So clearly, the classes are in a symbiotic relationship with each other. Everyone needs Shadowsingers to make the world bigger. Everyone needs Rot Priests to push for higher level materials. Everyone needs Darkbreakers to defend against monsters and collect those materials. Everyone needs Truthbuilders to create...well, everything worth having.
My plan is to not give people a choice in class. When they start a new character, they are assigned a class and put in the world. As their guardian spirit levels, they will have better control over percentage chance of getting the class they want. Do they seem to like Darkbreakers? Well, a starting guardian has a 25% of any class, but an advanced guardian might have a 50% or even 75%.
This does several things. First, it forces a relatively even distribution of classes. If someone cannot stand not starting as a Darkslayer, then they can kill their character and come back for another go. Or they could ask a Rot Priest to make a Return to the Guardians sacrifice, and ritually pass away. Now the Rot Priest is empowered to do some fun things
Well, actually, I lied. I'm going to give people a choice in the second tier of class. You see, you may start as a Darkbreaker. But then you do things. A Darkbreaker is highly skilled at killing and looting, but every player can do a few things of the other classes' focus. A Darkbreaker might be able to hum a tune, allowing him to run through the shadows unscathed, without building a world beyond a barren road that will quickly disappear. He could build a simple blade or armor. He could heal himself using some simple prayers. Other people can fight and loot some basic resources, but without the efficiency of a Darkbreaker. Experience will be typed. Some actions give you Explorer experience. Some actions give you Killer exp. Once you gain enough exp, you can reach a new tier in a class. The first tier you gain is easiest. The second and third tier are harder. By nature, if you are a Darkbreaker, you will reach the second tier of Darkbreaker easiest. It's the exp you are most likely to acquire.
But you can get exp in the other classes and work towards them. And then you are a player with two tiers, one in Darkbreaker, one in Shadowsinger, let's say. You can create the world and you can loot the world you create. You are not as good at finding as a Shadowsinger and not as good at killing as a Darkbreaker. But there's something you can do that a Tier II Breaker and a Tier II Shadowsinger cannot do. Maybe you can Sing a zone with more monsters. Maybe you can create a camp of deranged bandits that no Shadowsinger without a Tier in Darkbreaker can make. And maybe you can empower your allies with a buff that no other combination can do. You are a multiclass and you can do more than the combination of your parts.Of course, if you took a second tier in Darkbreaker, you'd be a better Darkbreaker. Maybe you could wear another style of armor. Maybe you could use a new self-buff or attack.
Now, this talk of tiers may make you wonder, how many levels are in this game? 90? 60? Nope, just 4. You can level once in each class or three times in one class. This will be made reasonable in a few ways. We need 60 levels because each level is meaningless. Getting to level 40 just lets you do level 40 things with other level 40s. But in this game, a Tier 1 can do things with a Tier 4 quite easily. There isn't that barrier between the top and the bottom. And the time to Tier 4 will be quite small. Maybe 7 days of reasonable play will allow it. You can get enough exp for your Tier 2 in about 3 hours of play. There will be a daily cap on exp, limiting how fast you can level, so that people who don't have as much time won't feel unnecessarily left behind. If you die, you lose all that progress and have to try again.
So, you've play 7 days, you're top Tier, you're amazing. You have 7 more days of reasonable play time (maybe 3 hours a day?). Then you die of old age. Because this game is not about a permanent character, preserved and immune to the decay of the world. It's about an eternal fight against the shadows, across generations and reincarnations.
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