The Shining Source

I'm trying to decide if I want to change the way experience is handed out in my project, compared to original Shining Force games. Perhaps characters should all get some experience just for being out on the battlefield with a winning team? Should they also get experience for being attacked? I think experience is experience, even if it's the experiences of getting your butt kicked by some giant rat. I think healers should get more experience, without having to kill creatures. Maybe healers get more experience when they choose to heal the 'most appropriate' person to heal. Such as a character that is already hurt and is next to be attacked.

Also, what about characters that don't enter battle? Should there be a way for them to gain experiences so they don't fall behind as much? It would make it easier to start using a character that you didn't use for the last five battles. That could add a different take on the game, where you could have to choose the right team on a battle by battle basis. One way to do this might be by  having a 'training room' at the headquarters  where you could choose to let some unused characters earn experience, at the cost of gold. What I don't like about this though is using all characters during one play-through of the game. Having characters you don't use gives you a reason to play the game again, with a different team.

What about 'power-leveling'? Should it be allowed? It's a good way to build up the characters you like, but also it does make the game pretty easy. What if retreating meant losing the experience you gained in that battle?

So if you could change the way experience points were handed out in a Shining Force game, how would you do it?

I agree with you in what concerns the healers, and i like the idea of giving the whole group some experience for winning a battle (compensation for group effort).

Perhaps you could award things based on wether or not they entered combat..whether or not they did play a crucial role..ect

For instance a base level of experience awarded to everyone, then compounded further by those stipulations. If they did get into combat they get a bonus because those that didnt were observing the situation, it would give experience sure but there's watching and then there's actually doing it yourself. Perhaps award experience to those who endured damage?
In fact if you wanted to get creative you could change the experience system entirely and produce a 'stat building' system..strength when you hit things (a progress bar of sorts next to the stats?) fortitude when you get hit by things (or perhaps natural defense..whatever works best).

Sorry that idea popped in out of nowhere hahaha. If you do change things in such a way and take out the experience gained when actually defeating an opponent then it'd be harder for your players to 'build up' as they say. But im sure these are things every developer needs to consider

ive just been rambling really..heh..hope any of this spurrs useful ideas!

i don't like the idea of losing xp when you retreat/egress, as when you think about it if an army charges into battle.. works their bollocks off and then ends up being routed and retreating they are still recieving battle experience no? altough i do simpathize with you on the power leveeling issue.. a way of fixing this maybe (i don't know if it is possible) but to reduce the amount of exp. gained when a smilar monster is killed.. e.g if a 'huge rat' is killed give say.. 48xp, but then if a 'huge rat' is killed again reduce xp gain slightly.. to say 40xp and so on.. therefore not allowing people to power level on the same battles.. i like the idea of xp for entering the field.. maybe a base xp for entering battle.. to all members who started .. a bonus to those who survived.. and then a further bonus to those who initated attacks or where attacked the most (most times they appeared in a combat situation) however, i would only give theese out if a battle is succesfully completed rather than retreated from, obviously 

maybe base healers xp on amount of hp healed (in percentage) e.g if a healer healed 65% of someones hp.. earn more than when healing 10%.. also maybe get bonuses for healing higher level allies  (as a medic would gain more experience on the battlfield when healing a heavily wounded commander than a squire with a bruise on his knee)

i like the idea of the training side of things.. and maybe you should pay for people to enter training, and then whenever a battle is completed, any member of the team who is currently in the 'barracks' or wherever and is training, should get a half bonus of however much is given out as the normal bonus after completing the said battle on the real battlfield.. to keep them slightly under par compared to your main team.. meaning they can be used if necessary, without falling disastorously behind.. giving you more of a reason to actualy use them.

sorry for rambling.. i just like to try and help