Strategic Locations

Areas in game worlds that are advantageous to control or have access to.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Their value can be that they contain game elements that allow certain actions or resources unavailable elsewhere, or that they control the access to other areas of the Game World.

Examples

The player who controls the center of the game board in Chess, especially with officers, has a significant strategic advantage. Similarly, controlling corners in Go are strategically important in the beginning of game instances. In other Strategy Games, controlling locations that produce valuable resources make them Strategic Locations. In Diplomacy only a few locations provide players with armies and are therefore vital for winning the game, while controlling cities in the Civilization series are of long-term strategic value. Besides the resources produced and the population of locations, Europa Universalis 3 makes some locations more strategically important by providing benefits to players controlling them, e.g. trade income bonuses for controlling the Bosporus or increased amount of yearly missionaries and prestige for controlling Jerusalem as a Christian or Muslim state.

Not only the location of weapons, power-ups, vehicles, etc. are Strategic Locations in First-Person Shooters such as Quake and Unreal Tournament series, but also where players spawn, good sniping positions, and where choke points exist. For the Battlefield series and Quake Wars: Enemy Territories gameplay typically revolve around controlling certain goal areas which also are Strategic Locations.

While all positions for villages and cities in Settlers of Catan can produce resources, some are better due to what resources are produced and the likelihood for them to be produced.

Using the pattern

Strategic Locations may be created either explicit by the presence of game elements or implicit deriving from the relationship between the location and other locations in the game. Game Elements that can create explicit Strategic Locations include Chargers, Controllers, Installations, Resource Generators, Resource Locations, Safe Havens, Self-Service Kiosks, and Spawn Points. To ensure players' awareness of Strategic Locations, they can be set to stand out through Diegetically Outstanding Features. Implicit Strategic Locations may be intentionally created by the arrangement of explicit Strategic Locations nearby, or they may be emergent features due to Randomness of Resource Locations.

Games using player constructed boards from Tiles allow the players to modify the value of explicit Strategic Locations by placing them in positions where their relationship to other Tiles increase or decrease their usability. Similarly, Tiles with no inherent value can be made Strategic Locations by connecting them to other Tiles in a certain way.

A player might Gain Information about Strategic Locations as a Supporting Goal with Traverse, Guard, or Reconnaissance. It can be the primary subgoal in goals of Exploration. Knowing Strategic Locations can also influence Spawning, if players have control over which Spawn Points to use.

In either case, Strategic Locations can affect Player Balance, typically by giving advantages in Combat.

Choke Points

Can Be Instantiated By

Game Items, Inaccessible Areas, Strategic Planning, Tools, Vehicles

Interface Aspects

For games using Mini-Maps, Strategic Locations can be shown on these to help players locate the locations even when they cannot be directly observed through the main game interface.

Consequences

Strategic Locations gives players the possibility of Memorizing valuable locations in Game Worlds and Levels as Strategic Knowledge. This is especially true for Strategic Locations that depend mainly on the topology of the surrounding Game Worlds for their values, rather than on the explicit presence of valuable game elements. An example of how topology dictates that value of a location is the value of the central area of the board in Chess.

Strategic Locations leads to players having Traverse goals to reach the locations, which may become Races if several Agents are competing to reach them. Camping can occur when Strategic Locations have been reached as a way to deny other access. If the locations can be owned in games, i.e. they support Territories, Strategic Locations also give rise to Gain Ownership goals achievable through Area Control or other actions that provide Ownership of parts of the Game World.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Camping, Gain Ownership, Memorizing, Strategic Knowledge, Traverse

Can Modulate

Game Worlds, Levels, Territories

Can Be Instantiated By

Chargers, Choke Points, Controllers, Game Items, Goal Points, Inaccessible Areas, Installations, Power-Ups, Races, Resource Locations, Resource Generators, Safe Havens, Self-Service Kiosks, Spawn Points, Strategic Planning, Tools, Vehicles

Randomness together with Resource Locations

Can Be Modulated By

Diegetically Outstanding Features, Mini-maps

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

An updated version of the pattern Strategic Locations that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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