Following up on last week’s post regarding the decision to amalgamate Gold and XP in Aethermon; let’s explore some of the design decisions that needed to be made to make this concept work.
𝘖𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘓𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨
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.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭
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 Aethermon’s HP.
(contrast this with the traditional approach of including increasingly powerful potions, ie: potion < super potion < hyper potion etc).
𝘌𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘟𝘎
The XG awarded to a player for a victory varies depending on the player’s 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.
(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.