I’m an expert in game design and economy design (+10 yr experience professionally).
You do this so that health doesn’t feel rare. The same thing with ammo. If you don’t drop ammo for weapons, even when the player is full, the player may believe ammo is rare, hoard it, and not shoot. So if you want to incent players taking risks, you drop health and ammo, even at full, so the player feels they can experiment.
This was noted in the GDC talk for Ghost of Tsushima: they do step on the drop rates when you’re low to give more than usual, but they don’t do the reverse (e.g. give you none at full) because they found, in play testing, players hoarding ghost tools (and therefore didn’t use them) unless the player believed a bunch was available.
40Get out of my head, Charles!
But seriously that is cool. Great way to signal that you could be more reckless if you wanted to the player
8I've been trying to find a link to this talk, is it in the bigger talk about balancing combat and the lethality of things? It sounds very interesting!
4https://youtu.be/1ih5BxnJu2I?si=CPfQdtit5aVVBDOR
Around 20 mins, near ghost tools.
Yes. There’s this talk and another on melee balancing and Hp inflation specifically. Both are really great talks.
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When you accidentally touch a full HP pickup when you have 99 health
12Scout, we already know it was on purpose.
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I hate consumables and temporary buffs which is why I do so bad at elden ring.
12I have no problem with consumables for health and magic but temp buffs aren't my thing. I'll never finish that game.
10Seriously, I go in to a boss fight and spend minutes hacking and dodging with basic attacks and combos, then watch GDQ and they use a couple items and then cream the boss in two combos...
That game is not hard at all, just insanely punishing for little mistakes. Mistakes like... not using consumable buffs...
I despise games made to be frustrating for all except the intended play style. Dark Souls games are at the top of the list for games that aren't simply misbalanced, but designed by cruel idiots.
6I mean I still get through (granted I tend to have to overlevel) and sometimes I break down and use a different play style.
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Also you can somehow carry 15 different weapons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition plus grenades, a knife, a flashlight, and even a BAZOOKA...but not extra health packs.
5How it feels playing through dead cells
4When Mario Kart item boxes only give coins when you are already at 10
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