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Design tip: Don't mistake mistakes with choices.
Let's elaborate: Say a player wants to sell an item in your game - to do so they must go through a broker. There's two brokers available to them:
1: Takes 5% of the item's value.
2: Charges 10 gold for the service.
Despite what you might think, this is *not* a choice.
1: Takes 5% of the item's value.
2: Charges 10 gold for the service.
Despite what you might think, this is *not* a choice.
This is a math problem. You can easily piece out when one is better than the other, and realize that choosing broker 1 for anything over 200g is a mistake.
Worse even, I see cases like:
1: 10%
2: 5%
3: 10$
Ignoring game progression, why would you EVER pick 1?
Worse even, I see cases like:
1: 10%
2: 5%
3: 10$
Ignoring game progression, why would you EVER pick 1?
I see people justify making choices into problems like this as "allowing players to challenge themselves", but they forget THEY'RE THE DESIGNER, the designer is the one supposed to challenge the player.
That's like if you went to a restaurant and sold fucking raw food.
That's like if you went to a restaurant and sold fucking raw food.
Now, don't get me wrong, having optional challenge modes in games and ways for players to tailor their experience is definitely a good thing.
You don't do it by providing clearly right/wrong binary choices like this.
You don't do it by providing clearly right/wrong binary choices like this.
To give a choice, there must not be a clear right answer - the right answer must be something the player have to DECIDE.
Here's an actual choice for this scenario:
Broker 1: 2%, Takes 5 minutes.
Broker 2: 5%, Takes 1 minute.
Do you value your time or gold more?
Here's an actual choice for this scenario:
Broker 1: 2%, Takes 5 minutes.
Broker 2: 5%, Takes 1 minute.
Do you value your time or gold more?
People sometimes get so stuck up in progression they forget it's totally fine to make sidegrades.
If the progression of your game looks like a straight stick, chances are you're either doing it intentionally, or you're doing something wrong.
If the progression of your game looks like a straight stick, chances are you're either doing it intentionally, or you're doing something wrong.
Anyway, that's the thread.
Next time you see someone say their pack having 10 different RF furnaces when one is clearly better please refer them to this thanks.
Next time you see someone say their pack having 10 different RF furnaces when one is clearly better please refer them to this thanks.
