Design Journal #7 – Dissecting a System (RTS Games)

    Truth be told, I don't really play RTS games, but I have played one game I've seen classified as one (or at least as something with a lot of overlap), and that is Pikmin 2 for the Nintendo GameCube.

    The systems of Pikmin 2 center around the eponymous Pikmin, small plant-like aliens of whom the protagonists, Olimar and Louie, can command up to 100 at once in real time as they explore the planet they find themselves on. These critters are the primary objects the player interacts with in the game, and nearly all other objects are defined by the ways in which they and Pikmin interact with each other. Among these objects are...

• Enemies, who can both harm and be harmed by Pikmin, and who, when slain, turn into...
• Pikmin food, which includes dead enemies and colored pellets found growing from certain treasures. Pikmin can carry Pikmin food back to the "Onions" at the player's home base and converted into more Pikmin. More on this in a bit.
• Unique Treasures, which are the game's main collectibles and which add to your "score" (measured in "pokos", the currency of Olimar and Louie's home planet Hocotate) when carried back to your home base by Pikmin.

    The Pikmin themselves are the means by which you accomplish nearly everything in the game. The player can command Pikmin in four distinct ways: by throwing them, directing them to swarm, dismissing them, or whistling to them.

• Thrown Pikmin will immediately begin interacting with whatever they were thrown at once they land, whether that be picking up a treasure or piece of Pikmin food or attacking an enemy. A thrown Pikmin landing directly on an enemy will deal a bit of extra damage as it does so. Pikmin are thrown via the A button. Pikmin thrown too far away from Olimar or Louie will enter the Dismissed state detailed below if not recalled.
• Swarming Pikmin will branch out in the direction in which the player holds the C-stick, and behave somewhat similarly to thrown Pikmin in that, while swarming, they will also begin interacting with any of the aforementioned objects they come into contact with.
• Dismissed Pikmin mostly stand around idly, waiting to be whistled to, but will defend themselves against enemies and attempt to carry treasures and Pikmin food back to home base if those objects are close enough to them. As certain terrain can be hazardous to certain types of Pikmin, it's sometimes wiser to have vulnerable Pikmin wait for you someplace safe while you brave such challenges with better-suited members of your Pikmin crew. Pikmin can be dismissed by tapping the X button.
• Whistling pulls Pikmin out of the Dismissed state and back into your entourage. It can also be used to call Pikmin away from enemies they're fighting or things they're carrying if you need them elsewhere. Whistles are performed by pressing the B button, and creates a large circular area within which any Pikmin not currently following you will be called to do so.

    There are also multiple types of Pikmin in the game, as well as three levels of maturity, measured by the plant feature atop a Pikmin's antenna. Pikmin grow from a leaf, to a bud, to a flower, and a Pikmin's speed increases as they mature, so there is benefit to keeping the same Pikmin alive rather than sacrificing them willy-nilly. New Pikmin are obtained primarily by delivering Pikmin food back to one of the three Onions (Pikmin motherships) that come to dock at the player's home base over the course of the game, with each piece of Pikmin food being worth a different amount of Pikmin. The six Pikmin types present in Pikmin 2 are as follows:

• Red Pikmin are immune to flames, and have a slight advantage in attack power and digging speed. They are the first type of Pikmin the player gains access to.
• Yellow Pikmin are immune to electricity, and can be thrown the highest of any Pikmin type, allowing them to reach higher areas.
• Blue Pikmin can safely traverse water, and are the most statistically-balanced type of Pikmin.
• Purple Pikmin are the first of the three new types of Pikmin who do not have corresponding Onions, only being obtainable via tossing other colors of Pikmin into violet candypop bud flowers found in dungeon areas. Purple Pikmin are large and heavy, immune to heavy winds and being driven into a panic. While they move slower than other types and can't be thrown as far, their great strength affords them massive attack, digging, and carrying power, with one Purple Pikmin uniquely being equivalent to ten Pikmin of any other color for the purposes of carrying objects.
• White Pikmin, the second of the new types. Similar to Purple Pikmin, they can only be obtained by tossing existing Pikmin of other colors into a type of transmogrifying flower found in dungeon areas; in their case, Ivory Candypop Buds. White Pikmin are immune to poison, and are the fastest-moving type of Pikmin. They also have the unique ability to detect treasures that are fully buried underground, something no other Pikmin type is capable of.
• Bulbmin are a bit of an odd case. They have blanket immunity to all elemental hazards, making them the "ultimate" Pikmin in terms of defense, as well as perfectly-balanced stats all-around, but can only be obtained in specific dungeons they cannot be taken out of, at least in their starting Bulbmin forms. Bulbmin can be converted into other colors of Pikmin via Candypop Buds, however, and can be brought out of dungeons that way, though this obviously sacrifices their unique Bulbmin qualities.

    For the most part, these systems interact quite well. Commanding Pikmin is simple, core gameplay verbs are generally shared from object to object, and the player has multiple distinct types of units at their disposal to consider. It all makes for a fun, easy-to-understand game.

    There are some slight issues with execution, however; namely, that the AI of Pikmin engaged in a particular task... isn't always the brightest. Pikmin pathfinding does not reliably consider elemental immunities/vulnerabilities, and so Pikmin will sometimes throw themselves into water, flames, electricity, etc. that will very much harm them despite that there's no benefit at all to them doing so. This is far from impossible to circumvent or react to, but it can be frustrating at times.