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The fine line between a game and a simulation

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Sun, 11/03/2024 - 19:45
X3M
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This got me to thinking while tinkering with numbers.

When is a game, a game?
And when is a game more of a simulation?

What counts as a game?
And not just as a oversized "calculator" for an outcome?

I always knew that I needed to make sure that a die roll was short, fast, effective, and a gamble for the player.
But what about the long run?
How can we make sure that in the long run, the outcome is vague and unsure. Despite players applying strategy. Let's say, the Standard Deviation of the entire game. How "big", should it be?

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Mon, 11/04/2024 - 01:40
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questccg
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I'm not 100% sure...

But I am using the following "concept" in my Battle Card Game "Battle Botz".

questccg wrote:
Each Bot has a "Depth" of the Stack. The "Depth" is a value between 1 and 6 (or 1D6 if you prefer). Combined with this is "Focus" which determines the WEIGHT of an "Action". "Focus" is a value between 1 and 4 (or 1D4 if you prefer). Lastly we have "Energy" which is the total amount of energy available. "Energy" is a value between 1 and 8 (or 1D8).

I had to explain that in order to explain the DICE OUTCOMES.

So IF you have "Energy" = 8 and "Focus" = 4... This means 8 DIV 4 = 2 ACTIONS per turn. But let me get to the interesting part which is in relation to your question.

"Focus" can ALSO be a DICE ROLL: 1x D4. Means that you MUST ROLL the D4 ONCE. And each subsequent card in your STACK which has a DICE ROLL MUST BE ROLLED.

So if I have 2x (1x D4)... It means you MUST ROLL TWICE.

What's the relevancy???

Well it's a bit PUSH-YOUR-LUCK. Rolling a "4" SUCKS and rolling a "1" IS AWESOME... 8 DIV 1 = 8... This means 8 ACTIONS on your turn. They can't all be ATTACKS because of HEAT... But never the less, you can use "Coolant" to lower your HEAT per ACTION. So IF an ATTACK causes "+4 HEAT", you can use the "Coolant" which could be "+2" ... Meaning with 2 ACTIONS you reduce your Heat to the START LEVEL on your TURN. Using more of it ... Can DRAMATICALLY LOWER your Heat Level... Making more ATTACKS possible.

The only PROBLEM with the PYL dice rolling... Is IF on Dice Roll #1 you get a "1" and then you MUST roll again for Dice Roll #2 and you get a "4"... Well you get the idea. You're screwed.

It can go EITHER way: POSITIVE or NEGATIVE in terms of the outcome.

In any case you can see that using PYL with Dice Rolling ... Can be beneficial or it can ruin a turn (or at least make it LESS "effective").

I dont know how to compute the AVERAGE or STANDARD DEVIATION but I guess it averages out to the outcomes of the D4. I'm not sure HOW(?) to compute this ... My Math is not exactly my strong suit... But I'm sure you COULD compute both given a STANDARD 1D4 roll... I guess with 4 VALUES the odds are 1 in 4 or 25% of getting any value...

Anyways you're better at the math than I am. But I'm sure you understand the PYL mechanic and how it's a risky thing introducing TOO MANY "Random" Rolls (RNG) because they can go either way.

Maybe you can computer an AVERAGE and STANDARD DEVIATION...?

But the point I wanted to make is LUCK is mitigated but there is still an AVERAGE roll. I'm sure you understand... This is something simple for you to think about and compute.

Let me know if this helps you SEE potential in the PYL mechanic. And see if this is something that you would like to introduce for "better or worst". Because it really is a DOUBLE-EDGE sword.

Cheers!

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