First/third person RPG-like game idea

Finally, a way to input creative design! (I've wanted to go into non-programming development for some time but had no means, and this is just as good for me.)

Okay, one of my game concepts:

My idea is of a first/third person game based on both physical and magical/technical moves in which levels and handheld weapons will be used.

=Experience and Level System=

The game will be based on values such as strength and vitality and will have levels. These values will go up as experience is gained. Experience is gained after creatures and/or other players are killed. The higher the level of the defeated opponent, the better the experience. As levels are gained, new abilities to be learned arise.

The player starts at level 1 with a physical attack and short range technical/magical move. When a physical attack hits, a bar on the screen is filled. This mana bar will increase with every physical attack connected, and when the bar reaches full, a technical/magical move can be used.

There will be two bars on screen, and several other numerical/text listings. One bar will be health, the other will be mana. Under these will be two experience meters. One displays level experience and the other displays ability experience in current/max form (it will read as "Ability Experience: 20/100," etc.) When this is filled to the max total for physical levels, the values of strength, vitality, etc. increase and the meter resets and the max value increases accordingly. When the ability level meter is completed, the same occurs, except that a new ability is learned. Another meter will display the HP of your weapons/shield. One other will display the currently selected ability.

Physical levels and stats cannot be controlled, but the player may select what ability he wishes to advance next. When experience is gained, that ability is lost and replaced by an ability like it but with greater power/speed/efficiency. Experience is gained for that ability's class until the game is told otherwise.

There will be several classes of abilities, all unique to their race/species/class of player. They may come in several roles: attack, defense, support. Attack moves are the only long range attack moves in the game, to balance game play and remove snipers. (In order to use an ability you must use physical attacks, remember?) Defensive moves act as shielding, recovery, and are only useful for your player only. Support moves are able to target, without range, your entire team. They can do the same thing as defensive moves, but are not quite as powerful and take a little longer to learn.

Level ranks will have different names to prevent level 100 characters from fighting level 1 characters, although it will be possible to do so in multiplayer servers if the option is enabled. Levels 1-10 will have a beginner's ranking, allowing only levels 1 through 10 players to be in the server. The same goes for each rank, 21-30, 31-40, and so on until 91-100. It will be very possible to use a level 1 character and kill a level 100 character, although it will take strategy. Since a character's physical speed does not increase with levels, a better "pilot" will be able to kill a level 100 character with physical attacks. Since abilities cannot be used without physical attacks, if the level 100 character cannot hit his opponent, his special abilities will mean nothing.

A level 1 character will start with no weapon, only his bare hands. After completing a mission or multiplayer battle and earning credits, he may buy better weapons for himself. It is also possible to buy two weapons. One hand will be used for a weapon, and the other will be used for another weapon or a shield. The shield can be raised to defend against all damage of a physical attack, blocking the attack, and it can reduce ability attacks' damage by half. Shields and weapons both are falliable and experince wear. If they are overused, they can break. Weapons and shields can be repaired after missions in shops using earned credits. I considered the idea of armor and decided against it, as HP values increasing, as well as the capability of having a shield, should even things enough.

The only difference between races will be their physical design, and their abilities. Weapons and shield designs, as well as game screens will differ between them as well. Clothing colors (skins), of course, can be altered.

=Plot=

Quite possibly the most important issue in the game, as it will be a RPG-like game, the plot should be able to explain the game's engine and design and have interest at the same time. I cannot create one without knowing which aspects of the game would be used, but I can speculate.

The game would operate under the guise that sometime in the future, a cataclysmic event would occur that brings the earth to its knees culturally and technologically. The most credible idea would be that a virus or something to that extent is released in the process that mutates the people of earth, as well as the planet itself. Each new species groups together and begins to hate one another, based only on external differences. No human on earth is left untouched, but some look the same as they were. All, however, are left infused with either arcane knowledge or changes in their bodies that allow them to manipulate nature. (The explanation for the abilities.) All the races, after years (the game takes place a few centuries after the cataclysm) of spite, a war breaks out between all the species.

The plot for the controllable character in the offline mode would revolve around whatever race you choose, but all lead to a final non-human controlling the events that have caused the downfall of civilization. The reason for this will be unknown at the time, but the ending battle will result in a climax that reveals the final boss as being the first victim of the cataclysm, who had been the scientist in control of it. The virus had affected him in such a way as to mutate him hideously and extend his lifespan, making him centuries years old. His reason for doing this was to bring his pain to all mankind, as his character, like his body, had been hideously changed as a result of his experiments.

The plot could be any number of things, that's just one idea. Plots for fighting games usually don't get worked on very much, which is one reason why I usually loathe them.

=Problems=

I recognized the possibility for many problems thinking this out. One is that, using the bars and levels, the possibility for hacking creating a problem increases. I know some methods of controlling this, such as keeping character files online, but such things would require a lot of money, to my knowledge.

I also thought that working stats up online with a friend may be a problem, as some people would allow themselves to be open to attack in a 2 person-only server and take turns attacking and healing. I thought that making it so that gaining experience only comes from participating in single player would be a good solution, but it also limits the game in some aspects.

Well, that's all I can remember right now. I hope my idea gives you some ideas of your own, as I'm sure mine won't be used anyway. There's never been a first person RPG with a stat system to my knowledge, so apparently there's something wrong with it.