[MUD-Dev] RE: More randomness in games

[David Kennerly]

Alex Chacha wrote:

> There are many ways to improve this; one you have mentioned is to
> use a replacement RNG which is akin to a deck of cards.  Another
> is to use a history buffer and use feedback to alter the RNG
> (random number generator) results, while this is in essence
> skewing the game a bit, I have always felt it is more important to
> have the players feed good about what they are doing (even if
> barely significant) rather than the adhere to strict randomness of
> some fixed distribution (it is also much harder to model an RNG
> which is part of a feedback loop and constantly adjusting its own
> distribution).

One simple method is to set a threshold of the maximum tolerance for
consecutive misses, f.  For space complexity, all that is required
is f bits to count f consecutive failures.  Once f consecutive
failures occur, then return a success and reset the f counter to
zero.

This does alter the distribution, but it's not hard to calculate its
effect.  Given a probabilty of success, p, and an expected value of
success, E(S), the expected value of an attack in a round of combat,
E(A), can be approximated as:

    E(A) ~= (p + (1 - p)^f) * E(S) + (1 - p - (1 - p)^f) * E(F);

This is not a precise formula, but it is a reasonable approximation
unless f is small.  As for bias, if f were, say, 10, then you can
see that the overall change to the expected value (on a player with
a 50% miss chance) is only about 0.2%.

> Considering some of the recent games, there have been a few which
> tried to reduce frustration in players.  City of heroes actually
> has fractional damage and until the purple patch it gave even the
> lower level players a sense of contributing to the fight (when
> they were not side-kicked), sure they barely did any damage but
> seeing 1s above the enemy's head is a lot more acceptable to
> players than a constant "miss" which deep down inside makes them
> feel useless and prone to give up on the game (I won't go into the
> psychology of gamers this is a whole new thread).

As a sample of one, I concur.  I am more gratified to witness an Ice
Storm land piddling "-1"s against a single target than to see one
Bitter Ice Blast hit for "-100"s and another Bitter Ice Blast
"MISS".

Of course, a game designer shouldn't go overboard.  It wouldn't be
as fun if attacks never missed, or even only rarely missed, because
then the minimal damage would become, in the mind of the long-term
player, the equivalent of failure.  The risk of bitter failure gives
success its sweet flavor.

David
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