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Windows So What If Enemies in Your RPG...

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by KayinBlack, 19 Jul 2010.

  1. KayinBlack

    KayinBlack Unrepentant Savage

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    Didn't drop gold?

    I'm considering a move away from the traditional "gold from everything?!" mechanic to an item-synthesis setup where only humanoid enemies drop gold, or it's found in chests. Not totally FFXIII, but I won't lie, they did influence me there some.

    Basically, while in the early design stages, I asked myself-just why does that spider have more money than I do? I consider it to be a major logic fault that a creature with no society or monetary system hoards large amounts of inane items solely for the player character to gank them for. Experience is easy to explain (and the XP system is the same classic setup) but after repeated extended playtesting (the game IS progressing very well) I can't reconcile it with logic or the writing that goes along with the game. What I could easily support, though, would be the idea that they dropped items that were either salable or useful to make items or weapons. There are even a few characters to whom it would be the simplest thing in the world to slap a few bug parts into a potion.

    So, would you be terribly upset if that there slime didn't carry enough money for a night at the inn? Especially if the inn wasn't charging, anyway?
     
  2. malikdrako

    malikdrako Minimodder

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    dont some animals collect shiny things? you could use that explanation for monsters in your rpg to have gold
     
  3. Aterius Gmork

    Aterius Gmork smell the ashes

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    As in the Elder Scrolls series you mean? Sounds good to me. As long as you get the money you need from somewhere.
     
  4. WildThing

    WildThing Minimodder

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    Good question. I agree with you KayinBlack, Its always annoyed me when creatures in RPG's drop silly illogical things. Maybe a small percentage of creatures could drop some gold (like malikdrako said, they may like shiny things), but for the most part imo it's better for them not to drop gold.
    Have you played any of the Gothic games? Creatures would drop stuff depending on what skills you had, so every creature dropped meat (which could be cooked) and then if you knew how to skin, they would drop their skin. If you knew how to de-claw, then they would drop their claws etc.
    You could always balance this lack of gold from creatures with a higher payout upon quest completion.
     
  5. scq

    scq What's a Dremel?

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    Why is it that all RPGs are based off a gold economy anyways? What if spiders dropped T-bills or stock options instead?
     
    pimonserry likes this.
  6. Jux_Zeil

    Jux_Zeil What's a Dremel?

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    I think the idea is that you get a 'bounty' for killing the nasty beasts and making the world a safer place.

    I think it would make more sense for you to take a piece of the beast as proof and then hand it in to a collection point in the major cities or towns.

    Just an idea.
     
  7. 13eightyfour

    13eightyfour Formerly Titanium Angel

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    Makes more sense to me tbh, if creatures dropped usable items/raw material and people dropped man made stuff (armor,weapons, money etc..)

    Imo creatures should only drop skins, teeth, claws, meat etc.. I could forgive the odd jewel or shiney thing though.
     
  8. Xtrafresh

    Xtrafresh It never hurts to help

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    I agree wholeheartedly. Instead of having the gold "trickle in" in relatively small amounts each time you swat a fly, you should be rewarded big for certain things. That way, you look at all the shinies you can buy, and you'll be forced to make a REAL decision what you want to buy, because you never know when you'll hit the next treasuremap, rich ******* who wants somebody killed or old lady who wants her shed cleaned.

    There's a milion ways to supply a player with the gold he needs, all better then dropping it from spiders :p
     
  9. PureSilver

    PureSilver E-tailer Tailor

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    +1; I like the 'rat-catcher' model, too, where how bad the infestation of nasties is influences how much you get paid when you bring a few severed arachnid heads back to the local town hall.
     
  10. thehippoz

    thehippoz What's a Dremel?

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    Last edited: 20 Jul 2010
  11. minimad127

    minimad127 CPC Refugee

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    i agree, i like the idea of having to have 'skinning and gutting' skills to be able to harvest items from beasties, the higher the skill the more materials you get so the more money you get when you sell on those raw materials,

    or the ability to say, poison the tips of your arrows with the spider venom making them do more damage
     
  12. robots

    robots What's a Dremel?

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    I don't know many games were everything drops gold.

    EverQuest had a lot of quirkyness like this, but even that game wasn't so bad. Spiders never dropped gold, ever, but they did drop spider silk and spider legs and stuff, which you could then sell for money, or use in tradeskills. Also it wasn't all just about gold, there was copper, silver, gold, and platinum.

    I think any good RPG's and MMORPG's can do a similar thing and they know what to do. But sometimes I think they purposely keep it simple. Some people would consider having to exchange their coppers for silvers at a bank, to be quite a chore.
     
  13. wormy

    wormy Minimodder

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    +1 to the idea of stopping silly drops. The bounty idea is attractive and, if it is adjusted properly, could reduce farming - the more something is farmed, the less creatures there are in the vicinity and the poorer the return on farming them.

    pumpkin bum, I hadn't yet seen the karma thing about GW2; I'll check that out as I'm very much looking forward to the release (whenever it may be). I just hope that they have retained mesmers and made chaos storm a more usable spell - it looks so pretty in the original games it deserves to be spammed :)
     
  14. spectre456

    spectre456 What's a Dremel?

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    meh, i just assume that the monster ate some rich *******. :/
     

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