPGs in particular with how rarer items sell for more money, reach that point quickly. That’s where money sinks come into play: a mechanic whose purpose is to give money a use. Now it’s important to make the distinction
that buying supplies like health or mana potions are not a part of this. The reason is that they retain a use no matter what point of the game the player is at.

There are two kinds of money sinks: positive and negative. A positive sink is something the player can do to make their character or equipment better. While a negative sink is something used to basically punish the player for messing up. Now before we get to some examples, it’s important to note that the two categories are not mutually exclusive as we’re about to see.

The most common negative money sink is durability: where equipment will slowly degrade with use. When an item’s durability drops below a certain threshold, the item will take a stat penalty. Most often if durability hits zero, the item will lose all or most of its value. Most games that feature durability require the player to return to town to repair (at a cost of course.) Durability also acts as a slap on the wrist for lower skilled players, as the player’s equipment usually degrades each time the player dies.

Interestingly enough, durability acts as a scaling money sink, as better gear requires more money to repair. However the problem with durability as the main money sink, is that it’s only for less experienced players. Once you’ve gotten good enough at the game, you will rarely die and durability degrades very slowly through normal use. This reduces the money sink considerably among expert players.

An example of a positive sink is from Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. Both games allow the player to upgrade their equipment at the blacksmith. Upgrades require a prerequisite amount of materials along with souls. Upgrading a weapon will boost the base attack damage. Players can also add unique upgrades to weapons based on the current upgrade path of the weapon. For example: adding mana recovery or lightning damage.

This is an example of a pure positive sink, as there is no downside to making your weapon better. The only real catch is that you won’t know what the upgrade paths are without spending money and resources going down each one (unless you have a guide handy.) Because there is no downside to making your equipment better, the designer placed two caps on the system.

First is that the material to max out an upgrade chain, is very rare and may only spawn once or twice in a play-through. Second is that there is a hard limit on how far you can upgrade pieces of equipment. That means that eventually the scaling effect (which was talked about in part 2,) will be your only source of improving your damage output.Before we move on it’s important to mention that the Souls games don’t have the same problem with currency as other ARPGs. Since enemy souls count for both money and experience, there is always a viable use. This area is where I prefer Dark Souls, as leveling up will improve your character’s base defenses.

Whereas in Demon’s Souls, you have to increase specific attributes to improve your defenses.

Some ARPGs and many MMOs feature a crafting system, which acts as a scaling positive money sink. Crafting requires the player to spend money and resources to create equipment or items. Most often there is a way to upgrade the quality level of equipment produced. Some games require the player to spend money for experience, while others just require the player to constantly create items. The players who stick with it to the high levels will usually be rewarded with
very powerful crafting formulas.

The more interesting money sinks are both positive and negative. Many ARPGs feature a “gambler” NPC. How it works is that the player can view the type of equipment the gambler has and a price. The price is usually more expensive then buying the same equipment from a shop. The player however won’t know the rarity of the item until they bought it. That sword could be an ultra rare weapon, or a piece of crap and you’ll never know until you put your money down.

Torchlight featured a different kind of money sink in the form of the enchanter. The enchanter works by being able to enhance any piece of equipment you give him. The enhancement could be a new property on the equipment or added slots. The price for enchanting scales with how many times you use it successfully on the same piece of equipment, and the base level of the item. However there is a catch, there is a chance that the enchanter will wipe all properties off the
equipment leaving it with its base stats. That chance also scales up with each successful enchant.

Downtime is a must for any ARPG, allowing players to relax while looking at the other gameplay systems. At this point, the end of the series is up in the air and if anyone has suggestions for topics by all means post. For part 4, I’m going to talk about a certain game that started this examination in the first place.