Following up on last weekโs post regarding the decision to amalgamate Gold and XP in Aethermon; letโs explore some of the design decisions that needed to be made to make this concept work.
๐๐ฑ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ
It costs 5 XG to level; at the end of every turn players with 5 or more XG have the option of leveling their Aethermon – but are not required to level their Aethermon. This needs to be an optional process as players might be disadvantaged if they were forced to spend their XG levelling on a turn where they needed to save to purchase a critical item.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ท๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ด๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ
Consider the basic potion: A potion that restores full HP costs 1XG (1/5th of a level). If the potion restored a set amount of HP (say 5HP) early in the game 1XG (1/5th of a level) would buy you a full heal, but late in the game it would be very hard to justify 1 XG for what might amount to 25% of your Aethermonโs HP.
(contrast this with the traditional approach of including increasingly powerful potions, ie: potion < super potion < hyper potion etc).
๐๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ท๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐๐
The XG awarded to a player for a victory varies depending on the playerโs character level compared to their opponent. Defeating an opponent of a higher level will award the player 3XG, defeating an equal levelled opponent will award the player 2XG; defeating a lower level opponent will award the player 1XG. Because a level is always 5XG, that means a victory against an equal levelled opponent and a higher levelled opponent is enough to level up. Alternatively you could level by defeating 5 lower level opponents.ย
(Contrast this with enemies that give a set XP/Gold throughout a game, but the rewards for defeating lower level enemies become insignificant when compared to the Gold/XP requirements of higher level players).
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Ultimately, this change may be counterintuitive to many players. But this decision reduces the number of stats players need to track without reducing the number of possibilities available to the player. Equally importantly, this decision halves the number of punch board tokens in the game, passing on a significant saving in MSRP.
Keep on optimising AetherRen – we will.