Making battles less spammy/repetetive

[Braydon]

It seems to me the main problem is in games where healing spells/items are too abundant, if you allow people to simply heal themselves fully from every encouter the encouters become inconsequential. If you make it harder to recover and allow weak enemies to chip away at you it encourages more strategy as the battles will have a lasting effect.

You should also try to have a good variety of encouters in each area, so the fights aren't all the same.

I also think it's a good idea to include some rarer, stronger, more rewarding enemies as well so there is a chance to find an enemy which is an actual threat.

 

[trouble time]

It seems to me the main problem is in games where healing spells/items are too abundant, if you allow people to simply heal themselves fully from every encouter the encouters become inconsequential. If you make it harder to recover and allow weak enemies to chip away at you it encourages more strategy as the battles will have a lasting effect.

You should also try to have a good variety of encouters in each area, so the fights aren't all the same.

I also think it's a good idea to include some rarer, stronger, more rewarding enemies as well so there is a chance to find an enemy which is an actual threat.

I would advocate for something that is almost the opposite of that. I like to restore the party to full health after each battle. The entire reason is that this way EVERY encounter can be designed with the potential to wipe the full party. In this system a dungeon would be a series of interesting encounters rather than one long, boring experience designed to chip away at your resources. Of course, in a system like this healing items also shouldn't be extremely strong (in my own game they heal a set percent of health over a few turns rather than instantly).

 

[Braydon]

I would advocate for something that is almost the opposite of that. I like to restore the party to full health after each battle. The entire reason is that this way EVERY encounter can be designed with the potential to wipe the full party. In this system a dungeon would be a series of interesting encounters rather than one long, boring experience designed to chip away at your resources. Of course, in a system like this healing items also shouldn't be extremely strong (in my own game they heal a set percent of health over a few turns rather than instantly).

That's definently not a good idea. I've played games like that before, though they had MP managment making one resource you had to manage. If you do that it makes your games combat compressed to a couple turns and then repeating that, it really takes the strategy out of it because it's just a little section you have to concern your self with at any given time. You can only have so much strategy in 3-10 turns for  a small fight.

Having an all or nothing system for every fight just over simplifies it. You also either have to have constant party death and constant restarting or have the enemies be easy enough you can consistently win, in which case the battles become inconsequential.

 

[trouble time]

it really takes the strategy out of it because it's just a little section you have to concern your self with at any given time. 

Why? In fighting games there's only individual rounds but you have a lot to concern yourself with in that time. Granted, it's hard for some people to conceptualize how the strategy from a fighting game can translate into an RPG you'd need to understand the concepts at a pretty deep level, but you can indeed because most of it is actually about understanding your opponents options and your own, and learning how the opponent uses those options. Though there's no real subsitute for a real player there are things you can do, but this kind of game play can be allowed to be much more strategic if you can design your characters and your encounters very precisely to achieve this though.

 

[bgillisp]

The key there is CAN BE. I think Braydon's concern is we have yet to see a game that (in our opinion) has implemented the restore to full HP/MP after every fight mechanic well. At least I can't think of any that have.

 

[trouble time]

The key there is CAN BE. I think Braydon's concern is we have yet to see a game that (in our opinion) has implemented the restore to full HP/MP after every fight mechanic well. At least I can't think of any that have.

Well, in my own game's case, since there are encounters on screen there are a set number of enemy troops that might not actually exceed one hundred at least, the number of unique troops at least, and I did make sure that most regular enemies can. Also the game does let you have all resources available each fight (except TP cause it resets) I did incorperate resource management by giving all the character regenerating MP with a very low maximum value so you have to manage your MP and since I decided to use the Free Turn system from Yanfly managing turns is also pretty important.

 

[Green Goblin]

Basically in my Battle System (on a concept game) I have an idea(I believe to be ) that is different o.o.
 
MP Mechanics

• MP = AP (Ability Points) , Characters start out with 3 AP points during the game to use in battle.
• AP can be increased through Main-Story events, by wearing certain Equips or just by doing Party Characters "personal" quests :]
• A spell for example Blaze consumes 1 AP point during battle while a spell like Blaze III consumes 3 AP points; the stronger the spells the more AP points they consume. 
• Once AP reaches 0, the only damaging act you can do is Attack :[
• The only way for you to gain AP back is to attack, standby, use a potion, or use certain skills that replenish a user's or party AP point
•  A skill also draws from AP levels as well (FF III MP system if your confused), for example Blaze consumes AP Level 1 while Blaze III consumes  AP Level 3. Basically you can only use tier 1,2,3,4 spells a certain amount of time regardless if you have enough AP for the spell to be used in battle eh :].
• I like to think of AP only mattering in Battles while AP Levels are to be concerned in both, battles and for preservation (So in long areas you have to worry about the long-term effect of using/spamming skills)
• AP Level can be restored through Items (expensive), or by resting in Inns :] or by skills (limited)
• MP Mechanics applies to Enemies as well
• Healing Will be very interesting since the higher heal spells for ex. Heal III consumes a 3 AP points which means a character with only 4 AP (I hope you have more though D will be far more pressed if a battle does indeed becomes tough, making for more strategic battles and added depth. I am trying to prevent players from mindlessly spamming heal spells without penalty. Ofc skills and strategy can remedy this, for example Pray restores everyone AP by 1 while the Speed Status automatically restores 1 AP per turn and other useful things and etc... 
• MP Mechanics will be explained in the Game :]
• Some Enemies can inflict a "Pain status" to your characters that will decrease your maximum AP until the effect is removed

Yeah... this is my approach for a unique battle system that prevents repetitive and boring battles since there's is such an added depth to both enemies/troops and character/party management ,

 

[Andar]

Green Goblin, Red and Blue are reserved for moderator action on this board. I've changed your color emphasis with those cases to other colors, please do not use red and blue again.

 

[Wavelength]

Basically in my Battle System (on a concept game) I have an idea(I believe to be ) that is different o.o.

MP Mechanics

• MP = AP (Ability Points) , Characters start out with 3 AP points during the game to use in battle.
• AP can be increased through Main-Story events, by wearing certain Equips or just by doing Party Characters "personal" quests :]
• A spell for example Blaze consumes 1 AP point during battle while a spell like Blaze III consumes 3 AP points; the stronger the spells the more AP points they consume. 
• Once AP reaches 0, the only damaging act you can do is Attack :[
• The only way for you to gain AP back is to attack, standby, use a potion, or use certain skills that replenish a user's or party AP point
•  A skill also draws from AP levels as well (FF III MP system if your confused), for example Blaze consumes AP Level 1 while Blaze III consumes  AP Level 3. Basically you can only use tier 1,2,3,4 spells a certain amount of time regardless if you have enough AP for the spell to be used in battle eh :].
• I like to think of AP only mattering in Battles while AP Levels are to be concerned in both, battles and for preservation (So in long areas you have to worry about the long-term effect of using/spamming skills)
• AP Level can be restored through Items (expensive), or by resting in Inns :] or by skills (limited)
• MP Mechanics applies to Enemies as well
• Healing Will be very interesting since the higher heal spells for ex. Heal III consumes a 3 AP points which means a character with only 4 AP (I hope you have more though D will be far more pressed if a battle does indeed becomes tough, making for more strategic battles and added depth. I am trying to prevent players from mindlessly spamming heal spells without penalty. Ofc skills and strategy can remedy this, for example Pray restores everyone AP by 1 while the Speed Status automatically restores 1 AP per turn and other useful things and etc... 
• MP Mechanics will be explained in the Game :]
• Some Enemies can inflict a "Pain status" to your characters that will decrease your maximum AP until the effect is removed

Yeah... this is my approach for a unique battle system that prevents repetitive and boring battles since there's is such an added depth to both enemies/troops and character/party management ,

Sounds like a smarter version of the system that most Tales Of games use.  So I don't know about "wildly original" but I think it's got a lot of potential to work well in your game!

BTW, welcome to the forums!