Last Man Standing

The Last Man Standing conflict system provides a generalized contest tree to resolve which side attains victory in battle.

The Last Man Standing is also one of the most traditional forms of generalized contest trees. The basic idea behind the pattern is to identify who the winner is by the simple fact of who manages to destroy the opponent. He who does is the winner. This is also one of the simplest ways to implement a contest tree.

It is used when there is a strong emphasis on tactical combat. Keep in mind that you are not obliged to use one pattern or the other. You can very well combine several patterns together, and you should, to make it more interesting. For instance, if your game has a great emphasis on combat, but you want to also introduce some negotiation into the conflict resolution, you can very much do so. Again, it all depends on you and your game design.

Something to keep in mind: if the only way to resolve a high-level contest is through battle, then players will focus their efforts on being the best they possibly can at winning battles. In other words, if a game only provides a single tool to resolve disputes, then you can be assured that players will become very adept and focused at using that tool.