Levels and skills
Learning paths through this topic
A conquered province should grow loyal slowly, and remember who held it before
Taking a province should not give full taxes on the first day, and losing the garrison should not turn everything to rebels at once. When a province changes hands back and forth, the player should not reset it to zero each time. This entry shows a loyalty value with different speeds up and down, and a simple memory of the last owner.
A player joins for the last ten seconds of a boss fight and gets the full credit
Progress that counts a boss kill for everyone present is easy to abuse by joining at the end, and unfair to someone whose connection broke and came back twice. Here is a way to measure how long a player truly took part, even when their join records overlap or are messy.
A guest in a friend's co-op story is credited with chapters they never reached
When a friend joins your story game, the chapters you finish together should count for them too. But if the guest is far behind, they would jump past the chapters in between, and if far ahead they would be dragged back. Here is how to credit them in the right order.
Tell the player how many days until the target level, when income keeps growing
A planner screen says "level 10 in 8 days". With constant income that is one division, but income grows with every upgrade, and small amounts of growth disappear if the maths rounds too early. The answer must also say "never" when nothing grows. This entry shows an estimate that stays honest in all these cases.
Two teammates grab the same one-time reward at the same moment
When a team levels up and a single shared reward appears, two players can press the button within the same blink. If both are told they got it, the reward is duplicated. Here is how a server picks exactly one winner, tells the other politely, and cannot be fooled by a fast clock.
When a city drops a level, its high-tier buildings should not vanish at once
A plague lowers the city level and half of the buildings the player paid for stop working in the same second, or worse, get deleted. This entry shows a fair middle path: what should still work, for how long, what the player may no longer do, and how a recovery gives everything back without any bookkeeping.
A downgraded or destroyed house must move its residents, not just lose them
When a house shrinks or burns, the people inside do not vanish. If the game just cuts the number, the population count drops for no reason and the city level wobbles. If it keeps them, houses burst past their limit. This entry shows how to move them to free rooms nearby in a fixed order and how to count the ones left without a home.
When every extra farm yields less, work out how many are worth building
Games often make the second, third and fourth copy of the same building weaker so players do not stack one kind forever. The yield table is simple, but the question the player asks is not: when does one more stop paying for itself? This entry gives the yield per copy, the total, and a stop rule that gives the same number on screen and in the code.
Enemies grow with the player, so leveling up feels pointless
When every enemy matches the player's level, getting stronger changes nothing. When none do, early areas are boring and later ones are walls. Here is a middle way that keeps each area a place with its own difficulty.
Exploring should pay experience once per tile, plus a bonus for finishing a region
Scouts that uncover the map earn experience, and soon a player walks back and forth over the same edge to collect it again, or the bonus for a finished region pays at every step. This entry shows how to count only what is new, how to give the region bonus exactly once, and how to deal with a view that is cut by the map edge.
A friend who starts late can never catch up to the group's level
A group has played for weeks and a newcomer wants in, but at normal speed they stay behind and cannot join the content. A catch-up bonus helps, but it must fade smoothly and must not reward people who are hopelessly behind or break the other protections. Here is how it fits together.
Resting bonus for being away breaks when the clock jumps or the break is long
A bonus that builds while a player is logged out makes coming back rewarding. But it can be abused by changing the clock, it can balloon after a long break, and partial hours are easy to lose. Here is a version that stays honest, with the amounts spent exactly as promised.