JRPG, Character Balance Sheet Concept

[Damaris]

Concept Sheet:
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Spoiler

 
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So I'm about to start digging into the mechanical development of characters in my game, and started thinking about how to balance them. I created the above chart in an attempt to make it clear to myself how the balancing in my game (Specifically between player-characters) is going to work. I'll state my reasoning for making the chart, then briefly go over my thought process and some of the issues I encountered.
 


The core reason I needed to make this abundantly clear for myself was the fact that many of my characters use combat systems unique to their character. I intend to make this as intuitive as possible, and I wanted to be prepared for the fact that balancing between different combat systems will be problematic. The chart attempts to make it abundantly clear where a characters strengths and weakness are so that I can build the flaws and benefits into the systems where ever possible.
 


The parameters are fairly straight forward, but the layout may be difficult to follow at first. The four major parameters (Attack, Utility, Defense and AoE) are the core benefits, if you lose out slightly in utility, you gain something in area of effect and vice-verse. The sub-parameters (Simplicity, Complexity, Fast and Slow) are where most of the finer balancing occurs and are not completely linear but more of a guideline.

Simplicity and complexity refer to user skill and knowledge requirements. A character with high simplicity can generally just use anything and hit the target with minimal additional input or risk, while a character with high complexity may be able to follow up a skill with a combo or spell based on user input - however it may have associated risk, for example - it may be an element that heals your enemy. Or it may have a turn-based penalty if you fail your input.

Fast/Slow refer literally to the users opportunities for action. High speed allows the user more turns and higher priority.

Lets take RAE for example, she is an elemental melee fighter with a high focus on single target combos. As a result she misses out on a lot of AoE damage, but her single target damage is very high. She falls just below the average speed line (Drawn diagonally from complexity to simplicity) but her ability to change her elemental damages on a whim gives her high utility. The result is that she is a complex, offensive and versatile character with almost average speed who suffers from low AoE damage and requires high user-knowledge and/or additional input from the user for optimal use.

The real point of this is to make all characters viable options, and assist in building the character skill lists more effectively. I struggled a little on defining some of the parameters - AoE and Utility as opposites bugs me a little - but I think if I stick true to it I will have a fairly effective balance.


You'll notice Fade in the center. The main character. In my mind, a perfectly over balanced pivot for balancing everyone else. He is supposed to be good at everything, and he is the only character who is. You want players to want your main character in the party. Otherwise it can be frustrating for them.

What do you think? How do you go about making characters balanced and preventing your biases from affecting your design?
Would you use this system? What would you change about it?

 

[Adam1013]

Are all those names in there the characters you are using? 

 

[Damaris]

Are all those names in there the characters you are using? 

At present. Some of them are likely to change or get cut. The names in full upper-case are somewhat set in stone.

 

[Adam1013]

I think with having THAT many characters you are bound to run into overlap with usefulness and variability...


I think it also depends on how specific each character is vs the types of enemies you have. Say your up front elemental attacker is great at targeting weaknesses of a single enemy. Are there more factors at play than just elements? 


Or is another characters thing AoE enemies with elements for less damage? 


can you give an example of say 3 - 4 character specific "gimmicks" that they plan on having?  

 

[Damaris]

Let me preface the following with a core design aspect of the game; Over the past 10 years or so game mechanics have become much more basic to accommodate for a broader audience; this game is intentionally attempting to go in the other direction without compromising intuitive design.


Elements are one of the more significant factors when targeting an enemy, as they not only determine effectiveness but also have a chance to apply stacking status effects that can result in very effective combat when utilized correctly. Armor and formation also play considerable roles in certain circumstances. Most characters also have combination skills, limit breaks and some characters may select a combat "style", which modifies some basic functionality of their class such as what weapons they can use.


Don't worry, I'm well aware of the nightmare I'm walking into.

I'll do my best to explain some systems simply - as in a design scope things can get complicated fairly quickly. Particularly without going into the fundamental systems the mechanics are based upon.


I'll use Rae (Elementalist), Vessi(Mage), Cross(Warrior), Thanos(Summoner) and Estus(Tactician) as they have some of the more fleshed out systems.
Rae (Elementalist),
Melee fighter, uses one of seven party-shared elemental resources to affect her damage types. These resources are also used in some crafting aspects of the game and represent a collected resource. Which ever element the party possesses the highest value of is her default element type. She can spend these resources in-combat to change her core element type for the remainder of battle or spend them to cast off-element attacks (attacks not of her core element). These are fairly abundant, and she collects elements from defeated foes to offset her spending them in combat. She has no default ranged combat, however has access to a specific set of simple equip-able spells (This is a shared system for some characters). Her more powerful spells do spend additional mana-like resource, and also require timed inputs from the player.

Vessi (Mage)
Vessi is completely reliant on a resource pool akin to mana, and uses none of the element resources that Rae does in combat. While equip-able spells are a limited bonus feature for Rae, for Vessi they are part of her class core. Her development is focused on enhancing these spells with different area of effect modifiers, and her spell list grows in casting methods for equipped spells rather than gaining new spells. Gaining skills like multi-cast, charge-cast, area-cast and so on. She can enhanced her equipped spells with a crafting mechanic where she spends elements outside of battle to gain a better version of an equip-able spell that only her and fade can utilize.


Cross(Warrior)


Cross cannot use magic, but excels in synergy attacks and combos. He has a stance system that enables him to alter his role on the battlefield. Fairly simple, but an enjoyable mechanic. His complexity on the chart is due to the difficulty of some of his combos. He has a significant amount more AoE than Rae, but it only effects a smaller area such as cleave and spin in most games.


Estus(Tactician)


Estus uses a knowledge based resource that is slowly gained through the duration of a battle. He retains this resource between most battles, and he can spend this resource to enhance formation bonuses, grant buffs, scan enemies, modify some battle conditions (such as preventing ambush), escape combat, avoid combat, and gain insight into particular conditions that are unique to enemies.


Thanos(Summoner)


Thanos shares the basic equip able spells system that Rae uses. His feature is he can equip summons. Basically Aeons from FFX. He has two resources, one is for summoning and the other is for casting spells (mana). He cannot just cast a summon, it requires several setup conditions. Honestly his position on the chart is off, it should be just below Ion.
 


Descriptions got shorter and shorter. I either got lazy or better at my descriptions... Or both.

 

[Adam1013]

So Rae's attacks are based on consumables in the form of elements, correct? Or are these elements stored and used by all members of your team for various attacks? Like for instance Rae can use Fire Punch consuming 5 fire (item or variable) and Member 2 can cast Fire Burst which consumes 10 Fire out of the same pool? -just an example. 

Equip-spells are not for everyone? Im curious if you are using the equip skills plugin for this?

I think overall in terms of balance you have a very wide variety of characters. The resources they use are all unique as well as their style even if it is to accomplish the same goal so that alone makes them unique and interesting. 



With a system like this it seems like the player can easily off balance their team if they wanted to no matter how well you balance the game / characters... but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Playing around with character combinations can lead to a greater challenge and repeatable game play with different party setups. In fact, in the game I would encourage various party setups for an increased challenge. Having an all elemental team would be really neat if they could compliment each other well and likewise with a more niche team. 

A cool idea from FF9 when you have vivi and steiner in the party together, he gains access to magic sword abilities based on vivi's spell list. Not sure how doable this kind of thing would be and it would probably require some relevance to the narrative. But depending on how deep your character interactions are, you could have more naturally synergistic party combinations than others.


Actually the more I think about this, the more overwhelming the process becomes haha but if done right I think it would be really neat.

 

[Damaris]

So Rae's attacks are based on consumables in the form of elements, correct? Or are these elements stored and used by all members of your team for various attacks? Like for instance Rae can use Fire Punch consuming 5 fire (item or variable) and Member 2 can cast Fire Burst which consumes 10 Fire out of the same pool? -just an example. 

Pretty much. Only two characters use the element variable pool in combat at the moment. And they both interact with it quite differently. Other characters use it as a consumable resource for crafting and enhancing equip-able spells or enhancing some unique weapons.

Equip-spells are not for everyone? Im curious if you are using the equip skills plugin for this?

I'm not using the equip skills plugin. I'm currently using Galv's magic shards, however I may need to write an additional plugin to get the functionality I need. If this proves problematic, I'll write a system myself... Due to the scope of my project I'm trying to cut corners by using existing plugins, but I'm also trying not to compromise the game by limiting myself to existing plugins. I'm willing to put in the work if I need to, but the more work I take on - the less likely the project is to get finished.

In fact, in the game I would encourage various party setups for an increased challenge. Having an all elemental team would be really neat if they could compliment each other well and likewise with a more niche team... depending on how deep your character interactions are, you could have more naturally synergistic party combinations than others.

The game story and story-based mechanics support the design choices I've made. It's always been my opinion that the story and characters should be the basis for combat design, and this is one of the reasons I would like each one of my characters to approach combat in a unique way. Not all of the characters will always be available to the party, and at certain points you will need multiple parties to accomplish your goal.

 

[Adam1013]

Having the world and characters dictate your combat is great, im working on that with my new project right now and it can be challenging to make everything fit and make sense within your world.


i like your diagram system of balancing and i might give it a try. Im only looking at about 7 characters right now but it can be a big task to vary everyones combat style.