New Abilities

The event of gaining new abilities during gameplay that allows for new actions to be performed.

Many games provide players with additional actions that they can perform after they have started playing. These New Abilities give players more freedom in the game and allow them to be more empowered as gameplay continues.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Example: Roleplaying games that use character levels often, especially to wizard or cleric character classes, award players with new spell-casting abilities. Other examples of new abilities include new forms of attack for fighters and new stealth possibilities for thieves.

Example: Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory allows players to gain experience in several different skills during game play. When players "level up" in a skill, they gain new abilities connected to that skill, e. g., being able to call air strikes based on observation with binoculars, fully reviving team mates with health injections, or having more ammunition in supply packs.

Example: Becoming a zombie in Zombiepox does not automatically mean game over, since players can cure their Avatars by finding brains. However, the players' Avatars have the ability to spread the zombie disease just like other zombies, which does not aid in player success.

Dragon Age series

Dungeon & Dragons

Using the pattern

Besides what Abilities should be given, the primary design choices for New Abilities lies in if the Abilities are linked to specific Focus Loci or to the players in general, if players can affect what Abilities is gained, and if the Abilities gained are Temporary Abilities due to having Time Limits.

. Further, the New Ability may be the cause of a Reward or the result of an Investment.

When New Abilities are linked to Units or Characters, they may be in the form of Chargers or Power-Ups that give temporary effects with Time Limits, or they may be in the more permanent form of Tools. Tools may allow a Transfer of Control of the New Ability and may have limited numbers of uses due to Limited Resources.

Linking New Abilities to Characters is not much different that linking them to players, unless the ability can be lost with the loss of Lives. Giving the New Abilities to Units increases the value of individual Units of the type that received the ability and can create Orthogonal Unit Differentiation.

When players can influence what New Abilities they gain, this gives Freedom of Choice to the players and makes Planned Character Development possible. In games with Team Play, this also allows Team Development and player-directed Orthogonal Unit Differentiation.

Like Privileged Abilities, New Abilities can affect Player Balance negatively. This may be countered by the Balancing Effects of linking the New Abilities to Ability Losses of another type, forcing players to perform Risk/Reward and Tradeoff choices. Another way to provide a Balancing Effect is to have the New Ability as part of a set of Budgeted Action Points, which means that use of the New Ability is done instead of using an existing one.

which quite many Power-Ups are examples of.

Can Be Instantiated By

Companions, Controllers, Equipment, Evolving Rule Sets, Privileged Movement, Quick Returns, Time Limits, Tools, Varying Rule Sets, Weapons

Capture together with Transfer of Control

Can Be Modulated By

Budgeted Action Points, Factions, Privileged Abilities,

Having diseases and the ability to spread them is an example of how a New Ability can be a Penalty. Role Reversal events often give players New Abilities while at the same time imposing Ability Losses of existing ones.

The difference between New Abilities and Improved Abilities can be defined in several different ways: if the new action is activated in the same way as the old, if the consequences of the action affect different parts of the game state, or if the explanation given by the Alternative Reality differentiates them. New Abilities, unless present in other game elements or part of Predefined Goals, fits less well with a Consistent Reality Logic than Improved Abilities.

Can Instantiate

Ammunition, Character Defining Actions, Environmental Effects,

Can Modulate

Avatars, Power-Ups, Units

Consequences

New Abilities - quite obviously - give players new Abilities in games. They do this through changing what action the players' Focus Loci, e.g. Avatars, Characters, and Units, can do. The ability to have more influence over the game state makes goals of acquiring New Abilities into implicit if not explicit Supporting Goals of Gain Ability, Gain Ownership of Tools, or acquiring new Competence Areas - Power-Ups are examples of game elements that make these goals explicit especially since the New Abilities also typically are Privileged Abilities. As they give players increased Freedom of Choice and the New Abilities may be Privileged Abilities, receiving them is almost always considered a Reward and can give players the feeling of Empowerment. This may give players an Exaggerated Perception of Influence even if no actual influence exist, as in the cases where Red Queen Dilemmas exist due to the New Abilities are matched by New Abilities of Enemies.

Giving New Abilities as the gameplay unfolds can help players have Smooth Learning Curves and provides a means to support Varied Gameplay over a game session. New Abilities given to Characters are a form of Character Development (and if the Abilities are chosen these choices can be seen as Character Defining Actions) and likewise a form of Abstract Player Construct Development when given to Abstract Player Constructs. In games with Teams, New Abilities also creates Team Development and possibly Functional Roles through Competence Areas. This Abstract Player Construct or Character Development can in turn provide the development of Paper-Rock-Scissors and Red Queen Dilemmas structures but also problems with Player Balance (and Team Balance in games with Teams).

New Abilities can provide Balancing Effects when who they are given to and what actions are given is based upon players' current gameplay ranking.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Abstract Player Construct Development, Ammunition, Balancing Effects, Character Defining Actions, Character Development, Competence Areas, Empowerment, Environmental Effects, Exaggerated Perception of Influence, Gain Ability, Privileged Abilities, Red Queen Dilemmas, Rewards, Supporting Goals, Varied Gameplay

with Ability Losses =

Risk/Reward and Tradeoff

with Comptence Areas and Teams

Functional Roles

with Power-Ups

Gain Ability, Privileged Abilities

with Teams

Team Development

with Time Limits

Temporary Abilities

with Tools

Gain Ownership

Can Modulate

Abilities, Abstract Player Constructs, Avatars, Characters, Focus Loci, Freedom of Choice, Power-Ups, Units

with Abstract Player Construct Development or Character Development

Paper-Rock-Scissors,

Can Be Instantiated By

Companions, Controllers, Equipment, Evolving Rule Sets, Gain Ability, Privileged Movement, Quick Returns, Time Limits, Tools, Varying Rule Sets, Weapons

Capture together with Transfer of Control

Can Be Modulated By

Budgeted Action Points, Balancing Effects, Factions, Privileged Abilities, Time Limits

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Player Balance, Team Balance

History

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

Acknowledgements

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