To be predictable is to be at a significant disadvantage.
Whether in Attack or Defense
A target that moves in a predictable fashion will get hit more times than an equivalent target that moves erratically or otherwise unpredictably.
This applies to human players and it also applies to AI players.
Sudden, significant and well-timed changes in direction can throw off players’ aim hard.
This does mean that you need to try and get into the heads, or behavioral subroutines, of your opponents.
To know what is expected of you, and choose in what way you will differ from those expectations.
The more you subvert expectations, the less that you will be hit, and the more that you will hit your opponent, and that can make the difference in determining who comes out on top in a fight.
An example of how dangerous predictability is would be AI players.
AI Players
If unpredictability on your part can offer you an advantage then predictability on your opponent’s part can also be used to grant you an advantage.
AIs tend to be the most predictable of players, and this will be covered in Dealing with AIs.
Strategic Predictability
Subversion of expectations can happen on a larger scale, outside the confines of any given combat.
The simple act of behaving like you are heading in one direction and then, at the first opportunity, changing direction entirely or even stopping at an unexpected place, can throw off or change the terms of a pursuit, or otherwise reduce the degree to which your opponents have you figured out.
Some things will also prove to be more predictable than other things. Some players will choose to aim at collecting the mole crate – and so if you happen to be there first or otherwise ready to interrupt – then that could grant you advantage in an engagement, perhaps taking out one of the more dangerous adversaries in the match.
‘Next’ we’ll be looking at hints as when it’s best to reload, juice or tape up.