[nkqztpzs] Antigen-antibody weapon damage multiplier

December 19, 2019

In a game, give both weapons and enemies "combat descriptor strings", perhaps randomly generated.  A weapon is particularly effective against an enemy -- it has a multiplier over its base damage -- depending on how many consecutive leading characters of the descriptor strings of the weapon and enemy match, how long a prefix they share.

Inspired by the effectiveness of immune system antibodies which match well with an antigen.  Also inspired by the special effectiveness of certain weapons against certain enemies in Zelda BOTW.

As game design, this would incentivize the player to collect good weapons (high base damage) that span a wide variety of prefixes.

Descriptor strings in binary is probably best.  They have the lowest barrier to improvement, the task of finding a weapon that matches N+1 bits (or more) against an enemy you plan to fight, compared to a weapon that you've already obtained that matches only N bits.

What should the attack multiplier be for a given length match?

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