Name one good reason why recovery items should be point based and not percentage based

because it allows the designers to target specific usecases

% is soulless
hp is soul

It's easier to conceive points in your head instead of percentage

Percentage will likely throw off balance. Points are always consistent.

If percentage base works off some dumb logic like "only restores 30 percent of empty health", it may be impossible to reach full health even with stacking

Why not both like Diablo 2 ?

Because the player's hit point percentage stays the same, but their hit point total doesn't. It wouldn't make sense for the item potency to change with the character.
The proper way would be to make it percentage based with a point-based hard cap.

I literally talked about CDs within that post. They are a crutch more often than not for bad design, and imo are kind of stupid. I'd prefer a resource management solution, like Dark Souls, as opposed to a CD solution.

Percentage-based but refill at every savepoint.

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If the game is balanced, then the amount of HP you have shouldn't be enough to rip through the game.

Not bad, I almost want to agree with you here. But the flaw in that thinking is that you're suggesting a character reliant on consumables isn't a valid playstyle. When it should be. If someone wants to stock up on a ton of potions to make it through the game, then why not? I get that it can be abused, but that can be fixed by limiting the amount of potions a person is allowed to carry. Or making potion prohibitively expensive. Or forcing the player to invest time and effort crafting potions, so they have to debate if they're willing to invest the energy versus just getting on with the game.

>The proper
no man
each version has its own specific application. This is like saying "the proper way to paint is to use a camel-hair brush"
it's an unnecessary limit.

Of course not, but almost all games with HP mechanics use that as your main threat of defeat, so If you can heal large chunks of HP to buy time, or large chunks of Mana to throw more spells, you are going to win the encounter. Also using items isn't inherently an issue, but as opposed to scaling potions, buying more potent ones makes more sense both logically and mechanically.

Why not implement a haggle economy then? The potion dealer hikes the price up to what he thinks you'd be willing to pay.

The real redpill is that health should regenerate to full between encounters so you only need potions in combat itself

Depends on the game's balancing. Not sure what point you're trying to make.

>short rest mentality
Casual

What? Of course percentage will be based on percentage of max HP. And it's very easy to conceive of 30%. Just imagine a bar. And then imagine it 3/10ths full. If you can't do that, then you may be mentally deficient.

Sure, that's a reasonable solution, but it would be infinitely easier to just sell higher level potions as opposed to creating an entire algorithm for potions, and even that system could get to the point where buying a potion is feasibly impossible because you've been relying on them so much. In my mind that's fine, but clearly OP is going about it with the idea that is should be viable to play the game spamming items.

Estus isn't percentage based. But ok.

>short rest
Don't even try to argue with me about that shitty Vancian magic system
>omg muh I can only cast 30 low level spells and 6 high level spells before I need to use a tent

To allow for upgrades and progression in strength and price. Or should they cost percentage of gold too?

Have both in the game but one is more scarce than the other

But that's wrong you fucking retard.

Best is percentage with a point cap, ensuring you need to use higher level potions as you progress. Stops low levels from using them as a crutch for full heals and stops high levels from just buying a thousand level 1 pots because there’s a cap on points healed.

There are infinitely many systems you can think of that would introduce gameplay that might be more or less enjoyable.
But that's a reason for having static amount potions. You can off course simply have the potions get more expensive as you get further through the game too. A thing you should not forget however, that going from small numbers when you start and then slowly growing into big numbers is a way to represent growth and it's certainly very effective for many people.

>so If you can heal large chunks of HP to buy time, or large chunks of Mana to throw more spells, you are going to win the encounter.
As things should be. That's the point of potions. Inflating the usefulness of potion over the course of the game isn't accomplishing anything except making numbers go up.
Your HP goes up, so potions potency goes up to match it. It's the same as the percentage system, except dishonest.

Having things be percentage based is just a crux used by developers so they can do less work when designing video games which in turns makes the video game slightly worse overall.

Numbers going up is a very important mechanic though.

Yes, but if the price doesn't go up then the item is inherently overpowered because you are losing very little to gain it at that point. At a low level, the lower of the potion is offset by the cost, at higher levels, that 5g might mean very little.
Having a higher potency potion costing 50g makes more sense, and it encourages the character to rely on their own ability. If you want the ability to rely on potions, then frankly an alchemist mechanic should be introduced rather than cheap scaling potions.

doesnt matter because ill just forget they exist and grind the game so hard that i can brute force everything in the way

You mostly use pots in the early game to compensate from your lack of skills and knowledge of the game, as well as proper equipment.

After that, % atk and def are usually the consumable you pick in the late game because you already invested enough time on your equipment, and you know most of the patterns of the monsters as well as how to avoid / block attacks efficiently.

% recovery items are only good in late game and useless early on, but you need recovery early on, and stat boosts later instead.

>but clearly OP is going about it with the idea that is should be viable to play the game spamming items.
I'm the OP and the guy who suggested a haggle economy. I'm not saying you should *necessarily* be able to spam potions. It would depend on the game's system. I'm proposing a variety of solutions that render point based HP moot no matter the system.

Now with a haggle economy, that would ensure that the average amount of potions a person is willing to buy remains consistent throughout the game.
And it's easy to implement, because it's simple arithmetic. Say a potion sells for 5 gold every 100 gold you carry. I'm no programmer, but I'm guessing they can implement that math with like 1-5 lines of code? How hard can it be?

It will save time creating art assets for all the various potions you would have to make in a point based system. As well as it would make for fewer objects to manage for coders/designers. And then all you have to do is write a line for dialogue for the NPC that says something like "hmmm, by the look at you, I'd say it cost this much". Which could mean anything really. Maybe they think you look poor, maybe they think you look rich. If you wanted to get fancy and have NPCs make specific references to what the player is wearing/holding, then that would be cool, but unnecessary.

But even then I could carry 10 potions at a time and spend little to no money comparable to the benefit.
A better solution would be to charge based on how many potions you've bought throughout the game so far, a supply and demand type thing. But frankly, that seems to be adding a lot of depth for little pay off. I don't understand your issue with more potent potions, which would essentially work the same way at that point.