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Okay, so like many I've been playing IGMC games about 26 at the time of this post (although not all rpgs as this post is concerned about) and since many have just picked up rpg makers in the recent humble bundle offerings before the contest I thought it would be good to discuss what are poor mechanics and design choices of role-playing games (especially since many new developers in the contest haven't gotten feedback on their games). Of course this goes for more than just new developer's as well, we all have areas we could potentially improve upon. I recently have been playing Whisper of a Rose and while there are some aspects I like I was disappointed with some of the mechanics of the game.
Rpgs have a few main cores that make up what they are but the most important in my opinion anyway are the mechanics of the gameplay; the battle-system, character progression, balancing, etc... If you don't make your game fun for an rpg fan to play it won't usually matter how great your story is or how fantastic the artwork and graphics are or how much your ears can come alive at listening to the heavenly sounds being produced from the speakers.
So I leave this open to the community to discuss examples of poor rpg mechanics you have seen, as well as methods to better implement them or prevent them in the first place. (Hopefully this isn't too broad of a topic)
*Note if you have to reference a community members/developers game you've played remember to do so with the intent of being helpful and offering feedback (also be sure to give the feedback directly to the developer as well); the purpose of this topic is not to bash but to help us all improve*
Here are some of mine:
I'll leave the rest up for others to go in depth with (especially since there is a word limit to posts) but other ones to consider are: Running in battle, relation of save points into perceived difficulty of area vs. touch encounters and equipment and stat increases having a noticeable feeling of making the player seem stronger/take less damage.
edit- For a more in-depth look at all aspects of potential errors (not just mechanics) in rpgs and rpg maker games look here: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/23503-what-are-the-1-mistakes-that-rpg-maker-games-make
Rpgs have a few main cores that make up what they are but the most important in my opinion anyway are the mechanics of the gameplay; the battle-system, character progression, balancing, etc... If you don't make your game fun for an rpg fan to play it won't usually matter how great your story is or how fantastic the artwork and graphics are or how much your ears can come alive at listening to the heavenly sounds being produced from the speakers.
So I leave this open to the community to discuss examples of poor rpg mechanics you have seen, as well as methods to better implement them or prevent them in the first place. (Hopefully this isn't too broad of a topic)
*Note if you have to reference a community members/developers game you've played remember to do so with the intent of being helpful and offering feedback (also be sure to give the feedback directly to the developer as well); the purpose of this topic is not to bash but to help us all improve*
Here are some of mine:
-Difficulty of the game: This is slightly relative to the player of course as not everyone is going to think with the same level of strategy. I'm fine with easy games in fact as long as it fits the tone of the game and I at least feel like I have to try at times. I should not be able to spam the attack button and win encounters that way unless I am severely over-powered from extra leveling or revisiting an earlier point in the game.
Going along with this I should also not be taking little to zero damage unless it is for the same reasons above or because I am using a special skill to circumvent damage (even in this case their still needs to be a balance to it as far as usage goes). The only other reason for there being small amounts of damage should be that the baseline of number values used in the game is small to begin with.
Also think about where difficulty is coming from, a difficult game should be so because proper strategy and precision use needs to be done to counter an enemy strategy rather than the enemy having cheap skills or just having a tremendous boost in stats. On the other hand a game shouldn't be easy for the fact that you can just spam attack or wipe enemies out with a random spell or skill.
Going along with this I should also not be taking little to zero damage unless it is for the same reasons above or because I am using a special skill to circumvent damage (even in this case their still needs to be a balance to it as far as usage goes). The only other reason for there being small amounts of damage should be that the baseline of number values used in the game is small to begin with.
Also think about where difficulty is coming from, a difficult game should be so because proper strategy and precision use needs to be done to counter an enemy strategy rather than the enemy having cheap skills or just having a tremendous boost in stats. On the other hand a game shouldn't be easy for the fact that you can just spam attack or wipe enemies out with a random spell or skill.
-Available Skills: Skills/spells need to have a purpose too often have I seen that the player has access to all these skills and spells but very few of them actually need to be used to beat enemies and progress. Think about what skills need to be used and try trimming out ones that aren't necessary. Also a developer should design battles to make use of the character's abilities, if skills are becoming obsolete for the player to use over time it is because the developer made them so by not forcing the player to need to make use of them in the first place.
In some games this is where cooldowns/startup times or a resource pool come into play. For a resource pool take a classic final fantasy example with spells Fire, Fira and Firaga. In order they are from weakest to strongest respectively and the resource cost is respectively higher increasing as well. Fire the weakest can still be useful later in the game due to its lower cost even though it does less damage. Of course this is only so if the damage formula for fire still will inflict enough damage to be significant, if it doesn't do enough damage late game there is no more reason for the player to use it even with its low cost and thus becomes another obsolete skill. This is especially true if the player can simply chug an mp restoring item whenever they want by buying it at a shop.
In some games this is where cooldowns/startup times or a resource pool come into play. For a resource pool take a classic final fantasy example with spells Fire, Fira and Firaga. In order they are from weakest to strongest respectively and the resource cost is respectively higher increasing as well. Fire the weakest can still be useful later in the game due to its lower cost even though it does less damage. Of course this is only so if the damage formula for fire still will inflict enough damage to be significant, if it doesn't do enough damage late game there is no more reason for the player to use it even with its low cost and thus becomes another obsolete skill. This is especially true if the player can simply chug an mp restoring item whenever they want by buying it at a shop.
Resources: The previous example brings me into the next one, resources. If resources are present they should be limitedin there use. What is the point of the player having a resource pool if it is extremely easy to restore by available items or by easily accessed healing points in dungeons? Of course you want the players to use their skills to overcome the foes' strategy so implementing some way for them to circumvent the loss of a resource is in order. Perhaps, other skills grow stronger with less mp available or perhaps the player can restore mp using skills strategically. Another option is to have a resource that steadily increases each turn (like in my IGMC 2015 game or Remnants of Isolation from last year). This gives the player some leeway but makes sure they still need to manage it so it doesn't run out when they really need it.
Progression: The developer needs to keep in mind how the player is going to progress; how many battles should they get into to be strong enough to beat the next boss without making normal encounters too mundane? In Whisper of the Rose there are touch encounters which normally need to factor in avoidance but many are jumbled together in tight passages and are hard to avoid resulting in them being fought especially with the fast movement speed of enemies. This coupled with large maps in general with many side paths leave the player getting too strong (and bored of combat). Consider how many battles are necessary and leave room for the player to avoid some without the boss being impossible to defeat. Of course a player avoiding too many encounters is their fault and thus should be faced with a tough boss for it.
Also think about the difficulty of enemies as the player progresses, the more enemies the player fights the stronger they get typically and enemies seem weaker. Add ways to make them seem challenging again until the player completes the area, maybe they face a new batch of foes on each dungeon area or old enemies use new skills or get a stat boost when the player is a certain level.
Also think about the difficulty of enemies as the player progresses, the more enemies the player fights the stronger they get typically and enemies seem weaker. Add ways to make them seem challenging again until the player completes the area, maybe they face a new batch of foes on each dungeon area or old enemies use new skills or get a stat boost when the player is a certain level.
edit- For a more in-depth look at all aspects of potential errors (not just mechanics) in rpgs and rpg maker games look here: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/23503-what-are-the-1-mistakes-that-rpg-maker-games-make
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