To do it from begining or not?

[Sim]

I just started a new project and I want to add alignments and elements to the character system. It is not really mandatory, but would be a nice addition to the battle system. Would you add it from the begining or just add it once everything is complete?

[Nox]

I'm not sure if we can give any advise with such a little info - you know your code and design best.

In general - there is no need for incorporating everything at once, actually the attempt can be detrimental (again "ceramics class story").

It is actually similar to the infamous waterfall model vs the better ones. Do it iteratively - make a simple version, see how it's good, improve it, then go to add mechanics, repeat. The addition shouldn't be too difficult, ideally the code should be open for expansion...

[Mutant]

Agree 100% with the iterative approach. Although it's hard to do (especially early on), try to make it so that you could stop working on the game at any point, and it would still seem "finished" to people. If for no other reason than development will probably take you 10 times longer than you think, so if you limit what you're working on, you have a chance of getting it done sometime this decade.