If you wear worse gear, nothing will change: the relative strength will be the same.

Okay, I got it: Equipment will be unimportant, the initial short sword will lead to the same result as the dual-wielded bastard sword of Doom.



Looting and improving the armour and weapons are imho much of the fun in RPGs, not sure if I really like your approach (as a first reaction, could be different while actually playing)

I would be disappointed if nobody found an exploit, would be the first RPG in history to not have one, but if is not as obvious as was the first version of Loren (the infamous speed cheat) I'd be very satisfied with my work as game designer

The level of the opponents is calculated based on the initial stats of the PCs? If so one exploit would be the following:

- use poor equipment before a fight (Toothpick of Weakness, papier mâché cuirass)

- survive the first round

- change equipment to the Good Stuff

Even without this it will be interesting to see if it is better to have an evenly trained and equipped team - or if it is better to skew the average using one "star" and make everyone else as weak as possible.



Then there are the Min-Maxing people, who will give a char one strong attack (or make him Tank: all defense but paper-machee sword) depending on the role.

How is working is different than explaining it by words. Is really impossible for me, so trust me and wait the beta. Of course I could also be wrong, but I can tweak it anyway if necessary, so won't be an issue.



Some quick replies (don't have much time):

- You can't change equipment while fighting now

- You talk like if is EASY to get new equipment and balance everything - it won't be simple!

- yes I take the base stat, and a small % of the "derived" stats from equipment. So items still have an impact

- saying that items aren't important is the same as complaining that the game is too easy after you grind for 10h to beat the boss... a bit hard to explain, but you need to remember that we're talking about averages here only as a starting point. The real difficulty of an enemy is his level relative to the player. Like in many MMORPG, there are enemies 1,2 levels lower than the party and are easy, then others that are 1,2 or more levels higher than the party, and are tough.

- I do randomize a bit the resulting stats for every encounter based on parameters, so it's not always the same

- there are SKILLS, very different. The result of the outcomes will depends on the equipment but also on the skills

- I can still tweak the bosses checking the player level. I can make it easier if player is a certain level for example, though I think that if you level up and get better gear, you'll have the edge, since enemies won't grow up so powerful at same speed



I wanted to achieve a few things with this:

- avoid boring encounters after people did a lot of grinding. I still remember people whining that the Hard level of Loren was too easy. Obviously, people that got at the final boss fight at level 30

- put more emphasis on the skills used rather than relying only on the best equipment

- much FASTER development times for me to define the encounter, knowing that I'll always have a solid starting base, and then I can customize opponents using traits which makes much more sense: fast but weak enemies. Strong but slow enemies. People think which skills is better to use. Heavy damaging AOE skills to quickly kill 3 weak but fast enemies, and you win the battle. Otherwise, you pick the wrong skill and lose. Sort of chess/planning your strategy more.



OK, after this won't talk about the system anymore, because is really better to wait and play it. So far I've done a few encounter, and feels really great to play. There are easy battles of course, but the hard one are really challenging those who want it easier will play in Normal mode anyway

You can't change equipment while fighting now

Not even weapons? How sad, this was my primary tactic to use thiefs as fast damage-dealers in the front row. Bah, you're cruel



[yes yes, I got it and will shut up - and I'm eagerly waiting for the beta release ^^]

Not sure yet but don't think, sorry!

Anyway, all this talk gave me an idea. I'll do a test battle. First with default crappy equipment, then with uber rare random equipment (enemies will be a mix of warriors/casters etc). Of course, the enemies will be the same. If I don't see that the second battle with the super equipment is much easier, then I have a problem in my system and will need to tweak it.

- yes I take the base stat, and a small % of the "derived" stats from equipment. So items still have an impact

As far as I understand it this is pretty much the solution I was after. If they only get a small amount of your gear-derived stats you can overpower them with better gear.



BUT you might consider that the base attributes for a given level aren't really going to have much variance to begin with so the whole basing monster stats on PC stats feels needlessly complicated

In my experience, everything that works "on paper" never works as intended when you actually playtest the game

I'm going to do that "extreme test" now, with several different party configurations, so if that one works I think the whole system should be OK!

OK I made some tests: already using a Rare weapon at level 1 instead of the default items, the battles are simpler (not by much but I've played the same one for SO LONG, that I can notice it! ). Which is great, since I just added ONE single item (not any ring, or any piece of armor, or anything) and yet I could spot the difference in the battle, which was very short.



At this point I've added so much code that I'm not even sure exactly what I do haha but the important is that the result seems to work as I intended I have of course to see during testing the battles in the advanced stages of the game. But for that, I confide in my proud beta-testers !

the battles are simpler (not by much but I've played the same one for SO LONG, that I can notice it!)

harr, mystical software tester knowledge



and good to know that my interpretation of your design decision was wrong ^^

Probably because I didn't explain myself good enough. Anyway, this week I plan to code & test a good amount of the first season/part of the game. There are several battles so using cheats I can find if my theory is still valid

Thought I was done tweaking the rules...but I was wrong!

https://24.media.tumblr.com/eec92088e405a51de3c368965185a806/tumblr_n3cjm2OJFu1qhts2bo1_1280.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

Did some levelup tests using cheats. You get 6 attribute points each level up, so multiply that by 30 levels (the level cap is 30) and you get 180 attribute points that you can distribute through the whole game.

So I cheated and put them all on Constitution, and the result was that you could get 795HP!!! which could be a bit too much lol

I decided to put a progressive level cap as shown in the image. I was wondering if is clear enough? in practice:

attributes 1-20 = 1 attribute point

attributes 21-40 = 2 attribute points

attributes over 40 = 3 attribute points



this way even assigning all to Constitution, I would get Max 425 HP (this varies depending the Class but more or less that amount) so is still high but acceptable

It's clear enough. Someone can probably think of a prettier way to put it (I see some nitpicking that can be done if nothing else), but it's clear.



Nitpicking: the 1-20 range, the 21-40 range, but over 40 (no the)



I don't remember how many different stats the game has though. At first glance it feels a bit weird to have 20-40-60 steps when you can go all the way to 180, but maybe you'd be setting yourself up for suck putting every point in a single attribute anyway

There are 6 attributes, so in theory you could distribute 30 point each, and I'm leaving freedom to players to experiment. The HP/SP are surely very important, but all the other have a secondary effect as well, so I think it should balance itself well. For example Agility increases both the Speed but also the Critical Hit, Skill the Defense but also the Physical Resistances (Scared, Weakened, etc) and so on.

Your rare items sparkle wish has been granted:

[youtubewd]v76Hw314rw4[/youtubewd]

jokes apart, was a nice idea and the implementation didn't take too long

haha, nice!



[actually what I proposed was twinkling exclusively for the beta-buyer random junk goodie item but I like the effect!]

But now we need something COOLER for the preorder bonus. Way to shoot yourself in the foot!

Ah OK, didn't understand. But I will let everyone experience the power of SPARKLES!!!

Haha I'm thinking that I won't include anything as preorder bonus!! after all in other games are mostly tricks to force people to buy. I don't want to force/trick anyone in buying early! problem solved! *nod nod*

Haha I'm thinking that I won't include anything as preorder bonus!! after all in other games are mostly tricks to force people to buy. I don't want to force/trick anyone in buying early! problem solved! *nod nod*

And people will appreciate it, even if they are someone who comes across the game later

Haha I'm thinking that I won't include anything as preorder bonus!!

Finally! Some sense! I very much appreciate this decision [written without any sarcasm in mind]