开发者谈升级系统在ARPG游戏设计中的局限性

原作者：Josh Bycer 译者：Vivian Xue

自角色扮演游戏(RPG)诞生以来，升级系统一直是游戏设计和游戏进程中的关键部分。然而，我发现当今游戏在升级系统设计上不得要领，因此我想分享一些关于如何突破传统升级系统局限性的看法。

-了解升级系统-

升级系统以及玩家升级的行为是任何抽象游戏中进阶和平衡的基石。升级是玩家能力提高的一种抽象化表现。

从游戏内容和玩法的角度来看，升级系统发挥了几个主要作用。作为游戏设计师，你可以利用升级系统控制叙事和任务的节奏。很多大型多人在线游戏(MMO)和角色扮演游戏都基于玩家等级来铺设剧情和场景——以求实现情节间的平稳过渡。

升级系统还能平衡玩家能力，影响他们在游戏世界中的行为。如果玩家在达到最高等级时才能得到某个超强技能，那么你就不需要为了这个技能平衡之前的场景。你还可以通过玩家等级衡量他们角色的平均属性值——以此来调节游戏的难易程度。

对于玩家来说，升级直观地体现了他们的进步。此外，从心理学角度来看，升级能够激励玩家继续打游戏。过去十年来，越来越多游戏将RPG系统与动作游戏核心循环相结合，创造出了一种全新的进阶形式。

colopl-quiz-rpg(from serkantoto)

-升级系统的应用-

最早将动作与抽象化进阶系统结合起来的是动作角色扮演类游戏(ARPG)，如《暗黑破坏神》。在这些游戏中，玩家能完全自由地控制角色移动和攻击，但仍受制于抽象的进阶系统。

随着RPG类型不断进化，一些RPG在保留传统设计的基础上转向以动作为核心。《质量效应》、《巫师》、《辐射3》和《辐射4》的操作很像动作游戏，但成功与否取决于进阶系统。

反过来，动作类游戏开始使用RPG升级/进阶系统来扩大游戏循环。《使命召唤》按等级解锁新技能（Perks）和武器,《战神》有装备升级系统，《全境封锁》以及著名的“角色扮演射击游戏”《无主之地》。

这些游戏的玩法都非常重视动作/玩家技术，但进阶系统限制了玩家的能力。如果武器太低级，或者敌人等级过高，玩家技术再高超也没用。在2018版的《战神》中，如果玩家遇上了一个比主角高四五个等级的敌人，两三下就被打死了。

过去，游戏长短取决于玩家的技术，如今设计师能可借助升级系统延长游戏寿命。然而，在加入这一RPG升级系统后，它的一些局限性也暴露了出来。

-升级系统的局限性-

升级系统能够被有效地应用到RPG游戏里，因为这类游戏非常抽象。与第一人称射击游戏（FPS）相比，回合制RPG对玩家的操作技术要求不高。然而，在以操作为核心的游戏中使用升级系统，两种游戏系统将发生冲突。

如果玩家升级后没有新收获，升级过程就丧失了心理激励作用。在《全境封锁》系列中，玩家获得全套装备后，升级从玩法上看没有任何意义，仅体现在装备变强上。无论等级系统如何增强敌人和玩家的能力，它不会影响游戏方式。我经常感到我已经掌握了所有游戏机制，却要被迫打个20几关才能解锁所有内容。

在《战神》中，由于游戏没有提供多少选择，战斗的重复性变得非常高，并且游戏完全以装备等级为核心。正如之前提到的，如果玩家做的事情是一样的，无论他打出5点伤害还是5000点伤害都没什么区别。

游戏设计者通过升级系统提高游戏难度，却没提高它的趣味性。在《无主之地2》游戏后期，敌人的血量被设得非常高，即便你枪法再好也很难杀死他们。如果你运气不好，找不到合适的枪，你经常会被普通敌人直接打死。

谈到游戏后期，升级/进阶系统的意义就在于在无限升级中增强游戏的重复可玩性，但这是有限度的。如果游戏不能提供有意义的挑战，变强的兴奋感会逐渐消失殆尽。玩《暗黑破坏神3》时，一旦我获得了某个职业的全套顶级装备，我就再也不想刷折磨关卡了，因为再怎么变强也没意义了。

尽管如此，我非常欣赏《暗黑破坏神》和《全境封锁》对传统的升级系统所做一些改变。

-世界层级系统-

虽然《暗黑破坏神》和《全境封锁》都以升级系统为进阶核心，但它们有一个共同特色，我想不出什么更贴切的术语，暂且把它称为“世界层级系统”(World Tier System)。从1.04版开始到后续的扩展包，《暗黑破坏神3》提供了一个 “冒险模式”，允许玩家根据需求选择难度。游戏的难度越高，敌人属性值越高，金币和物品的掉落率也越高，从而提高了体验的多样性，玩家达到70级时，在折磨关卡中会掉落一些特殊物品。

《全境封锁》使用了一个相似的系统，不过是在游戏后期。当玩家达到30级并完成剧情后，他们将进入下一个分阶。越高阶的世界掉落的装备更强，敌人也更危险。

这两个系统都令我又爱又恨。比起《全境封锁》，我更喜欢《暗黑破坏神3》的前期。然而，当你打完折磨1后，后面的世界层级里不会再出现新的挑战或奖励。

《全境封锁》的设计真正延长了玩家的能力提升曲线。我很喜欢新世界解锁时敌人的出现方式。不幸的是你必须刷到30级才能进入这个系统，我认为这是一个败笔。

我希望游戏能够完全采纳这种玩家调整难度（player-modified difficulty）的概念，提高重复可玩性。试想下这样一款游戏，它的每一个新层级都将改变游戏方式：新的敌人、新的场景以及最重要的：新的奖励。

如果你做不到这一点，那么我想谈谈与升级系统有关的一个重要方面。

-设置合理的等级数-

随着动作玩法和升级系统结合，很多人认为等级数越多，越能增加游戏体验的深度。对此我想说这是错误的，这只不过拉长了游戏罢了。玩家不应该一心想着升级，而是专注于体验游戏本身。实现这个目标有两种方式：

一是每次升级都为玩家提供新鲜事物：新能力、功能、道具等等，一切能改变他们游戏方式的事物。《暗黑破坏神3》的升级系统在这方面很完美——每次升级都会出现新玩意儿。

另外，你需要处理好升级和游戏内容之间的关系。如果玩家完成了所有剧情任务，那么就应该让他们进入下一阶段。无论你的游戏有30级还是100级，玩家不应受到等级限制而无法推进内容。

《激战2》中一个令我喜爱的地方就是游戏会根据玩家等级调节体验和奖励（回到低级副本时玩家的伤害和属性会自动降低，但奖品发放仍按照原本的等级，游戏邦注）。这使得每次练级都充满意义。值得庆幸的是，近年来许多游戏都采用了这种动态等级系统，从某种程度上减少了刷关现象。

-追求好的设计-

一些游戏把升级视为玩家在“真正的游戏”开始前必须通过的一扇门，而另一些游戏把它视为体验的一部分。

总之，我再也无法接受传统的升级系统，并且我对于它和动作类游戏的结合效果表示怀疑。《无主之地3》快要发行了，但愿在这款RPG射击游戏中能看到一些改进。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Leveling has been an essential part of game design and progression since the origins of RPG design. However, I’m finding that modern games are missing the point on leveling design, and I wanted to share my thoughts on how we may have outgrown the original use of leveling.

Learning about Leveling

Leveling and the act of leveling up have been cornerstones of progression and balance in any game with abstracted systems. The lore behind leveling is that it is a way of abstracting how someone becoming more skilled at what they do.

From a gameplay standpoint, leveling provides several essential functions to designers and players. As the designer, you can use the leveling system to properly pace your storytelling and challenges. Many MMOs and RPGs will set up stories and areas based on the player level — allowing for a hopefully smooth transition from story beat to story beat.

Leveling also works as a way of balancing the player’s abilities and how they relate to the world around them. If you’re going to introduce some high-power skill at the level cap, then you don’t need to worry about balancing early areas around said ability. You can also use the player’s level as a way of measuring the average stats of their character — making areas easier or harder to compensate.

From the player’s point of view, leveling provides an easy to understand measure of their progress. There’s also the psychology of getting the rewards of leveling up as a form of motivating the player to keep going. Over the last decade, more games have been integrating RPG systems into action gameplay loops, and that created a new form of progression.

Leaping into Leveling

The first examples of combining action and abstracted progression would be the ARPG genre with the likes of Diablo and so on. In these titles, the player had full control over their character in terms of movement and attacking but were still held to the RPG layer in terms of abstraction.

As the RPG genre evolved, we started to see games present themselves as more action-oriented, but still RPG in design. Modern entries like Mass Effect, the Witcher, Fallout 3 and 4, and so on, were controlled like an action game, but success or failure was built into the abstraction.

From the other side, we started to see action-based titles use RPG leveling and progression as a way of extending the gameplay loop. Call of Duty with its leveling to unlock new perks and weapons, God of War with a gear level, The Division, and of course the big example: Borderlands with its “role-playing shooting.”

With these games, all gameplay is action/player skill, but the RPG layer restricts what the player can do. It doesn’t matter how skilled you are if your weapons are too low level, or enemies are too high level. In God of War 2018, the game was explicitly designed so that if you fought an enemy who was four or more levels above Kratos, they would always kill him in one to two hits.

The use of a leveling system allows designers to extend the lifespan of these games that were traditionally limited by the player’s skill. However, with this adoption of RPG leveling, it also highlights the limitations of the system.

Leveling Limitations

Leveling in RPG games works because of how the entire game is abstracted. Player skill is not as much of a factor playing a turn-based RPG compared to an FPS. However, when player skill is the focus and the RPG layer is on top, the different game systems clash with each other.

You lose the psychological motivation behind leveling when the player gets nothing for it. In the Division series, leveling doesn’t mean anything from a gameplay point of view once the player has their build established. At that point, progress is only measured by their gear. Whenever the RPG layer affects the scaling of enemies and player abilities, that does not change how the game is being played. Many times, it felt that I already mastered all the game’s systems, but there were still 20+ levels to go before I could access all the content.

In God of War, the combat became very repetitive because of how few legitimate options there was, while the game focused entirely on the gear level. As we’ve talked about, if the player hits for 5 points of damage or 5,000 but is doing the same thing regardless, then that is not an example of progress.

By using RPG scaling, it allows the designers to make encounters harder without making them more interesting. At the endgame of Borderlands 2 and into new game +, the developers raise the enemy stats so high that even if you were a great shot you were not able to easily kill them. Many times, normal enemies would beat you through sheer force if you didn’t get lucky and find the right guns to use against them.

Speaking of the endgame, the whole point of having a leveling system/progression is to provide far more replayability due to the endless scaling, but that has a limit. The thrill of growing stronger will run out if the world doesn’t present a meaningful challenge. Playing Diablo 3, once I got my full set done for a class, I stopped caring about going up in torment level because there was no further point where I could make my character stronger.

With that said, both Diablo and the Division did do something that I like as an alternative to traditional leveling systems, and what I want to see further developed.

World Tier Systems

Despite Diablo and the Division having a leveling system at the core of their progression, they also feature, for lack of a better term, a “world tier system.” Starting from patch 1.04 and continuing into the expansion, Diablo 3 features “adventure mode” that allows players to tune the difficulty to their specifications. The higher the difficulty the game is played on, enemies have higher stats, gold and drop rates are improved, the player gets more experience, and specific sets will drop at the torment levels once the player hits 70.

The Division features a similar system but at the endgame. Once the player hits level 30 and finishes the story, they start to advance the world tier. At each greater tier, the strength of all the gear drops goes up and the enemies become stronger.

Both systems feature elements that I like and dislike. In Diablo 3, I liked how the system is there from the very beginning, unlike the Division. However, once you hit torment 1, the game will not introduce any new challenges or rewards that are unlocked at the higher tiers.

With the Division, the way it is set up does allow for endless scaling of its power curve. I like how they introduce a new faction of enemies that show up when the world tier system unlocks. Unfortunately, having to grind 30 levels before you can use this system hurts the game in my opinion.

What I want to see is a game that fully embraces this idea of player-modified difficulty and run with it in terms of replayability. Imagine a game that each new tier changes how the game is played: New enemies, new situations, and most importantly: new rewards.

If you can’t do that, then there’s one important point about leveling systems I want to touch on.

The Right Number of Levels

With games trying to introduce leveling systems into action-based design, many feel that the more levels make the experience deeper. However, I want to comment and say that isn’t true and just pads the game out. The player should never actively think about leveling and instead focus on playing the game, and there are two ways of doing that.

The first is that every level up should give the player something new: A new power, functionality, utility; anything that changes how they play going forward. The leveling curve in Diablo 3 is perfect in this regard—every level gives me a new toy to play with.

The other point is that you need to be mindful of how progress relates to the main content in your game. If the player completes every story mission, then that should move them through the leveling curve. It doesn’t matter if your game has 30 levels or 100, the player should never be forced to stop moving through the content because they’re not at the right level.

What I loved about Guild Wars 2 was how everything in the game always scaled towards your level in terms of experience and rewards. At no point during the leveling curve did any content become useless to do. Thankfully games have adapted scaling of this kind in recent years and that has helped to cut down on grinding to some extent.

Get to the Good Stuff

Some games treat the leveling curve as simply a gate that the player must get through before the “real game starts”, and others see it as part of the experience.

Traditional leveling just doesn’t work for me anymore and doubly so for titles that are built around action design. With reveals of the next Borderlands happening now, I hope that the looter shooter leveling and scaling has been improved.(source:gamasutra.com ）