• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

Rewards of encounters

  • Marrend
  • 04/05/2011 04:27 PM
  • 758 views
There's two things that I'm constantly struggling with: mapping (the bane of my existence) and how much experience and/or money to give out for a critter. This blog will concentrate on the latter.

Let's say I'm trying to make a creature that is supposed to be geared for a Level X party. Generally, what I do is look at a character's experience chart, and see that it takes so much experience for a Level X character to advance a level. There's no way any normal critter is going to give out a level for defeating it. As of the current build of the game, I'd divided the amount by 3 for normal enemies, and take the full amount (albeit with a lowered scale) with bosses.

To say that this creates a huge disparity in rewards between the lower-level critters and the higher-level critters would be an understatement. Indeed, it only takes a level 12-ish critter (non-boss, mind you) to hit the over 1,000 exp/kill mark. Maybe it's just me, but this just doesn't seem right at all.

Another problem is that I calculate how much money a critter drops with how much experience they hand out. It's not like that decision doesn't give me options. Any given creature could: a) have the party earn more experience, but the amount of money earned is lowered; b) drop more gold, but the amount of experience earned is lowered or; c) have an equal amount of experience and money earned.

Despite liking those options, it's become increasingly clear to me that I cannot use how much experience a character needs to level up as a base-line for how much experience/money a creature at that level can give out. However, arbitrarily coming up with numbers that "sound right" doesn't quite cut it either.

Another oddity: I've noticed that even if I balance the critters to be geared towards a Level X party (as far as the raw numbers are concerned, anyway), they aren't all that difficult. Granted, I'm basing these observations on critters that are more or less designed to be cakewalks, but even the bosses aren't all that scary. For curiosity's sake, I'll be doing some test battles soon to see exactly what the minimum level is to defeat the Earth Spirit (note: that boss is supposed to be geared to a Level 10 party).

Posts

Pages: 1
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
04/06/2011 01:10 PM
The results of the battle testing is in.

The Earth Spirit is the first boss of the game. It's supposed to be geared for a Level 10 party. I can't quote an exact amount, but I managed to win using less than ten of the basic healing item. With a Level 1 party. I know I dumbed down the damage output on purpose, but this seems more than silly.

The Wind Spirit is the second boss of the game. It's supposed to be geared for a Level 20 party. I can't recall how many of the basic healing item that I used, but a Level 5 party came out in decent enough shape. It felt pretty close, though. Again, the damage output was specifically dumbed down, but this still irks me.

The Fire Spirit is the third boss of the game. It's supposed to be geared for a Level 30 party. Using the mid-level healing item (which would technically be available for sale at this juncture), a Level 13 party can beat it, but it takes patience. Using only the basic healing item, a Level 25 party can pull it off if, but it was more than annoying. It might be possible to do it at slightly lower levels if I used a party with more than the most basic of equipment. This boss wasn't supposed to be dumbed down, per say, but I'm amazed how early it is possible to beat it.

Being curious, I tested out a few of the normal enemies to see how well they stacked up. The Fire Trial critters gave me problems (A Level 10-ish party seemed sufficient enough), but the other normal enemies could be beaten with a Level 1 party. The only variable that changed with those fights was how many basic healing items were used.

So the reason I felt that the critters shouldn't be giving out as much rewards as they are is because... they shouldn't be giving out those rewards. The whole theory about having critters give out rewards based on what level they are supposed to be only makes sense if they are a challenge to characters of that level.

I don't mind the normal critters in the first dungeon being able to be soundly beaten by a Level 1 party. I do mind having critters in the second dungeon being able to be defeated with a Level 1 party, not to mention that the first boss should be harder than it actually is. What this means for me, however, is that I have to go back and recalcumance everything to infuse some semblance of difficulty.

So much for having an updated demo ready anytime soon!
Pages: 1