I am working on an RPG engine for the PC in my spare time at work and at home. You can read a little more about the general project
here.
I have some design decisions I'd like to pose to the community to help me select the direction I should go in.
1) How do you feel about creating your own party in an RPG, you set the names and classes and possibly even get to tweak the starting stats and their growth areas?
I am leaning towards a limited customization system maybe naming/classing one or two starting characters but having additional characters be predetermined.
2) Should characters awaken and be cured of poison automatically after battle?
If I had designed this game before Lost Odyssey I would have said of course not, there is nothing more tense then being stuck out in the wild without an antidote and losing HP every couple steps. However with those concerns gone it allows the general pace of the game to speed up, which in an RPG is sometimes appreciated.
3) Should characters automatically become rested whenever they enter a town?
Again before Lost Odyssey I would have said no you must go to the obligatory Inn and pay 30gil in order to rest of the days troubles. But realistically if you get to anywhere in the town you would be able to rest and not having to sit through two or three loading screens and a repetitive dialogue box is something not to be taken lightly.
RestingSound's blog
Follow
RSS
Contact
The hardcore in me says no to the posion for the same reasons you give but really, try to see if you can streamline it a little and see how it goes and feels. Can always change it later, albeit with a small headache.
Depends how good of a story you get. If it's just an after thought, go ahead with a custom party and old school poison MUST be cured and go to the Inn. If you actually can get a nice story together, maybe you should try and keep it streamlined and the characters a bit rigid. Although, yes allowing one or two characters to be flexable is good.
2) Cured of poison? No. Awakened? Yes.
3) Definitely rested in towns. It makes sense that your characters would be a little more at ease once safely inside a city.
tl;dr, make one group of characters and stick with it.
2) If you're poisoned you're poisoned, it shouldn't just go away. I know I always hated stocking up on antidotes, but it would kinda make getting poisoned be meaningless if it goes away as soon as the fight is over. Realism is a dumb thing to talk about in an RPG, depending on the sub-genre, but that's what it is, and I always begrudgingly accepted it.
You should definitely get awakened though, and I'm not sure about getting unparalyzed, but I'm leaning towards yes.
3) Yeah, allow 'em to be rested up in towns. Being forced to pay money to rest up is never fun... I realize you're asking with the thought of streamlining in mind, but maybe making it something you have to choose to do while in a town would be good. Y'know, once safely in town you can select to rest any time you want, but it has to be something you choose to do, not automatic...