MXPA99005898A - Method of setting level parameters of enemy characters of a computer game and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

In a multi-scenario RPG of a computer game, when the character operated by the player has encountered an enemy character for the first time, an appropriate level of the enemy character in any of various developing stories is determined by calculation based on the level of the character of the player, and this level of the enemy character is fixed during the game.

Description

METHOD FOR SETTING THE LEVEL AND PARAMETERS OF THE ENEMY CHARACTERS OF A COMPUTER GAME AND DEVICE FOR THE SAME FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for setting a force level, hereinafter simply referred to as "level"; the parameters of an enemy character in a computer game, in which a character in the game, acting in accordance with the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game; and more specifically, to set the level and parameters in a game with characters.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In certain types of computer games, for example, adventure games and games with characters, the game is developed according to a story, which instead follows a plot, and this, in turn, is composed of a variety of subframes . In a typical game of adventure, the story unfolds according to the plot, for example, when the subframes 1, 2,3,4 ... N are provided, the game proceeds according to the sequence of the subplots, 1 , 2,3,4 ... N. In this game, the player must overcome, according to a sequence, the stages that correspond to the subframes to continue with the next stage. That game is called a single-frame game. On the other hand, a game whose history is developed according to one of multiple frame possibilities is called a multiple frame game; when the subframes 1, 2,3,4 ... N are provided, the history can proceed according to any of the various possibilities of the frame, as shown in figure 1. In figure 1, the subframes are followed which appear between the symbols " {.}.", according to one of the various possible frames, that is, sometimes, the story proceeds according to the following sequence: Subframe 1 - > subframe 2 - > subframe 3 - > , and sometimes proceeds as follows: Subframe 3 - > subframe 2 - > subframe 1. Compared to the single-frame game, the multiple-frame game allows greater flexibility in the development of the story. The battle, along with the development of the story, gives interest to the game. There are scenes in which a character in the game confronts and fights against enemy characters during an adventure; In this game, the parameter that represents the strength of the player's character or the strength of an enemy character is called "level". The level of the player's character increases when this character defeats one or more of the enemy characters. The game can be designed in such a way that the level of the player's character increases in different ways, depending on the level of the enemy character (s) he defeats; for example, the game can be designed in such a way that, in the case of monster A, the level of the player's character increases by one unit when it defeats 10 monsters, and in the case of monster B, the level of the player's character increases by one unit when he defeats three monsters. If the level of the player's character increases while the level of the enemy character (s) remains constant, the difficulty of the game decreases as the story unfolds. To solve this problem, the level of an enemy character of recent appearance is established according to the present level of the player's character. In a single-frame game, since the story unfolds in an ascending sequence according to the plot number, the level of the enemy character (s) can be easily established for each subframe; for example, since a player must pass a stage corresponding to subframe n to move to the next stage corresponding to subframe n + 1, it is expected that the level of the player has increased to a certain point when the player has moved on to the next stage. Therefore, a desirable result is obtained if the game is designed in such a way that the level of the enemy character (s) is established in accordance with the player's level increase. However, in a multiple frame game, since the subframe sequence is not constant and a player's level can not be predicted at the beginning of a subframe, the level of the enemy character (s) can not be established in accordance with the level of the player. Therefore, in a conventional multi-frame game, the level of enemy character (s) is established according to one of the following methods: Method 1: the level of the enemy character (s) is established according to the ascending order of the numbers in the plot. Method 2: Prepare a relative level for each enemy character that corresponds to the level of the player's character and, for each battle, (encounter between the player's character and an enemy character) establish the level of an enemy character in relation to the level of the player's character. In method 1 the level of the enemy character is established in the same way as in the single-frame game. In said method of establishment, no problem arises when the story is developed according to the sequence of the subframes 1 - > 2 - > 3 - > ... However, when the story unfolds in the sequence of subframes 3 - > 2 - > 1 - > ..., the player must fight with a much stronger enemy character from the beginning, which makes the game more difficult for the player from the beginning. Therefore, the player can play with interest only when the story continues in the sequence of subframes 1 - > 2 - > 3 - > ..., which makes the story the same as a game of a single plot. Method 2 seems good, given that the level of each enemy character is established according to the present level of the player's character. For example, when the level of the player's character is 5 and the relative level of the enemy character is +1, the level of the enemy character with which the player character fights becomes 6 (-5 + 1) for the player always have to fight against an enemy whose level is a greater unit. The problem with this method is that the player loses the satisfaction that his character's level would increase. This means that when the level of the player's character increases, the level of the enemy character increases at par, with the result that the enemy character is always stronger than the player's character; therefore, the player is forced to go through very strong battles and feels that there is no improvement in his abilities, which results in the player losing interest in the game. As described previously, the conventional method for setting the level of enemy characters in a multiple-frame game has the disadvantage that the level of the player's character is not reflected in the levels of the enemy characters, and the player always must fight against enemy characters whose levels are greater than those of his character. Therefore, the skill of the player is not reflected in the game, and therefore the player does not experience satisfaction or emotion, therefore, the player eventually loses interest in the game. The ideal development of a story in a computer game is one in which the level of the player's character increases at the level of the level of the enemy character, and that in which the level of the player increases and is directly reflected in the game. For example, there develops a situation in which the player first struggles with a relatively weak enemy character, and when the player defeats the enemy character, then he feels that the character has become stronger. After the story unfolds in this way for some time, the player looks for a stronger enemy character. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for setting the level of an enemy character, so that the story is developed in the ideal manner described above in a multi-frame computer game.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method for setting the level of an enemy character in a computer game in which the character of the player, acting in accordance with the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game, in which when the player character first faces an enemy character, the level of the enemy character is calculated based on the present level of the player's character, and then the enemy's established level is maintained during the game. In the present invention, the difference, in the first encounter, between the level of an enemy character and the level of the character of the player is called "relative basic level", and the level of the enemy is obtained in the following manner: an enemy character) = (player character level) + (relative basic level).

However, when necessary, the calculated level of the enemy character is restricted to a predetermined upper or lower limit. Specifically, the level of an enemy character is represented by the use of a set of parameters that respectively represent physical strength, offensive ability, defensive ability, speed, etc. Usually, the fixed level of the enemy character, or set of parameters, remains constant. Preferably, a different set of parameters is prepared for each of the different types of enemy characters. Figure 2 shows the relationship between the level of an enemy character and the level of a character of the player. In Figure 2, Lp represents the level of the player's character, LEX represents the level of an enemy character k, and Px represents a point where the player's character first faces an enemy character. Although the level of the player's character does not increase steadily, that is, in a straight line, as shown in figure 2, the strength of the player's character generally increases as the story unfolds. In the multi-frame game, the moment the character of the player is confronted with an enemy character changes according to the plot. In the present invention, the level of an enemy character is established based on the level of the character of the player in the first encounter; therefore, different levels are established for different enemy characters of the same type, depending on the time of the first encounter, which varies according to the plot.

The set of parameters that specifically represents the strength of an enemy is calculated according to the level. Each of the parameters is determined through a calculation by using a function whose argument is the level; or through the selection of values in a table. When the game is designed to set different values for the parameters according to the level, an enemy character can have totally different characteristics depending on the plot.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of the development of a conventional multi-frame game. Figure 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the level of the player's character and the levels of the enemy characters. Figure 3 is a flow diagram according to the embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES Figure 3 is a flow chart in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention. In the present invention, when the character of the player first faces an enemy character, the level of the enemy character is established (criterion D3 and processing step S5). Subsequently, based on the level thus determined, a set of parameters is calculated which represents the strength of the enemy character (criterion D3 and processing step S6). That is, the set of parameters that represents the strength of the enemy character is calculated from the first encounter and remains constant from there. The set of parameters representing the strength of the enemy character is determined on the basis of LE level; however, given that the LE level and the parameters are fixed for each type of enemy character, the processing must be executed so that in criterion D3 of the first encounter a criterion is determined that if the encounter with the enemy character K is the First; and the level that establishes the processing step S5 must be represented as LEk- In figure 2, the type of enemy is omitted to make it simpler. In the present invention, the level of an enemy character is established according to the base of the LP level of the character of the player in the first encounter. That is, LE? = Fx (Lp). Here, fx is an appropriate function for the enemy character k that depends on Lp; for example, the function f? (Lp) can be expressed in the following way through the use of a relative basic level LER (where LE is a constant): In this case, when the relative basic level LER is 2 and the level Lp of the player character in the first encounter with the enemy is 10, the level of the enemy character becomes 12; that is, the level of the enemy character changes depending on the way in which the subframes are selected. This will be better understood in the following example. It is assumed that a story will be developed according to a plot composed of subframes A, B, C and D, whose sequence can be selected at will, and the relative basic level of enemy character X is +5; it is also assumed that player 1 followed the subframes in the following sequence: A - > B - > C - > D; and player 2 followed the subframes in the following sequence: D - > C - > B - > A. Since player 1 selected subframe A in one of the early stages, the level of player 1 appears to be low. If the player character level for player 1 is 5 at the time the subframe A was selected (when the character of the player is first confronted with the enemy character X), the level of the enemy character X is 10. For another On the other hand, player 2 reached subframe A after passing the stages corresponding to frames D, C and B, during which time the level of player 2 increased. Assuming that the level of the player character for player 2 is 15 in the first encounter with enemy character X in the stage corresponding to subframe A, the level of enemy character X changes to 20; that is, a weak enemy character X appears for the character of the player corresponding to player 1, while a strong enemy character X appears for the player character corresponding to player 2. As described above, the same enemy character can have different levels depending on the player. As regards establishing the level of the enemy character, preferably upper and lower limits are provided to avoid establishing an extreme level, that is, when the upper limit is represented by LEmax and the lower limit is represented by LEmin, the LE level of the enemy character is calculated as follows: When LE > LEmax, LE = LEmax When LE < LEm, LE = LEm. Similarly, the upper and lower limits are set for the level of the player's character, in this way, it is possible to avoid an intentional operation of the player to unnecessarily increase the level of his character through continuous fights with weak enemies, as well as the intentional operation of the player to cause the game program to create weak enemies continuously, by running from one place to another trying to escape the enemy he faces. The factors that actually represent the strength of an enemy character include physical strength, offensive ability, defensive ability, speed, etc .; factors that will be called parameters. The parameters are calculated based on the level of the enemy character. Since the values of the parameters are obtained by the processing step S6 in the flow chart of Figure 3 based on the level of the enemy character, the value QEG? The parameter m is calculated as follows: Although g represents a function, in the real program, QEm can not be obtained through a simple calculation formula, but through the combined use of a table and the function. Once QEm and E were established, these values remain constant during the game. In particular, by changing the established values of QEm, characteristics that are totally different from the enemy character can be established, according to the selection sequence of the subframes; therefore, each player can count on a completely different game. The battle in the S7 processing step corresponds to a fight with the enemy character; in which case, the player can select an option to escape without a fight. According to a conventional game, the escape action can be used as a strategic action in which the character of the player is forced to face enemy characters during a period when the level of the player's character is still low, thereby set the values of all enemy characters in low values; and later the level of the player's character increases, resulting in the player's character always fighting against weak enemies. If the method described above is used, only weak enemies can be created. To solve this problem, a lower limit is set, and the level of the enemy character is prevented from exceeding the lower limit.

The processing step S9 increases the level of the character of the player when he defeats an enemy character during a battle. In the flow diagram, a criterion is determined as to whether the player's character defeated the enemy (criterion D4); however, the criterion D4 and the processing step S9 are executed differently, depending on the type of the enemy character. For example, the level of the player's character increases by one unit when the player's character defeats 10 enemy characters k and increases by two units when the player's character defeats 5 s enemies. Also, when the player character can not defeat an enemy character; for example, when the character of the player flees or is injured, the processing step S8 updates the parameters and the level of the player's character. In general, when the player's character flees without performing any action, the player's parameters do not change. As described above, the story of the game is developed subplot by subframe, the level of the enemy character changes according to the sequence of the selected subframes, and the determined parameters change conveniently according to the level; therefore, each player can enjoy a game that is modified in a unique way for the player. As an embodiment of the present invention, the example of a method for setting the level of an enemy character and the various parameters will be described. When the lower limit for level LV is 1 and the upper limit for level LV is 100, a parameter K is entered for physical force, according to the following equations: K = (4a) + 30 a = INT (LV / 15) +2 The letter K corresponding to each level is represented by the following table. Level of the enemy character Constant (K) 1 < LV < 15 46 15 < LV < 30 94 30 < LV < 45 286 45 < LV < 60 1054 60 < LV < 75 4126 75 < LV < 90 16414 90 < LV < 100 65566 When the lower limit for the LV level is 1 and the upper limit for the LV level is 100, a K parameter is introduced for each of the offensive, defensive and speed abilities, according to the following equations: K = ax 10 + 50 a = INT (LV / 20) The following table represents the K parameter corresponding to each level. Level of the enemy character Constant (K) 1 < LV < 20 50 20 < LV < 40 60 40 < LV < 60 70 60 < LV < 80 80 80 < LV < 100 90 These parameters are stored and used when the player character confronts an enemy character again. In the present invention, the parameters of an enemy character are established in the first encounter; therefore, although at the beginning the player feels that an enemy character is strong, he actually feels that he is weak when the level of his character increases with the development of the story, or when his character fights once again against an enemy character with which he has already faced, so the player can feel that his skills have improved; and at the same time he feels satisfied with them. In the method of the present invention, the level of an enemy character changes according to the sequence of the selected subframes, and as described in the embodiment, the same enemy character may appear to have completely different characteristics, depending on the manner in which establish the parameters. Therefore, even if the enemy character x is a very weak monster for player A, for player B the enemy may appear weak and have an extraordinary offensive ability. Likewise, a C player may feel that the same enemy character was difficult to defeat, even if the enemy character is foolish and has fragile offensive abilities. The difference in player impressions occurs because, depending on when the character of the player is facing the enemy character, the level of the player's character changes and the parameters of the enemy character are set at totally different values. As described previously, each player can create their own game.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The method according to the present invention has a specific efficiency in computer games, for example, games with characters and adventure games, in which the character of the player fights against enemy characters and the story is developed according to one of the various frames, and each frame includes a series of subframes. For example, when a player reboots a computer to restart the game and follows a different plot, the player may notice that the game is very different from the previous game. A great special effect is achieved in games with characters. In a conventional game, once this one concludes, the player can read the development of the story in a second or later game, so the player loses interest in the game; in contrast, in the game created in accordance with the present invention, since the characteristics of each enemy character change according to the way in which the subframes are selected, the player can enjoy the same game in many different ways at different times. In addition, it is possible to avoid the case in which the desired story is lost, due to an intentional operation that the author of the game did not intend to occur.

Claims (9)

NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION CLAIMS

1. - A method to set the level of the enemy character in a computer game in which the character of the player, who acts according to the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game, where, when the player character first confronts an enemy character, the level of the enemy character is calculated based on the present level of the player's character, and the established level of the enemy character is maintained during the game.

2. A device for a computer game in which the character of the player, who acts according to the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game. The instrument includes the means to calculate the level of the enemy character based on the present level of the player's character, when he first confronts the enemy character; likewise, it maintains the established level of the enemy character during the game.

3. A storage medium for the computer to store a program of a computer game in which the player's character, acting in accordance with the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game, in which, when the player character first confronts an enemy character, the level of the enemy character is calculated based on the present level of the player's character; likewise, the established level of the enemy character is maintained during the game. 4.- A method to fix the level of the enemy character in a computer game in which the character of the player, who acts according to the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game, in which, when the player first confronts the enemy character, the level of the enemy character is calculated within a predetermined range and based on the present level of the player's character; also the established level of the character of me is maintained during the game. 5. A device for a computer game in which the player's character, acting in accordance with the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game. The instrument includes the means to calculate the level of an enemy character within a predetermined range and on the basis of the present level of the player's character when the player's character first confronts the enemy character; likewise, it maintains the established level of the enemy character during the game. 6.- A storage medium for a computer to store a program of a computer game, in which the player's character, acting in accordance with the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters appear in the game, in which, when the character of the player first confronts the enemy character, the level of the enemy character is calculated within a predetermined range and on the basis of the present level of the player's character; and the thus established level of the enemy character is maintained during the game. 7.- A method to fix the level of an enemy character in a game with characters in which the character of the player, who acts according to the operations performed by a player, fight against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game, in which, when the character of the player first confronts an enemy character, the level of the enemy character is calculated within a predetermined range and based on the present level of the player's character; and the established level of the enemy character is maintained during the game. 8.- A device for a game with computer characters in which the character of the player, who acts according to the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game. The instrument includes the means to calculate the level of an enemy character within a predetermined range and based on the present level of the player's character when he first confronts the enemy character; likewise, it maintains the established level of the enemy character during the game. 9. A storage medium for a computer to store a program of a game with characters in which the character of the player, who acts according to the operations performed by a player, fights against one or more of the enemy characters that appear in the game, in which, when the character of the player first confronts an enemy character, the level of the enemy character is calculated within a predetermined range and on the basis of the present level of the player's character; and the thus established level of the enemy character is maintained during the game.