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阐述游戏中的作弊技巧类型及特点

发布时间:2013-05-04 10:04:33 Tags:,,,

作者:Joram Wolters

本文中的“Cheesing”,是指玩家在游戏中投机取巧,利用游戏机制或使用亚策略思路占游戏敌人(如NPC)或对手玩家的便宜。

游戏中的cheesing对玩家的敏捷度和运气要求较低,但玩家必须对游戏机制以及对手玩家有更深刻的了解,即找出游戏底层经济、技能树、AI或其他玩家的弱点,然后滥用这些软肋。

1、亚策略

metagame(from gamasutra)

metagame(from gamasutra)

在《星际争霸》中,最为人熟知的cheesing大概就是,亚策略思路。亚策略思路是指利用游戏之外的知识来影响游戏。大多数这类cheesing就是猜测对手玩家的想法。例如,《星际争霸》中的许多战术的重点是在必要的地点得到必要的增援部队。这个必要地点完全取决于在正常游戏模式下玩家建立基地、建筑和单位的位置。无经验的玩家总是期待他们的对手按一般方式建立基地。而大部分使用cheesing的玩家却不会按理出牌,他们会把建筑建在自己的基地外面,或甚至建在敌人的基地内。

亚策略是一种读懂对手心理,或预测多人模型下的大趋势的技术。倒不是说超游戏不能破解单人模式。通过亚策略破解单人模式主要是以预测趋势为重点。所谓的趋势可以是游戏本身的或游戏内部的趋势。例如,大多数游戏老手都知道,如果他们得到一种强力武器,意味着一次非常困难的挑战即将来临。努力寻找游戏中的类似的情境和叙述手法,这样你就可以发现这些趋势,从而加以利用。

2、扎营

camping(from gamasutra)

camping(from gamasutra)

另一种cheesing的形式是扎营,这个做法很普遍。其中一种变体就是,在多人竞技模式下,玩家躲在一个地方,杀死靠近他的任何人。扎营太常见了,我就不再进一步解释了。

3、经济投机

crafting(from gamasutra)

crafting(from gamasutra)

这是一个相当广泛的话题,我觉得足够自成一篇文章了,但我尽量概括吧。

cheesing的一种更复杂的形式是“经济投机”,也就是,玩家通过尽快获取不合理数量的游戏金钱,以打破游戏的平衡。归根到底,这与打经验一样,但后者仍然有自己的表现特点。

如果你想通过经济投机打败游戏,那么你应该留心所有能产生正常收入的东西。你应该总是升级能增加额外收入的道具或技术。我认为,这种经济投机可能有效地破坏《孤岛惊魂3》、《黑道圣徒3》和《幽浮:未知敌人》的平衡。在这三款游戏中,我在游戏接近尾声前就升级了所有武器和技能。游戏设计师通过将你能购买的武器或可以使用的技能与你的进度直接相关,有效地抑制了这种cheesing。他们不知道的是,这些限制办法通常还不够强大。如果只有可用时才能购买武器和使用技能,最终解锁它们时,玩家并不会得到相同程度的喜悦。

经济投机的另一种没那么高效的形式是,操纵游戏市场(这个做法在最近的游戏中完全失效了)。这个形式有两个做法,一种要求多花时间少花精力,另一种要求多花精力少花时间。

第一种办法,就是捡起你看到的任何东西,然后随时买掉。即使你捡到的东西可能几乎一文不值,但它们通常不太占重量。这个做法最适合用在能够瞬间传送回城的游戏中,如《暗黑》或《神界》。虽然不太体面,但效率惊人。如果你不介意在游戏如《辐射》或《天际》中带着这么多累赘慢慢走,那么你会得到相当体面的结果。

操纵市场的另一种更高效的办法是,积极寻找在一个商店中比在另一个商店中更有价值的物品,然后想办法利用这个机制。例如,在《天际》中,有一个小贩卖的铁非常便宜,而附近的另一个小贩以相当高的价钱收购铁手套。你可以廉价地买进铁,做成铁手套,然后卖掉;用得来的钱再买铁做手套,如此重复。通常有现成的系统来限制这种行为。例如,在《天际》中,这些商店限制库存且每天只进货一次。我还喜欢这些游戏中的睡眠功能。这种操纵市场的行为除了挣钱,还有另一个作用,我将在下文中解释。类似于经济投机的就是利用手艺机制。游戏如《巫师》、《上古卷轴》和甚至《孤岛惊魂3》允许玩家制作自己更需要的药水。另外,这么做讲究耐心,因为你要花很多时间收集相当多的制作材料。

4、经验和技能cheese

skill tree(from gamasutra)

skill tree(from gamasutra)

说到使用技能或道具来促进经济投机,总是让我想到协同作用,也就是寻找能够产生相互作用的道具和技能。比如,你有一把每次命中敌人时都会促进HP恢复的剑,如果你还有一个攻击速度随HP恢复而提高的技能,两者搭配效率就相当高了。《万智牌:旅法师的决斗》或《暗黑3》的玩家应该相当熟悉这个概念。

将手艺作为技能的游戏还有一个很酷的地方就是,重复制作会提高手艺的熟练度(游戏邦注:如上述的市场例子,或在《上古卷轴》中的制作药水),这就进一度干扰了游戏平衡。

我最后要简要解释的是“单点”和“散点”。单点是指将你的所有经验点、技能点加在一种属性或技能上。一开始,这种培养办法似乎大错特错,但到游戏的后期,你会发现你几乎无敌了。散点与单点相反,也就是你不能只点单一属性或技能树。通常来说,散点是比较好的。

5、欺骗AI

tricking AI(from gamasutra)

tricking AI(from gamasutra)

在游戏中欺骗AI的技巧是,忘记真人的行为,专注于你感知到的AI敌人的行为。留心AI在不同情形下的反应,然后在其他情形下使用你的发现结果。

游戏AI的主要问题是侦查、寻径和记忆,我简单地介绍如下:

侦查在游戏中的表现通常有点奇怪。有时候,你站在AI面前,它也不为所动;有时候你站在1200米开外,它也能马上发现你(捉弄《孤岛惊魂3》的“战士”真是一大乐事)。记住,AI受游戏规则的控制,而不受其他任何真实情况的制约。破坏AI感知力的常见情况是:AI有两种感知模式,一个声音范围,另一个是视线范围。一开始,这两个范围都很小。AI能保持一定数量的状态,如闲散、好奇、警觉和战斗。取决于AI所处的状态,这两个范围会发生巨大的变化。如果没有新事件发生,大多数AI会默认从其他状态恢复到闲散状态。这就产生了一种投机取巧的杀敌办法:干掉一个守卫,保持低调,再杀下一个。

寻径是所有AI程序员的痛苦之源。我从来没有见过在游戏中有什么东西比寻径更常出错的了。以下是我破坏《暗黑3》的寻径的例子:大多数寻径投机做法就是,让你的角色处于一个AI可见的地点,但接近你的道路很远。可怜的寻径解析器会保证AI接触不到你。通常会有一个你能够以AI做不到的方式跳进去的地点。当你用远程武器攻击近战敌人时,这个做法就管用了。因为这个技巧,我在《求生之路2》中获得不少成就,也让我在《天际》中早早就收拾掉猛犸和巨人。

记忆仍然使玩家感到困惑不解。我曾听说许多玩家对自己被AI完全忘记感到惊讶。我在“侦查”部分已经指出其核心问题了。简单的解决办法就是,使AI默认回到“警觉”状态,而不是“闲散”状态。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Breaking Games Part II: Cheesing

by Joram Wolters

Abusing game mechanics or using meta game thinking to achieve an advantage over game enemies such as NPC’s or other players.

Cheesing is something that requires less dexterity and luck than OTM, and more of a deeper understanding of the game’s mechanics, and any opposing players. It’s about finding weaknesses in the game’s underlying economy, skill-tree, AI or other players and abusing these.

1. Meta Game Cheese

Most popularly known in the Star Craft games, where most cheese is a form of meta-game thinking. Meta game thinking is using knowledge from outside the game to influence the game. Most cheeses in Star Craft work on the assumption that the opposing player makes assumptions. For instance, a lot of the tactics in SC revolve around getting reinforcements at the location where you need them. This is all based on the normal model of play where players build a base and they build all their buildings and units at that base. Inexperienced players will always expect their opponent to display this typical behavior. That’s why most cheese in Star Craft revolves around placing buildings outside your own base, or even inside an enemy’s base.

Meta game cheese is the art of reading your opponents mind, or of being very aware of large trends in the game’s multiplayer (also commonly referred to as ‘the meta game’). This isn’t to say that meta-game cheesing won’t help you break single player games though. Breaking single player games by meta game thinking revolves a lot around being aware of trends again. These can be trends either within the game itself or within games in general. For instance, most experienced players will know that if they’ve just been given a powerful weapon for the first time in a game, a very difficult challenge is probably just around the next bend. Try to be aware of similar situations and narrative devices being used in games so you can become aware of these trends and then abuse them to your benefit.

2. Camping

Another form of cheesing which is very popular is camping, this well-known variety is when players in competitive multiplayer games stay in one place and kill anyone who comes close to them. As camping is a pretty familiar term, I will not describe it further here.

3. Eco-cheese

A fairly extensive subject which I think might warrant it’s own article, but I’ll try and keep it short.

A more complex form of cheesing is ‘eco-cheese’, where you upset the game’s balance by acquiring an absurd amount of in-game money as soon in the game as possible. Doing the same with XP boils down to pretty much the same thing, but it still gets its own segment further down.

If you want to break a game through eco-cheese, be mindful of anything that generates a regular income. Always go for upgrades or items which give a percentage bonus on your income. Eco-cheese of this or similar kind effectively ruined Far Cry 3, Saints Row: the third and XCOM: Enemy Unknown for me. In all three games I was maxed out on available gear and skills well before the games’ ends. Game designers have become pretty effective  in limiting eco-cheese by linking the weapons you can buy or skills you can use directly to how far you’ve progressed in the narrative. What they don’t understand is that these limitations are usually not strong enough. If you can buy all the weapons and skills you want as soon as they become available, you’ll never be as delighted to have finally unlocked them.

A less effective form of eco-cheese – one that has lost nearly all of its effectiveness in recent games – is playing the market game. There are two forms of this, one of which requires less effort but more time and the latter requiring more effort but less time.

The first method is to simply pick up EVERYTHING  you encounter, and sell it whenever you can. Even though the objects you’ll be picking up are worth nearly nothing, they usually nearly have no weight. This works best in games where you get to teleport back to towns, like Diablo or Divine Divinity. Not very elegant, but you’d be surprised how effective it can be. If you don’t mind walking around at a slow pace because of over encumbrance in games like Fallout or Skyrim, you’ll get pretty decent results.

The more efficient method of playing the market is to actively find out which items are more valuable at one store than the other, and then find a way to abuse this mechanic. For instance in Skyrim, there’s a vendor where iron is really cheap, and a vendor close by where you can sell iron gloves at a reasonably high price. You can buy the iron cheap, craft iron gloves, sell them, walk back, buy iron with the profits and repeat. There is often a system in place which is supposed to limit this behavior. For instance in Skyrim, the shops have limited stock and restock only once a day. I love how these games usually also have a sleeping feature *hint hint*.  Doing this run serves a double purpose, as I’ll be discussing in the next segment. Something akin to eco-cheese is the abuse of any type of crafting mechanism. Games like the witcher, every Elder Scrolls game and even Far Cry 3 (again) where you are allowed to craft potions yourself are prone to be vulnerable to this. Again, this approach takes a lot of patience, as you’ll be spending a lot of time collecting pretty much every craftable resource, or very many of a specific kind.

04. XP and Skill-Cheese.

When it comes to using skills or items to further benefit your eco-cheese, always strive for synergy! Try and find items and skills which influence each other, or better yet, influence each others influence over each other. Having a sword which gives you HP every time you hit something suddenly becomes very effective when you have a skill which increases the attack speed every time you gain health. Players of Magic: the gathering or Diablo III should be well-familiar with the concept.

The cool part about games where crafting is a skill is that by any type of repeated crafting you’re doing (such as the market example above, or crafting potions in Elder Scrolls) will train your crafting skill, further upsetting the games’ balance.

The last tip I’ll leave you with is a brief explanation on ‘solo-statting’ and ‘dump-statting’. Solo-statting is expending all your XP points, skill slots or whathaveyou on a single stat or skill. Usually this will go horribly wrong right in the beginning, kind of even out after a while and near the game’s end you’ll be completely overpowered. Dump-statting is the opposite practice, where you completely ignore a single stat or skill-tree. The latter is nearly always a good practice.

05. Tricking the AI

The trick to tricking the AI in games is to forget everything you know about real-people behavior and to exclusively focus on the behavior you perceive in the AI enemies. Take notes of how AI agents respond to different situations and try to apply your findings in other situations.

The main problems for game AI’s are Detection, Pathing and Remembering, I’ll cover the three briefly.

Detection is something which is usually kind of weird in games. One time it could be that you are right in front of agents without being spotted, the next moment they’ll find you instantly when you sniper one from 1200 meters with a silenced sniper (playing FC3 on ‘warrior’ is great fun). Try to remember that the AI is governed by game rules, not by anything real. The usual breakdown of an AI agents perception is something like this: The agent has two modes of perception, a sphere for sound and a raycast (straight lines) for vision. The sphere and raycast start out very small. The AI agent can hold a number of states, for instance Idle, Curious, Alerted and In Combat. The sphere and raycast will change size dramatically depending on which state the agent currently occupies. Most AI agents will default back to Idle after having had a certain state for a while without anything new happening. This allows for the infamous cheese where you kill off a guard, lay low for a while, kill the next one, etc.

Pathing is the bane of all AI programmers. I have never seen anything go wrong in games more often than pathing. Here’s an example of me breaking Diablo III’s pathing: Most pathing cheeses involve getting your character in a spot where the AI can see you, but the road to getting to you is far away. Poor pathing solvers will ensure the agent can’t get to you. Often there are spots where you can jump on something in a manner which the AI can’t follow. The AI agent will try an alternative (longer) route to get to you. You jump down, the AI takes the long way around again, you jump on the thing again etc. This will help in any case where you have a ranged weapon against melee opponents. This trick got me many achievements in Left4Dead(2) and allowed me to beat mammoths and giants way too early in Skyrim.

Remembering is something which still causes a little cognitive dissonance with players. I’ve heard many upon many players express their amazement at how they had been completely forgotten by the AI. I’ve covered the core of the problem at the ‘Detection’ section. An easy fix for it would be to have AI agents default back to the ‘Alerted’ state, instead of them going full on Idle.

To compensate for the lenght of this article I’ll conclude the series with a shorter article next time: Using hacks, mods and console commands.(source:gamasutra)


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