ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to combine the topics to balance mechanics that are transitive, sort of, but where their value changes depending on the game state. In most games, characters have a maximum health value, and if they are already at maximum health, then healing is completely worthless. In many trading card games, merely including certain cards in a deck either prevents a player from including other cards or limits a player in other ways. Imagine a game with an arena where individuals face off against each other in one-on-one combat. Inside the arena, all players have either an Ice attack or a Fire attack and both are equally popular among the player community. Some games support the use of situational objects that can be brought into play when needed, but can be safely ignored in cases where they’re suboptimal. Tower defense games are wonderful exercises for looking at situational balance.
