Castle Paradox

[TMC]

[rant]Damn, that reminds me of when I accidently hit the up button and bought 11 of an expensive sword of which I only needed one, and lost a huge amount of money when selling them back. And then I accidently sold all 11, and had to buy another one! [/rant]

However, I think the full money back on refund is a very bad idea, unless its based on ow used the equipment is.

Who would this article be geared towords? Players, Game Desigers, or both?
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"It is so great it is insanely great."

[Mr B]

Game designers. Definately game designers.

I wrote a big 15-page paper on RPG design (well, it seemed big writing it) for an English class a while ago, but it was completely geared towards non-gamers, so it only covered some of the basics (but they couldn't tell when I was lying!!!!HAHAH!!!!). I want to re-write it as it should have been as a series of articles.

If I ever find the time. I signed up for too many classes this semester.

[junahu]

I know it's too late to throw in my two cents but... I use magic restoring items when I need to (you know, when I'm on low health and no magic left and the enemy is still strong. Duh). I think that's obvious. I never use stat items at all (which puts me at a distinct disadvantage while playing earthbound), and I hoarde potions and revival items like crazy.
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[Ronin Catholic]

On Ether usage:

In Final Fantasy and Pokemon, I never use them. In Pokemon all inns are free so even though basic physical attacks use MP, there's not much point unless you're trying to clear the Elite Four using a single Pokemon in a challenge run. In Final Fantasy, characters tend to have stupidly high MP (and HP, for that matter) compared to the spell costs/challenges they're likely to face.

So my answer to "When do you use ethers?" is "Usually I sell them to buy weapons and armor if it's early game, hoard them and don't use them if it isn't."



My personal solution to the MP economy is I generally give characters very low MP (3 MP to represent 3 wishes, 5 MP, 8 MP, 1 max MP per level, etc) and make most spells cost 0-3 MP depending on their expected usefulness. I have a character archetype - the CandyCaster/Sucromancer/Candy Fairy, whose spells all cost at minimum +1 relative to this, but have a bonus effect of a -1 item cost on an item called Candy. Candy can be bought for 10+ dollars in shops but only sells for 1 and it restores 1 MP on use...when "heal party member by 30% max HP" is a 1 MP spell and "heal party member by 80% max HP" and "heal entire party by 30% HP" are both 2 MP spells.

Keeping the numbers small helps them stay easy to comprehend and balance better. "Is this spell generally a better use of a turn than a basic attack? No? How about 0 MP, then."


On the money economy:
I generally try to make most shops buy things back for about 75%, not 50%. I like to sometimes have limited supply items on sale for a lower price in some places, usually not enough that the player can make a profit but definitely enough they can save a significant amount.

In joke games like Moron Mission, the default sell back value for most items was about 99%, I think.
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"I didn't start the flame war;
I don't know what you thought here
'Twas that way when I got here"

"I didn't start the flame war;
I can't understand a word you're saying
nor the game you're playing~"