How to balance the early game.

[KawaiiKid]

So this question is stemming from my troubles of balancing the beginning of my game. The player starts off in an area where they have no access to any merchants so they would not be able to buy supplies (healing items). They need to escape 2 different areas before reaching the first town where they are finally able to buy supplies. This really can't be changed because of how the story is written so I need to create the game around it.

My problems are this:

• If I keep the game as it is, the player could run out of potions / bandages before reaching the second town, thus not letting them progress any further in the game, and making them start over. 
• If I add an item (which makes sense in the lore) which the player can touch to heal that has infinite charges, they could stay in the beginning area with essentially free healing and out level the content, making the game much easier than it should be.
• If I make the enemies do such little damage that the player is very unlikely to run out of health or potions / bandages before they reach the first town the game might seem too easy and throw players off.

What would you guys do in my situation? Any suggestions?

^ ^

 

[Andar]

If it is the first area, then I see no problem with letting the player die if he makes too many mistakes - games should have a challenge, or you can make it a visual novel without battles.


Other than that, use a variable to count the options of how many healings are possible, or count how many enemies are there.


Or you could use a script/plugin to make the actor level limit variable and dependent on the map - that way he can't level too much with free healing.

 

[Milennin]

Let the player find healing items along the way? Or let enemies drop guaranteed healing items?

 

[Aoi Ninami]

Any of the above solutions are possible. I don't think the player having the potential to overlevel need be a serious problem. Even if you limit healing items in the first area, the player can still play normally until the first town and then overlevel, not much you can do about that. But most players aren't going to deliberately make the game less fun for themselves. And for players who prefer to play the game overlevelled, why not let them?

 

[bgillisp]

If you made the enemies give little to no exp in the first area, most players are going to run out of patience long before they overlevel themselves, even on the default experience chart. That would be one solution, though it might make players wonder about your EXP progression.

Another idea...how about letting them escape with an over powered prisoner, who leaves at the first town? That way the player can use the area to learn about everything, and the OP prisoner takes care of the bad guys.

 

[Beamlight]

• If I add an item (which makes sense in the lore) which the player can touch to heal that has infinite charges, they could stay in the beginning area with essentially free healing and out level the content, making the game much easier than it should be.

^ ^

I wanted to single out this one in particular because I think this is one that folks overtly worry about. Don't worry too much about a player metagaming the content early on. bgillisp is right, make the rewards light enough, and experience grow at an exponential rate that they won't want to stay in the forest very long and progress with the story. A player will assume that bigger rewards are ahead of them.

 

[ArcaneEli]

Yeah I'd make the monsters have like a 1/5 chance of dropping a crappy HP potion so you at least have something.

Or just do what Above Poster said

 

[Wavelength]

It's been said by a few people already but I'll add to the chorus: have enemies frequently drop weak healing/restoration potions during this stretch of your game.

I'm also fond of making the first two or so dungeons pretty easy - not to the point where enemies do 1 damage, but to the point where even with your expected level you can make about twice as many mistakes without dying as you'll be able to make three hours later.  This relaxed difficulty will allow slower learners to catch on to the game's mechanics and idiosyncracies without discouraging them via an early Game Over.
 

Often, by accident, RPG designers end up making the beginning of the game harder than the rest of the game, due to limited access to resources, scarce money, lack of "healer" characters, lack of a party, or a pressing need to level up.

 

[Indrah]

Make full heal spots along the way. Via campsites, npcs or magical means. If they're placed far enough from each other they can serve as a checkpoint system, and if the palyer gets an absolute 0 in potions they could still rely on that. Coupled with enemeis dropping the occassional supply and finding them on the field, that's enough for everybody.

 

[ashikai]

You also have the option of tossing in a Peddler midway through the first dungeon/area that you could buy potions if you didn't want to do the drop thing.

 

[fm2107]

for my game i went with using mp to solve this problem. 2 actors start off at school with each other and they must pass the final trials in order to graduate. i have healing magics that use MP and limited amount of ways to recover the mp. i have a save crystal outside that lets you recover mp but you have to traverse the dungeon back, then back to the original point. i also have limited potions to save on mp 

 

[Prescott]

MOST games actually do #2 in this case. We have been playing Dragon Quest VI for inspiration (we're playing RPGs while making ours to see what we should and shouldn't do, what we like and what we don't, etc.) and you are able to go back to the first town (or in your case, the first area) and heal at an inn for 6 gold. You usually get at least 9 gold for every battle, so we've been using this as a strategy to grind.

Grinding isn't a bad thing at all. If players want to really take the time to grind their character levels up on really weak enemies, then they should have that kind of option. I would say just don't let them heal for free, make it cost something. You could even give them a healing spell at level 2 that costs them MP or something similar.

I mean, whenever I play Pokemon games, I always grind my main 6 Pokemon's levels until I almost can't command them to fight anymore, they just do random moves because I don't have the next gym badge, you know how it goes.

Anyway, it is a little boring, but it makes the rest of the game pretty easy because my Pokemon are always higher level than the competition. If players choose to do that, why not? In Pokemon, you always have a Pokemon Center right next to where you are trying to level. That doesn't cost anything.

 

[Wavelength]

Grinding isn't a bad thing at all. If players want to really take the time to grind their character levels up on really weak enemies, then they should have that kind of option...

I think the problem that some designers have with allowing the player to grind is that they can mitigate otherwise-fun "challenge" by grinding too much before taking on the challenging areas.  While this is true, some players can find the process of grinding monsters to be fun on its own (especially if your battle system is enjoyable even when it's very easy), so I'm of the same mindset you are - players who want to grind should have a way to do so unless your game is going to be no fun at all without its challenge factor.

One caveat in my opinion here though - I think this kind of "grinding" is the most fun when there's some element of risk or variability in your fights.  There's a sweet spot where you feel powerful, even overpowered, but the battles still have some interest to them; one-shotting slimes that do 0 damage to you might be fun for a few moments but it probably won't hold your interest for long.

Now, games that force you to grind in order to stand a fighting chance against storyline enemies or overpowered dungeon monsters... that's the type of grinding that nearly all designers can agree on nixing.

 

[KoldBlood]

I have a similar start in my game where you don't get to visit a shop or inn for the first part of the game and I ran into the same problem. How I ended up solving it was by giving the player a starting stock of healing items (for my game that was about 3 HP, 3 MP potions and 1 Revive potion). These potions are enough to get the player through the first area of the game with some wiggle room for error, I have a 1 time full heal save point at the halfway point as a means for the player to start fresh again while adding an insurance policy against future mistakes by not having them lose EVERYTHING they just did if they happen to make a mistake or underestimate an enemy.

On top of this, I added several chests and point of interest spots that rewards the player with some extra potions if they are willing to go off the main path and explore the area (this also serves to teach the player that exploring the world will yield them rewards for doing so).

All together this worked fairly well for me but it took a LOT of play testing to hammer down how many potions to start with so be prepared for that. Also note that I use touch encounters with slightly randomized troops so I imagine if your using random encounters instead it could be a little tougher to to pinpoint exactly how much damage the player is expected to receive.

 

[bgillisp]

I did something similar to Koldblood, as my game starts with the party on the run about 30 min into the game. What I did was since one of the party members is rich (really rich), they give you a HUGE stock of low level potions (like many that restore 200 HP, or 25 MP), a few revival items (I went with 11, 10 that restore very little HP and 1 that restores 50% HP), and one bail out poiton that restores all HP and MP.

What this does is it allows the player to use the potions out of battle to stay in tip top shape until the first store, but the potions don't heal enough that you will spam them in battle (easily). Also, the less they use in this sequence, the more money they can save when they do find the first potion shop, as they won't need to restock.

 

[jonthefox]

A lot depends on the target audience I think.  There are some aspects of game design where I think you just can't please everybody, and you have to make a choice based on what's important to you.   Some people will turn the game off if it's too difficult and they find it frustrating.  Other people will turn the game off if it's too easy and they find it boring.    

This answer isn't really specific because other people have given good mechanical suggestions, I just wanted to say that I think you should first be clear about what your goals are before you decide which mechanic would be best for your game.  And knowing that, we could better advise you on which specific mechanic you should choose.  good luck!

 

[arcthemonkey]

The only way you are going to get rid of grinding is by getting rid of experience, or by making the process of healing more expensive than can be farmed in the process of grinding... which doesn't sound realistic.

There are a lot of good ideas here, but saying you don't want the player to grind in an RPG is nonsense, especially since grinding still requires the effort of grinding. As long as your exp curves are designed well, the advantage they gain will only ever be temporary.

So have a magic pot of prison stew that heals them as many times as they need at the very beginning, have the enemies have a 15% chance of dropping a crap potion, and scatter a few more around for good measure!

 

[OM3GA-Z3RO]

Don't let every enemy have state inducing attacks, I can't help but delete and disinfect my computer every time I play play a game and every enemy has poison base attacks.

 

[KoldBlood]

Don't let every enemy have state inducing attacks, I can't help but delete and disinfect my computer every time I play play a game and every enemy has poison base attacks.

^ This.

Also don't be afraid to alter your early game map environments or enemy setups slightly if they present a balancing issue. I had this issue in one of my previous projects when my first major area was a forest with bee's that inflicted poison. I quickly found that to be extremely difficult and frustrating to deal with early game when you are relatively weak, don't have many items and/or HP. So I switched environments to get away from the bees which greatly improved the experience.

I had the same issue in my latest project when I added snakes to the first area. I made the snakes poisonous because it seemed logical at the time but I was harshly reminded of my previous mistake during play testing. I fixed it by changing it from a poison attack to a stunning attack that they charge on the first turn. Which as an added bonus also worked as a way to make the player decide to either prioritize the snakes at the beginning of the battle or risk dealing with the occasional stun throughout the battle.

The point is: don't be afraid to make changes to something if it's stopping your progress. I couldn't get a good first map designed because I wanted it to be a "plains" type area. After months of no progress I decided to change it to a "hills" type area and I had it mapped within a week.

 

[arcthemonkey]

Don't let every enemy have state inducing attacks, I can't help but delete and disinfect my computer every time I play play a game and every enemy has poison base attacks.

I agree with this. Unless a central part of your game design is management of status effects and it's something that can be done relatively painlessly (I shouldn't have to use 4 antidotes to cure all 4 party members of poison after every single battle), then they should be used thoughtfully, if not straight-up sparingly.