How do I Balance My Game?

[KrimsonKatt]

So I was working on my game and finally got done finishing developing chapter 1, but then when I started playtesting I realized that I made my game FAR too hard for all the wrong reasons. Attacks either do far too little or far too much damage. I want the damage in chapter 1 to be 75-100 damage for weak attacks, (basic attack, slime bounce, ect) 100-150 for normal-power attacks, (T1 (teir 1) Magick, Dual Strike, ect) and 150-250 for super powerful attacks. (Like boss special moves and the like) There is also the problem with the dark Magick skill "Flux." Dark Magick is supposed to be stronger but less accurate than anima Magick, so I put the "success rate" in the database as "75%." However I've seen the move used dozens of times and not once did it fail or miss. What am I doing wrong? Finally, it just seems like enemies are doing either very minimal damage (0-15) or very high damage. (115-400) I don't want the skills to have set damage, I want the stats to matter, but how do I do that? When I try to use the basic default formula a.atk/mat * X - b.def/mdf * Y it doesn't work and the attack does too little damage. I'm trying to use the default formulas for stat gains. How am I supposed to balance this? It's too hard!

 

[bgillisp]

If you want the attacks to be that damage, you will need to take your stats in that chapter, and use math to find the algebra formula for this so that it is about say 75 start of chapter and 100 at end based on your ATK and target's DEF at start and end. It will be a system of 2 equations that you will need to solve too, you'll be solving:

a * (your attack at start) - b * (their DEF at start) = starting damage
a * (your attack at end) - b * (their DEF at end) = ending damage

Solve for A and B to find the coefficients.

This does assume you want to use the default formula. If you want anything else the equations will be different. Repeat for your skills too.

As for the rest, if enemies are doing too little damage you gave them too low ATK and too high damage is too high ATK. I find keeping their stats near the parties (or a little below/above) works too.

 

[TheoAllen]

First, try to drop defense to make everything easier.
You want the normal weak attack to be somewhere around 75 - 100.
What you can do is just literally put a.atk as your damage formula and set your stat around 88 at level 1. There, you get what you want.

Now the next stronger attack. What you can do is either a.atk + 50 or a.atk * 1.25 depends on how you want to scale the damage.

Next is for the enemy skill. Again, set the enemy skill the same way. The skill will literally just use the enemy attack stat as is. a.atk. if you want to make the enemy damage your actor by 100, then put 100 as attack stat. Don't make it overly complicated by putting x4 multiplier like the default formula.

Frankly, this formula

a.atk - b.def

just works. All you need to do is tune the number from the class/enemy

For a power attack, to make things easier, you can do something like

(a.atk - b.def) * 1.25

This means the default formula, but doing 25% more damage. I've been using this formula and it works.

 

[Black Pagan]

I'm going to refer you to this related thread : Link

 

[BK-tdm]

Check your formulas as ( )'s matter, doing 2*atk - def *3 is better explained this way (2*atk) - (def*3), computers tend to screw things up if they're not explicitly told how do you want your formula to work, even with the math laws of multiply first then add/substract sometimes its better to organize priority, its also a good practice to adjust multipliers when correcting balance.

You can also use math.max and math.min to limit a min/max dmg, if formula gives something below 100, use 100 then your formula gets a base damage that can grow as the game goes on.

Balance is all about playtesting, and even if you and some other people test and set for a "balance" some people will find it too easy or too hard, how difficult you want it to be is up to you cso keep testing and adjusting.

Balancing is one of the hardest parts of game dev (ask any moba/pvp game) and its never perfect, its easier to reach an enjoyable balance on single player games since at one point of the game the player/party is expected to grow in power enough to one shot all but the final dungeon stuff.

 

[SolonWise]

An easy way ot solve this is to work with small numbers, like I did in my last game. The thing is, you have to use small numbers in your characters attributes, your equipments, your skills and especially in your level up formula. When your character go to level 2, he can't gain a lot of strenght just yet. There is another trick, and its in the damage formula. If you use something like *2 or *3 it become harder to balance the game, especially with large numbers, since the monsters you fight in level 1 will be dealing little to no damage once your characters are in level 5. Once again: Stick with small numbers if your intention is to balance your game.

I recommend using a simple battle formula for basic attacks, such as:

a.atk + 10 - b.def

If it is a physical skill, just put a higher number instead 10:

a.atk + 30 - b.def

For magic attacks:

a.mat + 30 - b.mdf

You can even make the skill de enchanced by the hero's agility or luck, instead a base value:

a.atk + a.agi - b.def
a.atk + a.luk - b.def

These are simple formulas, but they work. Using something simple like that will make a lot easier to balance your game. For instance, let's say you character has a sword with +5 attack and is dealing 15 damage with normal attack. If he finds and and equips a sword with +10 attack, you know for sure that he will now deals 20 damage with normal attack. Same goes with level up. If he gains +2 attack in each level up, you know he will deals only 2 more damage with normal attacks. That way, you, as a developer, can better predict what the player will do in your game, and what will happen if he do those things.

You can even use the same formulas for your enemy attacks.