Alright, so I have a bit of a dilemma.
With the current state of the level-up system, it's extremely difficult to really balance the mod out, mostly because of the RNG (which I planned to reduce a bit with the next update, especially on Redgon) and because of how different in terms of power the enemies are. Also, while I wanted to keep the world quite open at first, I found myself making it more and more compact with every release, reducing the amount of interesting locations and generally removing the purpose of visiting previously visited locations completely. So I decided to ask here (if anyone's concerned) and maybe gather some ideas.
My first idea was keeping the level-up system the same it is, but making the world more open. No more magical doors that open only once, more exploration, more locations you'd like to revisit, oh and sidequests. Basically the idea of what it was now, but with more side-quests and not only the main story. Not sure if that's what appeals to people but hey, you could still progress normally so I guess it wouldn't hurt.
The second idea... is no idea. It's just keeping it the way it is now. Focus on the main story, and making Redgon a beast. No further comments needed.
The third idea is removing the attack & defence completely and instead adding something a bit different. Maybe something like persuasion, or luck (random crits..?), or even dodge. Sounds like the latter would be kinda RNG based too, but not to the extent we have now. It would keep the RPG-ish feel and make the level-up system still relevant, but wouldn't affect the gameplay that much overall. Making the world open in addition to the change would make it EVEN more like an RPG, while keeping the skull slaying. I'm still thinking about the possibilities so-
And the last idea is changing the stats to something different, but keeping the focus on the main story and not really adding many side quests. It'd make it much easier to balance out for sure, but then again... what would I use the new stats for. It's still in the IDEAS subfolder of mine, so..
Anyway, yeh. I'd love some opinions and suggestions.
In the end, I just want to make it enjoyable (by not forgetting to use skipflags).
If you have a different idea to what I have up there, feel free to tell me...
Thanks.