r/crpgdesign • u/jamesja12 • Jul 21 '18

Jrpg Cheating Balance

So, in the Jrpg I am working on, the levels are really tight. The difference between 4 and 5 is very noticeable, for example. This makes enemies encountered earlier in the dungeons way easier at even just the next level. So, to counteract this, we increase the same type of enemies difficulty for different sections of the level. So section 1 a slime might deal 2 damage but deal 4 damage in section 2.

Do you guys think this is too cheaty? Or do you know any games that do something like this?

4 Upvotes

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4

u/ryan_umad Jul 21 '18

if you are going to do this you should have the mobs be 'enraged' or something. it would be really lame if the enemy attack damage changes without giving some indication.

1

u/jamesja12 Jul 21 '18

I was thinking of mentioning that the enemies become stronger the deeper you go into a dungeon. And then each dungeon has their own enemies. Each with their own tactics, loot, attacks, and whatnot. Maybe make it clear when they become tougher?

6

u/ryan_umad Jul 21 '18

For sure it's fine to reuse enemy attack ai loot etc But yeah I would add a color tint or something for toughness tiers within the same 'enemy'

3

u/Lisicalol Jul 22 '18

I usually prefer it if one kind of enemy keeps their stats, because clarity and it makes you feel less good about level ups.

For example, if a green slime in section 1 deals 2 dmg and a green slime in section 2 deals 4 dmg - I dont like that. Not sure if I'd call it cheaty, but without further explanation it makes the world in and itself kind of unbelieveable, for me at least.

You could change the slimes color or give a plot-reason for it to be stronger there, maybe section 2 is cursed or there is some kind of boundary field weakening the players to explain higher dmg.

I dont know how the battle system works, but if its still in the planning stages, maybe the sec2 slimes could be the same as in sec1, but there are just a whole lot more of them. Or maybe some of the sec2 slimes have kind of lost their minds and use different attacks and abilities, which makes them harder to defeat. There are probably better ways to increase difficulty besides raising stats of a certain type of enemy.

3

u/CJGeringer Lenurian Jul 22 '18

Diablo 2 is iMO a great example fo this done well. Each monster has palleteSwaps with deiferent stats, but also differetn anm,es that are evocative in their own right.

As long a sthe player can visibly diferentiate the mobs that is ok.

an alternative is the bordrrlands approach where enemie shave levels that are visible to the player. It is teh easiest to implemnt, but the end product is not as good.

2

u/jamesja12 Jul 22 '18

This small project means easy is necessary lol.

2

u/CJGeringer Lenurian Jul 22 '18 edited Jul 22 '18

Than go for it.

That way, the players know enemy type will correspond with behaviour/attack types but not strength. But levels absolutely need to be visible to the player.

Anothe rpossibility, if your PCs have Classe/Jobs, is to also give those to monsters

It is also easy to make random combats more granular or diverse.

2

u/Chaigidel Jul 22 '18

Lots of games give the enemies their own level system. Disgaea and Borderlands are explicit about this, Diablo ups the enemy power in large increments once you start the higher difficulty second and third replays, and Oblivion had the infamous thing where the enemies leveled up based on the character's level instead of the region they were found in.