What's with the entitled tone? I never promised to cover the games' design in its entirety, do you have any idea how much more tl;dr that would require? I covered several aspects of it, mostly analyzing it from the perspective of difficulty and strategizing. I do not plan to control this thread's direction and make people think I want to limit discussion to only certain aspects.
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Let's talk about the gameplay design of Pokemon
- Thread starter Mekkah
- Start date
In my opinion this is actually quite an easy fix. For grinding, just put in a fairly basic formula where gym leaders have either the same level or 2 levels higher or whatever level than the highest-leveled Pokémon in your party, and update sets accordingly through levels. For example, you might want to give them Seismic Toss if it's level 100 vs level 100 and it's a Blissey, whereas you might not if it's a level 34 Happiny. I don't know, but it does seem like a pretty easy fix.
In terms of the Pokémon centre, just make them close after a while. Like you use each Pokémon centre 8 or 9 times and then they go out of business...
They would have to really change the game and it's mechanics up to avoid any/all the issues you mentioned, so I think these temporary fixes would be the way to go.
In terms of the Pokémon centre, just make them close after a while. Like you use each Pokémon centre 8 or 9 times and then they go out of business...
They would have to really change the game and it's mechanics up to avoid any/all the issues you mentioned, so I think these temporary fixes would be the way to go.
I'm not such a fan of the thing with the Pokémon Center... postgame, you would have no reliable way to heal, which is really annoying. Also, keep in mind that the PC fully heals Pokémon, and I think that trying to store HP/PP/status data in the PC would be a bit much. I think that making the battles harder and limiting out-of-battle healing should be enough.
Afti: I was a little skeptical at first, but your idea definitely makes sense, as long as you make sure to allow new Pokémon to be added to the team. You could get more experience postgame by respawning trainers. I would like some groups of trainers to be fought without healing, though, but that would be pretty easy to arrange. What would you do with healing items like Potions or Revives?
Afti: I was a little skeptical at first, but your idea definitely makes sense, as long as you make sure to allow new Pokémon to be added to the team. You could get more experience postgame by respawning trainers. I would like some groups of trainers to be fought without healing, though, but that would be pretty easy to arrange. What would you do with healing items like Potions or Revives?
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I think you could get a lot of mileage by just not providing experience points for defeating wild Pokémon and fully healing all Pokémon after battle.
Wild encounters become opportunities to add new party members - no more, no less. The meat of the gameplay could then be in (non-respawning, at least until postgame) Trainer battles. Healing all Pokémon after battle allows each encounter to be made as memorable and challenging as you like, and making experience a finite resource allows you to predict the power of a party coming into an area and design encounters around that.
The key is that this enhances the role of both short-term strategy (How do I win this battle?) and long-term strategy. (How do I prepare for the threats ahead?) Budgeting experience becomes a vital part of the game; it's about identifying the Pokémon you want to develop and allotting limited resources amongst them.
This would work best in a relatively linear game. Players should be able to adjust their party throughout the game, but finite experience means that it's not practical to go back, catch something, and bring it up to par with your team. Accordingly, the opportunity cost of introducing a new Pokémon must be low enough that it can feasibly be outweighed by the gains from adding it to the team. This is where your ability to predict the levels of the player's party comes in handy - in a more or less linear game, you're always able to keep wild Pokémon near par with those of the player's team. Not at par - there should be a cost to replacing a party member - but close enough that it's always feasible to take a new catch and replace a current party member with it.
Wild encounters become opportunities to add new party members - no more, no less. The meat of the gameplay could then be in (non-respawning, at least until postgame) Trainer battles. Healing all Pokémon after battle allows each encounter to be made as memorable and challenging as you like, and making experience a finite resource allows you to predict the power of a party coming into an area and design encounters around that.
The key is that this enhances the role of both short-term strategy (How do I win this battle?) and long-term strategy. (How do I prepare for the threats ahead?) Budgeting experience becomes a vital part of the game; it's about identifying the Pokémon you want to develop and allotting limited resources amongst them.
This would work best in a relatively linear game. Players should be able to adjust their party throughout the game, but finite experience means that it's not practical to go back, catch something, and bring it up to par with your team. Accordingly, the opportunity cost of introducing a new Pokémon must be low enough that it can feasibly be outweighed by the gains from adding it to the team. This is where your ability to predict the levels of the player's party comes in handy - in a more or less linear game, you're always able to keep wild Pokémon near par with those of the player's team. Not at par - there should be a cost to replacing a party member - but close enough that it's always feasible to take a new catch and replace a current party member with it.
^Best idea yet, although you'd have to think about how to stop players effectively making the game unwinnable later in the game by making poor long-term strategic decisions. Also, you have to remember that it would be difficult to make informed decisions without a strategy guide or similar. How can you budget experience when you have no idea how much experience there is?
Strange as it may seem, I think that the EXP share's mechanics would be great in such a scenario. Just because it exists doesn't mean that Pokemon will become overlevelled, because you can adjust the game's level curve to account for it. It would also prevent players from curbstomping the game with one overlevelled mon, which has already been the easiest way to beat the game in the past (see every Pokemon speedrun ever).
Strange as it may seem, I think that the EXP share's mechanics would be great in such a scenario. Just because it exists doesn't mean that Pokemon will become overlevelled, because you can adjust the game's level curve to account for it. It would also prevent players from curbstomping the game with one overlevelled mon, which has already been the easiest way to beat the game in the past (see every Pokemon speedrun ever).
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If it was up to me to make the games more difficult, I'd add a simple level cap. For instance, until you have beaten the first Gym Leader, no Pokemon may grow beyond level 10. You're free to train as many 'mons as you like up to level 10, but nobody will receive any exp. once level 10 is reached. Good bye grinding. Once the Gym Leader is beaten, the bar is raised to, say, 20. Do note that the Gym Leader's top levelled Pokemon won't neecsarily be below the bar. The first Gym Leader could have his 'mons as high as level 13-15.
For extra fun, do as proposed above and make the Gyms be a gauntlet challenge. Once a Gym is entered, its doors are closed and you may not use any medicine items (not sure about holding items). The doors will open upon the defeat of the Gym Leader. If you lose, the Gym Trainers will reset and you have to fight them all again upon your next visit to the Gym. Same goes for the Elite Four, which admittedly would be a very small change from the current procedure.
More fun? Limit Pokemon centres. Have them only open up after the local story event is cleared (such as Slowpoke Well in Azalea Town, for instance, or SS Anne in Vermilion City). Problem solvable by flying/walking to the previous town, you say? Then limit backtracking in the same fashion. Once you enter a new area, you can't go back (leave the Well/disembark the ship) until you've cleared the bit of story and opened the Pokecenter. In other words, it'd be vital to stock up on supplies before departing a "cleared" town. If you're defeated, you're thrown back to the last town, and have to try again. And because of the level cap, grinding would only help you so much. If you keep losing, you can catch new Pokemon and train them to be used in the troubling area. Backtracking to find useful new team members would now almost be a requirement rather than a pointless chore.
This would make certain "broken" items such as the Lucky Egg or the Exp. Share far more bearable. Instead of boosting your team members way beyond any resistance, they would be useful tools for making new team members catch up to their teammates a lot faster. Because of the level cap, there's a limit to how much the "oldies" can outrun new recruits anyway.
This also means players could pull a Pokemon Origins and alter their team drastically as the game passes, to the point of tailoring it against the problems they encounter. If the game designer manages to give opponents the right battle strategy, you'd actuallly need to consider teambuildng in-game in order to pass through the most difficult areas.
Sprinkle this with money issues as you see fit. Enabling players to fill a bag with Full Restores would make it too easy for them, on the other hand it's unwise to punish repeat losers too badly by denying them access to sorely needed healing items when they go bankrupt. Perhaps a credit card solution could be an option? Let bankrupt players shop for, say, 10 000 pokedollars before they can enter Victory Road. The money earned in battles will not go to the player's purse, but paying off the debt. If they still are indebted heavily after losing and blacking out, they can try to enter the area again without buying anything first. Even without healing items, they can surely beat the first few trainers and pay off a bit of their debt before being knocked out, and even after paying the loser's fee, they would be better off than before. If the first trainer in the area is the problem, repeatedly defeating the player before money can be earned, there's always Meowth and Pay Day. Hi again, grinding.
For extra fun, do as proposed above and make the Gyms be a gauntlet challenge. Once a Gym is entered, its doors are closed and you may not use any medicine items (not sure about holding items). The doors will open upon the defeat of the Gym Leader. If you lose, the Gym Trainers will reset and you have to fight them all again upon your next visit to the Gym. Same goes for the Elite Four, which admittedly would be a very small change from the current procedure.
More fun? Limit Pokemon centres. Have them only open up after the local story event is cleared (such as Slowpoke Well in Azalea Town, for instance, or SS Anne in Vermilion City). Problem solvable by flying/walking to the previous town, you say? Then limit backtracking in the same fashion. Once you enter a new area, you can't go back (leave the Well/disembark the ship) until you've cleared the bit of story and opened the Pokecenter. In other words, it'd be vital to stock up on supplies before departing a "cleared" town. If you're defeated, you're thrown back to the last town, and have to try again. And because of the level cap, grinding would only help you so much. If you keep losing, you can catch new Pokemon and train them to be used in the troubling area. Backtracking to find useful new team members would now almost be a requirement rather than a pointless chore.
This would make certain "broken" items such as the Lucky Egg or the Exp. Share far more bearable. Instead of boosting your team members way beyond any resistance, they would be useful tools for making new team members catch up to their teammates a lot faster. Because of the level cap, there's a limit to how much the "oldies" can outrun new recruits anyway.
This also means players could pull a Pokemon Origins and alter their team drastically as the game passes, to the point of tailoring it against the problems they encounter. If the game designer manages to give opponents the right battle strategy, you'd actuallly need to consider teambuildng in-game in order to pass through the most difficult areas.
Sprinkle this with money issues as you see fit. Enabling players to fill a bag with Full Restores would make it too easy for them, on the other hand it's unwise to punish repeat losers too badly by denying them access to sorely needed healing items when they go bankrupt. Perhaps a credit card solution could be an option? Let bankrupt players shop for, say, 10 000 pokedollars before they can enter Victory Road. The money earned in battles will not go to the player's purse, but paying off the debt. If they still are indebted heavily after losing and blacking out, they can try to enter the area again without buying anything first. Even without healing items, they can surely beat the first few trainers and pay off a bit of their debt before being knocked out, and even after paying the loser's fee, they would be better off than before. If the first trainer in the area is the problem, repeatedly defeating the player before money can be earned, there's always Meowth and Pay Day. Hi again, grinding.
