Basic Features

[[Luke]]

My not-so-humble suggestion:

I'm begging you - keep the numbers real. Not in mathematical meaning, I'm sure you're not even gonna make them non-integer but I mean the reality of the integers. Examples:

• Nobody carries around 10 000 gold coins with themselves. So nothing really costs that much.


• GOLD isn't that easy to get. A gold coin should be worth more than 1/500 of one mana potion.


• If all the prices in a potion shop are over 100 GOLDEN COINS, in means it's too freakin' expensive. Image anobody paying with even 10-gp coins. The price of any non-equipment non-rare-artifact item should fit in a small money bag.


• HP and damage. I always wondered why the heck anybody needs to break the default RMXP values. How can anobody feel the values, track what's effective and what's not, when a single weapon hit deals 700 damage? Player's HP should be around 50-200 to make each point valuable. Monsters - 10-500 for monsters, up to 1000 for bosses. Keep those numbers imaginable.


• Same for stats. Keep them in small enough numbers to make the player realise their meaning.

Also please, I'm begging you, quit tormenting the players with "random encouters". That was cool in Pokemon. And never more.

[WhiteRose]

Big numbers have their advantages as well; if players have 5000+ HP, then it's easier to have status effects and the like that are supposed to inflict very small amounts of damage that add up over time. If players only have 50 HP, then that's impossible. Not to mention, there are few things as awesome as hitting for ridiculously high numbers towards the end of the game; it really lets players see how much more powerful they've become since the beginning.

While I agree with you about the gold situation, we also want to make sure that we don't make realism get in the way of practical gameplay. End game equipment and materials should cost much, much more than the player would ever be able to get at the beginning of the game, so using high values is necessary. I've always figured that one "gold" doesn't necessarily mean one coin. Coins could be worth 10, 100, or even 1000 "gold." Players shouldn't need to worry about exactly what coins they have on them, though - can you imagine a player having to go to a store and ask if the owner has change for a 1000G coin? Thus they are only presented with the value of the money they have on them, not the actual number of coins.

I'm not saying your ideas are bad ideas; I'm just presenting the opposite end of the spectrum for everyone to consider.

[winkio]

On the numbers thing:
We should decide whether to work in 3-digits or 4-digits for maximum stats/money.  Either will work, but I'm personally a fan of 3 digits.  That means near the end of the game, the party's max stats are 3 digits, things cost 3 digits of money, and normal damage is 3 digits, although extremely powerful attacks and enemy health would break 4 digits.

For random encounters, I completely agree.  I would like enemies on the map that chase you (or just ignore you, in some cases).  They should only respawn when you exit to the map world and reenter a zone.

[[Luke]]

I'm a big fan of chapter-respawn. Once defeated, monsters don't bother you anymore, but when the respawn occurs, new monsters appear.

[winkio]

The chapter thing clearly sections the game too much, limiting the player's options to a single chapter.  By respawning every time they go to the world map, it allows for random variation as well as no limits.

[AliveDrive]

*Dives in*

The problem with having monsters go away when defeated until the next chapter, is that if you get to a boss that's too strong for you:  Game Over.

I am a fan of monsters on the map that try to engage you, and when they make contact the battle begins. It would be neat to also see weaker monsters run away from you... unless one shotting every slime that you run into is your thing.

To reuse this picture:

Spoiler: ShowHide

[winkio]

The problem with having monsters go away when defeated until the next chapter, is that if you get to a boss that's too strong for you:  Game Over.

good point.  There should be room to have some minibosses or storyline-related enemies that permanently disappear, but in general, they should respawn whenever you enter the map.