Reply to Re: Balance
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Perhaps some controversial opinions, but you can modify the levelup script to remove the player choice. That will ease balance on your side and remove player confusion on what stats are actually useful in your particular DMOD.
Yeah, I did that in the Scourger because I found out that the way I had balanced things the defense stat would always be the best choice, by quite some margin. I often also like to remove magic from the level-up anyway, as it seems to be very hard to balance with strength/defense (magic will almost always feel weaker in my experience).
Generally speaking the exact way in which people will level up their stats isn't too problematic though, the player will always be limited by the required XP for the higher levels so that eventually power-ups and items are much more important than levels. The issue is mostly if players always choose one stat, will the game still be balanced? Try figuring that out, and also try figuring out if one stat is always more powerful than another, this is especially true for the balance between strength and defense. Generally speaking if you feel strength is too powerful, increase baddy hitpoints and reduce their defense. If defense is too powerful do the opposite. Also watch out with giving the player very powerful weapons as it often means that leveling strength means going from 59 to 60 and leveling defense means going from 12 to 13. Guess which choice is almost always going to be the better option in that scenario...
Try playing through the DMOD with different leveling strategies and see if it all feels roughly equally difficult overall. It is a good thing if some sections feel harder than others with a certain leveling strategy (it means you have variety in your monsters), just make sure it's sorta balanced overall. If you're really struggling you can add more power ups which also removes some player agency over how their stats are distributed without making them feel mad about it. (When your stats are 60-25-20 a level-up isn't going to make nearly as much of a difference as when they are 15-9-11 for example)
Note that you don't have to play through the entire DMOD completely with different strategies, using scripting you can easily switch between an all strength/defense/magic strategy so you can play through a specific portion you're testing.
When balancing assume players will find the vast majority of power ups, unless you're making them very, very hard to reach/find. In terms of levels, try playing through it yourself at a relatively fast pace and assume that level. The player will usually not be more than a level or two ahead which is a fair bonus to them.
Luckily, even if you're off by quite a bit the DMOD is usually still enjoyable enough. Even if your number of hit points is off by say 50%, this isn't enough to bridge the gap between a challenge and a walk-over.
EDIT: Also, if a defense-only strategy feels a bit boring to play because you do so little damage... That's not something that necessarily needs to be fixed, it's a choice!
Yeah, I did that in the Scourger because I found out that the way I had balanced things the defense stat would always be the best choice, by quite some margin. I often also like to remove magic from the level-up anyway, as it seems to be very hard to balance with strength/defense (magic will almost always feel weaker in my experience).
Generally speaking the exact way in which people will level up their stats isn't too problematic though, the player will always be limited by the required XP for the higher levels so that eventually power-ups and items are much more important than levels. The issue is mostly if players always choose one stat, will the game still be balanced? Try figuring that out, and also try figuring out if one stat is always more powerful than another, this is especially true for the balance between strength and defense. Generally speaking if you feel strength is too powerful, increase baddy hitpoints and reduce their defense. If defense is too powerful do the opposite. Also watch out with giving the player very powerful weapons as it often means that leveling strength means going from 59 to 60 and leveling defense means going from 12 to 13. Guess which choice is almost always going to be the better option in that scenario...
Try playing through the DMOD with different leveling strategies and see if it all feels roughly equally difficult overall. It is a good thing if some sections feel harder than others with a certain leveling strategy (it means you have variety in your monsters), just make sure it's sorta balanced overall. If you're really struggling you can add more power ups which also removes some player agency over how their stats are distributed without making them feel mad about it. (When your stats are 60-25-20 a level-up isn't going to make nearly as much of a difference as when they are 15-9-11 for example)
Note that you don't have to play through the entire DMOD completely with different strategies, using scripting you can easily switch between an all strength/defense/magic strategy so you can play through a specific portion you're testing.
When balancing assume players will find the vast majority of power ups, unless you're making them very, very hard to reach/find. In terms of levels, try playing through it yourself at a relatively fast pace and assume that level. The player will usually not be more than a level or two ahead which is a fair bonus to them.
Luckily, even if you're off by quite a bit the DMOD is usually still enjoyable enough. Even if your number of hit points is off by say 50%, this isn't enough to bridge the gap between a challenge and a walk-over.
EDIT: Also, if a defense-only strategy feels a bit boring to play because you do so little damage... That's not something that necessarily needs to be fixed, it's a choice!
