The problem with actor identity

It is difficult to distinguish the identity of individual actors.

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This is especially a problem for real time games where players need to make quick decisions that require distinguishing between actors.

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Distinct type signatures

One common solution to actor identification is relying on actor type. Each actor can be one of a variety of types, and each type has a distinct color palette, size, and profile.

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The greater the variety of types, the more difficult it is to make each type immediately visually distinctive.

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With this solution, it is still difficult to distinguish between actors of the same type.

In such cases, games usually minimize having any features which require the player to distinguish between actors of the same type.

Unique actor types

Some games limit the number of instances of a particular actor type.

Hero shooters such as Paladins prevent more than one instance of the same champion per team. (With the exception of a limited-time novelty mode which removed that restriction.)
Games’ Workshop style squad-based games usually have archetype limits which act as a soft limit to actor type.
- For example, Mordheim has warband composition limits such as 1 impressive unit and 5 henchmen. So while a warband can have five identical looking henchmen, it can only have one distinctive impressive.

Solutions

Name	Description	Example
Full generic	All actors are identical	Lemmings
Types	Multiple actor types—all actors of the same type are identical	DOOM
Paper doll	Each actor is a composite of modular visual elements	Mordheim
Full specific	Each actor is visually and logically unique	The Legend of Kyrandia

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As mentioned above, these solutions are often mixed.

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Child pages

Distinct actor personality