Castle Paradox

[Newbie_Power]

How about an extra character that has some of the best abilities, but extremely subpar equipment choices and stats?
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

[msw188]

From a convenience point of view, there are many rewards that can be conceived, and easily be graded. For example, increasing EXP or money gaining rates could make up multiple, stackable rewards (EXP rate * 1.x, where x=number of sidequests completed). Also, rewards that allow quick movement (a warp spell, perhaps). These would be things that really make the game more convenient for the player who completes the sidequest, but anyone who doesn't want to do them is not adversely affected in any kind of balancing way (although they may have to grind a little more than the person who did the sidequest).

Also, could it seems to make more sense to allow the player to choose his own reward when none of the rewards affect actual balance, but only convenience.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Rya.Reisender]

I didn't read all the replies but here's my thoughts on quest rewards.

-> the reward should be rare and special (let's consider extremely high exp and money rewards you couldn't get via grinding anytime soon as rare and special)

-> if it's a potion it should be one that can't be bought and that is useful over the full game, even still at the final battle (for example 100% recovery is much better than 1000 HP recovery, or a potion that halves the defense even of bosses maybe even one that is EXTREMELY useful for the upcoming boss battle)

-> if it's an equipment it shouldn't just be an unbuyable weapon with two more attack power, it could be an elemental weapon, but it's still not all that great (besides things like these should be something the player always gets because they raise the strategy, other you'd tell the player 'Do those quests or the battle will be boring button mashing' which isn't such a good idea), better would be a weapon that is effective over the whole game (power is raising with game progress, for example a weapon halving the HP of the enemy, or a weapon that mainly depends on character stats, for example Lost HP), even better would be a weapon where the attack is FUN, like the attack animation is fun, maybe it just does 20 hits with 5% damage each, or you really make it an awesome attack animation with many chained attacks that just is awesome to look at, the player should think "man doing that quest was so worth it"

-> alternatively it could be an item that grants you access to a completely optional dungeon with good game design (not just a linear dungeon but one the player has fun exploring) or a randomly created one maybe even some kind of special "random dungeon world" you can only access with quest items and if you die you'll return to your previous place and can keep all the exp and items you got (but the item is gone so you have to do another quest in order to access it again, maybe at the end of the game there's a larger quest where you can get an item that grants access forever)

-> exp, gold and 'other stat' rewards are especially useful in games that don't want the player to grind, let's say you need 10000 exp for the next level, but a random battle gives no exp or only 1-50 exp, instead you get 2 quests that both give 5000 exp each, this gives the game a strong focus on the quests, same for other stats... you could just add a stat 'fame' which you can only get by doing quests, the quests only give little rewards but they also give you fame, fame could effect the way people talk to you, they might get nicer to you, or give you new takes or even items, this is especially a good idea in a game that only has a few characters (NPC) and which is all about character development, when you start out as the 'weird stranger nobody likes' and end up as being liked by everyone, it actually really feel rewarding (this is assuming the developer is good with story-telling), if you play let's say Alundra 1 you can see how emotional you can get for NPCs (this is one of the only games where I sometimes really fought hard just because I wanted to safe my favorite NPC who was about to die, because the NPC was cute or maybe really funny or had some other special personality)



Summary:
The reward should be something that makes the player happy / feel good.
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"curt or sharp, esp. in a condescending way" (Oxford American Dictionary)
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[J.A.R.S.]