Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
of that factor in the formula as the time decreased. To do this, we could pass
TimeToKill
through a function that converts it from linear to exponential, for
example.
Notice that this is different from simply changing the
weight
of the factor com-
pared to
other
factors. This is utilizing a response curve to change the weight of the
factor compared to
itself
over other ranges. For instance, we may not care so much
if the target has 100% health or 90% health. That 10% difference doesn't mean
much to us. We may be slightly more interested as the health drops to 80%. If the
target's health is only 20%, however, we become
very
interested in trying to finish
this Dude off—and need to increase the utility of this factor accordingly. Inflicting
that last 20% of damage to the Dude is far more important to us than doing the first
20%.
Just Gimme a Minute, Boss!
Changing genres to something more constructive, we can use the concepts of mar-
ginal utility once again with regard to completion of buildings in a strategy game.
If our game involves the allocation of time, labor, and resources to construct a
building, we may want to continually check to see if there is something more
important that the units should be building or doing. There would definitely be cir-
cumstances that would warrant a worker putting down his hammer for a moment
to take up another task. (Being
attacked
comes to mind as something that Mr.
Carpenter would find mildly distracting.) We may even decide that, despite our
partially finished building, our labor or money needs to be diverted to a more
important building. However, it would be tragic (and our players would view it as
ridiculous) if our workers were to abandon a 99% completed building to start a
new one elsewhere. Even if the new building is important, is it so urgent that our
laborers couldn't simply finish the one they were working on first?
The incorporation of
increasing
marginal utility as we near completion artifi-
cially biases the importance of each successive hammer swing. As the building nears
completion, we generate sufficient decision momentum to cause the workers to be
more interested in completing their current task than shuffling off to a new one.
As has been something of a mantra throughout this vast tome, there is no “right
answer.� What we have discussed above is a handful of considerations, caveats, and
strategies. “Ways to think� is probably more accurate. There are a few things to
remember.
