Reboot: LP & Fight System

Reboot: LP & Fight System

A lot of people were not thrilled with the idea of removing the LP & Fight Systems completely on the reboot. I am happy to keep some kind of system in place, but it absolutely needs to be streamlined to reduce 1.) the amount of work for staff and 2.) the amount of confusion for members when claiming. So let's hear those specific ideas!

I have a couple ideas, but I'm not sure how well they would implement and if they would truly make things easier, so just let me know <3

Definitely overhauling the LP system. Right now we have 4 major categories - physique, skills, pack, and development. It's fantastic, and there are a lot of ways to earn LP... but do we need to earn LP for every thread we do? This also plays into the current fight system and how things are calculated in terms of damage, HP, ect.

A new wolf essentially stands no chance against an older wolf, might be able to hold out for a couple rounds, but ultimately falls because the LP being calculated into the fight stats is incredibly large, particularly for 'strong' characters like Lachesis, Elettra (back in the day), Askan, ect.

I'm proposing to keep the LP system, but cut back on what earns LP. Maybe, have a set number of LP for physique, so they don't get divided up - pups get 100, yearlings 225, and small/medium/large get 300/325/350 but we don't divide it up specifically in the statistics - that way it's a little easier to handle adding new characters to the game or updating life points as a pup turns yearling or a yearling turns adult.

In addition, limiting the LP earned in game specifically to the skills section. This would make a little more sense in terms of development, especially since LP are mainly used for fight statistics, so skills is the category I feel is most applicable? Points for hunts (big hunts, like deer, elks, ect that take more than one person specifically), healing, fights (actual fights, not sparring but things like rank challenges, fighting between loners over food, ect)

This way, at the very least, LP are claimed less often which takes a bit of a burden off the staff, and it simplifies the system a little bit more.

In terms of fights and the fight system, I personally love the fight system we currently have, but I know that it can cause some headaches for the staff - perhaps to simplify that a bit, we could do something where users are encouraged to reach an end to the fight on their own, but have the option of (after the fight takes place) requesting rolls to see who would have won with the fight system to resolve disputes? I'm not sure if this would make things easier for the staff in terms of setting up the calculations, but would also make fight roll requests less frequent as well, and would only come up in 'major' fights like if someone were to challenge for a pack, or something else?

LP has got to be a nightmare for staff. I couldn't imagine. I think a lot of the claimable events should be cut out. I think the only remaining events should be:

• +100 Have Pups.
• +50 Create a Pack.
• +50 Join a Pack.
• +35 Participating in a Rank Challenge.
• +100 Leader of a Pack.
• +50 Participate in a Pack Activity.
• +50 Win a Fight.
• +50 Participate in a Successful Pack Hunt.
  

Of course, these are arguable and I'm definitely open to opposing opinions. For me, these seem like the more important plot milestones. Pack roles are fun, but I think they can exist without LP bonuses. The same thing goes for random events, meeting new wolves, threading in 10 territories/sub-territories.

As for a fight system, I like the idea of it being based off LP or even just chance. For instance, maybe it's just assumed the wolf with higher LP should win the fight, but leave it open to people OOC to decide if that is the case in this situation. That way people have room to pick and choose, but there's still a structure in place.

Life Points To Be Kept

• Physique LP, but I second what Nams said here:
  I'm proposing to keep the LP system, but cut back on what earns LP. Maybe, have a set number of LP for physique, so they don't get divided up - pups get 100, yearlings 225, and small/medium/large get 300/325/350 but we don't divide it up specifically in the statistics - that way it's a little easier to handle adding new characters to the game or updating life points as a pup turns yearling or a yearling turns adult.
  I think this will make it easier on the staff, as well, as it's a bit of a hassle to keep add them separately
• Join/Leave a Pack
• Create a Pack
• Gain Leadership of a Pack
• Gain a Mate
• Gain a Role within a Pack
• Complete a Random Event
• Complete a Thread - honestly, I think this needs to stay because it encourages people to actually finish a thread, ie. prevents people from getting bored/not replying when the thread no longer benefits them. It keeps people accountable so there isn't a bunch of dead/unfinished threads.
• Win/Lose a Fight
• Have Pups
• Join Adult Ranks
• Participate in a Rank Challenge
  

I honestly really don't like the ribbon system and never have. It's very time-consuming and tedious for staff members, and even members to claim them, so I think we would be better without. What would be cool, however, is turning some of the IC-related ones into LP.

• Having X amount of completed threads 
• Creating a post with X amount of words
• Having X amount of IC posts
• Completing X amount of REs
• Member/Character of the Month
  

I'll edit as I remember stuff because I literally had to re-do this like 8 times.

I agree that we should probably not get rid if the LP system entirely, now that I have had time to think on this. Because I think a character should still have a certain amount of LP before they can either create a pack or have pups, as well as be on site for a certain amount of time...

As Nams suggested, having the LP as one and not in sections I think would be very helpful. Smashing the LP that is similar into one would help also. As far as summing up the LP itself, I feel like these are the important character developmenting ones that should stay. Mostly those pertaining to mental, life or physical skills:

- Create a pack
- Join a pack
- Gain a pack role
- Gain leadership
- Participate in pack activity (meetings, hunts, etc...)
- Successful hunt (for nonpack hunts, only claim LP if it's a success)
- Participate in a fight (any fight, scuffle, rank challenge)
- Win a fight (bonus for the winner ofc)
- Complete a thread (be it new wolf, pack mate and yes this in incentive to COMPLETE threads)
- Demonstrate pack role/leadership
MAYBE...
- Complete random event thread
- Gain a mate
- Have pups

As Arla said, merging the ribbons with the LP would save up time too. So former ribbons pertaining to skills could be LP points like:
- Raise full litter to a year
- Win event contest

I had an idea for the fight system that would be a massive streamline.

Divide character's LP by X number (50 or something?? I guess it kinda depends on how the LP gets revamped tho), then use a random number generator to "roll" both numbers and whoever gets the higher number wins.

So dividing by 50 for example: basically a 300 LP char would roll a d6 and a 2000 LP char would roll a d40. The low LP char has a chance at winning but obviously favors the higher stat char. And just one roll to decide the entire fight, the players can decide the stakes and how the result plays out on their own.

Personally, I don’t think I’ve run into a fight that I couldn't resolve ooc for a long time (but maybe that's because people are/were terrified of naira/morg and their tank lp). I am all for nixing the fight system entirely, and in the event a victor can’t be decided, then perhaps just roll a d6 and whoever gets the higher roll wins?

As for LP, I like the suggestions above about streamlining it back to what it was... Back when I first joined? But I would also be ok with removing it completely, so I won’t weigh in any further on that front.

Thanks everybody so much for your input and suggestions. It's been really eye-opening and definitely has changed how Sarah and I are approaching implementation in the reboot.

Some of the comments re the ribbon system were especially interesting, because the system we've been looking at using to run the forum comes with a sort of built in rewards system that can trigger and give awards automatically. They're much more like ribbons than the LP (in that it's just something on your profile instead of numbers based), but the ability to automate awarding them is very attractive to us. Most people seem to be in agreement that cutting down on LP to only significant events will help with the ones that can't be automated, as it's just a matter of the member claiming them and staff awarding them. But it does leave open the possibility to keep stuff like threaded in X number of territories or with X different characters in play in a more sustainable way. They can also stack so we can have different levels, like threaded with 10 wolves, 20 wolves, etc.

Since these wouldn't necessarily be tied to numbers, I think it would make sense for us to look at the total # of awards earned when considering the fight system or other things that we've used LP to gauge like creating a pack or having pups. For the fight system, I'm personally very supportive of cutting it back to a simple dice system with the # of awards earned somehow buffing those rolls a little bit, but I'm interested to know what other think. Something else to consider too is that the current fight system is set up the way it is not only to address the overall winner/loser of the fight, but also to help guide the amount of damage each character can do in a single round. I'm all for letting the characters involved handle it themselves, but we have had issues with this in the past and some consistent way to moderate it would be helpful to have as a fallback if the members can't sort it out themselves.

Hello! I know I have only recently joined the site, but I would just like to share the fightinging system from the other RP site I am part of, although I’m sure it could be simplified further :)

-Large and average wolves have 2 dodges
-Small wolves have 3 dodges
-The larger the wolf the more HP
-Exiles/Rogues have an extra dodge
-A dice is rolled to see if an attack is normal (30 HP loss) or critical (50 HP loss)
-A blow to smaller areas such as tail, paw, or ear is 10 HP loss
-If a wolf attacks and the character dodges but hits somewhere else that’s 1/2 a dodge
-Wolf with most HP left at the end wins
-Fleeing deducts 20HP

Although the numbers would be different

Also, in regards to the levelling system, the other RPG have recently added one in. I’m not saying this way is best, it’s too early since it’s creation to really see, but it is very simple in how you get points, being relatively simple in the rest.

-only points available is for completed hunt threads, posting 3 or more times
-5+ points for hunting
-prey played by someone other than yourself)
-reach varying levels with points, I.e. Lvl1 is 25 points, Lvl2 is 75 points, Lvl3 is 100, and so on
-at each level a skill/bonus is chosen by the player which can help with fights or other non-violent uses. Skills such as attack bonus, defence bonus, tracking, spying, investigation, and immunity to tracking spying and investigation, with level 6 earning a ‘suprise’ skill
-points are claimed with number of points + thread links

I have no idea if this is even possible, but going off the dice roll, is there a way to have the players do the rolls or something instead of staff? Like having it automated but make sure that one player couldnt make it favor one character over another? That way players could fight if they wanted but staff wouldn't have to worry about it?

Just a thought to make it easier on staff but allow those who still want a fight system to still have one. :)