40 replies to this topic

[cosmofield]

You can use HPCs, but I would suggest adding them to the health bar immediately.

Its a stupid suggestion, I know, but I think that having HPCs increase your life instantly would be a more rewarding twist, even if you have 3 and a quarter heart containers, or whatever.

Not a bad idea, but my opinion is that there should be a difference, because before entering the next dungeon, a player could be more encouraged to look for just one more HCP if the HPC slot already is 75% full, this isn't the case if there's an instant reward that would make the "HCPs" be more like regular heart containers.

Generally I enjoy to look for all kinds of treasures even if their don't make a difference until collected a given sum of them.

[Sephiroth]

I wouldn't even be able to pull off adding the amount directly to your health meter, unless ZC supported heart fifths.

Yeah, my quest is going for 5 HPs per container, planning an enormous overworld.

[Alestance]

I wouldn't even be able to pull off adding the amount directly to your health meter, unless ZC supported heart fifths.

Yeah, my quest is going for 5 HPs per container, planning an enormous overworld.

ZC supports heart 16ths. But because of that, there's no way you can divide a HPC into 5 parts.

[cosmofield]

ZC supports heart 16ths. But because of that, there's no way you can divide a HPC into 5 parts.

Maybe I'm thinking of something else now, but latest ZC 2.5 supports 5ths.

[Radien]

Maybe I'm thinking of something else now, but latest ZC 2.5 supports 5ths.

Yes, it does.



...but ZC reads this as "wait until the player has collected 5 Heart Pieces, then increase the life meter by 16 HP." It is different from immediately increasing your life meter by 1/5th of a heart (which would be 1/5th of 16 HP... and that doesn't divide out evenly).

This is another reason why I think it's silly to have 5 Heart Pieces equal one Heart Container.

Side note: It might be possible to make each Heart Piece give +4 HP, then visually render 20 HP per heart in the life meter (thus, 5 HCPs per heart), but if it's possible, this would require some pretty hefty manipulation of life gauge pieces... and I'm not sure what the point would be. You could achieve the same effect by simply allowing the player to assemble a larger maximum-size life meter.

Naturally, one would adjust the damage values of enemies to reflect any of the above changes if they were used.

[Sephiroth]

Well, I would do that, Radien, but I already have my subscreen set up for a maximum of 20 hearts. (2 rows, 10 hearts per.)



Though that would be quite an algorithm change, wonder if it's possible.

[Radien]

Well, I would do that, Radien, but I already have my subscreen set up for a maximum of 20 hearts. (2 rows, 10 hearts per.)

Though that would be quite an algorithm change, wonder if it's possible.

Well, you'd have to recreate your life meter to attempt it, regardless...

But I guess whether it's possible would depend on whether the 20/24 heart rule applies to custom life gauges. Because you'd need to have the maximum HP go far beyond 24 hearts.


I wish I could suggest doing something similar to what Alundra did, but I'm somewhat sure it isn't possible right now:

Example

(The big red diamond is ten life, the small diamonds are one life apiece)

I'd suggest using a counter object which displays life as a number, but it's not currently one of the available counter options.

[Evile]

Someone once made a life counter out of life gauge pieces, apparently it worked pretty good but was a pain to set up because of having to stack tons of pieces on top of each other. Probably would be more trouble then it's worth.

[Radien]

Someone once made a life counter out of life gauge pieces, apparently it worked pretty good but was a pain to set up because of having to stack tons of pieces on top of each other. Probably would be more trouble then it's worth.

You mean a numeric life total, right?

Yeah, I considered bringing up that possibility, but like you, I figured that it would be way more trouble than it's worth just to get around the fact that a relatively simple feature hasn't been implemented.

I mean, who is going to be impressed by a numeric HP counter? No one, really (except maybe quest makers who know that ZC isn't designed for it). You'd only want a numeric HP counter for simplicity's sake (simplicity for the player, that is).

[Koh]

I would say one should use both in a quest, with quite the arrangement as to not make the gameplay too easy or too hard. Referencing recent games does this topic no justice, because they are so easy, a new Zelda player could beat them. Refering to the Oracles and before, however, is a great comparison ...that and the Oracles were my favorite.

Edited by Koh, 03 May 2010 - 03:59 AM.

[Radien]

I would say one should use both in a quest, with quite the arrangement as to not make the gameplay too easy or too hard.

I don't think it has to do with difficulty so much as "risk/reward." Or perhaps "time spent/reward."

Referencing recent games does this topic no justice, because they are so easy, a new Zelda player could beat them. Refering to the Oracles and before, however, is a great comparison ...that and the Oracles were my favorite.

I don't think comparing to recent games is necessarily useless. Just because a game is easier than you'd like doesn't mean it is unbalanced. For instance, Chrono Trigger. It's an easy game, but I LOVE playing it. It's just well-designed and enjoyable.

And even if the difficulty is messed up and too easy, you can still analyze it and determine where it went wrong.