Concept
Transitive balance
You might say: better costs more
In a transitive relationship, one option is stronger in the same role, so its cost must account for its greater benefit.
- What it does
- Balances vertical upgrades and stronger versions of similar parts.
- Ask
- What complete cost offsets this option's extra benefit?
Sources
- Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 16: Game Balance
technically referred to as a transitive relationship
- Ian Schreiber, Level 3: Transitive Mechanics and Cost Curves, transitive relationships and cost curves
In transitive games, some things are just flat out better than others in terms of their in-game effects, and we balance that by giving them different costs
- Ian Schreiber, Level 3: Transitive Mechanics and Cost Curves, This Week’s Topic; Costs and Benefits; Cost Curves
In transitive games, some things are just flat out better than others in terms of their in-game effects, and we balance that by giving them different costs
- Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 16: Game Balance, Three Ways to Balance Game Objects: transitive relationships and cost curves
technically referred to as a transitive relationship
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Transitive balance" (transitive-balance) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/game-design/ against my project
Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.
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