keyboardcowboy

I thought I would ask the ORK community for some input. I assume, since we are all Devs here, we all love games as well. And, RPGs for sure.

I've been debating which way to take character development. These characters are created by the player. I have a total of a 4-character party the player creates.

Right now, there are 6 classes to choose from during the creation process. Each of these 6 classes can be "promoted" to a different class through a quest of some sort.
For example, the Knight can choose to go White Knight then Paladin. OR, Black Knight then Death Knight. Of course, each step opens the character to new abilities, equipment, etc.

I was also thinking about letting the player choose the Paladin or Death Knight right from character creation. No need to go through the process of promotion.

Finally, I have also considered no class changes per se. Rather, the Paladin and Death Knight skills would be available through a trainer instead. You couldn't have both skill sets. So, the player would need to make a choice which way they would want to develop the character. Staying as a base Knight would be a viable choice as well.

I'm getting close to where I need to finalize which way to go. I like all three systems and would play any of them (have actually). I leaning slightly toward the last one as there would be less development needed and still gives the player something to think about while in the game. (the quest route would require a lot vs. setting up a trainer).

So, any thoughts?

Catacomber

I like trainers. : ) I think many players would like that as well. You could even work in some special quests that would allow you get a special skill set or item from the trainer only available if you finish the quest.

Kirb

I'd personally go the Advanced Class progression route. Leveling up into a more badass class feels good as a player, and there's typically a visual(?) or stylistic change to the character's looks and play mechanics that keeps things fresh and interesting. Although I'm not sure why the middle generic class is necessary!

I would probably go Base Class -> Choose Advanced Class upon leveling up.

So for example,


Knight
↓
Paladin or Death Knight


And then if you wanted to do something cool, you could give an optional (or not) quest-related third class upgrade.



Knight
↓
Paladin____or____Death Knight
↓____________________↓
Templar ________Blood Knight

artainx

Kirb expressed my opinion also