-===RPG Maker Game Balancing Guide===- Version 1.1 By Ron S. Patterson Jr. Email - darklaguna@yahoo.com -=Table of Contents=- 1. Revision History 2. Introduction 3. Game Balancing Tips 4. Experience Chart 5. Credits, Thanks, and Legal Information -=Revision History=- 10/25/2000 - Added a few minor changes 10/24/2000 - Created FAQ -=Introduction=- The Purpose of this FAQ is to help you balance your RPG. While creating my own RPG in RPG Maker, I have spent countless hours trying to get enemy encounters and boss battles just right, so they are neither too hard nor too easy. I also realized the need of an experience reference chart so I would know how much I should be giving out. I have included such a chart, and a few of the things I do to help make my RPG's more balanced. I'm sure these will come in handy as you create the ultimate RPG. -=Game Balancing Tips=- *The most common pitfall when creating an RPG is character growth. In the 'Main Characters' section, you can set the rate of growth for each statistic. It is usually a good Idea to keep these pretty low. An average of 5 per stat is plenty. I usually go about making characters by using the 35 point rule: they have 35 points to go between all 7 statistics. that comes out to 5 points per stat, but you can raise one by lowering another, as long as the total comes out to 35. *If you need a character to start with strong stats, but don't want them to grow too rapidly by gaining levels, then I would suggest using the 35 rule (maybe 40 for stronger characters) and simply adjusting their level (which is also done in the 'Main Characters' section) until they have the necessary strength. *Make sure you balance the equipment accordingly. Remember that they will also be gaining about 5 points per stat per level, so you don't have to give them a new piece of equipment every new dungeon. Likewise, a new weapon should not be more than 10 or 15 points stronger than the previous one, or before long you will have to give enemies way too much HP or Defense. Be a little more careful with armor; they get up to five pieces of equipment to bolster their defenses: Armor, a Helmet, a Shield, and two Accessories. They shouldn't be more than 5 or 10 points stronger than their current armor. *Don't make spells to damaging. If you make a spell hit 1000 damage, then even against the strongest boss, it will only take them 10 rounds to kill it. You should gear your spells, skills, and attacks more toward a max damage of 999 rather than the full 9999, because that's also the max HP of any enemy. *Keep all of your characters balanced. If one character can equip armor with a defense of 50 and another character can only equip a robe with 10 defense points, then the enemies will barely scratch the first and decimate the second. Also keep in mind that you probably gave the first more defense and HP than the second, say, if the first was a warrior and the second was a wizard. There can be gaps like this, but make sure that the enemy can still hurt the first character, and give the second defensive spells, etc. to protect himself. *Your characters shouldn't have to be at level 99 to defeat the Final Boss. Play a test play through your game when completed, and make note of what level your characters are on prior to the Final Boss. They should only have to be on that level or a few higher to have a decent chance to defeat the boss. By all means make your boss challenging, but don't make it so they have to do alot of tedious level building just to last two rounds against it. *Keep stat increasing items to a minimum. Most of the time, the player will just pile all of the status increasing items on their favorite character, and that character will be so overpowered that the rest of the party will have a hard time keeping up. *Keep in mind that unless you are using the shield trick (making a 'cursed' shield item always equipped on a character) that they will be able to equip a weapon in each hand instead of a weapon in one and a shield in the other. Balance your enemies accordingly; make them hit strong enough so that the players will want to have a shield equipped. Those that bring two weapons against your Final Boss or just your regular bosses will soon be running for the shop to equip a shield. If you want them to equip a weapon in each hand, however, then adding a few more points to the monsters defense or HP is probably a good idea. -=Experience Chart=- Yes, Finally, here is the Experience Chart: (Exp. TNL = Experience points needed to reach the next level): Level Exp. TNL ---------------- 1 10 2 15 3 22 4 33 5 49 6 73 7 109 8 163 9 244 10 366 11 549 12 823 13 1234 14 1851 15 2776 16 4164 17 6246 18 9369 19 14053 20 21079 21 31618 22 32768 23 32768 24 32768 25 32768 .. ..... 98 32768 99 0 ---------------- As you can see, it always takes 32,768 experience points to reach the next level after level 21. So if your game is long, then you should probably give no more than 1000 experience points to any enemy, except bosses. Unless you want (or need) your characters to level up rapidly, 500 is about the max experience points any normal monster should possess. -=Credits, Thanks, and Legal Information=- This document was created Solely by me, DarkLaguna. You can Email me if you have questions about this FAQ, or you would like to contribute information. Your help will be recognized. I received help and would like to thank the following people: Thanks first to God, without which nothing would be possible. Thanks to ASCII and Agetek for creating such a great game, and for actually getting it sent over here to the US. Special thanks to worf22, who brought to my attention that such a FAQ was needed, and for help with the experience chart. This Document is copyrighted under US and international laws by the author, DarkLaguna. It is intended for private use only. Any attempt to alter this document and claim it as your own work is in violation of the law. violators will be persecuted. This FAQ can be found at the following locations: GameFAQ's: http://www.gamefaqs.com RPG Maker Pavilion: http://www10.ewebcity.com/rpgmaker/index.html Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com Game Advice: http://www.gameadvice.com If you found this at any other location, notify me at darklaguna@yahoo.com. Copyright 2000 by Ron S. Patterson Jr.