[2022] Dev Discussion #41 - RNG

Originally posted by Apocrisy

I enjoy occasionally if certain select bosses have RNG in their skill rotations, so you have an element of unpredictability. I think "RNG progressed" gathering professions, which would increase in chance of success with proficiency, is an acceptable area for RNG also. RNG is also nice in something like an in game casino.

Originally posted by Leonerdo5

I heavily believe in a principle I learned from Riot: RNG is only fun if you can do something about it.

They call this "input randomness," meaning players can be put into different situations based on RNG, and then they can adjust how they approach it. The randomness happens before the player acts on it (or perhaps between actions), so they can respond and still succeed (or mitigate failure) even if they get "bad RNG".

On the other hand, "output randomness" just changes the results of your actions. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, there's nothing you can do about it. Critical strikes in a fast-paced engagement are the typical example. If you crit, you can two-shot your target, and if not, you die instead. You perform the same actions, but you win or lose based on RNG.

So, applying this to MMO combat, we might get something like: Random procs can be good, but only if you (and your opponent) can play around them and have time to react/adjust. Like if a proc lets you use a certain ability which your opponent can dodge, that's cool. But if it's just free damage, that's not very interesting or fun for either side. (Although there are many levels of "free", so this is open to interpretation.)

Applying it to loot: RNG loot can be fun if most of the options are useful in someway. For example, if you can get different gear pieces that are equally powerful, but they enchance different aspects of your kit. But if there's only one good piece of gear you want, and everything else gets scrapped, I'd rather remove the RNG and just get the One Good Item reliably.

Materials drops are another good example: If each material gets used in different recipes/professions, or you trade them with different people, that's good, you can use them differently. However, if all of the materials just go to the same market place, then every material is basically just an RNG # of gold, like a scratch-off ticket.

And one final rule of thumb: if I'm trying to do one specific thing (e.g. enchant an item to it's maximum), and RNG makes it take a random amount of time, without adding a significant amount of novel gameplay, that's trash. Time is the most valuable thing in a game, don't put an RNG system in charge of it!