I'm proposing a skills system to go in for both nonguilded characters and
guilds to use.  There are a few reasons for this kind of system, including
(and of course not limited to): guilds to be thematic additions rather than
requirements for chars to be feasible; a standardized system lessening the
need for complex combat code in guilds, allowing the coding wizzes to focus
more on content/theme than combat stuff; standardizing simply gives us a
better system to work from, more consistent from guild to guild, while not
losing variety - we should gain variety since simply changing a few tricks
and spell names won't cut it anymore; this kind of system will be extremely
addicting for new players as they will SEE their characters improving 
dramatically right from the time they start playing - seeing your skills
going up over and over is very addicting, trust me, it's the key to any
success DragonHeart MUD has enjoyed, and was part of the appeal to Mal's
Warrior guild.  Another advantage to this is that it rewards players for
actually killing stuff rather than hitting behind someone, as the majority
won't trigger unless the player is taking hits; yet another advantage of
this system is that it opens up a variety of ways to play even a guildless
character ("Adventurer's Guild?") - they can wear medium armor and focus
more on dodging/parrying attacks and using counterattack, or they can wear
the heavy gear and use shields for shield block/bash.

The skills will be reliant both on attributes (which will be undergoing a
revision as well, to make them more important, and less uniform from char
to char), and usage-based raising.  There will be two basic categories:
automatic, and initiated; automatic being skills that the game attempts to
use automatically, and initiated being ones that the player has to type a
command to use.  They will be on a percentage basis as well, with 5% being
probably the minimum.  

Skills (of both varieties) will be raised automatically, in a manner similar
to Maledicta's Warriors, or more closely, to the system in place on 
DragonHeart MUD.  The skills will have a % chance to happen, and when they
happen, a % chance to improve: higher chance at lower skill levels, low at
the higher end.  

Skills will also have prerequisites.  For example, riposte (counterattack)
requires parrying a blow.  Because of that, the powerful counterattack 
ability will take much longer to max than the parry ability.  There will be
advanced skills as well - for example, enhanced dodge, which requires the
regular dodge skill to be maxxed.

Sorry for the spammage, but there was a lot to cover.  Keep in mind that
this is the absolute first draft, it requires a lot of fleshing out in 
order to code, as well as having the attribute and race revisions already in
place.  As much input as possible is critical in designing this sytem, so
please, formulate some opinions and mail them to me, either on here, or to
dhalek@comcast.net.  Thanks.

-Earwax
