What Makes A Good Stat System? - Sol Devlog

[@MeowMeowRanger]

Points are all very solid. Your video deserve more views.

[@Beets_Creations]

@@MeowMeowRanger thank you I really appreciate you saying that!

[@emma_tm]

ohhhh my god it's been so long since i watched urealms

[@Beets_Creations]

Haha I know right! what a classic

[@Gnomable]

Fantastic video! What a great dive into different stat systems! I've never been a huge fan of stats because I always enjoy additional actions over "number go up". They do give a good sense of progress though and are easier to modify than bespoke actions.

[@Beets_Creations]

Thank you so much! I totally agree! There can be so many more interesting ways to improve a character then just a stat increase.

[@ayvesstarforge]

Really Cool Video 🎉 I'm Sad Devlog Arent As Popular As In Their Prime 😢 Amazing Video What So Ever. 😀

[@Beets_Creations]

Thank you!! I'm pretty new to the devlog scene so I wasn't really aware they were on a decline. Working on a table top rpg I'm hoping to have a broader appeal to the growing trrpg market and also be able to focus more on the philosophy side and not get bogged down by programming. Although I may make my own platform for the game but that is a ways off haha. Thanks again!

[@KillAllCommies2]

I really liked Ragnarok Online because attributes could be used by most classes in some way. I made a crusader with high INT only so he could spam his skills a lot.

[@Beets_Creations]

Nice! Yeah it just makes sense for all classes to utilize skills otherwise what's the point! Thanks for sharing!

[@thedeadcomedian8948]

nice editing, hope you ll blow up

[@thedeadcomedian8948]

in sub number XD

[@Beets_Creations]

Thank you so much! I hope I do as well 😂

[@bradleysapp]

Dope video!

[@Beets_Creations]

Thanks man! Really appreciate it!

[@michaelrodriguez9204]

Nice vid!!

[@Beets_Creations]

Thank you! Glad you liked it!

[@captcronch]

this is called orthogonal game design btw!!!

[@Beets_Creations]

Great to finally put a term to the concept! thank you for sharing!!

[@captcronch]

@Beets_Creations yeah I'm pretty sure it was invented by the DOOM devs or something? But yeah all it means is that the elements of the game multiply the game's space rather than adding to it

[@Beets_Creations]

@@captcronch Yeah thats really cool just watched a few videos about it. I definitely reference the concept a lot in design but never knew it had an official term!

[@yurisei6732]

People always talk about this idea that all stats should be useful to all characters, but have you really never enjoyed dumping a stat? Wizards are more fun to play when they leave strength or the equivalent thereof at 1, and therefore a game that includes wizards needs to seriously consider making strength a dumpable stat for them. Stat inequality is really good for encoding tropes into a game. If Strength has no effect on spellcasting and no or minimal effect on defenses, then almost all Wizard characters get built as scrawny brains-over-brawn people, which makes them feel more like wizards, and creates space for "Wizard who spends two hours in the gym every day" to be an interesting character angle where the player gets to find their own opportunities to use their strength, instead of the value of strength just being handed to them on an optimised platter. Stat redundancy achieves the same thing in less flexible games - even if the end result is "+1 damage when you click LMB", it feels better if the mechanic that gives that to a Barbarian is called Strength while the mechanic that gives it to a Rogue is called Dexterity.

[@Beets_Creations]

You bring up a good point, and I can definitely agree with that! Though It all really depends on the game as a whole and its intention inside the game. I personally feel like if the player has an option to choose their stats it should be a meaningful choice. Dumping all your stats into Intelligence just because it's the only good stat for your class feels like a lazy game design to me. Whereas choosing to max one stat over another becoming highly specialized but at some sort of detriment to yourself feels more interesting. Otherwise, the game might as well determine your stats for you. Thanks for your perspective on the matter!

[@yurisei6732]

@@Beets_Creations The thing is, this is a) not a binary problem, and b) not just about optimal choices. For a, it's very rare that a game has just two or three stats and that those stats do the same thing. Sure in diablo strength vs intelligence vs dexterity has almost no space for choice, but more often what games have is separate stats serving separate functions. In most D&D spin-offs for example, a Wizard doesn't get to make a meaningful mechanical choice between Strength and Intelligence, but still has the opportunity to choose between increasing Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, or Wisdom, each of which serves different partially-overlapping purposes. There's space for dumpable stats and meaningful choice to co-exist. For b, a part of RPGs that game designers often fail to pay enough attention to is self-expression. Just the desire to play a wizard who is beefy can turn Strength vs Intelligence into a meaningful choice for the player, and part of a designer's goal when making a stat system in which stats represent character theme should be to create opportunities for that beefy wizard player to feel beefy, even when beefiness is mechanically a bad choice - for example, you could let that wizard wield a big hammer, which the beefy wizard player will enjoy doing more than hurling spells, even though the spells would do more damage if Strength points were swapped for Int points.