This document is a place to gather examples within existing games of fun mechanics that operate independently of the player (though usually still involve some form of player interaction—I’m not trying to design mechanics that have no relation to the player).
<aside> 💡 These should only be general solutions, not hand-crafted solutions. Some games provide simulation autonomy through scripted events, one-off logic. Such solutions are brittle and wouldn’t fit well with a more open-ended game like Marloth.
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While this mechanic is only trigger by the player, monster infighting is one of the coolest mechanics I’ve seen in a game. One moment, all of the monsters are attacking the player, and then suddenly they are fighting each other. In some cases, huge monster battles can ensue where the player can largely sit back and watch the enemies destroy each other.
Unreal Tournament is one of the few FPS games I’ve ever seen that supports more than two teams per match. I don’t know why more games don’t support this, because it was so much fun.
It was especially fun with friendly fire, which acted as a soft limiter on team size. A larger team size meant it was more difficult not to injure teammates. Mixing large and small teams of bots would add a surprising amount of depth to a four player game.
For years I toyed around with creating my own AOS (MOBA) game.
DoTA and most other MOBA games focus on player control and downplay the simulation.
But most of the classic AOS maps focused on sprawling epic wars taking place without player involvement. The maps often had names with “Tides” in them, such as “Tides of War” or “Tides of Blood”, emphasizing how so much of the gameplay revolved around players trying to sway the tides of the AI battle against their opponent.
In MOBAs, the tide of AI fighters is less important compared to out-leveling your opponents and shutting them down.
The biggest issue I’ve had with implementing an AOS is it is geared around symmetry, while I prefer highly asymmetrical maps.
<aside> 💡 One of the key ingredients of what made the AOS model engaging is player winning and losing was directly tied to whether certain AI forces won and certain AI forces lost. It ‘s almost like parents vicariously enjoying life through their children.
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