Design victory conditions

[jackducham]

How are the winners decided? We want to avoid a situation where competitors are incentivized to write radically different algorithms that are only used once at the end of the game. At the same time, we want a little bit of ambiguity in the final hours so the end of the game is exciting. Presently, the first criterion seems more important than the second.

Some ideas:

• several different win conditions (most exp, most kills, best gear)
• endgame grinds (kill the most dragons)

[jackducham]

Adding some clarity on our design goals here.

Our core pillars are:

1. Efficient farming
2. Strong combat logic
3. Smart use of resources

The victory conditions should match our pillars. The bots that win the game should be the bots that are the best at doing the above. In the same way, a win condition that does not reward bots for satisfying our pillars is bad!

At the same time, we don't want the game to be completely decided before the final hour of the competition. Competitors need to feel like they have a fighting chance for as long as possible. That said, sudden upsets can be really frustrating! The whole point of MM26 is the persistent world- we will sacrifice closing ceremony hype if necessary to reward strong play over the course of the entire event.

[jackducham]

We're doing experience points.