Balancing how to go about it.

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[arsonist123]

Okay so quick question to the community, I would like to ask... how do we go about balancing a game? RTS,FPS,board... the likes... How do we know... whats balanced and.. whats not?? for example Some very well balanced games today.. That I've seen the least complains about balance issues are

Starcraft, Warcraft 3 , Dota, chess(mirrorgame), etc...

now games i've heard soo much whinning of Imbalance,
Wow, COH, EIRR,COD MW2(alsomirror), etc...

So what makes games so succesfully balanced and what makes games not.... Whats the most effective?what is balance? is it mirrors on two sides do the exact thing? is it making counters for every piece of units(rock,paper,scissors) , is it basing it off Real life (military tactics.. but thats not balanced..) or do we go about it simply by what we Feel is balanced... based on how much we do good with it .. its balanced for us.. or ... how much failure was in that game.. played then it was a unbalanced faction or whatever applies to this...

Leave comments critiques.. Dictionary definition ... books w/e... Reply with some nice good evidence. (correct me if i'm wrong on balanced games, i've heard people say starcraft is unbalanced...but I think its people who can't play very well)

[AmPM]

It really depends on the desired gameplay, game balance is usually more about making everything serve a purpose, but is the game balanced around the higher level of play and such, or around noobs?

Normally you balance at the high end; so at the high end, all end game items should serve a purpose balanced by their costs/downsides.

A game that is not balanced, is one that expects people to vary their gameplay but only provides a few worthwhile methods of playing.

[Smokaz]

It depends on how good you can compare stuff, and how simple a system you have.

Ideally it doesn't, in practicality it does.

How do you compare say, a T4 vs another T4, when they simply do two completely different things?

How do you compare lightning war to easy company? Which one "gives" the most? And is that currency it gives, greater than the other currency thta differs from it? And do you leave out the rest of doctrine abilitie?

And when you look at units, how do you price a unit that has 2 x more health vs a unit that has 2 x more damage. Is this the same increase in value?

A lot of people like to go by stats, but most variables aren't interchangeable. So its more a "try something" system than anything unless you have a simple system like chess and mirror factions.

And how do you price two units if one unit is really good with micro and the other is just good but can't be microed, do you put the same price on them because on is inherently limited while the other is risk-reward?

And when you price axis light vehicles vs allied light vehicles, you look at stats, but then you start thinking... "Hey none of the axis light vheicles can operate at short range because of sticky/button.. shouldnt that make them less expensive than the allied ones?"

[arsonist123]

Yea thats my main concern.. balancing seems like abitch... But by what you described.. both.. I think its truely a trade for trade... You give up something to gain something so a Compromise... hmm would like to see more examples but thx smokaz and Ampm

[AmPM]

Balance is a bitch, and its a lot of feeling and intuition based judgement.

Take EIRR, generally speaking people think range boosts will break balance; they don't in and of themselves. When they break balance its because it either makes a unit invulnerable to its soft/hard counters (Improved Barrel P4 vs Sherman) or makes it flat out better than anything else in its category (+10 range on the 55 range 50mm ATHT back in the day; 65 range on a fast firing PAK) allowing the unit to take over jobs.

Where range would break nothing, would be on something like +5% range on Rifles. We are literally talking about an extra 1.5m range, which, against any competent Axis, means nothing since all their real AI units have longer range anyway.

Bonuses that remove the units weakness (Terror heavy support KCH weapon teams for instance) even if not completely imbalanced, break the game by removing the counter to these units. If you flank an MG you should be rewarded by gunning it down, not having the HMG team turn around, whip out some asskicking with MP44's, pack up and chase your rifle squads away.

This is why things like AW are broken, it removes any and all weaknesses of the units it affects.