篇目1，分析游戏中掉落道具的随机性设计

作者：Chris Grey

尽管随机性能够用于影响玩家的游戏体验，但却很少人真的花心思去创造随机性。我们都曾遇到过有关稀有随机掉落道具的战争故事，而我们也需要花很多时间才能获得它们。更糟糕的是那些一下子便得到这种稀有道具的玩家还对社区中的其他玩家炫耀，就好像他们能够控制随机数生成器一样。不管会变得更好还是更糟，如今的随机性能够有效地丰富玩家的游戏体验；如此我们为何不说说该如何更积极地创造随机性？

而今天，我想侧重于讨论掉落道具，也就是我想说说在《双重国度》）中，玩家击败怪物以及在驯服怪物过程中所获得的掉落道具。我将避免提供简单的数字；相反地，我会呈献给玩家一些有关随机感的启发法。

首先，让我们着眼于当前其他设计师所使用的方法。一般情况下设计师都会着眼于道具在游戏内部的经济价值，并决定它的稀缺度。越强大的道具将越晚出现，或者带有更低的常数比例。我们需要让玩家能够在获得道具时产生成就感，或至少觉得自己足够幸运。不管怎样，这都能让玩家更加重视道具。如果玩家能在平均尝试次数后获得掉落道具，并且设计师也准确设定了道具的价值，那么玩家便能够感受到这一价值，并更紧密地依附于道具上。

基于恒定的掉落比例，以下是关于农场体验的图表。你可能期待看到钟形曲线，但是我想在此列举其它包含于该数据中的内容。而为了做到这一点，我们将改变垂直轴以呈现出如下内容：假设你的玩家在获得其中一个道具再杀死敌人，那么以下便是关于玩家会持续农务多长时间。

让我们注意形状；在此我们需要注意的一个关键点便是曲线永远都不会真正到达0点。这便意味着有些玩家从未真正成功获得道具，而他们将更加辛苦地经营农场，因为他们需要投入大量时间去执行设计师所规划的，即要求他们在五分之一时间内完成的任务。甚至玩家在获得掉落道具时所拥有的好心情也会在这一关卡中被摧毁。更糟糕的是，使用这些道具而执行农务的过程中会歪曲玩家对道具的价值观‘即大多数玩家在看到别人无需投入大量时间去刷任务时便会产生不公平感，并且他们将把这种怨恨发泄在道具中。自然地，这种怨恨也会溢出游戏，而玩家也将大肆发泄游戏的不公平。这些玩家将被任务的属性给垦殖殆尽，而这也将破坏设计师们精心设计的难度曲线。如此的受挫将导致玩家退出游戏，如果玩家已经投入了极大的精力于游戏中并坚持了很长一段时间，那便说明你疏远了这些富有激情的玩家。如果从游戏全局来看，这些对于随机掉落道具的愤怒也就没那么重要了。

在这种情况下使用平均值去达到平衡将会引起各种各样的问题。在图表中，我们注意到6%的玩家会在尝试平均值出现前获得掉落道具，而一半的玩家在平均值出现前便拥有了道具。这便意味着大多数玩家不会满足设计师的设计目的而多次面对事件，实际上，任何玩家通常只会经历一次这一过程去获得任何一种掉落道具，这将成为玩家对体验持续时间的共识。也许这只是一个快乐的错误，但是它却有可能减少设计师希望玩家所获得的努力感。我们预测将会有25%的玩家花费多于平均值1.5倍的时间去争取掉落道具，而超过10%的的玩家将花费平均值2倍以上的时间去获得道具。如果这些玩家着眼于剩下的玩家群体，他们将会发现自己的体验在游戏过程中所占时间比例是运气元素的2至3倍。

当50%的玩家在早期完成刷任务而25%的玩家是在游戏末尾时，带有稳定资源的设计师将受到吸引去创造平均体验。此外，这些25%的玩家将开始着眼于活动所带有的缺点。如果设计师忽视了尾端的游戏体验并拥有一些不同的掉落道具要求，那么他们便很难迎合所有玩家的喜好；当玩家需要更多掉落道具，他们更有可能坚持到游戏最后。由于专注于数字上的平均体验，设计师其实忽视了任何一种掉落道具上75%的玩家。

其它类型的随机性–不断增加的掉落道具

我想要呈现出两种简单的选择。首先便是掉落比例的提升。每次当玩家不能在事件最后获得掉落道具时，那么该道具下次掉落的可能性便会大大提升。这种可能性将在以设定好的掉落道具上进行叠加，即当道具掉落时，可能性将重置到其它关卡上。而如果你希望游戏中只有一种掉落道具的话也可以将其重置为0；如果你希望让玩家在游戏体验中花相同的时间而获得另一种道具，你也可以将其重置为初始概率；如果你希望此时的道具更有价值而在之后更容易找到，你可以将其重置为较高的可能性。

以下是关于这种体验的新图表。

这次我们会注意到曲线在最右端已经触及0点了。如此便消除了我们之前所提到的无底的体验。当然也会出现一些运气欠佳的玩家，但是关于他们用于面对这种不幸的时间也存在着上限。这里仍是一些关于战争的故事，但是如果设计得当的话，设计师便能够更轻松地设计出最高的玩家体验，并且将更加靠近平均值。如此那些战争故事便能够有效地加强玩家体验，而玩家不仅能够感受到自己的努力，并且这种感受也不会超过设计师的预期，并且能够有效地带给玩家骄傲感。而玩家想要获得某一道具的焦虑感也将被填平。

此外，如果你最初所设置的掉落比例较低，并且让增长率能够不断提升，你将拥有更少的幸运玩家。如果你希望玩家能够通过反复争取强大道具而精通具有挑战性的战斗的话，这种设置便很有帮助。但是需要注意的是，那些在首次尝试便获得道具的玩家将扭曲他们的难度曲线，尽管这种情况比玩家进行多次尝试更加微妙。授权并不是件坏事，但是这将导致幸运的玩家觉得游戏很容易被战胜（因为一些偶然元素）。一般情况下，不断提升的掉落比例将让任何特定玩家的游戏体验更加均衡，并且对于他们来说这种变化是相对无形的。

这里存在着一种观点，即如果玩家在获得道具前射死一些相同类型的怪物会出现什么情况。如果玩家清楚发生什么了，并知道他们在获得一个掉落道具前需要进行多次战斗，那么战斗可能就会突然变得有效了。而因为任何回报都是隐藏在转角处，所以这种形式的投机也会更加有用。我们不能低估这种推动力量的强大性。强迫玩家重复做一件事50次是多么烦人啊，因为失去了最初的新鲜感后，所有的体验对玩家来说都没有了乐趣。如果游戏能让玩家在经历任何一次尝试后随机获得奖励，那么玩家便会对游戏更有兴趣。如果玩家觉得自己所付出的能够随时得到回报，而不是寄托于未来的某一时刻，那么他们便会更加重视游戏体验。

其它类型的随机性–收获递减

这与上述的随机性完全相反。这一理念是关于玩家拥有有限的机会在道具消失前把握住它。一般情况下，关于掉落道具的最初可能性都比较高，并会随着玩家每次的失败而降低，或者在玩家进行一系列尝试后事件将会消失。而不管是何种情况都会让玩家在经过几次尝试后而更加难以获得掉落道具。

这种随机性并不像我们在保证玩家基础将永远不会获得道具那样简单。比起传统方法而言，这更加人道化，并且玩家将不能以时间去交换游戏内部的价值。如果道具对于玩家来说具有很大的价值，那么玩家便会知道其中的风险，即最终结果将具有很大的紧迫性，而拥有技能的设计师便能使用这种方法去创造更大的情感标志。

关于这种类型的掉落道具存在着一种潜规则。基于permadeath机制，玩家仍然会因为结果而紧张，并能够使用加载功能而进行多次尝试去获得自己想要的掉落工具。如果游戏删除了重新加载功能，就像在《恶魔之魂》中那样，那么你便会考虑缩短游戏长度（但仍具有重完价值），或者设置不同的掉落工具，并且只有一种道具在游戏中是可得到的。如此设置将推动玩家基于他们所获得的道具而调整游戏风格。我们必须注意这种随机性，因为它很容易惹怒玩家。你已经非常接近于大多数玩家的核心期待：“我主导着这个游戏世界，并且因为付出了努力，所以我必须能够得到一切想要的。”

一些通用的启发法

因为大多数人都不知道如何看待可能性，所以我想要列举一些指南。

当你感到疑惑时，可以创造一个模拟对象。当你使用任何类型的可能性分布（除了恒定的掉落比例），你并不需要罗列出所有例子的数字试验。我更建议你们写下一个程序（游戏邦注：或者邀请程序员好友的帮忙）去模拟效果，并生成系统发展（经过多次测试后）的图表。这些信息非常有帮助（虽然不能百分百保证是准确的），并且我们也无需投入大量时间进行计算（要求获得准确答案）。

一般而言，玩家所面对的掉落道具越随机，他们的整体体验将越接近平均体验，并且他们将越有可能需要面对最糟糕的短期情况。让我们着眼于这种方法：如果每个人摇50次骰子，那么骰子所滚动的总数将不会有太大的区别，而每个人也至少滚动了几次。但是这里存在着一个很狡猾的陷阱：你不能假设运气欠佳只会影响着某些玩家；这几乎会打击到所有玩家。所以请谨慎地设计。

反面情况也是真的。即游戏中的少量随机掉落道具意味着玩家体验将非常不平衡，并且具有很大的差别。

人们总是不愿意去估算各种可能性。可能性越低就意味着估算能力越糟糕。特别是在面对稀有掉落道具时，这种情况便更加明显；如果玩家知道掉落道具是稀有的，他们便会感受到满满的压力。除此之外，当玩家需要面临较长的农务过程时，他们便会感受到消极情绪，而幸运的玩家在经历短暂的收获道具喜悦后将能够更快速地前进。

人们总是会将运气与技能结合在一起。调查能够强化这种情况的机制很有趣：为技能型玩家提高道具掉落比例将让他们能够继续尝试一些更有趣的内容，而让低技能的玩家能够获得各种道具却带有风险性。这种情况是我很少看到的，但是我却认为它具有很大的潜能。

一般情况下随机性是讨喜的，如果玩家买进一些带有风险性的内容，那么我们便可以使用投机去创造惊人的情感体验。遗憾的是，因为游戏机制背后一些额外的可能性将创造出各种不同的体验（来自任何玩家或者玩家间的游戏过程转变），所以最接近我们想法的内容总是未能得到理解。随机性具有巨大的潜能，而我只能通过文本去描述一些皮毛，所以我建议你们还是通过试验去深入摸索。

篇目2，解析动作RPG之道具与战利品设计问题

作者：Josh Bycer

当我在玩《火炬之光1》时注意到游戏中一些设置不当的机制问题，所以我希望借此好好研究这些问题。

当提到动作RPG类型时，任何玩家应该都很熟悉游戏套路：打败敌人获得战利品并因此升级，然后继续重复。简单而言，这类型游戏就等于：战斗，战利品和升级。只要任何一方面设置不当，都将严重影响玩家的游戏体验。在本文中我们将先忽略“战斗”元素，因为任何人都清楚它的重要性。

战利品是游戏中一个很重要的环节，也是任何动作RPG吸引玩家的关键元素。关于战利品主要有两种设计类型：固定和随机性。固定的战利品意味着设计师明确编出了游戏中的每件道具，装备和武器。《恶魔之魂》和《黑暗灵魂》便是这种战利品设计的典例。

固定的战利品所具有的优势是，设计师了解游戏中的每个装备，能够更加自由地发挥自己的创造性。就像在《黑暗之魂》中，每种武器类型都具有自己独特的风格和功用。这种类型的战利品也让设计师能够更加轻松地设定玩家获得装备的速度，并且平衡玩家遭遇敌人的时间。

但是固定的战利品也具有两大弊端。首先是这些战利品中都被冠以一定的头衔，如“游戏中最厉害的剑”或者“最棒的盔甲”。这就意味着玩家不能够追求更厉害或更有帮助的道具，从而导致许多玩家退出游戏。就像在玩《恶魔之魂》时，我因为找不到更厉害的新装备而不愿意再继续玩这款游戏。

另一大弊端则与PvP模式有关，固定的战利品将让PvP变成是玩家间争夺最佳战利品的竞赛。就像我在《黑暗灵魂》PvP模式中发现，无论我多么巧妙地避开对方的攻击，任何拥有更高级武器的玩家都能够轻易地打败我，我不得不退出PvP模式直到后来获取更厉害的武器。

很多动作RPG设置了随机战利品以取代固定的道具。设计师为这些战利品的生成设定了相关模式。以《暗黑破坏神2》为例，游戏中的每个道具都拥有特定的属性或奖励，并伴随着一定的前缀/后缀，如“燃烧的”或“尖锐的”。这些用于定义奖励类型的形容词始终附着游戏道具，如此便可能出现更多不同种类的武器。这就意味着我的“冰火斧”可能与你的“冰火斧”并不相同。同时这些道具还会按照稀有程度进行划分。如此玩家便可以根据这些形容词更快速地判断哪些设备更强大并且能够带来更多奖励。《暗黑破坏神2》的战利品列表中拥有各种变量，能够生成更多不同战利品，因此属于最优秀的战利品设计类型。

显然，随机战利品的最大优势是重玩性。玩家永远不知道哪个箱子或者哪些敌人能给自己带来超级道具。新的道具将帮助玩家提升外观（游戏邦注：即更好的道具等于更耀眼的角色）并提高角色属性。就像在《暗黑破坏神2》中，玩家能够在更困难的关卡中找到更稀有的道具，从而鼓励他们进一步玩游戏。

而随机战利品的弊端，也是《火炬之光》所面临的问题，游戏不只是创造随机道具那么简单。为了让战利品激励玩家，游戏也需要让道具随着时间发展呈现威力上升的趋势。也就是玩家越深入游戏，他便能够找到越厉害的战利品。

《火炬之光》的战利品列表远没有《暗黑破坏神2》精细。例如当我在玩硬核模式时，我在整个游戏只能一直使用在前5个阶层中所获得的一件胸甲。尽管从理论上看来，让玩家在游戏中的任何地方都可能找到任何装备是个非常有趣的设置，但是却会引起两个问题：

首先，这么做会破坏游戏的进程。厉害的敌人有可能在一般道具周围出现，这就意味着如果该地区最厉害的盔甲只能够抵挡3点破坏力，那么就不该让敌人的每次攻击力超过30个破坏点。如果战利品列表不能够合理地平衡战利品与敌人的威力，这会将玩家引向或许能够破坏所有内容，或许难以求得生存这两种极端。除此之外，这也让设计师难以判断该在什么区域引入新敌人或者加强现有敌人的力量。

这也引出了第二个问题，即带有随机元素的游戏对玩家来说并不利。在《火炬之光》中，我的第一个角色并不幸运，只能勉强找到一些新的手枪和盔甲。所以在前面5个阶层我一直都是使用相同的手枪和盔甲。而当我进入一个新的领域时，我便没有足够的能力去杀死那些更厉害的敌人（甚至它们的每次攻击都几乎致我于死地）。

与《暗黑破坏神2》相比，《火炬之光》所面临的一个问题便在于战利品并不能随着游戏的进程而发展。如果我分别在《火炬之光》的第3个阶层和第5个阶层找到2个稀有道具，我会发现之前的道具甚至比后来的更强大。相反，在《暗黑破坏神2》中，玩家越往后发现的道具总是比之前的道具更强大。

深入探索《火炬之光》，我还发现了一个关于类别不足的问题。不算一般武器或白色武器，《火炬之光》拥有以下武器类别：绿色代表魔法，蓝色代表稀有，金色代表独特的，紫色代表组合装置（游戏邦注：即那些汇聚在一起的道具）。而问题就在于，较少的的武器类别将让玩家很难再找到更棒的道具。

如果你有幸能够在游戏早期获得金色装备，那么在较长时间内你便不会再去找其它替代道具（例如在第4阶层或者在第5阶层，甚至更高阶层）。同样的，如果你拥有蓝色或绿色道具，你将不断寻找更多这类道具，但是你却不知道它们是否比你所拥有的道具强大。因为找到蓝色道具的比例较低（只有找到并打败某些独特的怪物才能获得），如此便大大降低了绿色道具在游戏其他阶层所呈现出的价值。

《火炬之光》所面临的另一个问题便是——战利品的数量远远高于其质量，也就是在相同级别范围内，任何特殊的敌人或箱子带给玩家的可能是一些相同类型的装备，玩家在找到新道具时会发现自己已经有了这种东西。有时候玩家会发现一些比自己现有道具更强大的装备，但是有时候也会找到一些相同的道具，或者比之更没用的战利品。例如，我在第11级打败敌人后获得的战利品却远远不及我在第8级所获得的。如果游戏能够提升战利品的质量，那么这些问题也许就能够一一解决了。

而《暗黑破坏神2》则拥有以下类别（不包括标准或低质量道具）：高质量，魔法，稀有，集合和独特。它比《火炬之光》拥有更多类别，这意味着玩家能够更容易找到道具。在《火炬之光》中，我几乎不可能找到一个独特道具去取代原来的稀有道具；但是在《暗黑破坏神2》，我却能够轻松地获取更厉害的道具以取代高质量的道具。并且游戏的战利品质量升级较快，这能够进一步推动玩家去追求更多强大的战利品。

将战利品作为一种激励机制的最大挑战在于，不可让玩家频繁更替道具，但同时又不可以让他们一直使用同个装备。

篇目3，解析动作RPG之技能与升级系统设计问题

作者：Josh Bycer

今天我将侧重于RPG游戏中角色发展的一个重要内容，即升级机制。多年来，提升角色等级一直是游戏发展中所坚持的特定模式。很多设计师都在效仿《暗黑破坏神2》中的模式，但是实际上这并不总是最佳方式。

升级机制所面临的一大挑战便是它应该如何影响游戏玩法。大多数关于升级的动作类RPG都允许玩家完善自己的角色属性并解琐更多游戏技能。尽管角色属性不影响游戏玩法，但是却能够影响玩家所选择的装备。而技能非常重要，因为它将影响玩家所拥有的实用道具。

在技能设计中应该考虑到等比例提升的问题——玩家何时会遇到更强大的敌人，以致他们必须多次挑战游戏？如果角色的破坏性技能一成不变，如“20-30火力伤害”的技能，那么当他们反复玩游戏时，这些技能的威力就会显得越来越弱。在《暗黑破坏神2》中，敌人难度的提升也会让玩家这种固定的破坏技能逐渐变得毫无用处。

克服这一问题的最佳方法便是逐渐引入技能。很多动作类RPG都有“X%的武器DPS（DPS代表每秒伤害值）”之类的技能设置。逐渐提升的设置可保持技能的可行性，并让玩家获得更好的回报（如果玩家获得了更好的装备，那就等于他拥有更强大的技能）。

《恶魔之魂》和《黑暗灵魂》都使用了等比例提升的机制，但执行方式并不相同。在这两款游戏中，各种不同的武器都拥有可逐渐提升的属性（游戏邦注：例如，魔法棒代表智慧，弓代表敏捷）。而各自的属性也将根据F至S不同规模等级进行划分。等级越高，该武器所具有的破坏性就越大，并且能够为玩家争取到更棒的奖励。同时我们还必须注意，在这两款游戏中，到达50个点数左右，等比例提升机制就会失去效力。这可能是游戏想以此阻止玩家想通过升级而增强威力的欲望吧。

现在我们来关注一下某些动作RPG中使用的升级模式。从最受欢迎的《暗黑破坏神2》说起。在这款游戏中，每一种职业的角色都拥有3个完全不同的线性技能树，而每棵树上根据从上至下或者从下至上的排列方式罗列不同技能。最后的技能将出现在第30级别，而玩家在完成了这个级别后仍然能够继续挑战接下来的级别。每次升级能够让玩家获得5个属性点以及1个技能点。并且玩家可以通过各种方式多次完善自己的技能。

《暗黑破坏神2》的游戏进程中需要解决的一大问题便是如何解琐各种技能。除了要求玩家达到一定级别之外，每个技能都要求玩家必须获得之前游戏中的某种特殊技能。如此设置就导致游戏中很多技能都只是玩家为获得更好技能的踏板。例如，巫师拥有两个能够迷惑敌人的技能。第一个技能是诱导敌人攻打其他敌人，而另一个则是陷害一个敌人成为附近所有敌人的攻击目标。如果从可用性来看，后者的优势明显大于前者，但是为了获得这一技能，玩家就必须先获得第一种技能。

而可产生破坏性的技能在这一点上的问题更为严重。为什么当玩家进入骨精灵（第30级）时仍然还要使用骨牙技能（即死灵法师在第1级别中的攻击法术）？暴雪尝试在游戏后来的更新内容中添加协同奖励去解决这一问题。一般来说，如果玩家能够使用一些技能去争取更多奖励并获得更强大的技能，他们就会更愿意使用厉害的技能吧。尽管这么做具有一定的功效，但是这一问题却仍然是《暗黑破坏神2》所面临的少数问题之一。

我曾经谈到的《火炬之光》在游戏进程这一方面做得很好。与《暗黑破坏神2》一样，这款游戏中的每个角色也拥有3个技能树，并在升级时能够给获得属性点和技能点。然而与《暗黑破坏神2》不同的是，玩家在此并不需要任何必备技能，玩家等级才是最关键的要素。这就意味着玩家不需要为了不断前进而去争取一些自己不想要的技能。

《火炬之光》中还有一些比低级别技能更棒的技能，并且比起《暗黑破坏神2》，它反而为玩家提供了更多可用性的内容。除此之外，游戏中大多数技能都可以逐渐提升。唯一让我不满的是，《火炬之光》中有一些三种职业共享的技能，这削弱了游戏内容的多样性。

我个人最喜欢的进程系统来自《丁神的诅咒》。这款游戏的开始与其它ARPG在角色发展方面有所不同。一开始，玩家可以选择一个预先设定好的角色类型或者自己创造一个混合式角色。而不同之处就在于，预先设定好的角色拥有3棵技能树，而混合式角色却只能选择任何2种技能。如果你想要成为一名弓箭手巫师，这款游戏便是你的最佳选择。

每个技能树都带有2个不同类型的技能。第一种是精通，即决定你的角色能够套上何种装备并获得何种特殊奖励。另外一种是你能够在游戏进程中掌握的真实技能。与之前的ARPG游戏一样，这款游戏中的技能也是从上至下按照便宜到昂贵而排列。并且它与其它游戏的最大不同点在于，技能对于玩家等级没有特定要求，玩家可通过升级获得金钱和技能点。

取消了等级要求的游戏赋予玩家绝对的自由来定义自己的角色。让玩家能够从选择廉价技能开始玩游戏，或者为了获得更昂贵的技能节省开支。这种不强迫玩家获取技能的设置让设计师能够创造出更多可用性的技能，从而赋予游戏角色更多个性。有些玩家甚至不会选择技能树上那些最昂贵的技能，反而更喜欢不断完善每棵树上的技能。

任何一款优秀ARPG都必须能够在升级过程中为玩家提供一些有意义的选择。

篇目4，解析游戏道具设计之药剂和卷轴

作者：John Harris

本篇专栏是关于两种最常见的类别：药剂和卷轴中最受欢迎的道具的深入讨论，我们将其归为能够使用并购买的“一次使用”道具。

在一个充满怪物的地牢中探索并不是一种健康的活动。如果游戏只是关于四处游览，划定区域并让玩家在遭遇不可避免的死亡前杀死怪物，那么这只能说是一种有趣的简单游戏，但却不具备闪光点。除非游戏能够让玩家在探索中获得某些内容，也就是珍宝。

珍宝总是会指引着玩家走向更加危险的处境。就像在大多数roguelikes游戏中，珍宝总是隐藏在地牢中。有时候珍宝是指食物，游戏要求玩家寻找更多珍宝是为了阻止他们在较简单的场景中无限制了提升级别，也就是在这种情况下，真正有益的珍宝是那些能够打击玩家的内容。与如今的大多数角色扮演游戏不同（即装备很大程度决定着玩家的能量），在roguelikes游戏中，装备影响着玩家的体验，并且属于随机生成内容。

为什么要添加珍宝

为什么玩家会因为找到珍宝而感到满足？我们必须承认，如果缺少了珍宝，许多roguelikes游戏将失去许多乐趣。我认为玩家之所以希望能够在自己所探索的危险区域中寻找珍宝或其它有价值内容是受到人类早前部落文明的影响。好像有点离题了。

随机生成的珍宝便是roguelike游戏中最大的不规则元素。怪物是随机的，但是至少在每个关卡是基于同一比例而出现；地牢是随机的，但是与陷阱一样大多数时间都会呈现在地图上。而只有珍宝能够彻底改变游戏，并且它们所呈现出的不同能量将相互影响，并与怪物和地牢一起而创造出完全不同的roguelike游戏。

在给予玩家各种珍宝时时开发者需要思考如何设定珍宝的价值。如果珍宝不够强大，玩家便会认为没有寻找的必要；而如果珍宝太过强大，游戏便很容易失衡，即珍宝将变成是最后决定玩家成功的主要元素，而不是技能。我们可以从角色扮演游戏的来源，即奇幻文学作品中去设定珍宝。例如在《哈比人历险记》后半部分中，主角Bilbo便依靠魔戒度过了许多危险处境。而《指环王》最终明确了这枚魔戒的真正作用，并且书本中的其他角色也能像Bilbo那样感受到魔戒的能量。他们认为魔戒的能量远不止表面上所看到的那样。因为Bilbo是依靠自己的聪明才智找到魔戒，所以他拥有这种想法也是理所当然。但是即使拥有魔戒，Bilbo也会深陷陷阱，并需要巧妙使用魔戒才有可能逃离危险。换句话说，Bilbo拥有魔戒正是其智慧的体现。所以设计师，创造者和游戏世界的管理者就需要想办法进行适当设置，让玩家也可以凭借自己的聪明才智在roguelike游戏中寻找珍宝。

我们已经概括了roguelike游戏中一些主要的珍宝类型。有趣的是，尽管《Rogue》已经诞生了20多年之久，但是游戏中的主要道具类型仍然被广泛应用于近乎所有的roguelike游戏中。这是首次用于详细阐述这些道具的专栏文章。而在第一部分中，我们将先说说一次使用道具，也就是那些使用一次后便可被丢弃的道具。

一次性魔法：一次使用道具

除了食物，一次使用道具类型主要分为药剂和卷轴。有些游戏也会提供随机的食物，如浆果类和蘑菇等。《Shiren》便提供了草药，即食用时具有一定的营养价值，但通常情况下其功能更像是药剂。《ADOM》也具有独特的草药，即它们的功能并不是随机生成的，但在不同游戏中却都保持着相同的功效。（《ADOM》的草药还拥有其它独特且有趣的属性。这是我在这款游戏中最喜欢的元素之一，但是它们却不适用于普通的roguelike游戏类别中。）

在标准的roguelike游戏中，随机生成的一次性道具是最难识别的道具之一。识别一次性道具所存在的最大问题便是，当这些道具消失后，它便不可能再出现。玩家只有一次机会去摸清楚道具的用途。并且有些道具只能在特定情境中发挥功效，所以如果玩家能够在适当时候，或者有所准备地使用这些道具，它们便能够发挥最大功效。当然也有些一次使用道具会带给玩家不必要的麻烦，如《Rogue》的失明药剂——如果玩家不能在适当时机使用该道具便会因此输掉整盘游戏。

许多游戏还包含了自动识别药剂和卷轴，但是《Rogue》和《Hacks》却并未如此。这两款游戏都要求道具必须在自动识别前清楚地呈现给玩家其效果和用途。有些道具的效果并不明显，所以玩家只能凭借经验或购买识别卷轴为其命名。有些道具只会在特定时候发挥作用（如侦查卷轴只会在有侦查任务时才显现），也有些道具只会在特定情境下给予玩家临时的提示。

药剂所具有的一次使用属性也是roguelikes游戏区别于经典的《龙与地下城》游戏的一大元素。《OD&D》以及第一版的《AD&D》便陈述了一些我们并不熟悉的魔法道具，而因为药剂具有气味，所以玩家可以无需消费便将其识别出来。在某些游戏中，药剂具有各种各样的功效，就像有些液体药剂并不能饮用，而是用于某些特定对象或玩家的皮肤上，甚至有时候只要打开瓶塞便能发挥作用。经典的roguelike游戏主要是受到像《D&D》等游戏的启发，而《Rogue》和《Hack》这类型的游戏则与之不同，即游戏中的药剂都不是用于饮用。就像在《Rogue》和《Nethack》中，玩家将道具扔向怪物便能够抵消掉“糟糕”道具的破坏性。如在《Rogue》中，这么做将会沉重打击怪物，而在《Nethack》中，扔掉的药剂将能阻挡怪物的靠近，造成一种“烟雾效果”。《Nethack》还让玩家能够将道具浸在药剂中或将其混合，并且不管玩家做出何种选择都是具有战略价值。这两款游戏也都包含“恐吓怪物卷轴”，即扔在地上便可生效。但是尽管如此，大多数游戏中的药剂仍然是用来饮用的。

我们还能在游戏中找到许多一次使用道具，并且与随机生成的佩戴物（如戒指或项链）不同的是，玩家总能在此够获得各种使用提示，所以这时候识别卷轴便很难派上用场。更重要的是，识别卷轴在大多数游戏中都属于随机生成的一次使用道具。在许多游戏中，玩家可以使用试错法去识别某些道具。支持商店销售的游戏总是会提供给店主一些识别暗示，也就是所谓的“价格ID”。在不同游戏中这种策略的功效也有所不同，就像在《Nethack》中它便导致游戏失去了平衡，而在《Shiren》最后的地牢中却非常有效。因为这种方法能够缩减对象功能从而避免耗尽玩家的道具，或要求玩家具备一定的识别卷轴知识，所以当玩家基于这种方法去使用一次使用道具时便能够发挥巨大的功效。

这两种类别具有何种功能差异性？

比起仍卷轴，扔药剂更能发挥功效。据我所了解唯一能够呈现出扔掉卷轴并产生效果的游戏只有《Shiren the Wanderer》。

从根本上来看，药剂也就是化学药品，而有用的非魔法药剂的功效也优于卷轴。对于某些游戏来说这便是一大差异性：魔法药剂是否能够侦查到油瓶的位置？就像在《Nethack》中，最有用的药剂便是水。《ADOM》中亦是如此。

除此之外，药剂总是比卷轴更加万能。玩家还可以将道具浸在药剂中，或将其混合在一起。《Nethack》便根据类型将硬用硬编码药剂与结合混合在一起。“Color Alchemy”能够掩盖随机的药剂结果，并根据药剂颜色和扣除色将其混合在一起。《ADOM》非常重视其“炼金术”系统，并在游戏一开始便定义了一系列随机的混合“食谱”，让玩家能够在提升“炼金术”技能后掌握这些“食谱”。

卷轴拥有各种各样功效，而药剂则总是作用于对象的外观上。同时我们还需要注意的是，在同一款游戏中，卷轴和药剂也能呈现出侦查效果。（就像《D&D》中的一系列药剂便能够控制各种类型的生物。但是前提是玩家必须饮用了这些药剂，它们才能透过饮用者发挥作用。）

如果效果要求玩家输入更多内容，特别是选择某一道具，这一道具必然就是卷轴。

以下是各种类型的游戏中最引人注目的道具——药剂和卷轴，及其有趣的属性。

药剂

治疗（额外/完全治愈，治疗轻度/中度/严重的伤处等等）

除了武器，治疗药剂应该是所有roguelike游戏中最常见的道具。尽管大多数roguelike角色都能够快速被治愈（即在最多100次的休息后便能恢复最大生命值），但是不管是同时面对多个对手还是遭遇非常强大的怪物，他们都需要一种能够帮助自己快速恢复能量的方法。

在这些游戏中最有趣的选择便是能够帮助玩家获得最大生命值的治疗药剂。如果玩家在完全健康时饮用这一药剂，他便能够获得最大生命值的提高。也就是玩家可以一开始便有效利用这些药剂，因为在大多数游戏中，玩家获得最大生命值的主要方法都是获得经验级别，但这却是一个非常复杂的目标，并且最佳行动也是取决于玩家所处的情境。效果较弱的药剂只能帮助玩家恢复最大生命值——特别是在游戏最后，而较强的药剂却能在任何时候派上用场，例如当玩家在逃离强大的敌人时。关于这种药剂的另外一种使用方法便是立即减轻某种状态效果，如困惑或中毒。而更强大的药剂类型则能治愈更多类型的疾病。这种功效在《Nethack》中非常重要，特别是当玩家面对某些罕见，并且非常危险的情境时。

提供给玩家大量的治疗药剂并不会对游戏设计造成多大影响。在玩家要求使用药剂后，远比他们强大的敌人总是能够凭借进一步攻击而再一次重创玩家。《Shiren the Wanderer》便拥有一种道具——“Chiropractic Jar”能够马上治愈玩家并恢复其各种病状。尽管这些道具并不罕见，并且玩家也可以花钱去购得它们，但是玩家仍然会在游戏中感受到压力。因为他们必须挪出时间并谨慎地使用这种道具；并且尽管这一道具并不罕见，但也属于有限的资源，所以玩家必须保守地使用。并且只有具有这种约束才能保持游戏的平衡。

恢复能力

《D&D》的6大属性中唯一能够变成《Rogue》的便是力量，即影响着玩家带给怪物的伤害。游戏一开始玩家的分数为16，并且玩家对于“最大力量”的探索也是从16开始。游戏中所包含的各种怪物，陷阱和道具都将削弱玩家的力量，除了最大力量。但是与生命值不同的是，力量并不会随着时间的发展而恢复。就像在《Rogue》中，只有用于恢复能力的药剂能够将力量恢复至最高值，并挽回其中的损失。

与损失盔甲值一样，力量损失的风险也是局限于地牢中的某些范围内，如遭遇响尾蛇。《Rogue》的视线规则（游戏邦注：即在走廊和暗室中我们只能看到玩家周边的空间）表明，玩家在某些时候将难以避免怪物的进攻，也就是说这时候遭遇力量损失也是不可避免的事。所以恢复能量药剂就变得更加重要。

我所说的“最强大的”力量其实是指玩家当前的最大能力，也就是在恢复所有遭遇损失的属性后的状态。虽然其它roguelike游戏总是能够提供更多统计数据，并呈现出各种不同的功能，但是从根本上来看它们只是在沿用《Rogue》的能力恢复药剂。

增加力量

在《Rogue》，增加力量的药剂将能够提高玩家的力量值。如果增加后的力量值等于最高值，它们便都可以获得一个点的提高。而如果玩家遭遇过力量损失，他便只能恢复一个点的力量值。

也就意味着如果玩家的力量值在之后出现下降，那么引用恢复能力的药剂将能够帮助他们从新恢复到新的最高值。而因为拥有较高的力量具有绝对的优势，所以玩家有必要在处于最高力量时保留增加力量药剂。

但是这两种道具都难以避免力量的损失。在游戏过程中，大多数角色至少会遭遇一点力量损失。它们均属于随机生成药剂；所以玩家有可能在游戏中遇到两种药剂均未出现的情况。如果玩家的力量开始下滑，但他又找不到恢复能力的药剂，他是应该喝下增加力量药剂去提升一点已损失的力量还是继续寻找恢复能力药剂？我们需要记住的是，玩家并不知道哪种药剂会最先出现，并且他们会频繁遇到各种能够吞噬他们力量的毒药。这是roguelike游戏中很常见的选择。

《ADOM》拥有大多数roguelike游戏中最发达的统计系统。就像《D&D》拥有6个统计系统；而《ADOM》则拥有9个，并且提供了一些独特的药剂去完善这些系统——例如有些药剂能够暂时提升玩家的力量，或者有些药剂只能提高最大力量。（同时还包含了邪恶的互换药剂。如果玩家不能谨慎使用这种方法便有可能因为误喝了某些错误的药剂而致命。）除此之外还包含了增加属性的药剂——较为普遍但却不能提高最大力量。特别需要注意的是：《ADOM》的系统并未限制最高的统计值，但是在上升过程中玩家将会发现很难继续进行提升。

获得级别

对于玩家来说另外一大难以作出的选择便是何时喝下获得级别的药剂。

在角色扮演游戏中，玩家必须快速获得更多经验值才能提升经验级别。而有些游戏，如早前的《D&D》便使用了双倍级数的方法。的确，玩家需要使用更多经验值去对付更加强大的怪物，但是许多roguelike游戏却不能在这点上保持同步，也就是玩家的级别提升速度非常缓慢。特别是在《Rogue》中，怪物的难度系数的提升总是远远快于玩家能力的提升。也就是当玩家越深入游戏时，他们便会遭遇更大的危险，但是经验级别仍在慢慢累积着。

毒药（疾病）

这是一种糟糕的道具，并不存在正面的主要目的。但是几乎所有的roguelike游戏的道具都具有次要目的，例如玩家可以将这种药剂扔向敌人。即使是最糟糕的道具也能够发挥积极的功效。但是如果基于最平常的方法去使用这种药剂，也就是饮用，玩家便会因此遭遇不幸。

我们需要注意的是，毒药本身并不能让玩家致命。但是因为在游戏中玩家需要通过使用去识别任何事物，所以这便是最大的禁忌。也就是如果玩家必须使用任何未知的事物，那么这些药剂将会让他们立即致命！这并不意味着使用道具便能够帮助玩家避免死亡——如果玩家当前的状态很糟糕（如喝毒药而降低了自己的力量），或道具的使用方法并不是基于标准的方式（使用死神魔杖击中自己），或道具非常稀有（如当玩家在《Nethack》中带上护身符后，便能够通过祈祷而幸存下来。）。道具并不能永远支撑着一款游戏的发展。就像在《Rogue》中，最糟糕的一次使用道具是失明药剂，而最持久的药剂甚至能够掩盖游戏中小部分的空间视觉范围，但却也会在上百次使用后功能消退。

侦查

显然对于现玩家来说这并不是一种有效的方法，但是在roguelike游戏中，侦查却是最有用的对象之一。怪物侦查让玩家能够选择打斗方式，道具侦查让玩家能够决定探索方向，地图侦查能够向他们知名最佳逃离路线。我们还需要清楚，侦查其实是介于药剂和卷轴之间的灰色地带，不同的游戏将把这种功效分配到不同的类别中。而《Rogue》则同时具有这两种类型的侦查！即食物侦查就是卷轴，而魔法和怪物侦查则是药剂。

困惑，失明，麻痹

如果玩家喝下这些药剂那就糟糕了，而如果是将其投向怪物便能扭转局面。所以说“糟糕”是相对于情境而言；就像在《Rogue》中，如果玩家进入了Medusa楼层，失明药剂便会转弊为利。

这些药剂主要是作为一种识别衬托，即在玩家使用某些事物中添加风险性，或创造出随机的药剂而让玩家在危险的时刻将其喝下。这时候玩家便能轻松地识别出一次使用道具。

止渴（水，圣水和邪恶之水）

《Rogue》的每一种道具类别中总是包含了一些无用的道具，从而否定了那些认为所有的道具都具有功能的看法。就像卷轴类别中的白纸和药剂中的止渴道具。除此之外还有无法力的魔杖和装饰用的戒指等。值得注意的是《Nethack》虽然也包含了这些道具，但却赋予了其特殊的用途。

卷轴

识别

继治疗后，识别卷轴应该算是最常见的roguelike道具。在许多游戏中它们还是最常生成的道具。

虽然识别卷轴很常见，我也意识到没有一款roguelike游戏会故意识别错某些内容。《Nethack》中受诅咒的识别卷轴便只能识别少数道具，并且不会欺骗玩家。而《D&D》则包含一些表面是有用的危险对象，如能够让人产生错觉的邪恶药剂，从而引起DM欺骗玩家他们的角色所面临的处境。Roguelike游戏虽然带有某些狡猾的设定，但却不会做得太过火。

迷惑武器/盔甲

这些道具可以说是卷轴版本的增加力量药剂。药剂可以通过提升玩家的物理攻击奖励去提高他们应对危险的能力。而卷轴则是通过提高武器的攻击奖励并降低敌人的击中率，或者让玩家使用某一特殊设备去度过危险。

这些道具都能无限期地改善玩家的状态。它们并不存在期满之说，但却会因为敌人的进攻，糟糕的使用或陷阱等失去功效。这也让这些道具变得更加有用。尽管在单一的遭遇中，单一的奖励点并不具备多大的功效，但是随着时间的发展，这种效益将越发明显。如果玩家足够幸运，也就是能够轻松地找到这些道具，游戏便会变得更加简单。所以大多数游戏都会通过限制力量的强度或道具的功效去阻止这种情况的发生。但这却不是一种有效的方法，如果只是因为设计师不希望玩家变得过于强大而如此设定，所有道具便会很快失去功效。

特别需要注意的是，在《Rogue》中，迷惑武器卷轴相对特别，因为它能够提高武器两种状态中的一种——即击中和损害，而卷轴将随机决定哪种价值得到提高。有一些模仿《Rogue》的游戏将迷惑武器分割成两种不同的道具，也有一些游戏将武器和盔甲卷轴整合成单一的“魔法”卷轴，让玩家能够根据道具的能量做出选择。

在大多数roguelike游戏中，这些卷轴的功能只有在相关的道具处于使用状态时才能发挥功效。如果武器或盔甲都未投入使用，这些卷轴的功效就被白白浪费了。就像《Nethack》将其当成是一种陷阱；在游戏中最糟糕的卷轴便是破坏盔甲。如果你了解了某一不知名的卷轴，你便会想穿上盔甲去利用不知名的迷惑盔甲卷轴。但是如果这时候卷轴被替换成破坏盔甲呢？其它游戏使用的另一种陷阱是，使用一种卷轴让玩家去运行某一道具，但却不告诉他们为什么要这么做。

作为一种额外能力，这些卷轴能够脱离其所运行的道具。

Vorpalize武器

“Vorpalize”指的是什么？不管我们从电子游戏中领悟到什么，“vorpal”都是一个没有实际意义的词。关于该词的使用我们可以追溯到Lewis Carroll所写的《Jabberwocky》（游戏邦注：Jabberwocky在英语中就是“无意义的文字游戏”的意思），主要用于形容一把剑，并且在联系上下文后便能够发现其内在意义。角色扮演游戏便经常使用这种方法，尽管对于许多内容并不存在一致的定义。

《Rogue》包含了名为Vorpalize武器的卷轴。当玩家阅读该卷轴时，他们的武器便会暂时闪烁出光芒。这主要用于赋予武器法力，并在游戏中选择一种怪物成为武器的目标敌人。如此当玩家攻击这类型怪物时便能立即让它们毙命。不过这种卷轴也存在缺陷，即玩家并不能在同一种武器上使用两次Vorpalize卷轴。

这么做是为了惩罚过于贪婪的玩家。当然了，玩家只有在丢掉武器后才知道贪婪的底限。这是玩家在游戏过程中需要学会的另外一大要点，这也是帮助他们取得最终胜利的重要元素。也正因为如此，《Rogue》才能长久吸引玩家的注意力。

《Nethack》会在武器或盔甲过于强大时摧毁它们。当一种武器的魔法已经超过其安全限制，它便会发出警告式的震动。法力越高也就意味着该武器被摧毁的可能性越大。

混淆怪物

对于新玩家来说，这应该是《Rogue》中最神秘的道具。在感受到直接效果后，玩家的手将开始变红。而他们接下来攻击的怪物将暂时变得糊涂。实际上这是一种很强大的道具，尽管在战斗前阅读这种卷轴有可能让玩家将其浪费在较弱的怪物身上。

威吓怪物

这是游戏中最神秘的道具之一（前提是玩家并不知道其秘密）。这是唯一一种无需拾起便能够识别的道具。特别是在《Rogue》中，玩家最好在从中获得一些好处后再将其拾起。

种族灭绝

种族灭绝卷轴——总是被当成一种砍杀道具，最初出现在《Rogue》后来的某一版本中。当玩家阅读了这一卷轴后便能够摧毁游戏中某一类型的全部怪物。

但是在出色的roguelike游戏中，这种卷轴也具有权衡性。就像在《Rogue》中，当玩家使用了这种卷轴后，其它类型的怪物将变得更普遍，以此填补被消灭的种族所遗留下的缺口。并且在《Rogue》中，玩家只能使用一次这种卷轴，从而避免玩家摧毁更多怪物。

保护盔甲

这种卷轴将能阻止盔甲的优势被削弱，可以说这是游戏中非常有用的一种道具。这一卷轴是在在第五个版本的《Rougue》才出现在道具列表上，并且它也属于最稀有的道具之一。而之后的roguelike游戏之所以很少使用这一卷轴，主要有一大原因。

不管是敌人的攻击（基于各种版本的《Rogue》，可以是Rust Monster或者Aquators）还是陷阱都有可能毁坏盔甲。但是不可避免的事实是，在《Rogue》中，即使是永久的优势也会因为玩家糟糕的玩法或怀孕期而消失。例如当玩家不幸遇到响尾蛇时，之前所积攒的好运便会通通消失。平衡玩家获得超强盔甲（找到一套金属铠甲或使用迷惑盔甲卷轴）的方法便是使用Aquators去削弱盔甲，并在更深的地牢中更频繁地设置腐蚀陷阱。

玩家可以通过创建备用盔甲（因为玩家需要经过两轮才能进行转换，并且能够将其置于难以被删除的受诅咒的盔甲中，从而达到平衡），使用不会被腐蚀的皮制盔甲（因为这是游戏中最弱的道具，从而达到平衡），套上一圈保护盔甲（通过不断提高的食物消费而达到平衡），或使用保护盔甲卷轴等方法而抵制盔甲破坏者。

这么做并不存在弊端！除了只能影响一套盔甲外，但是说起来这甚至不能说是一种弊端。如果你在《Rogue》中的铠甲上使用这种方法，你就只能选择其中的一种决定。

《Nethack》让玩家在困惑时使用迷惑盔甲，从而提供一种抗锈且同样强大的盔甲。而《Shiren》则拥有电镀卷轴，不过某些怪物却能够摧毁这一卷轴的功效（这种情况却几乎未发生过）。但是在我看来，这两种情况均属于失败的设计。

篇目5，实例分析武器/道具锻造系统的设计要点

作者：Eric Schwarz

尽管从传统意义上来看，锻造武器/道具的系统主要出现于角色扮演游戏（RPG）和盗贼类游戏（roguelikes）中，但是现在它却成为了各种类型的现代游戏通用的一大机制了。毕竟，游戏是各种选择的集合体，并且就像RPG中的经验值已经渗透到所有游戏元素中一样，锻造系统是另外一种能够给玩家提供选择的可靠方法。

虽然如此，并非所有锻造系统都是相同的——如今几乎在所有游戏的功能列表中都能够看到“锻造系统”的字眼，但是它既是一种富有创造性的创想，也能够变成让人乏味与沮丧的罪魁祸首。虽然锻造系统具有其价值，但是能否合理执行这一机制并发挥其价值也需要依赖正确的方法。方法对了，锻造系统便能够为游戏带来好处，方法错了，甚至有可能导致玩家放弃游戏。

为什么要设置锻造系统？

在详细分析锻造系统之前我们应该先弄清楚一个基本问题，即为什么需要创造锻造系统？锻造系统能够为游戏带来什么？它能够解决何种问题，并且又会制造出哪些新问题？更重要的是，锻造系统是否适合游戏的整体主题？但是如果涉及游戏机制，我们就更需要搞清楚为何在游戏设计或编程之前需要明确这一系统的必要性。

锻造系统对游戏机制的作用

1.让玩家有一种亲力亲为的感觉。就像是自己做饭吃而不是叫外卖，锻造系统能让玩家感受到自己拥有自己所创造的道具。即使你可能是根据“菜谱”进行制作或者其中未融入太多的创造性，但是简单的锻造过程比起为玩家提供相同的道具更能让他们获得满足感。

2.实现道具的二次使用。受战利品驱动的游戏，特别是RPG所存在的一个共同问题是，玩家可能会因为拥有过多装备而无所适从。而通常来看解决方法便是卖掉或者抛弃这些装备，虽然玩家很少会在游戏中使用这两种方法。但是锻造系统便能够很好地缓解这一问题。

3.平衡游戏内部的经济系统。提供给玩家过多无用的道具的另外一大副作用是，将导致游戏经济失去平衡或趋于不稳定，并破坏游戏中货币的价值。我都不记得在多少款RPG中，因为拥有太多货币并无处可花，只能停止收集路上遇到的道具。而执行锻造系统不仅能够减少过多无用的道具，而且能够提高游戏内部货币的价值并维持它的重要作用。

4.鼓励玩家探索游戏世界。特别是在开放世界中，锻造系统能够帮助设计师更好地吸引玩家沉浸于游戏世界中。即使只是需要摘几多花去提炼药剂，如果玩家能够因此获得道具，他们便会愿意为此付出时间和精力——-特别是这些道具很有帮助并且较为稀有之时。

5.提供更有帮助的奖励。你有多少次在完成游戏目标后却只接收到一些无用的奖励，例如对于魔法师来说没有意义的长剑或者低于角色级别的道具等。而在锻造系统中，玩家能够获得一些锻造材料或者特殊诀窍，如此设计师既不用绞尽心思去揣摩针对不同玩家的不同奖励，而且玩家也能够获得对自己有帮助的实在奖励。

6.增加游戏时间。不幸的是，有些游戏错误地利用了锻造系统的功能。尽管，要求玩家花费更多时间完成游戏任务有时候是好事（如果游戏太过简单，那么花费太多时间也就不值得了），但是我们所接触过的游戏大多都只是利用这一机制扩展玩家的游戏体验而已。

掌握了这些内容，我们便能够进一步分析如何更好地使用锻造系统了。虽然从字面上来看，锻造系统很有效，但是放在特定环境中，我们就难以保证它是否有利于游戏设计了。使用了锻造系统的《超级马里奥3D大陆》是否会变得更加完善？情节紧凑且具有结构性的《Uncharted》是否需要一个基于鼓励探索的系统？《侠盗猎车手4》是一款开放游戏，但是强调以不同火药创造不同类型的子弹是否符合设计师最初的理念，或者是否符合当前的游戏体验。

不用说，想总是比做容易，而唯一能够测试想法的便是实践。虽然锻造系统能够带给游戏许多好处，但是我也在某些游戏体验中感受到奇怪，抽象的锻造系统，好像它出现在游戏中只是一种偶然，未能与游戏维系起自然的联系，我想应该是因为设计师未能详细审视个体游戏机制以及它们在游戏整体中的作用。

锻造技能

RPG游戏设置中所包含的锻造技巧是用于约束玩家的锻造能力而不是节制资源的使用。与“为什么需要锻造系统”相同，回答“为什么需要锻造技巧”也能够帮我们明确锻造系统在特定游戏中是否有效。即使一款游戏适合使用锻造系统，但是也有可能出现锻造技巧过度使用或使用不合理的问题。

当我们在考虑锻造技巧之前，首先应该搞清楚以下问题：

如何执行技巧级别？玩家在游戏中的锻造技巧升级是否区别于其它技巧，或者这种技巧的发展与标准游戏设置是否牢牢结合在一起？

花费多长时间才能获得锻造技巧的升级？是否需要投入更多时间，如获取经验值那样，或者需要投入其它资源，如收集的货币或锻造资源等？

锻造技巧的级别构成是怎样的？只有一些技巧级别拥有较大的利益，或者这些级别会跟随着玩家的每一步前进而相对增长？

锻造系统是固定的还是可定制的？也就是，锻造系统是遵循于约束所有玩家的共同规则，还是玩家可以根据自己的选择创造属于自己的锻造系统，如针对特定道具创造锻造系统。

锻造技巧提供给玩家何种信息？是展现了所有游戏机制的细节内容，还是为了鼓励玩家主动尝试而有所隐藏？

玩家拥有多少锻造技巧？每个玩家只拥有一种锻造技巧，还是玩家掌握了游戏中的所有锻造技巧？

比起其它技巧玩家是否会更多地关注于锻造技巧？例如，玩家是否会为了成为一名更加出色的工匠而放弃战斗能力？

也许这些问题看起来很明显，并且它们都是设计师在开发过程中苦心想出的问题，但是你也必须尽早地找到它们的答案。这些选择阐述了锻造系统的属性；如果不尽早花时间尝试着寻找问题的答案，将会导致锻造系统的失衡，并且难以融入游戏中，而最终只能成为一种无效的系统。

锻造系统和刷任务

就像我之前提到过的，锻造系统的出现频率远远高于我的想象，并且主要是用于拉长游戏时间，但是可能就因此影响了游戏的价值。就像在日本的RPG中，如《最终幻想》，为了打败主要怪物，玩家不得不花时间进行一些重复的战斗，锻造工具，并通过要求玩家重复相同的游戏内容而约束他们的行为，从而破坏了整款游戏的节奏和基调。

有时候，适当的刷任务能够为游戏带来好处，而做得太过火便很容易让玩家感到沮丧。但是如果刷任务是可选项，即不一定是玩家必须完成的任务，那么玩家便可以根据自己的需要做出行动。相反地，也有些玩家更喜欢刷任务机制，因为他们认为这是一个“安全区”，即他们不需要琢磨着如何应付新游戏机制或故事元素。刷任务内容非常主观，我们应该明确适量的刷任务内容，包括哪些是必要的以及哪些是可选择的。

如上图，《军团要塞2》使用了大规模的锻造系统，并且侧重点远远大于游戏的核心元素。

还有一些游戏出现了过多的刷任务机制，以致将过分扩大锻造系统的功能。举个例子来说，《军团要塞2》便过度使用了锻造系统，从而导致我和好友们一起退出了游戏。尽管这是一款本应能够经受时间考验的多人游戏，但是游戏开发者和整个游戏社区都不合理地突出了锻造系统在游戏中的地位，从而破坏了游戏整体的平衡。

为了更好地进行说明，我将详细分析游戏中一款稀有道具“Sharpened Volcano Fragment”的锻造过程。

1.一开始，我们需要“Scrap Metal”，这是游戏角色需要结合两种武器创造而成的。

2.然后我们需要“Reclaimed Metal”，由3个“Scrap Metals”构成，这就意味着我们需要收集6个武器。

3.再来我们需要“Refined Metal”，而它需要3个“Reclaimed Metal”，等于我们总共需要聚集18个武器。

4.“Sharpened Volcano Fragment”需要2件“Refined Metal”。所以到现在我们共需要36个武器。

5.最后，“Refined Metal”需要与“Axtinguisher”，以及另外一个武器“Pyro”（相对来说较为稀有）结合在一起，但是因为我们已经费尽心力得到36个道具了，所以多做这一步也似乎也没什么大不了。

当然了，这个案例所说的还是乐观情况，并以玩家能够凑齐锻造武器所需的一切道具为假设前提。但是实际上，玩家在游戏中需要收集的武器常常是这个数量的2至3倍之多。不过还是有许多“永不畏惧”的忠实玩家努力在完成这些任务，据估计，玩家在游戏中每隔2、3个小时才能够找到一个新的道具，如此看来，玩家每周只能收集到8至10个新道具。这就意味着你花费80至100个小时寻找到的道具只能够锻造出一个武器。所以玩家很有可能花费250个小时甚至更多的时间只是在安装一些所需的原材料罢。

当然了，这是一个较为极端的案例，游戏中的大多数道具并不需要玩家投入如此多的时间和精力——如果你不在意锻造目标，那么一般15个小时便可。但是这个例子主要是用于强调锻造道具所需要的投入的时间之多，而这正是开发者和游戏社区对玩家的期待。想到可能需要放弃白天工作时间去锻造武器，多数玩家更情愿花钱买到这些现成的装备。

优秀的锻造系统：案例分析

分析了《军团要塞2》中刷任务般的锻造系统，接下来我将列举一款合理使用了锻造系统的游戏。《崛起》是一款由《Gothic》系列的原班制作人马Piranha Bytes开发的游戏，延续了后者开放的世界和惩罚机制等优点，但是拥有了一个较为复杂的故事轴。我认为这是迄今为止将锻造系统发挥得最为淋漓尽致的现代游戏，与《The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim》等同类型游戏相比较时更是如此。

首先，《崛起》合理地限制了锻造系统：游戏中只有4种锻造技巧，即点金术，锻造术，勘探技巧以及剥皮技能，而且其中只有2种技能能够获得1次以上的升级。升级锻造技巧能够让玩家获得其它技巧所需要的学习分，而这必须借助技巧训练师的帮忙。玩家必须花钱去雇佣训练师，但是在《崛起》只有很少的金币，特别是在游戏初期。尽管这些技巧的级别不多，但是当玩家获得每次升级时，便能够从技巧中相应获利，包括获得新药剂进行提炼或者获得武器以用于锻造等。

因为游戏中所需的道具是稀缺资源，使得锻造系统在这款游戏中的作用有别于其它游戏。然而从其它方面看来，我们能够以一种较为廉价的方式获得生命包。在《崛起》中，玩家必须尽可能地收集一些有益的道具，包括能够提升角色性能的药剂以及强大的宝剑等。而为了锻造道具，玩家就必须努力收集原材料，尽管它们的数量非常有限。而很多有帮助的原材料只能通过打败强大的敌人或者在遥远且黑暗的地牢中探索而获得。所以，锻造系统不只是将所有材料汇聚在一起按压操作按钮的行为，它需要玩家在游戏世界中不断探索，并勇敢地面临游戏中的各种危险。

风险vs.奖励的因素不只这些。《崛起》是一款相对复杂的游戏，在游戏初期，玩家的角色总是会很快死去，特别是当面对一些特定敌人时，这种情况更是难以避免。只有经过训练，掌握战斗技巧或者获得一些更有帮助的道具，玩家才能够战胜一些更具挑战性的敌人。面对如此挑战，玩家必须做出抉择：掌握战斗技巧并确保能够在对抗中获得生存，还是投入更多积分和金钱去锻造一些稀有的药剂或新武器。在《崛起》中玩家总是很难获得切关生命安全的道具和武器，所以玩家会如何做出选择也是这款游戏吸引人的一大亮点。

最后，《崛起》的锻造系统，不管是关于锻造技巧还是游戏机制，始终强调游戏环境的重要性。如果游戏中的锻造系统对于玩家来说是毫不相干，无趣且没有价值的存在，那么不管是级别，诀窍，材料还是能力等内容也都没有意义了。尽管锻造系统本身非常简单，但是当与其它游戏元素维系在一起时就会变得更加具有吸引力。游戏设计也必须奉行“物以稀为贵”原则，《崛起》关于锻造系统的实践便证明了这一点。

结论

如果使用合理，锻造系统不仅能够强化玩家的游戏体验，还能为玩家提供更多选择帮助他们战胜挑战，创造属于自己的游戏角色，并更好地探索游戏世界。同时我还必须重申，即使锻造系统在今天的游戏设计中已经非常普遍了，但是它却不能用以保证一款游戏的好坏。任何一样好东西如果使用太过频繁，其最初的价值也会被削弱。

锻造系统并不适用于任何游戏，我欣赏这一机制是当它能够出现在合适的游戏环境中，但是所有类型游戏对这一机制的滥用现象却大大贬低了其价值，并因此破坏了许多游戏体验。老实讲，如果一个机制不能带来好的结果，那就果断放弃它，还是将时间和金钱花在那些值得投入的内容上吧。

篇目1，篇目2，篇目3，篇目4，篇目5（本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源或咨询微信zhengjintiao）

篇目1，Emotions and Randomness – Loot Drops

by Chris Grey

Even though randomness can be used to greatly influence a player’s experience with a game, I haven’t seen many people put much thought into crafting it. We’ve all got war stories about a rare drop that took us hours to get, if not tens of hours. Gamefaqs is loaded with forum threads talking about the despair of the random drop. Even worse are the threads made by people who got the drop in one go, bragging and taunting the rest of the community, as if luck with the random number generator were something they actively controlled. For better or worse, randomness currently colors the play experience tremendously; why not talk about crafting it more actively from our side so that these experiences are less accidental?

Today, I’d like to focus on drops. I’m being a bit loose with the word because I’d like the ability to talk about both items dropped by defeated monsters and the monster taming process in Ni No Kuni, where enemies randomly become recruitable after you beat them up. I’m going to avoid giving hard numbers wherever possible; my aim here is to give a few heuristics about how randomness feels to the player.

First, let’s look at the way it’s done now. Typically, designers look at the in-game economic value of an item and decide how scarce it should be. More powerful items either appear later in the game or drop with a much lower constant percentage chance. The idea here is that players should feel some kind of sense of accomplishment when they obtain the item, or at least see how lucky they’ve been. Either way, it’ll bring the players to value the item, hopefully in accord with the designer. If players manage to get the drop in the average number of tries, if the designer has valued the item correctly, the player will typically have a similar valuation of and appropriate attachment to the item.

With a constant drop rate, here’s the graph that captures the farming experience. You might be expecting a bell curve here, but I want to illustrate something else born from this data. To do so, we’re going to change the vertical axis to reflect the following: assuming your players kill enemies until they get one of the items, here’s how long the player population will be farming.

Pay attention to the shape; the key point to notice here is that the graph never actually hits zero. That means some of your players are never going to successfully acquire the item, and they will have a terrible time trying to farm it because they will spend tremendous amounts of time doing a task the designer had only pictured them doing for a fifth of that time. Even the good feeling at getting the drop if they eventually manage to get it is generally overshadowed at this level. What’s worse, the time farming the item will skew a player’s value of it; most players will resent having to grind a massive amount of time if others did not have to, and they will focus their resentment on the item in question. Naturally, this resentment will also spill over to the game, and they will undoubtedly vent about how unfair the game is to anyone that will listen. These players will be overfarmed by the nature of the task, and this also ruins the otherwise carefully crafted difficulty curve. Their frustration can lead to quitting the game, and if this player was dedicated enough to stick it out that long, you probably alienated an incredibly passionate player. All this angst for a random drop that probably didn’t matter much in the bigger picture of the game.

…and the Queen save the poor souls who feel compelled to get the collect all random drops achievement. That synergy can quickly lead to tens of hours of despair and compulsion, if there are many items or especially rare items.

The problem with using averages to balance in this case is myriad. In the graph, notice that about sixty percent of players will receive the drop before the average number of attempts, and half of the population gets the item significantly before the average. This means most players won’t be seeing the event as many times as the designer probably designed for, and in reality, as any one player usually only goes through this process to get any one drop once, this will become the general consensus on how long the experience takes. Potentially a happy mistake, but it does diminish the feeling of effort the designer probably wanted the most players to feel. Of the rest, it can be expected that about twenty-five percent of players will take more than one and a half times the average to get the drop, and more than ten percent will take more than twice as long as average. If these players look to the rest of the player population, they will see their experience taking more than two to three times as long as the lucky half, respectively.

A designer with fixed resources would be drawn to craft the average experience when, in all honestly, it’s the fifty percent who finished significantly early and the twenty-five percent on the tail that need the attention more. Additionally, the latter will be the ones to really begin to see the activity for the warts it has. If the designer neglects the tail experience and has several different drops required or encouraged in game, the designer will eventually fail all of their players; the more drops the player needs, the more likely that the player will be in that tail at some point in the game. By focusing on the mathematical average experience, the designer is effectively neglecting seventy-five percent of their players on any single drop.

Other Kinds of Randomness – Escalating Drops

I want to present two simple alternatives. The first is an escalating drop rate. Each time a player fails to get the drop at the end of the event, the probability it drops next time increases. This probability caps at a guaranteed drop, and once the item drops, the probability resets to some level. It can reset at zero if you only ever want one in the game; it can reset at the initial probability if you want to make the experience to get another item take the same amount of time, more or less, as the first time; it can reset at a high probability if you want the item to be valuable now but easy to come by later.

Here is the new chart for this experience.

Notice how the line now hits zero on the right of the graph. It eliminates the abysmal experience we spoke of above. There will be unlucky players, but there’s a cap on the amount of time they’ll have to spend with their misfortune. There will still be war stories, but if designed well, the worst-case player experience can be designed for more easily, as it will more closely match the average. This can lead to those war stories that can enhance the player experience, as they feel like they struggled, but not much harder than the designer expected, which is nice way to give a bit of fiero. The angst of trying to get the item will always be fulfilled.

Additionally, if you set the initial drop rate low and let the growth rate accelerate, you’ll have fewer lucky people as well. This could help if you want to make the player master a challenging fight through repeated attempts to potentially get a powerful item. It’s worth noting that the player who gets the item on the first try will have their difficulty curve distorted, even though this case tends to be more subtle than the player who takes many tries. Empowerment is not a bad thing, but it can lead the lucky player to think the game is much easier than it is because of a fortuitous break. In general, the escalating drop approach will make the experience a little more uniform for any given player, and usually, it will be relatively invisible to them.

There’s a temptation here to wonder what would happen if you had to kill several of the same kind of monster before the item could even become available. If the player understands what’s happening, and they know that they will be fighting several times before they could even get a drop, that fighting suddenly becomes work. Gambling in this form works because the payoff is potentially always right around the corner. It cannot be understated how powerful this force is to motivate. Asking someone to do something fifty times makes it a chore, and times ten through forty will not be savored because after the initial novelty of doing it, you know it will not net reward any time soon. If a task could be rewarded randomly after any one attempt, more attention to detail and care will go into it from the player. The player will appreciate the experience more if they feel like what they are doing could pay off at any moment, not just some long time in the future.

Other Kinds of Randomness – Diminishing Returns

This is the invert of above. The idea is that the player has a limited number of chances to get an item in game before it goes away completely. Typically, the initial probability of the drop will start high, and either decrease with each failure, or the event will disappear after a set number of attempts. Either way makes the drop impossible to get after a certain number of chances.

This randomness is tricky to deal with as you are, in no uncertain terms, guaranteeing that a percentage of your player base will never get the item. It can be more humane than the traditional way as you are giving no option to exchange time (farm) for in-game value. If the item has significant value to the player, and the player knows the stakes, there will generally be a significant amount of urgency put on the outcomes, and a skilled designer could use this as a way to make a large emotional mark.

There is an unspoken rule with these kinds of drops. They can be gamed by reloading. As with permadeath mechanics, players can still get some tension from the outcome while using the load function to try as many times as they want to obtain the drop. If the ability to reload is removed, as it was in Demon’s Souls, then you may want to consider making the game short, but replayable, or having several different drops, only one achievable in the game. This can force players to actually have to adjust their playstyle based on what they got. Be careful with this kind of randomness, as it can easily inspire rage. You are very close to a core expectation of most players: “I am master of this game world, and given effort, I should not be deprived of anything I want.”

Some General Heuristics

Since most people aren’t taught well to think about probability, I wanted to give a few guidelines to work with.

When in doubt, make a simulation. When you use any type of probability distribution besides the constant percentage drop, you do not need to do a full mathematical workout of all cases. I highly recommend writing a program (or bribing your friend the coder to do so) to simulate the effects and generate graphs of how the system behaves when tested a huge number of times. That information, while not guaranteed to be exactly right, will be good enough, and the calculations required to get an exact answer are not worth the time required to compute them in most cases.

Generally speaking, the more random drops the player is compelled to farm, the closer their total experience will be to the average experience overall, and the more likely they are to face the worst case short term scenario sometime in their experience. Look at it this way: if everyone rolls fifty dice, it’s likely that the roll totals won’t differ much, and everyone will have probably rolled at least a couple of ones. The trap here is subtle: you cannot assume that poor luck will only affect some players in this case; it is almost guaranteed to strike everyone. Design accordingly.

The reverse of this is true, too. A small number of random drops in your game will mean that the player experience will be very uneven and different from person to person.

People tend to be terrible at estimating probabilities in their head, and dry spells leave bigger scars than lucky breaks feel good. The lower the probability, the worse the estimation ability. This can manifest especially with rare drops; people tend to start becoming frustrated long before the average if they know the drop is rare going into the session. Additionally, people will typically experience negative emotion for a significant portion of a farming session they consider to be long, while players who get lucky tend to move on quickly after experiencing the short-lived joy over a drop.

People conflate luck and skill quite often. It might be interesting to investigate mechanics that would reinforce this: increased drops for skilled play would allow those who have already mastered what the game is teaching to move on to something more interesting to them, while giving the less skilled players a way to both potentially improve and still get whatever item is at stake. This is something I’ve rarely seen, but I think would have huge potential.

Randomness is lovely, and if players buy into what is at stake, gambling can be used to craft incredible emotional experiences. It’s a shame that something so close to our hearts is so ill-understood because a little extra crafting of the probabilities behind the game mechanics could yield incredibly diverse experiences, both from game session to game session for any one player and between players. There is an amazing amount of potential, and I was only able to scratch the surface with a huge amount of text so all I can recommend for those who are willing to is: experiment.

As I didn’t get to show examples this time, I’m splitting them off into another entry. When it is done, I’ll link to it here.

篇目2，The Devil Is in the Details of Action RPGs – Part One: The Logistics of Loot

Josh Bycer

While the title may suggest otherwise, I am not in the Diablo 3 beta. As I’ve been counting the minutes for either Diablo 3 or Torchlight 2 to be released, I ran through Torchlight 1. Playing it, I noticed several things that didn’t seem right with the mechanics that I wanted to take a closer look at.

When it comes to the action RPG genre, any fan knows about the cycle: you fight enemies to get loot to help you level up and repeat. In other words, the magic phrase is: Fight, Loot, and Level. If any of those three are not represented correctly, it can bring the experience down. We’re going to ignore “Fight” for this post, as everyone should know what is good or bad about it.

Loot is the big one, and is one of the main draws of any action RPG. With loot, there are two schools of design: set or random. Set loot, means that the designers hard coded every item, piece of equipment and weapon in the entire game. Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls are currently the best examples of this practice.

The advantage of set design is that by knowing every piece of gear in the game, it gives the designers freedom to get creative. In Dark Souls, each weapon type is unique in its feel and utility. This also allowed the designers to easily set up a general pace of getting equipment and balancing it out with enemy encounters.

There are two disadvantages to set loot design. First is that it has a cap, there is such a thing as the “best sword in the game” or “best piece of armor”. Meaning, that eventually the drive for better loot disappears, which is one third of the pull of playing action RPGs. Playing Demon’s Souls; I lose a lot of the motivation to continue playing new game +s as there is no new equipment to find.

The other has to do with PvP; set loot largely turns PvP into a race to get the best loot before anyone else. When I played PvP in Dark Souls, no matter how great I was at avoiding damage, all it took was one hit from someone’s high level weapon to kill me instantly. This forced me out of PvP until I could grab better weapons which would take awhile.

Randomized loot design which is used in most action RPGs, is that instead of defining set pieces of gear in the game. The designers set up algorithms for loot generations. If you look at Diablo 2, every item that has unique stats or bonuses comes with a prefix/suffix or prefixes, such as “burning” or “spiked”. These adjectives defined what kinds of bonuses are attached to the gear and from there the weapon is given the amount of that type. That means that my “freezing, burning axe” could be different from your “freezing burning axe”. Items are also graded in terms of rarity. This allowed the player to quickly see what equipment is more powerful and affects the bonuses from the adjectives. Diablo 2′s loot table is still one of the best of the genre with all the variables that go into generating loot.

Obviously the big advantage of randomized loot is replay ability. You never know if that chest or enemy will drop some super piece of gear. New gear provides both a visual boost (better gear = shiner avatar) and of course the stat boost. With Diablo 2, the harder the difficulty level, the chance of finding rarer gear is increased further encouraging play.

The problems with random loot and where Torchlight fits into this post, is that there is more to it than just creating random gear. In order for loot to motivate people, there must be an ascending trend of power over time. Meaning the further the player gets, the better the loot they find.

In Torchlight the loot table is not as refined as Diablo 2 was. For example while playing on hardcore mode; I used a chest armor I found within the first 5 floors of the game, as my only piece of chest armor for the entire game. While the idea of being able to find any equipment anywhere in the game sounds good on paper, it does cause two problems.

First is that it breaks the flow of the game. Enemies are designed around the generalized loot in the area. Meaning, if the best armor in the area can only block 3 points of damage, then enemies shouldn’t be set at dealing 30 damage per hit. If the loot table isn’t balanced with the enemies it can lead to the player either demolishing everything, or barely able to survive. Not properly balancing loot and enemies also makes it difficult to determine where to introduce new enemies or strengthen existing ones.

That leads to problem two, having the randomized element of the game work against the player. In Torchlight, my first character on very hard difficulty did not get lucky finding new pistols and armor to use. I went 5 floors using the same gun and armor. When I arrived in a new area, I could barely kill anything and enemies were nearly killing me with each hit.

The problem with Torchlight is that the loot table is not ascending as much as Diablo 2. If I find a rare item on floor 3 in Torchlight and another on floor 5, there is a good chance the former is as powerful or stronger then the later. However in Diablo 2, finding a rare sword at the beginning of an act and at the end, you are practically guaranteed that the latter is stronger than the former.

Looking deeper at Torchlight one of the problem areas I saw has to do with the types of rarity. Ignoring normal or white weapons Torchlight has the following categories: green for magical, blue for rare, gold for unique, and purple for set items (items that go together.) The problem with this is that with only a few categories, it makes it harder to find better gear.

If you get lucky and get gold equipment early on, chances are you won’t find anything to replace it for a long time (such as 4 or 5 floors or more). Likewise if you are stuck with a blue or green item, you’re going to find plenty of them which may or may not be better then what you have. Due to the rate of finding blue items which most unique monsters drop, it lowers the value of green items outside of the very beginning of the game.

Another issue with Torchlight is that there is more quantity then quality with loot, some unique enemies and chests drop multiple pieces of the same equipment type all within the same level range. This makes it a crap shoot when it comes to getting new gear. Sometimes you’ll find something that is miles above what you have, and other times you’ll find 2 or more pieces of equipment equal to or worse then what you have. As an example while fighting level 11 enemies, I saw loot as low as level 8 dropping. If the quality of loot increased at a faster rate, that would elevate some of the issues.

Going back to Diablo 2 it had the following categories (not counting normal or low quality): high quality, magical, rare, set and unique. That’s 5 to Torchlight’s 4, meaning there is a greater spread of items to find. In Torchlight my chance of getting a unique item to replace a rare is low. However in Diablo 2, I have a much greater chance of replacing my high quality item with something better. Combine that with the quality of loot rising at a fast pace, makes the hunt for loot an enjoyable one and not an act of necessity.

The challenge of using loot as a motivator is that the player shouldn’t be surviving from one piece to another, and at the same time, going hours using the same gear also doesn’t work. That does it for part one, in part two we’ll take a look at leveling and see if Diablo 2 still stands as the best in this area.

篇目3，The Devil Is in the Details of Action RPGs – Part Two: Leveling Up

by Josh Bycer on

In the last part, I talked about the importance of loot as a motivator and game mechanic in action rpgs. The other half of the equation when it comes to character progression is leveling up. Improving characters through leveling has not changed all that much over the years. Probably because many designers copied Diablo 2′s style, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the de facto best way.

The challenge with the leveling up mechanic is how much should it affect the gameplay? Most action rpgs on level up, allow the player to improve their character’s attributes and unlock/improve a skill. The attributes won’t affect the gameplay but have an effect on what equipment is available. Skills are a big deal, as they affect the utility the player has.

One of the issues with designing skills is with the issue of scaling: where players will run through the game multiple times with stronger enemies. If a character has skills that do flat damage such as: “20-30 fire damage,” those skills become noticeably weaker on repeat plays. In Diablo 2, each higher difficulty boosts the stats of all enemies which made set damage skills a waste.

To combat this, the most popular way is to implement skills that scale. Many action RPGs have skills that do: “X % of weapon DPS,” where DPS stands for damage per second. Scaling allows skills to keep their viability and feeds back into loot as a motivator as now better equipment also equals more powerful skills.

Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls also had scaling but it was done differently. In both titles, various weapons had an attribute that it would scale to. For example: magic wands with intelligence, or bows with dexterity. The respective attribute would also be graded on a scale of F to S if I remember right. The better the grade the more of a bonus that attribute would apply to damage. It’s important to note that in both titles, there is a dropping off point of around 50 where the scaling will stop being as useful. This was probably done to prevent players from just power leveling through the game.

With that said, we can turn our attention to a few of the leveling formats used in action RPGs. Starting off with the most well known which is Diablo 2. Here, each character class has 3 completely unique linear skill trees. Each tree has the skills in order from top to bottom, or from lowest level to highest. While the final skill unlocks at level 30, players can continue leveling much further than that. Leveling up gives players 5 attribute points to distribute and one skill point. Skills can be improved multiple times with different boosts based on the skill.

The problem with Diablo 2′s progression comes at how the skills are unlocked. Besides having a level requirement, each skill requires a point in a previous skill on the specific tree to use. Because of that, it led to a lot of skills that are more or less a stepping stone for a better skill. For example, the Necromancer class has two skills relating to confusing enemies. The first one will cause one enemy to attack other enemies. The second one makes one enemy the target of all nearby enemies. Now in terms of utility, the latter is miles above the former, but you still need to waste a point in the former to get it.

This issue is even worse for the damage causing skills. Why would anyone use the bone teeth skill (level one necro attack spell) once they get access to bone spirit (level 30)? Interesting enough, Blizzard tried to fix this issue with a later patch that added synergy bonuses. Basically, some skills would provide bonuses to more powerful skills giving the player a reason to pump them up. While it helps, this issue is still one of the few problems with Diablo 2.

Torchlight, which was talked about in part one, fared better in terms of progression. Like Diablo 2, each character had 3 skill trees and received attribute and skill points on level up. However unlike Diablo 2, there were no prerequisite skills, instead only the player’s level was the factor. This meant that as a player, you would not need to take any skills that you didn’t want to in order to progress through the game.

There were still some skills that were better than lower level skills, but there was more utility offered compared to Diablo 2. What also helped was that many skills were built around scaling with fewer exceptions. The only real knock I have with Torchlight’s progression is that several skills are shared between the three classes, which do cut into some of the diversity.

Our last example for this post and my personal favorite progression system comes from Din’s Curse. The game begins differently in terms of character development compared to other ARPGs. At the start you can choose from either a predefined class or create a hybrid one. The difference is that a pre-made class comes with 3 skill trees, while the hybrid lets you choose any two that you want. So if you ever wanted to be an archer necromancer, this was your chance.

Each skill tree had two different types of skills. The first are proficiencies, which determine what equipment your character can wear, along with any special bonuses. Second are the actual skills you can learn over the course of your game. Like previous ARPGs the skills are arranged in order from top to bottom going from least expensive to most. The big difference is that there are no level requirements for skills, only money and skill points which are earned at level up.

Without any level requirements, it gave the player complete freedom in defining their character. Allowing them to either get several cheap skills starting out, or save up for an expensive skill. By not having to set strict limits on acquiring skills, gave the designers the option of creating more utility skills to make characters personalized. Some players may not even get the most expensive skill on their tree and instead favor improving skills from each skill tree.

Providing meaningful choices in leveling up is an important part of any good ARPG. For the next part I’ll be examining downtime in ARPGs and money sinks.

篇目4，COLUMN: @Play: Item Design, Part 1: Potions and Scrolls

October 25, 2009

By John Harris

It has been a little while…. This column is an in-depth examination of some of the most popular items within the two most-common categories: potions and scrolls, both of which we might term “one use” items for the fact that utilizing them consumes them.

Exploring a monster-filled dungeon is not what we might consider a healthy activity. If the game were just about looking around, mapping territory, and killing monsters until the player’s inevitable demise, the game might be interesting in an simplistic kind of way, but it wouldn’t have that roguelike spark. No, the player must get something out of the exploration. That something is treasure.

Treasure is the carrot held in front of the player’s face, leading him on into ever-more dangerous situations. The majority of treasure in most roguelikes is found laying around the dungeon. Some of the treasure is food, and the need to find more is what prevents the player from building levels indefinitely on the easier levels, but the good stuff is what pushes him downward. Unlike the trend in most RPGs these days, equipment is often a larger component of player power than experience level in roguelikes, and it is randomly generated.

The justification for treasure

Why is it so satisfying to find treasure? It cannot be denied that, without it, many roguelikes would be a lot less interesting. I suggest the reason that the expectation that players will find treasure, or other things and opportunities of value, in those dangerous places they explore is related to the exploration urge evolved out of humankind’s tribal pre-history. But I digress.

The randon treasure generation is the biggest scrambling factor in a roguelike. Monsters are random, but still appear in the same proportions on each level. Dungeons are random, but even with traps most of the time the maps are not themselves very interesting. But a single item of treasure, in a good roguelike, can have the power to change the game significantly, and the variety of powers they grant, intersecting with each other and the monsters and dungeons, is what allows different plays of a single roguelike to seem different from each other.

The biggest problem with giving players lots of treasure to find is in determining how powerful it should be. If it’s not powerful enough players may consider, why bother? If it’s too powerful then it’s unbalancing, and it is more the treasure that is the reason for success than the the player’s skill. It might be useful to examine the basis for treasure in the source from which RPGs arose: fantasy literature. Bilbo’s ring, for instance, enables him to overcome many of the dangers in the latter half of The Hobbit. Setting aside the ultimate identity of that ring revealed in The Lord of the Rings, a lot of the characters in that book kind of equate the ring’s powers with Bilbo himself. They say that there is something more to him than meets the eye. That thing is, literally, the ring. But he found the ring through his own wit and guile, so it does make a kind of sense to say that. And even with the ring, Bilbo is in danger and must use it wisely to escape from dungeons, dragons and wars. In other words, Bilbo’s possession of the ring is a manifestation of his ingenuity. So the treasure found in a roguelike, since it is gained by the player’s own wit and guile, is a manifestation of it, and it is the job of the designer, as creator and custodian of that world, to have it be fitting.

We’ve already given an overview of the primary types of roguelike treasure in a general article some time back. It is interesting that, although Rogue is over twenty years old now, the major item types provided by that game remain the major types used in nearly all roguelikes. This is the first of a number of columns that examines the primary types in detail. In this first column, we look at one-use items, which are used a single time and are then gone.

Disposable Magic: One-Use Items

The primary one-use item types, other than food (usually a simple case) are potions and scrolls. Some games also provide for random food items like berries and mushrooms. Shiren provides herbs, which are good for a small amount of food value when eaten, but generally function more like potions. This can be seen in the way that a good number of herbs provide special effects when thrown. ADOM has herbs which are unique in that their functions are not randomly scrambled, but are the same from game to game. (ADOM’s herbs have other unique and interesting properties however. They are one of my favorite things about that game, but they are a special case that doesn’t fit in with the general roguelike categories.)

Scrambled one-use items are among the more difficult to identify items in a standard roguelike. The biggest problem with identifying one-use items is that, once the item is gone, it isn’t there anymore. You only get once use with which to discover its purpose. And a few of these items are situationally useful, to the degree that the player may be helped considerably by using the item effectively, at the proper time or with specific preparation. And a few one-use items can cause a great deal of trouble; Rogue’s potion of blindness can be a game-ender if used at an inopportune moment.

Many games auto-ID potions and scrolls upon use, but Rogue and the Hacks do not. These games require that the item’s visible effect be detectable by the player, and are obviously the purpose of the item, before they’ll auto-identify. Some items have effects that are so obscure that they never auto-ID this way, forcing the player to either name it themselves from experience or expend an Identify scroll on it. Others only identify sometimes (like detection scrolls when there is something to detect), and some will prompt the player for a temporary name in some situations.

The one-use-only property of potions is one area where roguelikes differ from classic Dungeons & Dragons. By-the-book OD&D and 1st edition AD&D state that found magic items are unknown, but potions may be tasted and thus given a chance of identification without consuming the thing. In those games some potions have multiple uses, and others have functions that require the liquid not be drunk at all, but instead applied to an object or the skin, or in some cases the bottle merely unstoppered. The classic roguelike play style is directly inspired by these versions of D&D, and both Rogue and the Hack-like games provide for item uses beyond the basic “quaff.” In Rogue and Nethack throwing potions at monsters is an option for getting effective use even out of “bad” items. In Rogue, this may cause the item to affect the monster; in Nethack, a thrown potion breaks and may subject nearly creatures to a reduced “vapor effect.” Nethack also allows for dipping items into potions, and even mixing them together, each option of some strategic worth. Both games, also, contain Scrolls of Scare Monster, which are wasted when read. Their true value appears only while they’re resting on the floor. But even so, most potions are still meant to be drank.

There are usually many one-use items to discover in the game, and unlike random wearables (such as rings and amulets) the player usually will get a fairly substantial hint for what it does upon use, so, scrolls of identify are generally best used for other things. Significantly, identify scrolls themselves are random one-use items in most games. In many games, before any items can be identified by using them, the player must trial-and-error to discover them. Games that support selling items to shops often provide identification hints by offering items to shopkeepers, a tactic I refer to as “price ID.” The usefulness of this strategy ranges from slightly unbalanced in Nethack to nearly essential in Shiren’s Final Puzzle dungeon. Because this trick provides one of the few ways to narrow down object functions that doesn’t use the thing up or require knowledge of Identify scrolls, it is particularly useful when applied to one-use items.

What is the functional difference between the two classes?

Potions are much more likely to have an effect when thrown. The only roguelike (or roguelike series) I know that provides thrown item effects for scrolls is Shiren the Wanderer.

Potions are, basically, chemicals, and this avenues for useful non-magical potions are much greater than scrolls. For some games this is a significant difference: should a potion of magic detection locate a flask of oil? In Nethack, the most useful and potion is water. It is similarly useful in ADOM.

Potions may also be more versatile in their uses than scrolls. In addition to being thrown, it may be possible to dip items into them, or to mix then together. Nethack uses hard-coded potion mix results according to type. The Color Alchemy patch randomizes potion results, making them mix according to potion color and subtractive color mixing. ADOM puts a lot of work into its alchemy system, defining a number of mixture “recipes” randomly at the start of the game, and granting the player knowledge of them as he advances in the Alchemy skill.

While scrolls may have many varied effects, potions usually work on the subject’s physical form. Note, however, that this is not always the case; some detection effects may be implemented as scrolls, and others potions, in the same game. (D&D did this too sometimes; there is a line of potions for controlling various types of creatures. These potions work by the user drinking them; their influence then extends outward from the drinker, apparently.)

If the effect requires any further input from the player, particularly selecting an item to work on, the item will almost certainly be a scroll.

Here’s a list of some of the most notable items in the class, from various games, and their interesting properties.

Potions

… of Healing (and Extra/Full Healing, Cure Light/Moderate/Serious Wounds, and so on)

Other than weapons, potions of healing may be the most common item among all roguelike games. While most roguelike characters heal quickly (usually returning to maximum hit points after at most a hundred turns of rest), the danger presented from facing multiple opponents at once, or surviving an encounter with a single powerful monster, sometimes necessitates a way to restore hits rapidly.

One of the most interesting gameplay choices in these games is the traditional max-HP-boosting trick of healing potions. If you drink one when you’re at full health, many games will let the player push against the ceiling, giving him a tiny, permanent maximum HP increase. This seems like the better use of these potions at first, since the main method of gaining maximum hits in most games is gaining an experience level and those are rather harder to achieve, but the best move depends on your situation. Weaker healing potions are probably best quaffed for max health, especially later in the game, but the stronger ones can be so effective that they may come in handy when escaping from a superior foe, which the restrictive vision rules of Rogue make essential. Another obscure use of these potions is to instantly alleviate status effects like confusion and poisoning. Stronger types generally cure more types of these ailments. This use is of great importance in Nethack when facing certain rare, but very dangerous, Demogorgons situations.

One thing about healing potions is that giving the player an abundance of them can be less damaging to the design than you’d think. They require a turn to use, and a foe that really outclasses the player will probably put him right into trouble again with the next hit. Shiren the Wanderer has an item, the Chiropractic Jar, that instantly heals the player completely and restores most status ailments. These items have multiple charges and are not usually rare, and yet the game still has a reputation for lethality. This happens because the player must have both time to use the item, and the presence of mind to use it, and also because for their commonness they are still a limited resource, so the player tries to conserve uses. This often proves to be deadly.

… of Restore Ability

The only one of D&D’s six attributes to make it into Rogue is strength, which influences bonus damage done to monsters. The game begins players with a score of 16, and it also tracks “maximum strength,” which also starts at 16. There are monsters, traps and items in the game that can lower strength. All of these effects leave maximum strength alone. But unlike hit points, strength does not regenerate naturally over time. In Rogue, only the potion of restore ability, which resets strength to its maximum score, can undo damage done to it.

Like the danger of losing armor value, the danger of strength loss is mostly specific to a limited region of the dungeon, that which plays host to rattlesnakes, which by far cause most of its attribute damage. One consequence of Rogue’s sight rules (only one space around the player is visible in corridors and dark rooms) is that there are certain times when it is impossible to avoid taking a hit from a monster, which means sometimes strength loss is unavoidable. This makes restore ability potions fairly important.

When I say “maximum” strength, what I mean is the player’s current maximum capacity for it, which is considered to be its value when all attribute damage has been restored. Most other roguelikes provide more stats, with different functions, but they usually expand Rogue’s ability restoration potions to work on all of them.

… of Gain Strength (and other stats, and Ability)

In Rogue, a potion of gain strength increases the player’s strength score by one. If it was already equal to maximum, then both strength and maximum strength increase by a point. If the player has taken some strength damage though, then the result is that only one point is restored.

This means, if strength is later lowered, that drinking a restore ability potion will return strength to the new maximum. Having high strength is a subtle, yet significant, advantage, so it’s fairly important to save these for when the player is at max strength.

The trick to these two items lies in the inescapably of strength loss. Most characters will take at least a point of strength damage during the game, and often more. Both types of potions are generated randomly; it is possible that none of one type will appear in the game. If your strength starts getting dangerously low and you haven’t found a restore ability potion yet, is it a good idea to increase your damage done by one point by drinking a gain strength potion, or is it better to continue waiting, hoping to find a restorer to drink first? Keep in mind that the player doesn’t even know which potion is which at first, and often one potion type, poison, will drain strength. At their best, roguelike games are full of these kinds of choices.

ADOM has probably the best-developed statistic system of the major roguelikes. Whereas most games satisfy themselves with, or something like, D&D’s six stat system, ADOM has nine, and provides individual potions for improving all of them… and potions for temporarily boosting them, and potions solely for raising their maximum. (It also has the diabolical Potion of Exchange, that swaps them around. This can easily ruin your game if drank carelessly.) Additionally it has potions of Gain Attributes, which are more general but do not raise maximums. Of particularly awesome note: ADOM’s system has no hard limit on how high stats can rise, although it becomes much tougher to increase them as they go up. Interested readers are directed to the Stats chapter of the ADOM Guidebook.

… of Gain Level

Another example of a difficult choice is deciding just when to drink a potion of gain level.

As is normal for role-playing games, each experience level requires a rapidly-increasing number of experience points to earn in order to achieve it. Some games, following from old-school D&D, even use a doubling progression. Harder monsters are worth more experience points, it is true, but in many roguelikes they don’t quite keep pace with the higher point totals needed, meaning levels games come more and more slowly. Rogue, particularly, is infamous for monsters that generally get harder faster than the player gains ability. Rogue characters thus get put into ever increasing amounts of danger as they delve down, and every experience level counts.

As a consequence, the longer the player waits before drinking a potion of gain level, the more value he’ll get from it. If it’s used early, the experience points gained will be dwarfed by the amount received for killing even one monster. On the other hand, the longer you wait the less the portion of the game you’ll have made use of it, and if you get killed the advantage is lost.

… of Poison (and Sickness)

This is an example of a bad item, one that has no good primary purpose. Nearly all roguelike items have a good secondary purpose; bad potions can be thrown at enemies for example. Even the worst item can be useful if a nymph happens to steal it instead of something better. But the “usual” method of using potions, drinking them, will cause you grief if you try it with poison.

Take note, poison is not, in itself, fatal. That is a no-no in games where the player is expected to identify things through use. If the player must rely on using unknown things, then none of those things can be immediately deadly! This doesn’t mean using the item cannot be deadly if the player’s state is bad (low on strength when drinking a potion of poison), or if used in a non-standard way (zapping one’s self with a wand of death), or if a member of a very limited class of items (wearing Nethack’s amulet of strangulation, and even that can often be survived if the player prays.) Items also cannot make the game as good as lost. Rogue’s worst one-use item is the Potion of Blindness, a long-lasting potion that removes even the game’s slight one-space vision range, but it does wear off after a few hundred turns at most.

… of (something) Detection

While not obviously useful to new players, detection means are potentially one of the most useful objects in roguelikes. Monster detection allows you to choose your fights, item detection enables you to direct your exploration, and map detection points out useful escape routes. Note that detection items are in a gray area between potions and scrolls; different games allocate this power to these classes differently. Rogue has types of both! Food detection is a scroll, while magic and monster detection are potions.

… of Confusion, Blindness, Paralysis

These items are bad when drank, but sometimes good if thrown at monsters. Saying “bad” is relative to the situation; in Rogue, a potion of blindness can be useful when entering the Medusa floors.

They primarily exist as an identification foil, to add danger to identifying things by use and to make random potion drinking in moments of danger an inviable strategy. One-use items are fairly easy to identify

… of Thirst Quenching (and Water, Holy Water and Unholy Water)

Each of Rogue’s item classes has a do-nothing item, to throw off people who think all items must have some function. For scrolls it’s blank paper, and for potions it’s thirst quenching. The others are the wand of nothing and the ring of adornment. It is notable that Nethack still has all of these items, but with special uses for three of them.

Scrolls

… of Identify

The scroll of identify is, after healing, the most common of roguelike items. In many games they are also the most-often generated item.

Here is something I find very interesting. Scrolls of Identify are very common, but I am aware of no roguelike game that will purposely misidentify something. Nethack’s cursed scrolls of Identify identify fewer items, not lie to the player about what things are. D&D has dangerous objects that purposely resemble useful things, and the diabolical potion of delusion that, depending on a group’s play style, could cause the DM to lie to the player about what is happening to his character. Roguelike games, while tricky in the knowledge games they play, do not tend to go that far.

… of Enchant Weapon/Armor

These items are the scroll versions of the potion of Gain Strength. That potion increases the player’s damage-dealing abillity by increasing his physical attack bonus. The scrolls increase weapon attack bonus and decrease enemy hitting chances, while the player is using a specific piece of equipment.

All of these items improve the player’s state indefinitely. They do not expire naturally, but must be undone by enemy attack, unfortunate item use, or trap. That makes these items extremely useful. Although a single point of bonus is a rather subtle effect in a single encounter, over time the benefits are profound. If the player is lucky enough to find several of these the game will become much easier, maybe even too easy. Most games guard against this possibility by limiting how high strength can be raised, or how far an item can be enchanted. It is kind of a cheap way around the problem, since it means a whole class of item suddenly becomes useless just because the game designer thinks the player is getting too powerful, but it is frequently used.

A particular note… in Rogue, scrolls of Enchant Weapon are unusual in that they increase one of a weapons two pluses. That game distinguishes between pluses to-hit and to-damage, and the scroll decides randomly which of the two values is increased. Some Rogue variants split Enchant Weapon into two separate items. And some go the other way, and combine the Weapon and Armor scrolls into a single “Enchantment” scroll, which asks the player which item will be subject to the item’s power upon reading.

In most roguelikes, these scrolls function immediately on a relevant item in use at the time. If no weapon or armor is in use, the scroll’s effect is wasted. Nethack uses this as the basis of a subtle trap; one of its bad scrolls is that of Destroy Armor. If you’re reading unknown scrolls, you might want to wear armor in order to take advantage of an unknown Enchant Armor scroll. But what if that scroll should be Destroy Armor instead? Another possible trap, used by other games, is the scroll that asks you for an item to operate on, but that doesn’t tell you what for.

As an extra ability, these scrolls also lift curses from the item they operate on.

… of Vorpalize Weapon

What does it mean, to “vorpalize” something? No matter what one might have gleaned from its use in video gaming, vorpal is actually a nonsense word. It can be traced back to Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, where it is applied to a sword and can be assumed by context to mean powerful. Role-playing games have adopted it. although there is no consensus about what it should mean.

Rogue contains a scroll called Vorpalize Weapon. When read, it makes the player’s weapon flash violently for a moment. It applies a pretty good enchantment to the weapon, and additionally chooses one of the monsters in the game to be the weapon’s target foe. The next monster the player attacks of that type will die instantly. There is a drawback however. If the player tries to use a second Vorpalize Weapon scroll on the same weapon, it is destroyed!

The ideas here is to punish the player for being too greedy. Of course, the player doesn’t know how greedy is too greedy until he loses his weapon. In practice, this becomes another of those little things players must learn as they play, another fact that must be acquired in order to eventually win. If this seems rather a harsh way of teaching the lesson… well, Rogue really isn’t that long a game.

Nethack will destroy a weapon or a piece of armor if it is over-enchanted. When a weapon is enchanted beyond its safe limit, it vibrates warningly. A further enchantment has a very high (but not for certain) chance of destroying the weapon.

… of Confuse Monster

To a new player, this is one of the more enigmatic items in Rogue. Upon reading the only immediate effect is that the player’s hands begin to glow red. This causes the next monster the player strikes to become confused for a short while. That is all. In principle this is a powerful item, although reading it in advance of combat usually creates a risk of it being wasted on a weak monster.

… of Scare Monster

One of the most mysterious items in the game if the player doesn’t know its secret. It is also the only one that can be identified without picking it up. In fact, especially in Rogue, it is best not to pick it up until you’ve gotten at least some use out of it.

… of Genocide

The scroll of Genocide, often thought of as a Hack item, got its start in one of the later versions of Rogue. When read, it wipes out one entire type of monster from the game.

Items that powerful, in a good roguelike, will have a tradeoff, and in Rogue it is that other types of monsters become more common, to fill the generation hole left by the eliminated species. Plus, according to the Rogue Vede-Mecum at least, there is only one of these generated in a game, preventing the player from wiping out too many monsters.

… of Maintain Armor

This scroll, which prevents armor pluses from being reduced, is one of the most useful items in the game. Seriously, it is almost overpowered! It is a late addition to Rogue’s item list, appearing in V5, and it is one of the rarest items. There is a good reason that many later roguelikes do not include it.

Armor can be harmed both from enemy attack (by Rust Monsters or Aquators, depending on the version of Rogue) and from traps. One of the many little devious facts about Rogue is that even permanent advantages can usually be undone due to unwise play, or even bad luck. Getting your strength up can be undone from a single unlucky encounter with a Rattlesnake, for example. The balance between the possibility of the player getting super strong armor, from finding a suit of plate mail and a number of Enchant Armor scrolls, is that Aquators will easily weaken armor, and rust traps become progressively more common in the deeper dungeon.

These armor ruiners can be overcome by working on building an emergency set of armor (which is balanced due to the fact that it costs two turns to switch to it, and the possibility of putting in cursed armor which cannot be removed easily), by using unrustable leather armor (balanced by its being the weakest in the game), putting on a ring of Maintain Armor (balanced by increased food consumption), and reading a scroll of Maintain Armor, which… has no drawbacks.

It has no drawbacks! Except perhaps due to it only affecting a single suit, which is nowhere near as bad a drawback as the other things. If you put this on plate mail, you have just made one of the few unequivicably good decisions you can make in Rogue.

Nethack’s analogue for this is reading a scroll of Enchant Armor while confused, which provides rustproofing, and is similarly powerful (although possible to remove in rare cases). Shiren has Plating scrolls, the effect of which can be removed by a certain monster (which nearly never happens). Both are, in my opinion, subtle failures of design.

篇目5，Can I Craft That For You?

by Eric Schwarz

Though traditionally confined to RPGs and roguelikes, crafting has become a staple of modern gaming almost regardless of what genre you enjoy. Whether it’s first-person shooters like RAGE, action-adventure titles like Dead Rising or Assassin’s Creed, MMOs like World of Warcraft, or even rhythm games like Sequence, crafting is here to stay, for better or for worse. After all, games are all about choice, and just like RPG elements like experience points creeping into just about every facet of gaming, crafting is another solid way to provide that choice to players.

Even so, not all crafting systems are created equal – so much so that often reading “crafting system” amongst a list of a game’s features is enough to set off alarm bells in my head, as it’s as much a source of tedium and frustration as it is a genuine improvement. While there’s always going to be some subjectivity involved as far as the value of crafting goes, there are still very clear wrong and right ways to go about implementing such mechanics. When done right, crafting can be a positive addition to a game… and when done wrong, sometimes it’s enough to make players want to stop playing altogether.

Why Crafting?

The first question to ask before even going into the details of a crafting system at all is actually much more basic – namely, why crafting? What does crafting, mechanically, accomplish for a game? What sorts of problems does it solve, and introduce? Perhaps more to the point, does crafting fit into the overall vision of what a given game is about? Often when it comes to game mechanics, it’s not so much a question of the how as it is the why that needs to be addressed before any design work or code is written down.

Namely, what exactly does crafting do for a game?

1.Provides a sense of player agency. Just like making a hot meal for yourself instead of getting take-out, crafting in games helps players feel that they own the things they create. Even if it’s just following a recipe and there isn’t anything creative involved, the simple process of choosing to make something can often be more satisfying than simply being given the same object or item.

2.Gives a secondary use for items. A common problem with loot-driven games, especially RPGs, is that the player will end up nearly drowning in excess amounts of equipment. Usually the solution is to either sell this equipment or simply throw it away, neither of which rarely have much use in the game. Crafting helps mitigate this problem.

3.Balances in-game economies. Another side-effect of giving the player lots of junk or “vendor trash” is that often a game’s economy becomes woefully unbalanced or unstable, often to the point of completely undermining the value of money in the first place. I can’t count the number of RPGs I’ve played where I simply stopped picking up items because I already had so much money to spend and nothing to spend it on. Implementing crafting doesn’t just cut down on junk, it also helps reinforce the value of in-game money and keeps its role distinct.

4.Encourages exploration. Especially in open-world games, crafting is one of the ways in which designers can subtly get players to do and see more of the game worlds they spend so much time creating. Even if it’s just picking flowers to use in a few potions, players will want to spend time doing things and going places if they can acquire items doing so – especially if they’re useful or can’t be found elsewhere.

5.Provides better rewards. How many times have you completed a game objective and received a reward that was completely and utterly useless to you, either because mages don’t use longswords, or because the item was well below your character level? By rewarding the player with generic crafting ingredients and recipes (or unique, limited ones), players can actually receive something that’s useful, without designers needing to come up with specific rewards for every possible play-style.

6.Adds to play-time. This, unfortunately, is one of the most malicious ways in which crafting is used. Though sometimes there can be benefits in requiring players spend more time to complete a task (if something is too easy, it isn’t rewarding), the majority of games I see featuring crafting use it as a way to simply pad out the experience. More on this later.

With all that in mind, it’s worth turning attention to exactly how all of those fit into the experience intended by a specific game. All of this sounds good on paper, granted, but when put in context, sometimes it’s clear that crafting isn’t always beneficial to a game’s design. Would Super Mario 3D Land really be enhanced by the ability to craft power-ups? Does the cinematic, structured and highly scripted gameplay of Uncharted really need a system that encourages exploration? Grand Theft Auto IV is an open-world game, but does hunting down powder to make different types of bullets really fit with the vision of the designers or the immediacy of the experience?

This is all easier thought about than done, it goes without saying, and sometimes the only true test is experimentation. Even so, there are some games I’ve played where crafting feels bizarre, bolted-on and arbitrary to the experience, as if it was just thrown in there for the sake of it being included, and I think that’s largely due to a lack of scrutiny paid not just to the individual game mechanics, but to their place in the larger picture as well. There’s no “right” answers in this sort of exercise, but what it does do is highlight whether or not crafting is a good fit for a game, or if those resources would be better spent elsewhere – and in more cases than not, the answer is “yes.”

Crafting Skills

More specific to RPGs is the inclusion of crafting skills in gameplay, which exist to limit the player’s ability to craft in a way other than denial of resources. Much like the basic “why crafting?” question, the “why skills?” question is also of the utmost importance for ensuring whether or not a crafting system works in a given game. Even in cases where crafting fits in, the specifics, usually relating to skills, can often be over- or under-developed.

As above, when considering crafting skills it’s important to ask these questions:

How does skill progression work? Does the player level up crafting separate from other skills in the game, or is the development of those skills integrated deeply into the standard gameplay?

How long does it take to level crafting? Is it something that requires a big time investment, such as gaining enough XP, or does the investment come from other parts of the game, like collecting money or crafting resources?

How are skill levels structured? Are there only a few skill levels with big benefits, or are the levels incremental with relatively small improvements each step?

Is crafting static or customizable? That is, is crafting a system that adheres to the same rules for all players, or do players customize their available options by, for instance, specializing in crafting certain types of items?

What sort of information about crafting skills is exposed to the player? Do they get to see all the minute details of the mechanics, or are they hidden in order to encourage experimentation and to create a more organic notion of improvement?

How many crafting skills does the player have? Are they mutually exclusive, i.e. only one crafting skill per player, or can the player become an expert at crafting anything in the game?

Do crafting skills compete for attention with other skills? Does the player have to, for instance, sacrifice combat ability to become a better blacksmith, or is every player guaranteed competence with at least one profession?

Some of these questions might seem a bit obvious, and admittedly they’re the sort of thing that gets hammered out during development, but it is absolutely integral to answer them as early on as possible. These sorts of choices dictate the nature of a crafting system; leaving them to be figured out over time or through experimentation is setting up that system for imbalance, poor cohesion with the rest of the game, and eventually, outright failure. These questions are second only to the fundamental one of whether to have any crafting to begin with.

Crafting and Grinding

As I mentioned above, crafting is, much more often than I’d like, used in order to pad out a game and extend it beyond its worth. Much like in Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy, where often the player has to take time out to perform repetitive battles in order to defeat a boss monster, crafting, in its lowest and most malicious implementation, can be used to restrict the player’s way through the game by forcing the replay of the same game content over and over, and is even sometimes responsible for outright ruining a game’s pacing and flow.

Talking about grinding is a hard thing, however. As I said above, sometimes a little bit of grinding can be to a game’s benefit. Too much of it grows frustrating, but especially if it’s optional content that isn’t necessary to complete the game, grinding can give extra-dedicated players the sense of mastery over the game that they live for. Moreover, some players even enjoy the act of grinding itself – perhaps because it represents a sort of “safe zone” where the player doesn’t have to contend with any new game mechanics or story elements, or even because it leads to a sort of “grinding zen.” Quantifying exactly what the right amount is, both necessary and optional, is a very subjective thing.

Team Fortress 2′s crafting system is extensive, but has begun to receive more emphasis than the core game itself.

Even so, it’s fair to say that there is such a thing as too much grinding, and that extends to crafting as well as anywhere else. One game, I think, that perhaps takes the crafting grind to absolute extremes is Team Fortress 2, so much so that it has turned both myself and several friends of mine off from playing the game altogether. Even though it’s a multiplayer-focused game intended to be played for years, with the crafting itself almost a metagame on top of it, the amount of emphasis given to crafting both by the developers and the community borders on absurd.

For the purposes of illustration, let me break down the process behind crafting a rare item, the Sharpened Volcano Fragment. This assumes that the player already knows how, of course.

1.To start, we need Scrap Metal. Scrap Metal is created by combining 2 weapons from the same character class.

2.Next, we need Reclaimed Metal. Reclaimed Metal is made up of 3 Scrap Metals, which means that we need to collect 6 weapons.

3.Now comes Refined Metal. Refined Metal requires, you guessed it, 3 Reclaimed Metals. We’re up to a total of 18 weapons to hoard up.

4.The Sharpened Volcano Fragment needs 2 pieces of Refined Metal. That’s 36 weapons in total so far.

5.Last, the Refined Metal needs to be combined with an Axtinguisher, another Pyro weapon… relatively rare, but considering we’ve burned through 36 items already, perhaps not too big a deal.

Of course, this is being optimistic and assuming that the player is a) going to keep all the weapons he/she finds for crafting purposes and b) going to find exactly the needed items. More realistically, the player is going to need two or three times the 36 weapons needed. Now, owing to some intrepid fans of the game, it’s been estimated that most players will find a new item every two or three hours of gameplay, and that on average, players can only obtain about eight to ten new items per week. This means that, at minimum, you’re looking at about 80 to 100 hours of gameplay just to craft this one weapon. Speaking realistically, however, it could easily take 250+ hours just to assemble the raw materials needed.

Granted, this particular item is an extreme example, and most in the game don’t require players to become zealots of the Church of Hats – though 15 hours is fairly standard if you’re content to craft random items and fill your inventory with more junk. Still, it serves to highlight just how absurd a time investment is required – and expected of players, both by the developers and community, to sample all that Team Fortress 2 has to offer. Given that you’ll need to give up your day job for the sake of crafting, it’s no wonder that players are willing to simply shell out real money to get their hands on the items. Somewhere, Gabe Newell is rubbing his palms together and laughing maniacally.

Good Crafting: Case Study

After that rather depressing overview of Team Fortress 2, I’d like to take some time to gush over a game that actually gets crafting right. Risen, developed by Piranha Bytes, is effectively a reboot of the Gothic series, and shares many of the franchise’s strengths, from an open world and punishing but fair difficulty curve. It also has one of the best crafting systems I’ve seen in a modern game, especially when compared to similar games in the genre, like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The first thing Risen does right is that it shows incredible restraint in its crafting system: there are just four crafting skills – Alchemy, Smithing, Prospecting, and Gut Animals – and only two of those can be leveled up more than once. Leveling up crafting draws from the same pool of learning points all other skills require, and it must be done at the hands of a skill trainer. Skill trainers cost money to employ, and gold is rather rare in Risen, especially earlier on. Despite the limited number of skill levels, those skills provide large benefits for every new level gained, including new potions to brew and weapons to forge.

What?! I can’t level my skills to 100? What kind of crafting system is this?

Due to the scarcity of items in the game, crafting takes on a different role than most others. Whereas in some it’s just a cheaper way to get health packs, in Risen it’s outright required for many of the best items in the game, from potions that permanently boost stats, to powerful swords. In order to craft, raw materials must be hunted down, and their numbers are finite. Many of the best ingredients can only be gained by defeating powerful enemies, or by exploring the darkest and most distant dungeons. Thus, crafting isn’t just a matter of putting puts into a skill and hitting a button, it’s about venturing into the game world and putting your in-game life in danger.

The risk-versus-reward element doesn’t end there. Risen is a deviously difficult game, and early on, death is often swift and almost impossible to avoid when going against certain enemies. It’s only through training, mastery of combat and acquisition of better gear that the player even stands a chance against the more challenging enemies. Because of the challenge, the player is presented with a very real dilemma: go for the combat skills and ensure survivability out in the wilds, or put points and money into crafting to gain access to powerful healing potions otherwise unavailable, or new equipment? Both health items and gear are hard to come by in Risen, and the trade-off between those two and the combat skills is a compelling one.

Last, what Risen’s crafting system highlights most of all, both about crafting and more generally about mechanics, is that context is everything. All the levels, recipes, ingredients, perks and so on in the world mean absolutely nothing if the decision to pursue crafting isn’t relevant, interesting, valid or rewarding to the player. Even though the system is just about as bare-bones as it gets, the crafting is compelling because of all the other elements of gameplay around it. It’s often true in game design that less is more, and Risen’s crafting is proof of that.

Conclusion

When implemented effectively, crafting can enhance a game in subtle ways, both deepening the gameplay experience and providing the player with options in overcoming challenges, customizing his or her character, and exploring the game world. However, it is worth reiterating that crafting, as trendy as it is these days, is not a guaranteed way to improve a game. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and that assumes that crafting is a fit for a particular game in the first place. Game design is often a process of throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks, but I think crafting might be one of those cases where that mentality doesn’t work.

I, for one, am hoping to see crafting fade from popularity, due to my own fatigue with the mechanics and because it’s something that simply doesn’t belong everywhere. I enjoy it when put in the right context, but the fact is that seeing it thrown into just about every genre of game imaginable really cheapens the mechanic, and ultimately ends up damaging many of the games it’s shoehorned into. To be blunt, if it can’t be done right, then don’t do it at all – there are better things to spend time, money and labor on.