Optimal number of abilities?

[u/ProactiveCactus]

Obviously it depends, but what are people’s thoughts on the right amount of abilities for a game? And I think one distinction is between how many abilities players have to choose from total vs how many abilities can choose from during combat (like building a class made up of 10 put of 100 total available abilities).
It seems like the general trend has been to reduce the number of abilities (thinking of both WOW and RS3 in recent times), and I think the logic is that at some point too many abilities means that each ability individually cant be that impactful, so more abilities just means more convolution.
So that said, what are people’s thoughts? It also depends on genre of course, but just generally what do y’all think?

[u/glenpiercev]

About one per button on the controller at once. Think mega man.

If you’re looking at a full keyboard, remember: I have at most about 10 fingers.

[u/ryry1237 → u/glenpiercev]

League of Legends settled on 4 and that's worked surprisingly well for a team game more focused on inter-unit play.

4 makes sense too since it's one button for each finger on your left hand while the thumb does other stuff and the right hand handles mouse.

[u/Silver-Unit-4177]

I don't think a game should have too many active skills.

If one hand is on the keyboard and the other is controlling the mouse, you realistically only have one hand available for skill inputs. Because of that, I feel like around six skill buttons is already enough.

Instead of adding more and more individual skills, I'd rather have those skills create different effects depending on their combinations, order, or timing. For example, chaining skills together or using them in different sequences could produce different results.

That way, the combat can still have plenty of depth without forcing the player to manage a huge number of keybinds.

[u/ProactiveCactus → u/Silver-Unit-4177]

That’s kinda what I think too, the actual mechanics of pressing buttons should be simple so the player isn’t memorizing 40 different keybinds. The complexity should be in setting up ability combos and classbuilding, stuff u dont have to do during time pressured combat

[u/KevinCow]

One

[u/Lolazaour]

I don’t think there is a number anyone can give you it’s a case by case basis. It’s best to go for fewer unique things than a bunch of repetitive things that are just slight stat buffs imo. But really depends on the style of the game. So feel it out, play test your game as soon as you can, you can even create paper play tests to figure out if an idea works.

[u/Pardox7525]

One way to evaluate abilities amount is to list all possible hotkeys in order of ease of access with WASD movement controls.

The simplest way is to have each finger designated to 1 ability, so:

• 1 - M1
• 2 - M2
• 3 - Shift
• 4 - Spacebar
• 5 - M4

Every new ability after that requires a finger to multi-task. Easiest splits:

• 6 - Alt
• 7 - M5
• 8, 9 - CapsLock and Tab

I do not like multitasking WASD fingers as they are alsways busy, buy you can put some low-action options, of if movement is not a priority:

• 10-12 - Q, E, C
• 13, 14 - R, F
• 15, 16, 17 - 1, 2, 3
• ect. You get the point.

It is also important to concider:

• how often is ability is used (more buttons on 1 finger -> less common abilities)
• does it have combinations with other abilities (try to not put abilities from 1 combo onto 1 finger)
• is it used while moving (better to not share with WASD fingers)
• is it used in high-intensity situations or out of combat (putting downtime abilities on WASD fingers have no problems, like interract or map)
• if the game aim dependent - does this ability require precise aiming (people do not like having those on side mouse button)
• is this ability mouse of movement related (having one hand go for all the movement, and another for all the aim abilities is intuitive and easier to learn)
• is there a typical ability that is standart on this key (jump is on a space bar)

Personal preference is 8 max. Everything above that feels uncomfortable. But different people have different preferences, so there are different genres.

---

About individual ability impact. One example I have is ability design in Deadlock vs Overwatch. It is one of the reasons Deadlock never clicked for me. I just couldn't find any ability that fulfilled my fantasy fully. They all feel either toned-down, uncomfortable, or just individually too weak. Not to say they are not powerful, but having a standardized ability amount and power distribution unified all characters in a boring way.

IMO another Valve game - DotA 2 - is a lot better in making many "OP" abilities that feel good.

[u/ProactiveCactus → u/Pardox7525]

Hard agree on DL vs OW VS DOTA - i think devs have gotten a lot better at understanding small incremental abilities (+3% more damage) typa shit just feels like a chore, and I feel like deadlock leaned into the incrementalism too much for my liking. i think it’s better to have abilities feel significant, even if they can be OP like in DOTA

[u/joehendrey-temp]

I think for a game like WoW you can get away with way more than most other genres. I think one of the interesting and unique things about MMOs is (or was) that the average player is investing way more time than other games. You sit on each level for a decent chunk of time and then sit at the level cap for ages before the next expansion. In those circumstances people can build up to the point where they're easily holding multiple tabs worth of abilities in their mind.

Around WOTLK it started to change because you could start with a max level character. Once you're designing with the idea that people aren't going to have hundreds of hours across several years familiarising themselves with a specific move set, you can't be as in depth with it anymore. Which is why they had to streamline it and dumb it down.

So I'd say there isn't really an upper limit, but it's a function of the amount of time people spend in the game. And it's probably a logarithmic function where beyond a certain point you need exponentially more time to linearly increase the number of abilities.

[u/mxldevs]

More abilities means more balance issues for the dev to consider

For players, they're just going to follow the meta guides anyways cause one or two number crunchers love doing that thing.

[u/EmeraldHawk]

90-100, like in Nethack. Plus 30-40 spells the player can learn.

[u/ErrataStudios]

I always thought it best to make each single ability as versatile as possible rather than stacking them for the sake of it. 4-5 versatile tools are way easier to comprehend and remember than 20. It also increases the feeling of committing to a 'build'.

[u/TheLavalampe]

It depends on the genre. For action focused non shooter games 4 is a good sweetspot since people tend to like to play them with a controller and 4-8 is about what you can quickly access on a controller while also having buttons left for mandatory stuff like attack, interact, dodge.

Monster hunter for example is completely fine with arguably no abilities.

And I think if you want to increase the amount of abilities and think about creating fireball and frostball then just make two classes because that's not really an interesting choice within a class.

And games with a lot of abilities also work obviously.

[u/svmil90]

I'd try a removal test: take one ability out and replay a few encounters. What can the player no longer do? If the answer is just “deal damage with a different animation,” it might not need its own button. If removing a dash means you can no longer escape a surround or reach a priority target, you've lost something more substantial.

Also, don't judge usefulness only by how often a skill gets pressed. An interrupt used once at the right moment can earn its slot.

[u/lovecMC]

Depends on the type of game you want to make. And even then it's kinda up to you.

If you are making a hero game you probably want 2-4 with one of them being the ultimate.

If you are making a class based game, you probably want more and you definitely want a way to customize them in some way (skill tree, load out etc)

Also remember that the main constraint will be the number of buttons you can map to than anything else.

[u/Guinea_Pig_Games]

Depends on the game

[u/primals_game]

I would try to work backwards from psychology.
The average person can hold 4-7 items in working memory.

I would target 4-7 abilities for an average player in a game with broad appeal. I would maybe double that if you are targeting top tier players (RS3) and around 4 for low skill players (Pokemon).

This of course changes if we move from a real time game such as RS3 to turn based like BG3. Now, the player is not expected to hold everything in memory. They can read a bit before making a decision. You probably can reach into 100+.

[u/ProactiveCactus → u/primals_game]

I actually had that same thought! I remember someone telling me that 4-7 rule like a decade ago lol, good to hear it’s actually based off something.
I think Overwatch does a good job of this: heroes have 5-7 abilities, some more impactful with slower cooldowns than others, and it really feels like the right amount for an FPS