Hit Points and Health.

So far while building, all death and battle mechanics have worked on an 'Instant Kill' rate. Once the player hits the enemy, instant death. While this does work and a game can be built around it, it becomes frustrating in the long run. Implementing a health system allows the player to incorporate more strategic methods of play, as well as providing a wider variety to enemies in terms of strength.

The concept of Health points, or Hit points, can be traced back to the veritable Dungeon & Dragons [Arneson & Gygax, 1974]. Created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the concept of Hit points was created when porting Gygax's earlier Chainmail [Gygax & Perren, 1971]  rules to the then unfinished Dungeon & Dragons. "It would be Arneson's Blackmoor campaign that first tossed out the "either/or" combat matrix of the original game, adding in innovations such as 'hit points' to determine how wounded a character was and the idea of advancing levels and experience points to indicate growing power." [Rausch. 2004].

- Arneson, D & Gygax, G. [1974] Dungeons & Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures. TSR, Inc., Wisconsin.

- Gygax, G & Perren, J. [1971] Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures. TSR, Inc., Wisconsin.

- Rausch, A. [2004] Dave Arneson Interview. August 19th. [Online]. Gamespy. Available from: http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/540/540395p1.html [Last Accessed: 26/04/16]