Which is ironic given the nature of U4 and it's moral system. That game REALLY floored me the summer I spent playing it (literally the entire summer, it was before I was old enough to get a job).
> RPGs end up being about numbers.
For me, this was the final, sad conclusion to computer-based RPGs after nearly 40 years playing them.
In tabletop D&D, a +1 sword is a rarity, and +2 is super special; magic users focused more on creativity because the cost to the caster for Lvl9 spells (if you ever got there, which was never in real games) was prohibitive to use them on a regular basis (memorization, physical aging). In fact, the level tables in AD&D stopped around 10 or 12 I think because that much XP simply didn't happen. Computer RPGs turned it all into numbers games, as you can see in WoW where the top tier armor today has stats like +30,000 attribute, when in the first release, top T3 geat from C'thon was like, +50 key attribute per piece.
A lower variance in peak skills/weapons is a good way to go. Then, you could feasibly have tons of weapon types, with each player picking the type they like. I, personally, have always been partial to the rogue archetype, especially dual-wielding fast weapons. I'd love to play that way. But in some games, like Path of Exile for most of its existence, it's just not in the meta. I'd love to be competitive, even 5-10% below the top tier, if my favorite playstyle was possible. In PoE, you'd be like at 20% of the best builds if you played that way.
Plus, in DnD you have a lot more scope for actually creatively role-playing if skills and gear were less numericized.
> In tabletop D&D, a +1 sword is a rarity, and +2 is super special; magic users focused more on creativity
There were some "low magic" NWN persistent worlds that followed a similar approach, some to the point of not just nerfing, but outright disabling many higher-level spells.
Generally speaking, this was dictated by the setting - e.g. a lore-faithful Middle Earth PW would necessarily be like that.
> RPGs end up being about numbers.
For me, this was the final, sad conclusion to computer-based RPGs after nearly 40 years playing them.
In tabletop D&D, a +1 sword is a rarity, and +2 is super special; magic users focused more on creativity because the cost to the caster for Lvl9 spells (if you ever got there, which was never in real games) was prohibitive to use them on a regular basis (memorization, physical aging). In fact, the level tables in AD&D stopped around 10 or 12 I think because that much XP simply didn't happen. Computer RPGs turned it all into numbers games, as you can see in WoW where the top tier armor today has stats like +30,000 attribute, when in the first release, top T3 geat from C'thon was like, +50 key attribute per piece.
Am I ranting? I'm ranting.