Two buzzwords one is bound to stumble upon when dealing with online games are “power creep” and “ability bloat.” We’re going to concentrate on ability bloat today, but since these two design phenomena often go hand in hand, it’s important to explain what they both are. Power creep refers to new features gradually being introduced to characters, specializations, or items while either a) making those without the new powers obsolete or b) drastically changing the balance of the game in a potentially negative way. A simple example of this can be found in League of Legends, where there has been a distinct trend of newly released characters receiving abilities which allow them to rapidly change their spatial position. These “gap closers” often leave older champions without such abilities in the dust. Since power creep occurs primarily after launch, that will be a topic for another day. Today we’re here to look at its partner, a design flaw that can exist and be mitigated before launch: ability bloat.
Ability bloat usually refers to characters in a game having a kit of powers with large amounts of redundancy and/or include powers with narrow niche utility by design. I’m sure it would take you a millisecond to think of a game you’ve played with skills that just rot on your action bars or, worse, in your spellbook for 99.9% of the time. Common examples that players provide in feedback are abilities such as those which allow characters to see in the dark, breathe underwater, or create consumable items. These types of abilities often add valuable flavor to the character and serve well for roleplaying, but they could just as well be included passively or as environmental interactions. Would anyone miss one of these abilities if it was taken away? I’m sure many would. But if a niche ability never made it past the idea cloud, there would be nothing to miss. The moral here is that when a designer gives a player something and later takes it away, it’s seen as a betrayal. This is why it’s difficult to trim once the bloat has happened, and why it’s so important to set boundaries before the players have the game in their hands.
Roleplaying/niche abilities aren’t the only contributor to bloat. Many games include characters with multiple spells serving similar functions. For instance, a wizard who has 4 different types of bolt spells he may cast, an assassin with 6 different debuff effects that need to be timed and managed, or a healer with 5 heal-over-time spells. Yes, the bolts, debuffs, or heals can have their differences, but a player only has so much screen real estate and, more importantly, only so many keys s/he can bind. An especially egregious form of bloat occurs when a game includes magic damage of different schools or elements. In these games, you are almost certain to find spells that are nearly identical save for the type of magic damage they deal. Using one or the other isn’t really an interesting decision and isn’t a good use of the player’s or developer’s time. Each ability should have its very own feel and function, and not seem like “Y is another version of ability X.”
Finally, there’s the PvP-only or PvE-only abilities in a game where players can experience both content types. No. Just no. If a player needs to set aside different buttons for fighting players or monsters, something went wrong. Will crowd controls or other disruptive abilities be more emphasized in PvP? Sure. Will gradual effects with higher long-term potency be emphasized over burst in PvE? Probably. Players will always find places they -prefer- one type of ability over another, but for an ability to have literally zero utility in an entire content type is a design failure.
Our approach to making ability kits for Infinities: The Continuum Order has been to use a frame of ten strong base abilities, then build on that through Focus and Tide abilities. These are not “throw a spear and do 95 damage” types of abilities, as you may have seen from browsing around the wiki. When abilities are left too simple, we’ve found they can very easily lead to ability bloat. As designers, we want a character to be able to execute a variety of combat effects to fill out a kit. By not limiting ourselves to one effect per ability, we open the door for synergy—both actively and passively—and minimize the amount of buttons a player needs to map and memorize. While I brought up the game League of Legends earlier in a negative example about power creep, I’d like to give them kudos in the regard of ability layers and efficiency. The majority of abilities in Riot’s game have multiple uses and strategies, some not even evident at first glance. For example, there is a character with an ability that either gives an ally mana or damages and silences an enemy. Seems pretty basic, but there are already three potential effects in one button; there’s value in the decision you must make each time you press it. “The ability is available. Should I use it immediately on an ally to help them with throughput, or immediately on an enemy to damage and maintain pressure, or should I save it to prevent a key spell from an enemy?” Suffice to say, Vatal owes some credit to Riot regarding our approach to abilities. We want pressing a button to reward decision making, inspire excitement, and engage our players.
Also, pressing a button to buff your party for an hour is lame.