making potions less like drugs

[Oddball]

RPG character starts there journey. 

RPG character buys a bunch of potions because they understandably need healing items. 

RPG character uses and abuses potions to help him/her self level up.

Suddenly, the regular potion doesn't do it for them anymore. They've become desensitized and need something stronger. So they start buying and abusing Hi-potions. That does the job for them, and they continue there trip down trip-y land were they fight "monsters" in some story that plagued there imaginations.

Suddenly, Hi potions don't do it for them anymore and they need max potions. This is when the REAL trip-y stuff starts to assault there senses!

RPG hero "saves the world", but now has a drug addiction

Sorry for the strange intro, it makes my point. How would I prevent this, without using something stagnant like percentages? 

 

[Silenity]

Healing spells of course!

 

[Cadh20000]

Healing spells of course!

As well as First-aid kits and Bandages.

 

[Razelle]

Use things like Medical kits; even something like Dragon age had a kit for repairing damage, but they too went the potion route when it came to in battle healing.

You can have different tiers of healing kits which each contain different things to mend wounds. None of them have to be drugs.

Otherwise having portable healing spell scrolls, which is similar to what the poster Silenity mentioned, should do the job if your game has magic.

 

[Oddball]

But should they use the users stats? I'll look into dragon age to see the basis of a healing kit.

Although I've already looked at this problem from many different angles. I keep going back to stats...

or formulas like 

a.mhp/2 - a.hp/2

which heal more HP the lower the targets HP is.

(it looks like it would always put HP at half, but trust me, it goes closer to full the lower HP is, to a point)

Another option could be slow healing, but when your in a pinch, that doesn't always work out...

Unless you plan ahead of course, and do something like tank damage

 

As well as First-aid kits and Bandages.

 

How do these work?

 

[bgillisp]

I thought about doing something like:

150 + a.mat

in my game. My thought process was the small a.mat boost would be to simulate magically enchanting the potion a little before using it. However, I did later scrap that idea, so use it if you like it.

 

[Oddball]

I thought about doing something like:

150 + a.mat

in my game. My thought process was the small a.mat boost would be to simulate magically enchanting the potion a little before using it. However, I did later scrap that idea, so use it if you like it.

That's still something You'd have to ditch later for something better... because it's really no different than a potion

Also, not all characters have good MAT in my games

 

[bgillisp]

Eh, depends on how your MAT scales. If you put a high enough multiplier in front of it, then it could scale to keep up with the game, especially if no one has more than 999 HP, but MAT can go to 999 MAT at the end of the game.

Though, have you thought about letting the player upgrade them? That way they can get rid of the weak ones that seem useless as the game moves on. Otherwise the only real solution that I can see is to never up your HP, so all potions are the same effectiveness all game (see Betrayal at Krondor for a game where your HP went up almost none. Instead, your armor blocked higher and higher percentages of damage), or go % based like you suggested. Otherwise, I think you are going to have a hard time to explain the system to the player in a way that makes logical sense.

 

[Cadh20000]

As well as First-aid kits and Bandages.

How do these work?

It would be used just like a potion except that, in my game at least, bandages and first aid kits can be used as-is, but there is also a skill that cannot be used unless you have them in your inventory which will triple their effect. (There are also antibacterials to remove "Infection" and the more standard antidotes to remove "Poison" as well as a few more things I'm not going into detail about here.)

Of course, I still have potions but they are rare high-level drops or crafted by a certain team member. Either way they are far from unlimited or easy and cheap to acquire and so are not something the player can easily stock up on and abuse.

 

[Oddball]

It's not "easy to stock up on and abuse" that I'm worried about. I'll probably make it that way anyway.

It's the needing to buy a new model as the game goes on making the old ones obsolete.

Guess I wasn't clear enough on that

 

[Cadh20000]

It's not "easy to stock up on and abuse" that I'm worried about. I'll probably make it that way anyway.

It's the needing to buy a new model as the game goes on making the old ones obsolete.

Guess I wasn't clear enough on that

Well... I suppose you could make a static HP amount and only have the other stats change so that a regular potion will always be sufficient healing or something...

 

[bgillisp]

That's what I was suggesting with the Betrayal at Krondor example. In that game you were lucky to gain more than 5 HP in the entire game from your starting stats, so potions always felt effective all game. However, armor increased in power significantly and blocked higher and higher percentages of damage, so that is how you powered up.

No matter how you set your game up, something is going to lose effectiveness over time, unless you intend for nothing to power up ever in the game. And if that is the case, most players are going to wonder what is the point of random fights as well.

 

[kerbonklin]

There's like over a bajillion ways to do a potion-healing system in the world of gaming. But remember, even the type of potions you use are a sign of important progression.

 

[Galenmereth]

You can make a tradeoff outside of battle too. Make potions rare, or make shops have limited inventory. Make them very expensive but heal a certain % (yes, percent based isn't "new", but it's not automatically a bad idea). Make potions heal but cause "fullness", where you can't drink more until that state passes after X turns. Better potions heal more for the same fullness, but cost a lot more and are even harder to come by. Scarcity is itself a good element of balance.

There's many ways to play with this

 

[Centipede]

What about potion soaked bandages?

 

[amerk]

I have to say, this sounds like the makings one heck of a funny plot. But as others have said bandages, first aid, medicine - all sorts of things can be used as alternatives. Unfortunately, until you can find an alternative to HP, restoring HP is going to be a must, and as a result restoratives will be abused.

 

[ArcaneEli]

You can make the healing items bandages or Fruit.

like Apple: 10 + a.luk = HP

and then make all your party members gain alot of luck throughout equips and levels.

You can also give them skills which like raises Healing by 2x, Healing Hp also restores MP etc...

 

[Wavelength]

Doing it in one of my games with percentage-based healing Foods and an "appetite" limitation on how often you can eat foods.  Furthermore, the cooking system has some variability so cooking with spices and meat might make a 25% HP restoring "Pork Curry Rice" or a 60% restoring "Three Alarm Chili".  Thus, the items you'll buy and use early in the game are still ones you might buy and use late in the game.

 

[wynautastronaut]

Items that remove states as opposed to recover hp. For example, attack 1 causes cut, small dmg over time, and a bandaid can remove it. Attack 2 causes gash, which you need gauze to remove, and attack 3 causes wound so you need a first aid kit.

But, this sort of item/inventory restriction can be tricky because people are so used to the usual. Just make sure it compliments your game in the end. 

 

[captainproton]

You could also try factoring in the LUK stat, as it already doesn't do a TON in the game.