[Game Idea] Ideas that build a difficult game

[Leelue]

So I've been popping in and out of this forum, posting one-off questions to lay the groundwork for my first game.
(obligatory shout out to how useful a resource this place seems to be)

I just want to do a once over to make sure that my general direction is a viable one that people will enjoy.

Brief overview:
Not a Nuzlocke, but I do want it to be a serious hindrance if your pokemon get knocked out. To accomplish this, I'm working with the premise that your character is operating outside the law, and thus pokemon centers and boxes won't heal your team. I am implementing a box system that the player can use to store pokemon, in case you revive them later (or to save them from overworld poison damage).

I have also selected wild pokemon that lean in a defensive direction, prioritizing moves that heal either HP or status, as well as suddenly useful abilities like pickup.

Resource management is going to be key

All these things together should make for a different kind of experience.
/overview

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My reach goal is to try and implement consequences for your mistakes. So If you make a dumb decision and fight someone that you shouldn't have... well... sad day for you.

So with that in mind, my questions to the community are:
*How much of an issue should PP be? Are PP problems always unfun? Should I distribute Ethers as if people will choose the same high-level moves as they would in other games (flamethrower), or should I give people incentive to keep some more of the weaker moves with high PP (ember)? I'm very strongly leaning toward the latter, since that's a brand new kind of experience for most people. Also, people could tackle this issue by keeping a team of more than 6 pokemon to spread the PP usage out. That works for me too.
*How should I handle a total party wipe? In a nuzlocke game, I guess the player can just go back to the last save? Well, that's not a consequence for failure, which means I may want something more drastic...
*... and If I want to do something drastic, I need to penalize people for constantly resetting. I think I have worked out a way for the game to do that, by having the game deduct some money from the player if they restart without having beaten a trainer since the last time the game was saved. Is this a reasonable way to enforce a penalty?

Thanks

 

[LostOne369]

The no Pokecenter rule will make things challenging. I believe a "running from battle" rule could increase difficulty even further if you wish. I believe if you take the second approach, you probably find that the parties will come with a mix bag of attacks. I imagine they will have 1 attack with high PP like tackle to dispose of the trash leveled pokemon that seek to drain their stamina, then 1-2 moves for wiping strong threats and the rest being filled with team synergy based moves.

Moving onto penalties; I have to point out: you don't have the right consequence of losing a nuzlocke. It's not that you return to a previous save, it is that you delete your savefile on full wipe. This means no matter how much time or how many pokemon you have in your box, it will ALL vanish. I must warn you, you will need a great hook in order for your game to thrive if you push the penalties to failing to nuzlocke's level.

Because of the above stated, I believe your games viability will hinge on your story as you will require the hook to keep people trying.

 

[komaoto]

https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/419829
There is already a discussion about reseting penalty and how to handle it here ^

How much of an issue should PP be?

It's not much of a problem to handle PP in the main games. Having a variety of pokémon ready for each trainer you face, most of the time will give you enough PP until you reach the next pokémon center.

If you decide to remove pokémon centers and boxes, then ethers would be a good idea if you want the player to manage item resources.

 

[Leelue]

@Lostone369
I think you're right on all accounts.
I was considering trying to find a way for people to run from some trainer battles, but then I realized that I left something out of my summary to save space.

Because you're not a "kid in the pokemon league", people aren't going to incessantly harass you for matches. Police will, and so will pokemon-league training kids, but a lot of battles are going to be optional in the first place.

Pushing to nuzlocke level penalties is not my intention thankfully. So hopefully it doesn't cross the frustration threshold too hard. I'll be careful.

 

[Leelue]

Hilariously, komaoto, that thread you linked was mine.

I received reasonable criticisms about the way I was spacing out the reset penalties, and have since realized that my problem is really just people resetting in front of the same encounter repeatedly.

Thinking about it more, I may want to have a couple more "choices" early on in the game. Maybe not something so big as to change the entire outcome of the story, but more along the lines of what fossils you pick, or a free choice of TM. This way, in the unfortunate event of running entirely out of resources and having to start over, you can at least try new things.