How to properly adjust the characteristics of enemies and weapons (damage, health, etc.) so that the balance is maintained?

Question

Game development

Making my first game. Different levels - different enemies and weapons. I created levels, many models of enemies and guns, but I don’t know how to give them the right characteristics. It is clear that someone obviously hits harder, someone is healthier, faster, etc., but how can we translate all this into the language of numbers so that everything is balanced? Recommend some books or resources where you can read about it. What is it called anyway? game balance? Language Russian/English
Of course, you need to test a lot and each case is individual, but some initial parameters are needed, from which you can already dance further.
Surely the books describe the basic principles. There may even be formulas.

Answer 1

Here is a series of articles on the Gamasutra (links to other parts below).

Answer 2

This is tuned even in such serious games as Starcraft or League of Legends.
Right off the bat, nothing will work.
The best option is to teach your game to cut computer to computer.
And there to hone the balance semi-automatically.

Answer 3

Yes, it's called game balance. The matter is complex and muddy, there is no single approach.
Cutting computer to computer helps in marginal cases and indicates poor gameplay. Try to work out complex heroes like Io or the Oracle from Dota. (Although all the last heroes are difficult, everything started in ≈2007 with support heroes, but then they did all sorts of things: both tanks and damage dealers.)
All initial calculations are approximate, and something like this.
Here we have a hypothetical Moon Rider who has no long disables (but will catch up with almost anyone), gives 250hp magic every 6 seconds and gives a 50hp hit every second. So it turns out: for the cooldown of the nuke, it takes down 300 hp. In other words, she does more damage with her hands than with her magic. How much should a hypothetical Dwarf sniper who has no magic at all and only hits with his gun (at the same speed) deal? It turns out that 90hp. Too much, but you can give the Sniper a head start in other ways. Since the first levels of Dota are "eel shootout" due to the creeps' spins, you can give him a long range and he will smack the Rider. You can give a grenade launcher that will be effective against creeps from the very first levels.
Particular difficulties begin when semi-combat characters (disablers, killers, etc.) enter the game. One holds, the second fires - how many seconds to hold? And, I think, only under Valve the main jambs with Dota were decided.
Since the game lasts in space and time, it is necessary to understand how this or that area, this or that stage of the game helps this or that hero. Will the player be able to survive "out of his element" and survive someone else's "golden age"? What decisions need to be made for this? This is more creativity than science.
But before you collect the balance, you need to ... 1) Gather an approximate vision of the game; 2) Make a prototype; 3) Collect the overall picture of the balance - and only then can you distribute characteristics to different characters.

Answer 4

if you have few parameters (health, damage per poke, poke per second, movement speed) and all of them, I don’t know what mathematicians will call it, but let’s say, linearly affect the game, then you can make an indicator for each unit, which will calculated according to the formula
unit_factor=K1*P1+K2*P2+K3*P3+...+Ki*Pi, where Ki=parameter influence coefficient, Pi - the parameter itself. Intuitively, I think that health (for stationary targets in the absence of damage modifiers, chances of hitting and crit, as well as armor) will have the same coefficient of influence as dps, and movement speed no longer fits into this formula with a constant coefficient of influence and for it the coefficient should depend on the number of poke, damage per poke and average speeds for the game as a whole, at least.
In general, set the values ​​intuitively, what can be considered, consider (the dps of the tank should be much lower than the dps of the damage dealer, etc.), and then empirically, after ∞ iterations, come to the perfect balance)
If Belarusians have not been able to find a simple way for many years , then you are unlikely to succeed through the toaster.