Balancing Enemies - RPG Maker MV

[MrVlogaGameHa]

Hey everyone!

So I'm going to start making a small game with some young people at a media centre and I know my way round the software pretty good but I have always struggles with balancing enemies. Since I am going to be doing most of the harder stuff (since they are aged 9 to 14, as far I know anyway) I have got a bit worried since this is the main thing I struggle to do.

The problem I always have is that the player is always over powered or under powered. Finding that sweet spot is something I just haven't be able to do, ever. I haven't found a way of making the player balanced or a system that helps me. I was thinking of make it so the player has no level or exp to gain from battles, only the players equipment will matter in a fight. This is so that I can have more equipment and not have to worry about the players level meaning if the young people come up with loads equipment, I won't have to balance them all out to match the players level and the enemies level. I was going to make it so that the weapon, shield (or secondary weapon) and body would effect the players stats then head and accessory would effect something else to do more with the quest or event or something along those lines. This also means you are not tied into a class, which personally annoyed me as a kid... I was that person that made one character for every class... still am that kid today if I am honest...

I would also like to use Yanfly's Active Battle System (Linked below) in a way that heavy armour and weapons would slow the player down and light armour and weapons would speed the player up. Just makes the game a little more funny, makes you think a little bit more about and something I haven't really seen much of in a turn based game. This part can be left out if this makes it a whole more confusing.

Saying all this, the young people might want to leave out the battle system completely, but would still be amazing if I could finally get my head round making the battles more balanced.

Thanks everyone!

P.S. If anyone would be up for helping me out with this game at a later date then please drop me a message... I think I am going into a bear trap so I would be very thankful for your help. I would also credit you in the credits and tell the young people you have helped with this project. This game should be uploaded to the media centre's website after it is complete.

Yanfly's Active Battle System - http://yanfly.moe/2015/11/06/yep-24-battle-system-active-turn-battle/

 

[Frogboy]

I find it easier to balance a game if I keep the numbers lower and more manageable. I like using Himeworks Parameter tables to more easily plan out and alter my actors stats in a much easier and quicker way then the clunky RPG Maker UI.

 

[MrVlogaGameHa]

I find it easier to balance a game if I keep the numbers lower and more manageable. I like using Himeworks Parameter tables to more easily plan out and alter my actors stats in a much easier and quicker way then the clunky RPG Maker UI.

Thanks! That helps a lot!

Going to look Himeworks Parameter tables now. Anything else you can you would recommend to speed up the the game development process?

 

[Frogboy]

Because of the way mapping is done in MV, don't decorate your maps until you're 99% sure that you're done with the layout. I've wasted a lot of time prettying my maps up and then decide to change the walls or floors and have to wipe everything out and pretty much start over.

Don't worry about overly complicated formulas for attacks and spells, at least, not at first. There's nothing wrong with a.atk - b.def. Simple formulas allow you to more easily stat out enemies, weapons, skills, items etc.

Use a spread sheet application like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets to stat out your enemies, items, weapons etc beforehand. You can more easily see all of the numbers and can change things around, plan out ahead and see gaps where you have room to fit other things into. The in game database doesn't let you see all of this info side by side. You'll still have to enter all of this into the games database but it's still a useful tactic.

 

[Wavelength]

My first thought when I hear "I'm working with young people because they want to create a game" is to not worry about balance so much - instead, just err well on the easy side of things, avoid giving the enemies skills that could potentially make combat into an RNG-fest (instant death spells, sleep/paralysis inflicts, etc.), and move on to the parts of game-making that are considerably more fun.

Achieving a tight balance that feels engaging, challenging, and fair is important... when your audience of players is experienced RPG gamers who came mostly for the gameplay are going to judge the game on its own merits rather than on the merits of "it was fun to create"! When you're just trying to create a game and play through it yourself, it's more satisfying to crush enemies than it is to take a lot of frustrating defeats. And since the kids are still young, the range of logical/tactical ability among them will probably vary a lot.

So I would recommend just trying to create fun content in a fun way, first and foremost - engaging childrens' curiosity is every bit as important as teaching them skills. Make it really fun. As far as balance, all that's important is that it doesn't stop the kids from playing through their own game.

With that being said, you mentioned that balance is important to you personally, so here are a few quick and general tips that I think should be lowest-hanging fruit available to achieve some semblance of good balance (without risking making your game frustrating):

1. Use multiplicative damage formulas, and make the formulas consistent across skills/actions. A multiplicative formula is one that uses a divisor for the appropriate defense stat, instead of a subtractor. For example, while the default skills in MV use something along the lines of (skill power + attacker's attack) - defender's defense, I usually use something along the lines of (skill power * attacker's attack) / (defender's defense + a small constant). The reason this leads to better balance is because a 10% change in stats one way or the other will mean a ~10% change in damage dealt, whereas with additive formulas a 10% increase in an already-strong attacker's stats could mean a much larger change (often 25%+) in final damage, and an additive formula can produce 0 damage hits if the defender is too strong.
2. Give the player a 100% chance to successfully run from combat when they choose the Flee command (if you are including one). This way, if it turns out that a certain type of enemy is too powerful or frustrating, the kids can simply run away from it and move on.
3. Consider the availability and power of your healing skills. Healing that is easily available during combat and is (considerably) more powerful than an enemy's attacks tends to break the balance of combat because it offers the player an easy strategy of healing whenever their HP falls to within a few hits of being KO'ed - healing the damaged characters more efficiently than the enemy can put out damage and getting ahead in a risk-free way. On the other hand, for a project like yours, remember that a lack of access to healing can be frustrating because healing is a good "out card" if you are behind in combat.
4. Design interesting bosses which are not just "stat checks" but allow the player to figure out cool strategies to beat them. For example, have a boss which telegraphs its moves a little while in advance so the player can figure out what kinds of shields or defenses to use. Not only will this teach the kids about creative design, but it will also decrease the impact of any kind of stat imbalances that happen to occur during play (since the tactics are more important than the stats in battles like this).
5. If you are going with an ATB, make the impact of Agility/Speed pretty low. It's easy to underestimate how quickly speed differentials can break the balance of combat. A good balance might be a battler that is 5x as fast as an opponent can act twice as often as the opponent. If they get to act 5x as often, you run into balance issues like the fact that the battler can put out four attacks at full efficacy, and then use their fifth action (right before the opponent attacks) to Guard, halving the damage dealt by the opponent's entire round of attacks.
6. DO include a Leveling system. It's an important part of the power fantasy of RPGs, especially for younger kids, and it makes battle more psychologically rewarding to nearly all players. Additionally, while a Leveling system makes it harder to achieve perfect balance, it also gives players who are struggling with your combat system a way forward - they can power-level to make up for their disadvantages. I recommend sharp leveling curves (each Level-Up requires a lot more XP than the last, and the amount of XP you get from enemies also increases a lot from one dungeon to the next) - this means that if you're far ahead or behind in XP, it will quickly normalize as you play through the game.

We get a lot of threads that have to do with balance in this forum, so instead of repeating everything that I've said in the past, here are a few posts I've made over the last year that I think may also be helpful if you personally want to dig deeper into game balance:

• How to give yourself a wide balance target
• How to make difficult combat feel fair
• How to design when tight balance is impossible

 

[alberthk]

i always use my feeling and pen and note. after each part of dungeon with enemies are passed i note down the parameter.

next dungeon would have better enemies parameter with more varieties.

then after im done with the target dungeon, i playtest with designated chara level and equipments.

most of the time it will not be too OP or too Weak, because the growth is fixed, any new skills for players that might cause power spike will be dealt by special enemies that resist to that skill elements.

thus the easiest way to balance a game is to plan one of the battle elements first then move on to the next, if u start with the enemies that do the enemies and balance it on your chara or the other way around.