I''ve been thinking a lot recently about how my character''s level and skills can be advanced in my game, NightRise. I''m trying to keep it as simple as possible, and so far this is what I have. I know I don''t want the leveling up to be like Final Fantasy 7 where it was automatic. However, I don''t want it to be like a lot of RPG''s where you have to micromanage your character. I want to meet it somewhere in the middle. Therefore I have decided not to have too many stats for Fuego. The stats I do have are: 1. Attack Power: The amount of damage you cause unarmed. Arming weapons will increase your attack power by a certain percentage. 2. Defense Power: The amount of damage Fuego can take before dying. 3. Endurance: Determines for how long Fuego can attack before tiring. If his endurance runs out, his Defense Power drops to 25% of its original power. Fuego can restore his Endurance to full, however, by drinking Enduraid (easily attainable item, like Healers). I figure Fuego''s HP and MP will go up steadily as he levels up, but I still do not know HOW exactly I can have the player take control of his Attack Power, Defense Power, and Endurance. Should I give the player a certain number of points at each level up (like, say, 4) to distribute amongst the three stats, should I have them ALSO go up steadily, or is there another way?

I don''t know there are some of us who like to micro-manage. Perhaps instead of limiting our ability to do this with only three skills, (Think Mario RPG) you could just instead go with a template system that people can turn on and off. Have fairly detailed characters that people could, IF they wanted to tweak to thier hearts content. Or if they turn it on thier points are distributed where you the designer would like them to go.



Ideas presented here are free. They are presented for the community to use how they see fit. All I ask is just a thanks if they should be used.

Well, first off i''ll say that i don''t think that that kind of selection of stats will wind up with very little strategic choice for the player. Now, if you added skills like, say, dexterity and agility.. you could have dexterity be the players "accuracy" and the agility could be a modifier that affects how hard it is for him to be hit.. that way a player can play his character the way he wants to.. though that gets more into micromanagement..

As for your question.. i''d say that you should have the stats, and allow the player to put some into each at the beginning, and then at each level. What you could do then, is use the level to modify the effect the skills have on the players performance.. using whatever form you want to.. it may take awhile to balance though

All I''m saying is I don''t want the basic point distribution after leveling up. I don''t mind throwing in some more stats (attack speed (agility), movement speed (dexterity), accuracy, etc.), but I want the player to be able to change the stats in a more creative way than just distributing points, but a way that''s not like the FFX Sphere Board. I remember there was a game I was working on a few years ago called B-Blade: The Last Survivor, and it was a side scroller with RPG elements. Every enemy you killed would give you EXP. At the end of the level, your EXP would be added up and you could distribute it amongst your skills (Speed, Weapons, Vitality, Silver Angel (your helpful dog), and Galaxy (your helpful bird)). Any EXP you didn''t use would go toward your overall level (and at the next level each of your skills would go up by 10% or so). Would this be a good idea for my current game?