Creating and calculating balance in a strategy

Question

Programming

Good afternoon, I decided to make a game. I understand that you have seen such questions on the forums more than once and are already tired of answering them “buy a book on programming”, but my question is not about that.

So I understand quite well all the technical details of creating the game I have in mind. I'm interested in the question of compiling a game balance. I now want to make a simple , even very simple step-by-step strategy. In my plans, one race and 3-5 types of units. Well, or let's say two races, but this is still the maximum.

Actually the question is how to make the game balanced. There is a “classic” rock-paper-scissors system, where let’s say there is a unit A B C, where A brings down B, B wins against C, and C is strong against A. There is a variant of regulation by “opportunities”. For example, A is twice as powerful as B, but costs three times as much. Well, or B goes further. Or something else.

As far as I can understand the task of a ready-made recipe for creating balance, there cannot be. But maybe there are at least ways to somehow evaluate it and say "this unit is too strong and cheap." Or something else like that.

In general, I will be grateful for any advice and links and search directions. Matan is welcome. While I google some application to this question of game theory.

Answer 1

Theoretically, "balance" means that the size (in conditional metric) of the decision for each option is the same. Write a solver algorithm, formulate a metric and start counting.

Answer 2

As in most similar games, with the distribution of units by roles: thick melee unit, thin ranged, healing / resurrecting, hitting the area, weakening enemies. There are already 5 types in total, then you can add one that strengthens your own, hitting rarely but powerfully at one target, ignoring armor, and so on. Thus, it is effective not to spam the most powerful one, but to combine different ones. Well, how exactly each of them will affect the battle - tune in numbers.

Answer 3

I somehow looked for materials on the balance sheet, but did not find anything sensible. I'll have to do this myself in a few weeks. I can only share my thoughts.
If each unit is represented by a set of characteristics such as damage, speed and cost, then multiplying all these values ​​\u200b\u200bwill give a certain rating for the unit (more precisely, multiply all the "good" characteristics and divide by the "bad" ones, in this case the cost).
If we equalize these estimates to units, then we will probably get a balance.
Another idea is the compilation of a cross table (matrix), where the columns are enemies, and the rows are units, and in the cells, the calculation of how effectively a given unit will destroy a given enemy. This is for the rock-paper-scissors approach. It should be that each unit has a maximum effectiveness against a specific enemy.
The third option is to just play and make changes by eye. For very complex games, it is simply impossible to calculate the balance (such as old craft).

Answer 4

I did not write games, but I have an opinion :)
In any game, as in real life, there are different resources. In reality, it's time and money. In games, this is often some kind of gold, game time, etc.
To do this, you need to harness yourself to Excel;)
To have a balance, you need to:
1) For each unit, calculate its effectiveness. Utility/Cost
2) Determine a common measure for all units of the race.
3) Make it so that in total the races have the same number of "points".
Let's say that in order to have a balance, you need to calculate how many points each race will have after 30 moves there.
To do this, we load the linear equation into Excel and calculate all development strategies with a solver.
According to the results, the points should be approximately equal. Then there will be a balance.
For training, you can try to enter such a model for some game that you know well.

Answer 5

There are several articles on game balance on DTF - read them. The material is not bad.
Personally, I adjust the balance in the characteristics calculator, i.e. I make a draft calculation of characteristics for each unit and run it in a test battle. And so for each unit.
Why exactly? Because it allows you to initially understand cheating options.

Answer 6

I think this is one of the most interesting and creative moments in the game - thinking through the balance. I have never written a strategy, but this is my favorite genre in terms of playing, so, from my own experience, I can say that the concept of a balanced game should also include a possible terrain. Even in one of the most balanced strategies - in StarCraft 1, there are “imbalanced cards”, where it is easier for one race to play than another, despite the fact that Blizzard has spent a single year on balancing, and the balance of StarCraft 2 cannot be separated from the cards at all which are played.

Answer 7

I liked Eternalko's suggestion, namely,
take a closer look at the games that you know well.
Here, I would talk not only about the game itself (i.e. units, their characteristics, etc.), but also about the developers - many of them have their own blogs in which they describe their experience and the problems they had collide. Also, if there are no blogs, you can try contacting them directly.