One of the best solutions to getting people to use spells before bosses is giving all characters an ability to restore a small % of their MP at the end of the battle. It worked in Tales series.
Another good solution is to go the way of Lunar series. It had a party of 5, with two characters who saved their MPs for bosses and the rest were designed in such a way that on bosses their lowest mana spells were the most effective (buffs, single-target spells), so they got to fling those higher-impact spells around before the boss a lot more.
AP restoring items are problematic, because they tend to make HP restoring items useless. Depends on the price, though.
Items
#22
- The Handburglar
- Job: Administrator
- Posts: 8,862
06 October 2013 - 08:56 PM
maxi, on 06 October 2013 - 08:49 PM, said:
One of the best solutions to getting people to use spells before bosses is giving all characters an ability to restore a small % of their MP at the end of the battle. It worked in Tales series.
Another good solution is to go the way of Lunar series. It had a party of 5, with two characters who saved their MPs for bosses and the rest were designed in such a way that on bosses their lowest mana spells were the most effective (buffs, single-target spells), so they got to fling those higher-impact spells around before the boss a lot more.
AP restoring items are problematic, because they tend to make HP restoring items useless. Depends on the price, though.
Another good solution is to go the way of Lunar series. It had a party of 5, with two characters who saved their MPs for bosses and the rest were designed in such a way that on bosses their lowest mana spells were the most effective (buffs, single-target spells), so they got to fling those higher-impact spells around before the boss a lot more.
AP restoring items are problematic, because they tend to make HP restoring items useless. Depends on the price, though.
Good points all around, especially that last bit. Hmm... We'll see what happens, I guess.
#23
- Casual Gamer
- Job: Member
- Posts: 162
07 October 2013 - 12:04 AM
but the only way to get items that restore ap is droping or stealing from monsters, and that isnt easy
#24
- Challenger
- Job: Member
- Posts: 878
07 October 2013 - 12:46 AM
Lunar had AP restoring items in shops at very high price. But it also had a limit on amount of items you can actually bring in combat (6 per character). Together (the limit and expensiveness) made AP items work well in terms of how much of a choice they are. However, there is probably no way to implement the item limit in BoF. Unless you manage to find which "63" hex combo exactly corresponds to 99 items limit 
There is another way to apporach this as well. It is more of a complete redesign approach, though, so you've been warned.
Go ahead and read this article: http://www.sirlin.ne...ed-example.html
It is about balancing characters in a PvP environment of a Street-Fighter-like game. However, the important lesson there is that if you have a basic system that provides every character a basic functionality, you can then balance the rest of your game around it, providing different characters with various perks that would give them a unique focus without overpowering them. Items could work as that system.
There is another way to apporach this as well. It is more of a complete redesign approach, though, so you've been warned.
Go ahead and read this article: http://www.sirlin.ne...ed-example.html
It is about balancing characters in a PvP environment of a Street-Fighter-like game. However, the important lesson there is that if you have a basic system that provides every character a basic functionality, you can then balance the rest of your game around it, providing different characters with various perks that would give them a unique focus without overpowering them. Items could work as that system.
