Limit the use of (health) potions.

[amarok]

I dont want the frequent use of health- and temporary stat upgrade potions to have a too important role inside battles. The unlimited usabilty of health-, invulnerability-, giant strength- and mana potions is a thing i despise in many rpgs, as battles eventually degrade to a resource war, in which a high number of potions grants victory in most cases.

So, please limit the use in P:E.. the IE games already did this in the way that swallowing a potions actually took time. I'd like to see at least something like that, or maybe using potions get's kind of a cooldown, which allows swallowing a potion only every few minutes and thus the player usually won't be able to use more than one or two potions in a battle.

Along the way, i also would like to see these potions to be something much more valuable than usually. I want them to be rare and expensive, i want their use to be an actually strategic decision, which could turn the tide in desperate situation every now and then - not the all-time-solution to everything and all we see in many games. The fact that these things are cheap and lying around everywhere in high numbers just feels wrong to me, it should be something only master alchemists could create in small numbers, and available only in the chests of powerful enemies and expansive magic stores.

Edited September 6, 2013 by amarok

[Lephys]

I believe the design is already to have very little (if any) Health replenishment, on-the-fly. You can heal up at rest spots spaced throughout "dungeons" (and wilderness areas), and at towns and such, but, there won't be much beyond that. Keep in mind, P:E has both Health (actually how dead you are) and Stamina (how immediately capable of doing things you are). So, if you "die" in combat by running out of Stamina, you will collapse and be unable to do anything, but can be revived in-combat. Also, there be much more numerous abilities/items for replenishing Stamina.

 

I'm not sure exactly what replenishment items will be in the game and how they will work, exactly, but I'm fairly certain you won't have any issues with P:E's design, in terms of the problem you've emphasized.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

There are no health potions or healing spells for that matter, so I don't think you have anything to worry about. If it bothers you that much, don't use potions often when you play.

[Osvir]

What about medical measures? Bandages? Needle and thread? Maybe some medieval aspirin for a magically invoked headache some sort of natural herb?

Will there be doctors in the game that can "heal" health, and if PE decides to have some of it, will there be ways for the Player to learn some of it?

I'm thinking of a sort of hybrid/combination between Plague Doctors (Assassin's Creed, Location based) and First Aid/Doctor (Fallout, Skill based) elements.

Will there be injuries, can you treat them? Can you get permanent injuries too? (Lose an eye, hand, leg, get some sort of sickness~) The latter is a sort of suggestion for the hardest hardest difficulty. It'd be a sort of achievement to get through the game all battered and worn, with only one arm, partial blindness, heart problems and whatnot and managing to defeat the last poss whilst being handicapped. Difficult as **** but tactically "manageable". Of course, the game should already be super difficult without this, I'm just asking for an element to make it even more difficult based on "Luck" (I guess).

[Prometheus]

I dont want the frequent use of health- and temporary stat upgrade potions to have a too important role inside battles. The unlimited usabilty of health-, invulnerability-, giant strength- and mana potions is a thing i despise in many rpgs, as battles eventually degrade to a resource war, in which a high number of potions grants victory in most cases.

 

So, please limit the use in P:E.. the IE games already did this in the way that swallowing a potions actually took time. I'd like to see at least something like that, or maybe using potions get's kind of a cooldown, which allows swallowing a potion only every few minutes and thus the player usually won't be able to use more than one or two potions in a battle.

In P:E you can only use those items in battle that you have equipped. There are slots for consumables like potions. So they can limit the consumable slots, to limit the use of potions inside of battles. source:

The party can't access anything in the "top of pack" during combat, so it's impossible to switch anything other than equipped weapon sets. Outside of combat, you can switch any equipped item with anything in the "top of pack" freely (including something you've just found). At a camp or certain other locations, you can move items freely between equipment, pack, and stash.

...

Weapon sets are equipped on the character as in IWD2 and BG2. You can put any item type you want in the pack. Consumables are equipped in consumable slots.

 

What about medical measures? Bandages? Needle and thread? Maybe some medieval aspirin for a magically invoked headache some sort of natural herb?

 

Will there be doctors in the game that can "heal" health, and if PE decides to have some of it, will there be ways for the Player to learn some of it?

There is medicine in the world of P:E but nothing that helps fast (source):

There's medicine, but nothing that heals in seconds, minutes, or hours. It's all equivalent to early modern European technology at best.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Prometheus

[Valorian]

There are no health potions or healing spells for that matter, so I don't think you have anything to worry about. If it bothers you that much, don't use potions often when you play.

 

I do believe there will be stamina potions. Rare and expensive.

 

I'd rather have the game reasonably balanced and not feel compelled to resort to not using things because they're way too powerful.

[Lephys]

Yes, by that token, if some exorbitant amount of HP on playable characters bothers us, we can have our party characters attack each other while we play. Because, it's not the game design's responsibility to make sure the HP amounts are reasonable, and the player can always go out of his way to make it so.

[Osvir]

Potion Overdose:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Gx8hYi0hQ

Edited September 6, 2013 by Osvir

[rjshae]

^^^ Reminds me of the old miscibility rules for AD&D.

 

I don't really find the concept of healing potions themselves to be an issue: it's just a feature of the specific setting and presumably the game designers have taken them into account. What I do find lacking in some games though is a sense of verisimilitude.

 

Instead of all consumed potions immediately taking effect, a potion queue could be used allowing each consumed potion to take effect once the prior ones have been triggered. This would put more weight on players choosing when to consume potions and in what order.

[Osvir]

I want to throw in "Expiring Potions" and "Ideas for creating items with negative attributes that people will actually use?" as well into here, mostly to raise awareness of the topic. I think it fits the same bin.

SHAMELESS PROMOTION!!11
1. Crafting Components [Potions] w/ Expiring Potions

2. Items & Potions that give a temporary or "semi-permanent" boost with side-effects (Gulp 5 potions and you throw up, but you can fight for longer than you would've been able to previously)

[JFSOCC]

I want to throw in "Expiring Potions" and "Ideas for creating items with negative attributes that people will actually use?" as well into here, mostly to raise awareness of the topic. I think it fits the same bin.

 

SHAMELESS PROMOTION!!11

1. Crafting Components %5BPotions%5D w/ Expiring Potions

2. Items & Potions that give a temporary or "semi-permanent" boost with side-effects (Gulp 5 potions and you throw up, but you can fight for longer than you would've been able to previously)

You forgot Consumables as ability modifiers...

[Lephys]

You know... I picked up Dragon's Crown recently (for PS3), and it does something simple-yet-interesting with potions. You buy essentially a specific size of potions (listed as "number of uses: X"). The number of uses is per-"dungeon" (in that game, you're either in town, where you have no need of potions, or you're in a dungeon). Then, each potion has a certain number of "replenishment" charges. So, it might have 3 uses, but 30 replenishment charges. So, in total, you can use it 30 times, but you can only use it 3 times per dungeon.

 

Anywho, I just kinda like this, because it fits with 2 things:

 

1) The idea that, much like a flask of alcohol, you could probably EASILY carry around more potion than you'd down in a single swig, and thus would get multiple "uses" out of the same potion (think medicine doses). Well, that AND the idea that you can only pour so much of a substance down your gullet in a given amount of time (especially something specialized, like medicine/potions).

 

2) The idea of pseudo-Vancian abstraction we're getting with abilities and such in P:E: Uses per day and uses per encounter.

 

Merely as a potential option for P:E (if it's even applicable amid the specific context of the health and healing system that we don't yet know about), the "uses per dungeon" could be translated into "uses per encounter" or "uses per day," and the replenishment factor could simply represent the actual remaining potion in the bottle.

 

You could even have different qualities of potions in the mix, with two different factors: concentration, and potency. Maybe a weaker healing potion is simply more diluted, because the potion mixture itself is the expensive part. So, you'd have to drink MORE liquid at a time to get an actual dose, resulting in fewer uses per abstracted amount of time. Also, you could have one potion mixture that's just-plain better/more potent than another mixture, so that 3 uses of Super Healing Potion would be better than 3 uses of Regular Healing Potion. But, then, 7 uses of Regular Healing Potion (more concentrated form, costs more) might be better for enduring a lot of encounters than 3 uses of Super Healing Potion. But then, 7 uses of Super Healing Potion would obviously be the best, out of these example options, but would probably cost the most. Then, you've still got the Replenishment factor (the size of the actual potion you're getting.) Do you buy in bulk for more money now, and get a larger potion that you can use for a longer period of time, or do you get one that's got 7 uses per day (or encounter) but that only has 10 charges, total?

 

*shrug*

 

I just thought it was an interesting way to go about potionry, is all.