SHORTSTAR'S PROFILE

Craze... I get it now :-)

You're just trollin'. Bored huh?

>> edit >>> I like how beneath my avatar changed to CONSIQUENCE. Someone is bored.

Minecraft makes people work for their gratification. Perhaps Craze you should make something worth having that people are willing to go through work for it. That's where story comes into play I guess...

You should google RPG VX Sprites or RPG VX Animal Sprites

Just make combat fun and engaging to the mind. Button spamming will get to be a chore. Too many battles will seem like a chore. Give people the option to avoid battles through items or having NPC enemies instead of random battles. No one really says yes another enemy fuck yeah!

Make enemies diverse. Make how you kill them diverse. Some enemies are immune to weapons. Others immune to magic. Break up enemy battles with puzzles, talking or literally nothing. God of War had plenty of hallways without anything in them.

Have diverse abilities with your enemies and actors. Nothing sucks more than having 4 warriors. More skills more brain power in how to defeat enemies. But too many skills too quick will confuse people. Plus having the player choose their classes and skills will improve things for the player.

Common battles should never last 5 minutes or 10 turns. You as a designer need to pick up the pace. Like if the battle goes 5 turns the enemies should do something more to win. Like an enemy can buff the party. Or at turn 10 enemies can have a very powerful spell. That adds urgency for the player to finish the battle and stop messing around.

BUT as a designer you can't have common battles go more than 5 minutes. Weaken the enemy or remove the heal spell. Mini bosses can go more than 5 minutes. Bosses should go 15 minutes. No more than that though unless its the final boss. I say 15 minutes because that's what people train for and it gives them something to sink their teeth in.

Don't have too many uber battles back to back. That gets to be a slog. Peaks and valleys. Mini bosses are a good idea, because that gives a challenge to overcome instead of a slog of lesser enemies.

Make segways between areas like... a mine cart race or something that doesn't have enemies. Have an INTERACTIVE CUT SCENE. Interactive meaning you the player participate by throwing in your thoughts from choices and have consiquence to those actions... like you come across a traveler in the woods... you talk to her. She's lost. Do you kill her / mug her / escort her / not my problem. If you do not my problem she will end up dead a shopkeeper finds out you didn't help and that was his daughter so he refuses to sell to you. If you kill her, then bounty hunters are sent after you. If you mug her... she will spray you with something branding you as a thief. If you help her... then her husband will assume you're sleeping with her. CONSIQUENCE!

Make a town between each cave. Don't make caves and dungeons last more than an hour. Don't have 3 caves in a row. Have a cave and a tower and a forest.

Variety... Don't have 3 fetch quests in a row (although technically everything is a fetch quest). Have a fetch, an escort and a rescue. Once you've done the rescue change the layout of the cave or have an alternate exit route so its not backtracking.

In fact never have backtracking. Once a puzzle is done. There shouldn't be a need to do the puzzle twice. There should be exit crystals so people don't have to backtrack. There should be shortcuts that become enabled once you complete an area. Like a teleporter or something. Or a teleporter between the new town and the old town.

Oh and lastly play your game... if you feel like an interlude shouldn't be there. Take it out. If you feel like damn I've played this cave 1 hour already and its only the first part of 4!!!!! Then have something to break up the battles for 15 minutes. Like a grotto town inside the cave. A bunch of exploring with no enemies. Have a save point and an exit. Just for 15 minutes. That way it breaks things up and when the player is ready to get back to it, they'll continue.

Kill all enemy spell if HP is under 25% with priority 10.

Another character? on the hero side? you'd have to replace an actor. On the enemy side you start with the enemy hidden then make them visible.

But if everyone is dead you can't go on... so what you do is make them fake dead. A paralysis for 100 rounds lets say where its called Death but they can't move. So then you make an ability with that new enemy to revive the fake death. Not revive it but cure it.