[Discussion] Balancing a game with multiple regions in it

hey there i started with my own game 2 days ago. as i am pretty new to game maker xp and pokemon essentials i still have some open questions i need to have answers for to see my possibilities for my idea.

first of all - without telling too much about the big idea - i thought about having more than one region in my game.
as we all look back to g/s/c it was pretty cool to have the second region after completing the league but as you got pokemon at level 60 or higher up to then you just went through it like a berserker
and the second region was only a xp grind method to be ready for mount silver (is it called like that in english?)

so i thought about a proper balancing for this.

one way would be to set the max level to like (exaggerated) 1000 so you could start having trainers with lvl 101 pokemon in region 2 which would be much more challenging (well i would play gold again and see what level i would get until the end of the first league)
it was possible to reach level 142 in red and blue with the missingno glitch so the number as such should generally be possible its just the 100 cap value that would need a change right?
dont know if i would need to adjust the main stats sheet up to 200 in that case.

second idea i had was setting down the xp you get so that you would end up at max level 50 for the first league and 100 at the second league in this example. dont know if that could e realised with setting the xp per encounter or elsewhere. but under the line it would be pretty boring i guess as the leveling progress is pretty slow.

third idea i had was to have like a new game plus method. what if you get a starter of the new region and start all over with it and you have to leave the others like ash did when he went to a new region in the anime... this would be pretty frustrating though as i can imagine that starting all over again would be the same as putting red away and plug in gold and start a new game on it...

it would be very nice though if it would be possible to go with method 1 though. amount of work does not matter if i get every information what to change that it runs properly.

greetings

Jirachi93

I think your first idea works best. Although the levels do become somewhat meaningless since no new moves can be learned, the challenge remains.
The second option is indeed a little bit frustrating. It will take a long time to level up and you really want to the player to be rewarded pretty often (by reaching a new level). This option makes it feel more like a grindfest in an MMO.
The third option as you suggested it is also annoying if you are forcing the player to forfeit their to advance in the game. If you don't mind the lack of elegance, setting the Pokemon's levels back to 1 could also work. They will keep their moves and evolutions, so it's not a complete loss.
I don't know if the level cap is ingrained very deep in the coding, but if you can change the max level value to 200, I would say that's a good start.

I talked about this in an older thread. I generally prefer to cut the exp gain by half, but make everthing level-cost times ten also works:

FL said:

RaulCortez said:

Thing is, in the case of Pokémon, we're not talking just about moves. We're talking about visuals, the Pokémon themselves.

Let's say i like Tyranitar. I know to get Tyranitar you need to evolve your Larvitar(lvl.30), and then your Pupitar(lvl.55). But you don't like those two, I like Tyranitar. It's badass and I like it. Simple as that. I don't think the average person would wait all you're supposed to wait for them to get all the experience to evolve TWO times before you get the Pokémon you want. Imagine an Arion or even worse, a Deino case.

I agree that the plot is pivotal for a story. And for someone who's NEVER, EVER played a Pokémon game before it would be Ok, since they had no idea how quickly Pokémon gain levels or experience on official games. But to anyone who's played Pokémon before would be thinking why on earth is it taking them so much to make their Pokémon to gain levels for any reason. And why compare them with official games? It's the canon. You're making a fan game using characters out from a franchise, not a completely new game with new monsters. It's obvious people will compare because they're expecting new experiences while keeping the main foundations of that franchise.

Now, this is my personal opinion and view on this based on what i like and enjoy about Pokémon games. Everyone is free to add whatever they like to their games. :)

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In my game I made a item to make some pokémon like Deino evolve earlier.

Putting EXP gain by half isn't too noticeable like in theory and isn't too hard to accustom. You can also make several things to fix this problem like (only a example) multiplies all levels and gains (with a little fix on exp formula and other things) by ten, so Dragonair evolve in level 550 XD.

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