Forums → Games → Easily Memorizable Parameters for Game Characters&Units

Hi,

This is the least important (useful) of my ideas posted here so far. But I will post it, because I will use it in several later concepts, so I will then reference here - it should be explained clearly on one place.

I think that many game authors flood the players with many numbers, although there is an easy way to prevent it.

I think that a typical player does not have time or will to memorize many tens pieces of information (HP: wizard 50, hunter 90, warrior 110, knight 120; cost = 190, 160, 130, 170; attack cooldown = 1.8, 0.9, 1.2, 1.4 seconds; attack strength = ... etc. etc. etc.)

Solution

1. I think that the player should be told attack strength per second (rather than per one attack), because otherwise it is not easy to compare two units, if one of them has higher attack but fewer attacks per minute.

2. And more importantly, in some kinds of games (particularly a RPG with diverse enemies or strategy with many unit types), it would be nice to use a very regular sequence, for example:

10^(n/2) gives (after rounding) sequence: 1, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300, 1000, 3000 etc.

10^(n/3) gives: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000...

10^(n/6) gives: 1, 1.5, 2, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 70, 100, 150, 200...

Each of these sequences is very easy to remember. So I propose that the author chooses one of them (the coarsest that is still fine enough to serve him) and makes a firm decision that all attributes of his and enemy units/heroes will be in this sequence (except attributes where it would be very hard to keep this - such as "% shield protection" ).

Assume that (s)he chooses the last sequence: Then there will be no more "wizard HP: 110, hunter HP: 130, warrior HP 190", but it will be 100, 150, 200. It will be much easier for the player to remember important facts about heroes and all enemies (in games like Asgard Attack, Royal Offense etc.)

Handling Multiplicative Bonuses

This system is absolutely unusable for values like "remaining hit points", because they can easily drop to other values than the allowed ones. And it's unusable if various effect combine additively rather than multiplicatively (that means: if strength 40 increased by +50% for good weapon and +100% by a spell becomes 40 + 20 + 40 = 100 rather than 40 * 1.5 * 2 = 120).

If effects are multiplicative, then one good option is to accept that new values will not fit into the "allowed" set of values. But there is also another way:

Assume that there are spells and effect that change speed and firepower. Then "+50%" will be a readable shortcut for "increasing the value by one step"; such effect turns 100 into 150, 150 into 200 etc. Similarly, increasing by 2, 3, 4 steps will be readably called "+100%, +200%, +400%". Decreasing by 1,2,3 steps in this sequence will be called "-30%", "-50%", "-70%".

This readable shortcut is mathematically very close to the actual values, with one exception: firepower 20 with bonus "+100%" will become 50.

These inaccurancies happen because 10^(1/6) is only roughly 1.5. The proposed mechanics yields 2*2=5 because actually 2.15 * 2.15 = 4.64. If we round 4.64 to 4.5 rather than 4.6, the inaccurancy will happen elsewhere and will be less striking.

I hesitate how to solve this problem - it must look silly to players that 20 + 100% = 50 rather than 40. Possible solutions:

• Explain this rounding somehow to the players.
• Round the values to two digits rather than one ( 10^4/6 will be rounded to 4.6 rather than 5 ).

I prefer the later. Then:

• Allowed values will be 1, 1.5, 2.2, 3, 4.6, 6.8, 10, 15, 22, 30, 46, 68, 100, 150, 220...
• Allowed bonuses will be +50% (=1.5 - 1), +120% (=2.2 - 1), +200%, +360% (=4.6 - 1) etc.

Levelling

Each hero's levelling up would then increase his attributes exponentially by a given number of "+50%" steps; for example HP would be increased +50% at even levels and attack strength at odd levels.

Reflame

PS: My posts so far:
Games should have unlimited difficulty and well-designed background story; serves can have attractive "Try also this" section.
Useful mechanisms: teaming units for easier micromanagement.
Suggestion for new games: Warcraft-KingdomRush hybrid, MMOG based on beauty assessed by other players.
And last but not least:Are there any 2player strategy (4X) browser games? If not, why?

These ideas aim for game creators, but I got no answer to any post at ArmorGames forum. If you can give me a tip where (in what forum or company) these ideas would be welcome, please write to me: pjel()centrum.cz . Thanks :-)