There doesn't seem to be a thread for this yet.
TumbleSeed is a deceptively deep roguelike about balancing a seed up a dangerous and ever-changing mountain. · By
The gem economy seems really stingy and weirdly prescriptive. (this is going to wander a bit into combat mechanics too, but I'm not sure how to separate those cleanly)
There are very few ways to kill things in the game, and they all use seed-plots. Seed plots are a very limited commodity, with only a set number in the level (and only digseed or... plant? being able to increase those, but those are both expensive and/or rare). So having monsters usually drop only as many gems as they have hit points feels really weird. It means it seems like the optimum play is to avoid, so that you don't waste precious gems on killing things you don't have to. Sure, sometimes they drop more, but then you can end up in situations where you can't progress because you don't have any plots to plant things you need to get past areas, and all you got was the same number of gems for a game ending conundrum.
And why do monsters who are spawned from spawners (like the purple moths that-should-actually-be-pink or the flies from the towers) not ever give gems? That seems really stingy. I'm not sure, but the only way to grind monsters for gems without spending gems seems to be poison seed. I haven't found an other way, maybe vert lasers (because they cost zero gems)? This seems strangely prescriptive, if someone wants to try and grind a spawner for gems, shouldn't you let them? Maybe make a max number of mobs a spawner can spawn?
So having monsters usually drop only as many gems as they have hit points feels really weird. It means it seems like the optimum play is to avoid, so that you don't waste precious gems on killing things you don't have to.
Yeah, right monsters drop as many gems as they have hitpoints, with a 33% chance to drop more (1 health extra is 3, 2 health extra is 3, 3 health extra is 5). Crystal seed drops 2-4 minerals, so an average of 3. So using crystal seed, 3 plots = 3 crystals on average. Using only thorns on one-hit enemies this works out to ~the same mineral result but with much higher risk (3 plots for 3 thorns for 3 1-hit enemies = a 2 mineral gain on average).
I think the main idea behind this approach right now is that it puts much more value on non-default seed types. For a long time thorns were way too powerful, so, a lot of the economy right now is built to counterbalance that. Being able to use seed types that let you kill multiple enemies from one plot become extremely valuable in the economy. The seed types that enable you to do this are thwomp, star power, poison, maneater, avalanche, laser seed, shotgun, pistol, projectile thorns, radius teleport, bomb, homing shot, quad laser, swing mace, red hot rock, mine layer, boomerang (18/30 of the non-default seed types).
Maybe make a max number of mobs a spawner can spawn?
This might be a more elegant solution to this problem. Spawners are relatively new to the game and so we just defaulted to the thing that made it seem like it'd break the game's economy the least.
(18/30 of the non-default seed types).
Most of those are stationary or start from the seed plot planted at. One of the biggest benefits of thorns is you take them with you and use them when the opportunity arises without having to use valuable seed plots near the problem (that you might need for something context specific). Only red hot rock seems to accompany you and last (the mace seems to disappear almost immediately, is that a bug?) and poison (but poison is super hard mode). All the rest are used from the location and are often really dangerous (I'm looking at you thwomp).
How I see getting gems from killing mobs is; Personally, I feel like it is already quite easy to boost your economy and get gems/crystals.
I expected killing mobs to give 0 and that would be extremely balanced.
Then I found out that mobs give gems when you kill them and I thought; Well that's a bit broken.
Then, I found out that they have a chance to give extra gems/crystals and I thought; Well that can be abused.
Then, I got 5 golden gems in a row. (Worth 5 gems) and I thought; That was easy.
Also, I've found there are to many seed plots. Something that I think there needs to be more of are challenge rooms.