Revision of the Character Score System

[Tom]

A script/program could be developed to check for impossible attribute values based on the character's other skill levels and such. But, as Kestral said, it would be a very complicated script. Not that I couldn't develop it, but it would take quite a lot of work and, with the small amount of time I have now-a-days (and not to mention my other web project Optic Gamer), that would make if very tough for me to develop such a script. It's definitely an idea for the future, though, when I have the time.

[whoman69]

Back to the original topic then, a next gen scoring system should not weigh so heavily on one simple stat. Looking at the top of the leader board they have an inordinate number of thefts. This shouldn't throw the system so far. There should be a maximum weighting given to any of the figures used.

[Kestral]

Back to the original topic then, a next gen scoring system should not weigh so heavily on one simple stat. Looking at the top of the leader board they have an inordinate number of thefts. This shouldn't throw the system so far. There should be a maximum weighting given to any of the figures used.

You should've seen how it first was. It weighed heavily on that, ridiculously heavy. >.>

[whoman69]

Its just a shame that more people can't be honest and post what they really have. I was looking at the leaderboards and was amazed by how many people had impossible numbers, things like having read 900 skill books when there are only 109, or having a fame over 1000, completing more quests than there are in the game by a large number, or shutting down more oblivion gates than are possible. We have people claim to have more training session than is possible for their level. We have people who claim to have more magicka than is possible with every single ounce of enhancements thrown in. There's obviously a lot of people who post enhanced stats even though its clearly stated not to do so. Its sad that people want attention so much they throw out lies that are so obvious to find.

[Tom]

I agree with you. Also, what good does it do someone to post false statistics about their characters on a website? This website is meant to allow Oblivion fans to post and share information about their characters for fun, and posting false statistics just seems to ruin it for the person doing it. It's their loss, even though it also misconstrues the leaderboards.

[Xavier]

We need to go through some profiles and see if we can put this to justice.

Edit: I also think that on the leaderboards, it should initially just show people who don't use exploits. Then there should be an option to make the people who use exploits show up as well. I know that's why the stars are there but it's still kind of lame how people who exploit the game can be on top. I'm not sure about people who have mods, because it depends on what mod it is to see if it can get them up high on the leaderboards.

[Tom]

I also think that on the leaderboards, it should initially just show people who don't use exploits. Then there should be an option to make the people who use exploits show up as well. I know that's why the stars are there but it's still kind of lame how people who exploit the game can be on top.

It's been a while, but I have finally implemented that feature. For anyone who checks the leaderboards frequently, you probably will have noticed the change by now.

Now, I want to get back into a serious movement toward revising the character score system. I have gotten some examples ready in the "testing ground" for The Elder Stats, and now I am prepared to start formulating a final idea for the revision of the character score system.

I know that a lot of ideas have been posted in this topic so far, so I am going to need to look through all of them and see which ones fit best. Basically, we want to go with some sort of formula - either an average of the stats included which will equal a character's score, or some other equation that can be used to generate a score for a character. For reference, information about how the score is currently calculated can be found here.

So, if everyone could please look through some of the ideas posted in this topic, or post your own personal ideas, and let us know which ideas you feel are best for revising the character score system. Please keep in mind, though, that the stats that will be included in the formula to generate character score need to be able to be used in a simple formula (i.e. nothing other than addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division of stats can be used in calculating the score). Also, I think it is quite obvious that the stats included in the calculation for character score must be numerical.

We appreciate everyone's suggestions, and I hope to see as many people post their suggestions as possible. Please let us know what stats you think should be included in calculating the Score for characters. We really need to revise the current system as it is based on stats that are not truly fair to be used. We want the character score to include certain stats so that every character's score will be different, and every character's score will express the true quality of the character.

[whoman69]

I believe that any revision of the score system needs to be weighted as it is now, but capped out. Some of the stats are really unimportant, like jokes told or books read which tell us nothing about the character other than they use skillcraft and can't remember which books they already read. The system should also be able to recognize when exploits have been used and insert that. Perhaps we also need to type in BOLD and big fonts to have the stats without magical enhancements. If you have magical enhancements that can go in the information section. I think the mods should be able to go in and void the points when they don't add up.

[Kestral]

I think that a way to combat a few things, is to weigh everything regarding time. There's always the miscellaneous cut-backs, and the buffing to more essential statistics. But, anyone can grind so much that, they get a character with 100 in all skills, they may also grind things like killing so much people that they land themselves in jail for 20 in-game years. I think, the play-time should be taken, and calculated against the character's overall statistics.

Now, let's say we have a character who has been in-game for 172 hours, who's level 40, and has several skills at 100 and various other attributes. Is this character better than another who has been playing for about 30 hours who's level 51 (1/2) with all skills and attributes at 100?

I know several players who would say the former is better, because the amount of sheer devotion of actually playing the game versus grinding. So one could take the total game-play time, run it through whatever [brilliant] script one could make, get a number, and weigh the score derived from several statistics. (Perhaps the amount of score received from a level of 32 at 100 hours of game-play could be greater than one at level 28 with 31 hours of game time)

I believe this can be achieved (the aforementioned) rather quickly, and would only need fine-tuning to make the scoring system fair and equal.

[Grayfox]

Good idea Kestral.

I am backing him up on that. It seems to be a better way to score things along with in-game days. But then again, keeping the day system may work too. However, people can wait through days. The hours are the things that count.