Binary Bounty Hunter

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tainn
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Binary Bounty Hunter

Post by tainn »

Binary Bounty Hunter (BBH) is a conceptual game mode, or pseudo game mode, that attempts to make the hunting or bounty aspect of the game more attractive and rewarding, resulting in a more dynamic and strategic approach towards gameplay. While not strictly limited to any core game mode, it is mainly keeping FFA in mind. In a sense, it can be seen as a dandified version of the FFA game mode.

Base Concept
Each player, with the exception of the highest-scoring player, has exactly one other player marked as their bounty prey at a time. Killing said prey earns the hunter 2 points instead of the usual 1, as well as removes 2 points from the prey, hence upkeeping the aspect of a zero-sum game. The moment the prey is killed, a new bounty is set up, with the server assigning another player as the new prey. If these continuously assigned preys are killed in succession, the point additions and subtractions double each time: 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. with some configured max limit. This is where the binary part of the name comes from.

However, the binary streak is reset the moment the player either dies, or kills an enemy that is not their currently assigned bounty prey. As such, to maximize rapid score gains, some enemies have to be purposefully avoided. Furthermore, dying and respawning reloads the assigned bounty prey, while killing a non-prey enemy doesn't.

Bounty Load Balancer
To keep the globally active bounties relatively fair, we rely on some sort of bounty load balancing. Each time a new bounty is loaded for a player, the following two factors are taken into consideration:
  • current amount of bounties a player holds on their head should be similar to that of others
  • chance distribution of bounty assigning favors pitting the player against other players with similar scores, making very easy or very hard interactions less common (but not null)
The only player exempt from being assigned a bounty prey, but still being able to be assigned as one, is the current highest-scoring or top player. This is pushed in order to make the low player count situations more interesting, as well as due to the common situation of a single dominant player on a map rushing way past all of the rest.

Players only know who their own prey is and are not informed if they are currently someone else's prey. The prey killing the hunter only yields 1 point, so the bonuses are realized in only one way.
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Re: Binary Bounty Hunter

Post by Zehra »

For the sake of accuracy and for those who may wish to implement this mode.
If a bounty(hunter)/penalty(prey) is given, to adjust scores, 1 will need to be subtracted for proper score calculation.
(This is to account for the hunter gaining a point upon kill and the prey losing a point upon death.)
Otherwise, the scores will change by an "uneven" number, which would not factor in the point adjustment.
(Either way is fine, but above note may ensure precise accuracy.)

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Re: Binary Bounty Hunter

Post by tainn »

I'm not sure I follow. The OP states that as many points that are given to the hunter are also subtracted from the prey. That is not necessarily 1, but is on a binary scale, again, as explained in the OP.
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Re: Binary Bounty Hunter

Post by Zehra »

Are points awarded in the binary scale or will players scores increase in line with the binary scale?
(According to the game mode specification.)

-Zehra
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The decisions we make are the ones we look forward too and the ones we regret. ~Zehra
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Re: Binary Bounty Hunter

Post by tainn »

I think the OP is clear and your question is not.

Continuously killing the bounties and not dying or killing non-bounties in between results in doubled points after each kill, both as a gain on the hunter and loss on the prey.
  • Non-bounty kill: 1 point gain/loss
  • Bounty kill streak: 2, 4, 8, 16, ... point gain/loss
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Re: Binary Bounty Hunter

Post by Zehra »

Players gain a single point per kill by default.
Question was in reference to if the "bounty" takes into account the point made by kill.
If so, the player scores would "rise" according to bounty kill streak.
Otherwise a bounty of "2" points would be an increase of "3" points overall.(And so on.)

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Re: Binary Bounty Hunter

Post by tainn »

You will either have to articulate your thoughts better, or give me a specific example, as I still don't know what you don't understand.

If you read the OP, you would have noticed—in bold text—that the proposed mode keeps the aspect of a zero-sum game. As such, as many points are awarded to the hunter, as many are taken from the prey. If it says that 2 are awarded at a certain point, then 2 are awarded. Not 3, not 1, not 100. But 2.

Normal kills always have the value of 1. Bounty kills differentiate in value, but always start with the value of 2. So, if this is what has been bothering you, whether it is counted as normal + some reward/penalty or whether it is absolute point adjustment to the current score, it is the latter.
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