Action point - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

An action point, commonly abbreviated AP, is a point in game

Game

A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...

s to determine how much action a player, unit, or video game character

Player character

A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...

can do in a single turn.

Within computer and video games they are predominantly used in the turn-based tactics

Turn-based tactics

Turn-based tactics , or tactical turn-based , is a computer and video game genre of strategy video games that through stop-action simulates the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics in generally small-scale confrontations as opposed to more strategic...

genre. A major difference from hit points and magic point

Magic point

Magic points are units of magical power that are used in many role-playing, computer role-playing and similar games as an expendable resource that is needed to pay for magic spells and other abilities, such as special attacks...

s is that action points recover automatically over time in combat rather than with items as hit points and magic points are usually recovered.

Any action (in some cases including using items) consumes a certain amount of AP. A unit cannot execute an action if there's not enough AP. If the unit has zero AP, that unit's turn is over. The player however, may end the unit's turn early. When it is that player's turn again, AP is replenished. AP may be partially restored or fully restored, and in some games, restoration may bring the unit's AP over the maximum limit that unit normally has.

Using the turn-based tactics

Turn-based tactics

genre as an example:

Units, both the player's and the enemy's, are placed upon a map of an area. Both sides take turns moving every character they have at their disposal.
When an AP system is in effect, both sides use AP.
Say it is the player's turn. The player wants to move a unit with 15/15 AP three spaces with each space consuming 1 AP. There is 12/15 AP left.
The player wants to attack a nearby enemy:
- If the attack consumes 10 AP, there will 2/15 AP left. Since the unit doesn't have enough AP to launch another attack, the player can decide to move the character away or end the turn (normally most games have the character's turn ending immediately after attacking).
- If the attack consumes 12 AP, there will be 0/15 AP left. The unit's turn ends immediately.
When the player's turn comes around again, it will have 15/15 AP.

To add a sense of realism, the more stressful the action is, the more AP is consumed. For example, in land based combat, having a character move over rugged terrain

Terrain

Terrain, or land relief, is the vertical and horizontal dimension of land surface. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used...

may consume more AP than moving over smooth terrain. Using more powerful attacks also consumes more AP. In the Front Mission
Front Mission
is a collection of video games and related media produced by Square, now Square Enix. The series was created by Toshiro Tsuchida and developed by G-Craft, a studio that was later absorbed by Square and is now with Square Enix as Product Development Division-6...

series, using a shotgun

Shotgun

A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

consumes a different amount AP than using a sub-machine gun or a rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

.

Another idea of AP is to use it as a sort of stamina meter in real time combat games. In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
is the third main game in the Star Ocean series. The game was developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 console. It was released in Japan, North America, and the PAL territories. The original Japanese release date was in February of 2003 by Enix, its penultimate...

, a battle mechanic employs a stamina bar known as Fury. Attacking consumes Fury, and if the character does not have enough, he or she cannot attack. Standing still recovers Fury. In other games such as first-person shooter

First-person shooter

First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...

s, a stamina meter may be used for actions such as jumping or sprinting. Normal actions won't affect the meter, apart from (sometimes) hampering its recovery rate (such as running after a sprint).

See also