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GAME DIFFICULTY MECHANICS - BRAIN STORMING
Posts
TheGiantHand
43
TheGiantHand
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CloseIn one of the games I am working I have enemies who are at level 10-30 in two different dungeons on my world map. I dont have anything preventing the player from entering into them once they clear the first dungeon however. Also a higher level dungeon comes before the lower level one on the map. I was wondering if I should put in some mini dungeons like a swamp or forest type areas in between the main dungeons so players can grind and level up before heading into the more dangerous main dungeons. I am expecting players to be around level 4 or 5 coming out of the beginning dungeon.
@TGH- It's usually best to at least warn the player in some way when they wander into an area with a higher difficulty. Besides a straight up message, you could use an NPC right before the area that tells you of the danger that lies ahead and to make sure you're prepared to face it.
Some low level areas to grind in is a good idea too to get players ready.
Something I've always found annoying in older RPGs is when I stumbled into a higher level area and got my ass handed to me with no warning. You can go the Trial and Error route but it ultimately just cheats the player if they have no idea what they are getting into.
Some low level areas to grind in is a good idea too to get players ready.
Something I've always found annoying in older RPGs is when I stumbled into a higher level area and got my ass handed to me with no warning. You can go the Trial and Error route but it ultimately just cheats the player if they have no idea what they are getting into.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
If the player is given a mission to go somewhere specific, then it's generally okay if going the wrong way results in getting rekt. However if at any point you are expecting the player to explore, or prompting them to search around for treasures and secrets, then that's no longer the "wrong way" and so you need to do more.
A sign saying "hey this area is hard" is generally completely useless since it's not like the sign updates itself based on your level, so you don't know when it stops being hard. And many games actually use that sort of thing to indicate where you ARE supposed to go.
It's obviously best to order the dungeons on the world map so that the player encounters them in the order they're supposed to visit them. You seem to already know that's a problem since you mentioned it though, so it's just a matter of fixing it.
Beyond that, though, the player still needs to somehow be able to find out when going into an area that they shouldn't be there. The simplest way to indicate how hard an area is would be, of course, to show them. Just make the first battle be an enemy that has a lot of HP and middling attack power, and making running away actually work. You can prompt the player to run away by letting the boss hit them for about two round or so, and then making the enemy do something that conveys "hey this fight is about to wreck you," like summoning a second copy of itself or giving a message saying that it's charging up for a powerful AOE skill. Like if it uses Slash on the first two rounds, those first two hits each kill a character in one hit, and then the third round it says "Charging up for Quad Slash," at that point the player knows they're going to die and so if they don't run away then it's completely their own fault. (The skill name is a big part of that.) But obviously running away needs to have a 100% chance to work in that case, or this method of conveyance is pointless.
A sign saying "hey this area is hard" is generally completely useless since it's not like the sign updates itself based on your level, so you don't know when it stops being hard. And many games actually use that sort of thing to indicate where you ARE supposed to go.
It's obviously best to order the dungeons on the world map so that the player encounters them in the order they're supposed to visit them. You seem to already know that's a problem since you mentioned it though, so it's just a matter of fixing it.
Beyond that, though, the player still needs to somehow be able to find out when going into an area that they shouldn't be there. The simplest way to indicate how hard an area is would be, of course, to show them. Just make the first battle be an enemy that has a lot of HP and middling attack power, and making running away actually work. You can prompt the player to run away by letting the boss hit them for about two round or so, and then making the enemy do something that conveys "hey this fight is about to wreck you," like summoning a second copy of itself or giving a message saying that it's charging up for a powerful AOE skill. Like if it uses Slash on the first two rounds, those first two hits each kill a character in one hit, and then the third round it says "Charging up for Quad Slash," at that point the player knows they're going to die and so if they don't run away then it's completely their own fault. (The skill name is a big part of that.) But obviously running away needs to have a 100% chance to work in that case, or this method of conveyance is pointless.
Acra
332
In regards to trying to stop players from overusing their best units, consider some kind of fatigue mechanic.
The longer they fight, they start to suffer steady, continual stat decreases; this'll typically result in them temporarily becoming among the weaker of your units, and all the more reason to pull them back. This could even be a suitable penalty instead of permadeath; a 'killed' character is stuck with crippling stat penalties for several levels until they recover from the wounds. Or alternatively, they simply suffer a permanent stat penalty.
Fatigue should probably somewhat tied to a character's class; the massive lumbering armour isn't doing anyone any good if they stop being an effective wall after being plunked with a couple dozen arrows or dinky swords, and it would make sense if the assassin would tire quickly if he's cornered into continual combat instead of the one-hit, one-kill, sneak-into-shadows stuff he's used to.
This could even tie into your Kamikaze thing. Using a skill wouldn't wipe your unit off the map, but exhaust them massively, leaving them not dead, but effectively crippled. These don't even have to be wholly offensive; even something like the ability to move after attacking or temporarily boosting a stat for a bit to suffer a greater penalty a turn or two later could work.
The longer they fight, they start to suffer steady, continual stat decreases; this'll typically result in them temporarily becoming among the weaker of your units, and all the more reason to pull them back. This could even be a suitable penalty instead of permadeath; a 'killed' character is stuck with crippling stat penalties for several levels until they recover from the wounds. Or alternatively, they simply suffer a permanent stat penalty.
Fatigue should probably somewhat tied to a character's class; the massive lumbering armour isn't doing anyone any good if they stop being an effective wall after being plunked with a couple dozen arrows or dinky swords, and it would make sense if the assassin would tire quickly if he's cornered into continual combat instead of the one-hit, one-kill, sneak-into-shadows stuff he's used to.
This could even tie into your Kamikaze thing. Using a skill wouldn't wipe your unit off the map, but exhaust them massively, leaving them not dead, but effectively crippled. These don't even have to be wholly offensive; even something like the ability to move after attacking or temporarily boosting a stat for a bit to suffer a greater penalty a turn or two later could work.
