Balancing a Game (part 2)

One of the most challenging aspects of designing Solar Echoes was our deviation from traditional damage systems. In other RPG's, characters and enemies have large amounts of “hit points,” basically, the amount of damage a character can sustain before reaching the “death” stage. One of the core concepts I insisted on when we began designing Solar Echoes was that we needed to have very low numbers of hit-points, and that being damaged needed to be reflected in character performance. I always disliked, in other games, that my character could have 200 hit-points, suffer massive damage, but still be functioning without penalty with only 1 hit point left. Another thing I disliked was that some players would walk their characters out into the middle of a fight and “soak up damage” from enemies. This kind of behavior discouraged team-play, because players weren't worried about their characters sustaining damage. So, in Solar Echoes, wound penalties were attached to damage. The first damage sustained (Lightly Wounded) incurs no penalty, but once your character has been Moderately Wounded, he will carry a -1 penalty to all skills and movement. When Seriously Wounded, -2, and at Critically Wounded, -3 (after that, the character is in the Unconscious/Dying state.) This system made a lot of sense, and it definitely encouraged team-play (you and your allies are less effective if damaged, so everyone works at protecting each-other to survive.) There have been some difficulties with the system, however...