What Is a Deficiency Balance?

Balance refers to a kind of coordination ability, which is inherent in things, and can also be cultivated through acquired training.

Balance

Information on game balancing skills is not widely available. This article intentionally fills this information gap by describing the two aspects of game balance and imbalance and how to achieve game balance. This approach relies heavily on existing systems engineering skills and accepted game design theory. A large number of case studies and short stories were adopted to help combine methodologies with specific designs.

There is often only one difference between a great design and an outstanding game that lacks game balance. most

Balanced macro-control

Providing a balanced gaming system is obviously only the first step to achieving a balanced game. Even the most perfect design needs to become a reality, and errors occur during the implementation process, and small errors often occur in the initial design. Many game values cannot be clearly recognized until the entire game is realized. In these cases, the designer must use macro-control techniques to correct the balance before and during the alpha test phase.

Macro-control should end before the start of micro-tuning; if the basis of the game is still changing, minor changes in balance will become ineffective and useless. When making macro adjustments, the goal is to "find" the playful goals described in the design case. Of course, it's impossible to adjust game details when you don't know how to show the core gameplay.

In order to target the core gameplay, it is important to clearly state the core gameplay and how it manifests. As long as this step is done, a certain baseline can be established, which is what Ensemble Studios1 calls "anchor". For example, you might set the baseline of game speed as "about 10 minutes long" or set the character's toughness as "three fatal attacks by a dangerous monster." Once you find a satisfactory baseline for each game factor (a map, a character type, a conversation, etc.), you can use these game element baselines as a basis for expanding the game.

Balanced mathematics

Once the macro-control of a specific element is completed, in some cases, the balance math can be applied to copy the results to similar elements. Although the effectiveness of improving the system with balanced math is uncertain, because it is difficult to calculate some subtle details, it is still effective for determining the baseline in different game elements. One accepted formula that helps almost every game is the cost efficiency equation.

Balanced cost-efficiency equation

The cost efficiency formula states that for a component,

Game Power × Endurance = Effectiveness

and:

Square Root (Game Power × Stamina ÷ Cost Squared) = Cost Effectiveness

The power of the game may be firepower (damage × launch speed) or points. Stamina can be number of uses or points hit. Cost represents game resources, usually gold, coins, or rounds (for example, the real cost of a step in a chess game is one round). Another useful equation that is mainly applicable to strategy games and other "battle" scenarios is the decomposition equation. The "decomposition type" reflects the characteristics that the total effectiveness of many small groups in the battle scene is equal to the fighting power of several large groups, but the effectiveness is different. Many small groups are usually less effective, of course, assuming that there are no other subtle factors (such as large groups attacking small arms, the lethality is too large and waste). This is because the group gradually loses its power after the small individual gradually dies, and a large army can support it for a long time, so it will not lose its effectiveness due to the gradual loss. Accordingly, the formula for relative validity is determined as:

Impairment of effectiveness (relative to smaller individuals) = 0.5 + 0.5 × [number of larger individuals ÷ number of smaller individuals (same price)]

The inverse of the resulting number is an increase in the effectiveness of the larger individual.

These formulas and other "balance math" are particularly useful for preliminary balance. It is best to avoid mathematically perfect balance, unless it is a fairly simple game system. For example, because the rules of the game are simple, balancing the game Risk is not particularly difficult, and the player's choices can be quite quantified. Balancing Monopoly is possible, but it is more difficult than Risk, because random factors (such as rolling dice) can have a more general effect than Risk, and because Monopoly has a larger number of special games Factors (luck cards, mortgage rules, prisons, etc.). For example, in a modern RTS, being able to get the perfect mathematical balance under such more complex conditions is equivalent to completing a doctoral dissertation.

Balanced micro-control

Once the game has been subject to macro-control, the balance of the game must be adjusted in detail. If the game is at least a little fun, and there are no obvious problems, then the macro-control has basically been completed and it can begin to turn to small details. Micro-control is a small operation implemented by the game plan to further perfect the balance. A minor operation is generally defined as less than 10% change relative to a "global" value (affecting many other game elements) and less than 30 relative to a "local" value (a single game element) -40%.

The biggest challenge of micro-control is to find the problem. Once you find the problem, you can start adjusting the values slightly, but be careful not to cause new problems as a result. Good factor modules and pre-planning work well at this stage-without them, you might not be able to complete the game's balance within a reasonable time frame.

Identify minor imbalances

There are several techniques for planning to identify minor imbalances. The most obvious of these is to test the game extensively, looking for a method that has always benefited or dominated, or a method that has never been used. Another common method is to discuss hypothetical scenarios with or against an experimenter or another planner, find a result that is agreed to produce, and then test whether the same result will occur in the game.

If you plan to use the first method, just look for the dominant (or never used) method, it is important to determine the actual cause of this situation, and to determine whether things should go this way. Classifying imbalances and trying to classify them into typical imbalances helps to understand the problem. Basically, the more you understand the type and characteristics of the imbalance, the more you can adjust it.

An increasingly popular method is to secretly record (without telling players) game achievements and statistics. Games of the Age of Empires, several games published by Sierra and Strifeshadow all benefit from this technique. Sometimes these statistics are enlightening and sometimes they are very misleading.

All data should be retained. Sometimes an immature test crowd will bring very incorrect results just because they are unfamiliar with the game and do not have the opportunity to try it fully (or just the easiest part to try). Similarly, an overly mature test population may ignore the potential of other strategies, or be trapped in a more advanced but vague imbalance, which is less urgent than other more obvious imbalances . An extremely effective technique applied by Ethermoon Entertainment in the shadow of the game struggle is to exaggerate the changes in game balance in the beta patch to encourage players to try new strategies without continuing to "resist" new changes.

The second method of discovering imbalance is sometimes called "chasing imbalance", that is, after a hypothetical scenario is defined, all possible actions and results should be designed. For example, the charge of a tank force should be considered to defeat the attack of a light convoy, but at the same time it should be slightly injured, and the counterattack of the anti-tank infantry regiment should be severely hit. If in the actual game, the charge of a tank unit can completely wipe out a light convoy and be invincible with the anti-tank infantry regiment, then the excessive force of the tank unit will cause an imbalance. Chasing imbalances is very important, if implemented strictly, it is easy to find less than 75% of minor imbalances. Games often do not develop in a particular way as planned, especially in a confrontational multiplayer game, where a small change in "regional" balance value can cause the game to be balanced and unbalanced.

One thing to keep in mind is that whenever an unbalanced search is performed, the game elements set early in the game are often much more sensitive than later game elements. Just because the imbalance of an early game element affects everything that is set after it, and the later game elements can create trouble for a limited time. Just as it is necessary to do the macro control of the game before doing the micro-control, it is also necessary to balance the early game factors.

Balance trim imbalance

Once the imbalance is identified and proven, is it easy to correct? Yes, if the game has been designed to be easily adjusted! The quality of a very adjustable game allows designers to specifically deal with a certain imbalance without indirectly affecting other game factors.

The important thing is to maintain the level of fine tuning (think small), especially when upgrading the game. An overly powerful game element can easily make other elements ineffective, while an overly weak game element will be ignored without effect.

It is also very important not to affect other game values when fine-tuning. For example, consider a spell called "fireball" in a role-playing game, which is a type of fire spell. If the fireball is too powerful, all you can do to plan is to reduce the power of the magic of the fire system or downgrade the fireball. Obviously what you should do is choose a "local" solution and downgrade the fireball before fine-tuning the full fire magic. This is a very simple example. In most cases, there is a certain degree of interdependence between game elements. Carefully consider the impact of a change, try

Use methods specifically designed to solve problems without affecting other game elements.

Finally, avoid "oversolving" imbalances. An "oversolved" situation arises when a plan uses multiple different fine-tuning methods to solve a particular problem at the same time. This makes it difficult to determine the effect of change, because you apply multiple independent variability to affect a dependent variability. "Over-solving" can also cause trouble by accidentally affecting other game elements.

Balance summary

In the process of developing a game, it is easy to occasionally overlook the final goal when facing the huge impact brought by many details. It is very hard to keep the gameplay that you want to achieve realistically, and to implement the principle of game balance fundamentally, but only in this way can you ensure high-quality game balance and avoid beta tests being delayed too long. Multiplayer games are gaining popularity, and game balance should be as good as possible. Too many hopeful multiplayer games are overshadowed by mediocre game balance.