RPG Stat Balancing, Objective/Reward Scaling Based On Random # Etc

[SoloSmith]

Hi guys,

I really enjoy tackling game development and such from a pen and paper standpoint but there's always been a couple of elements that leave me a little confused, one that seems to rear its ugly head more often than most is stat, reward and difficulty balance. I get that searching for the perfect synergy is akin to finding the Holy Grail but I've got a pretty basic system design and I'm hoping some of your more talented folk can help put in the groundworks for me.

I currently have a stat system that consists of 5 stats, current names are just placeholders

STR

DEX

INT

VIT

CHN

The player spends experience points to increase a stat in the field of their choosing. I have two types of missions, PvE and PvP. The PvE will simply be a random mission delivered in text form and players register to participate. As the level, stats and number of players varies greatly, I'm not sure how to balance it so that the mission will not always be loss/win and not totally random or based on pure chance.

The PvP missions will see a random mission delivered in text form and players from 2 different factions/teams register to participate. As one team could potentially have 50 players and the other 22, and all with varied stats, I'm not sure how to solve it. Obviously total # of players, level and stat should play a part but I need to create something that still offers some level of balance.

I'd greatly appreciate any help/advice on the matter. Maths is not my strong point

 

[Andar]

Is this a game done with one of the RPG Makers? If yes, which one?


This is NOT a fan forum, it's the company-owned official forum for the RPG-Makers and a few other programs distributed by Degica, and as such we do not provide support or allow discussions of non-Maker programs.

 

[SoloSmith]

Is this a game done with one of the RPG Makers? If yes, which one?

This is NOT a fan forum, it's the company-owned official forum for the RPG-Makers and a few other programs distributed by Degica, and as such we do not provide support or allow discussions of non-Maker programs.

I do apologize. Was searching for topics relating to stat balance for some inspiration and stumbled upon these forums. I haven't made any specific decisions in regards to what RPG Maker I'll use yet, like to at least have some support documentation before heading into anything big Was hoping to create something a little similar to the naval side missions in Assassin's Creed, I'll seek assistance elsewhere. Many thanks

 

[Wavelength]

Is this a game done with one of the RPG Makers? If yes, which one?

This is NOT a fan forum, it's the company-owned official forum for the RPG-Makers and a few other programs distributed by Degica, and as such we do not provide support or allow discussions of non-Maker programs.

Hang on, though.  You're a super-helpful mod so I feel a bit bad for challenging what you said here, but this is a game-mechanics discussion that (except for perhaps the PvP element, and even that could theoretically be done with enough scripts) is almost totally system-agnostic and would be generally useful to all game makers, including RPG Maker users.  It's not like he was asking for help with "how do I implement this in Unity"; it's more the mechanics equivalent of asking for feedback on a plot idea without specifically describing how you're going to make it on RPG Maker (which I think we usually allow).

I really enjoy tackling game development and such from a pen and paper standpoint but there's always been a couple of elements that leave me a little confused, one that seems to rear its ugly head more often than most is stat, reward and difficulty balance. I get that searching for the perfect synergy is akin to finding the Holy Grail but I've got a pretty basic system design and I'm hoping some of your more talented folk can help put in the groundworks for me.

I don't think there is a Holy Grail of balance.  Any game with unique enough mechanics to spark a player's interest is going to have its own unique set of risks, rewards, and feedback loops that will work best for that particular game.  Trying to apply that same set to a game with totally different mechanics could spell disaster.

Having other players playtest your game, and making adjustments to make the game feel more fair and rewarding, is the single best way to balance your game.  Formulas and yardsticks are nice, but if there are really cool traits/skills/etc. that characters can have, at least one of those cool things is going to find a way to break the normal logic of the formula in a way that you didn't expect.

I currently have a stat system that consists of 5 stats, current names are just placeholders
STR

DEX

INT

VIT

CHN

The player spends experience points to increase a stat in the field of their choosing.

More important than what your stats are is what they do.  Two general pieces of advice for games where you build up your own stats according to your choosing:

1) Make them incomparables.  If  +5 DEX increases your chance of a critical hit by X% and crits deal double damage, and +5 STR increases the damage you deal by Y%, then you can directly compare X and Y to figure out which one is better.  But if crits have some other, totally different effect unrelated to damage, or DEX does something like decrease the cooldown of your utility skills, then you can no longer directly compare them.  Either one will do something better than the other one, and therefore the player now gets to make a very interesting decision.

2) Look out for builds that break balance.  Often, mega-specializing in one stat will dominate all other build strategies.  If this is the case, you have to decide whether to balance your game in a way that requires characters to overspecialize (I tend not to like this), or introduce a game mechanic to discourage players from mindlessly dumping all their points into a single stat.  For example, you could give (20 + Level) "build points" per level up, with the first increase to VIT costing 5 build points, the second costing 7, the third costing 10, the fourth costing 15, and so on.

I have two types of missions, PvE and PvP. The PvE will simply be a random mission delivered in text form and players register to participate. As the level, stats and number of players varies greatly, I'm not sure how to balance it so that the mission will not always be loss/win and not totally random or based on pure chance.

The PvP missions will see a random mission delivered in text form and players from 2 different factions/teams register to participate. As one team could potentially have 50 players and the other 22, and all with varied stats, I'm not sure how to solve it. Obviously total # of players, level and stat should play a part but I need to create something that still offers some level of balance.

Skill and strategy are elements you definitely want to introduce to your missions if you want to make your game work as a game (rather than a grindfest or social web) - this will allow you some leeway in balance so the missions aren't always loss/win nor heavily RNG-based.  Without knowing the type of game, it's hard to say what skill or strategy you need to introduce.  I think Guild Wars (1, not 2) and any MOBA (DotA, LoL, Smite, etc.) are essential play material for anyone who wants to learn how to implement skill and strategy into a game that might otherwise be a grindfest.

As far as PvP elements, the way that you offer teambuilding and matchmaking would probably be the best way to solve it.  If players pre-form their teams, just match them up with teams of equal size and level, or let them choose their their own opponents (where one side challenges the other and the other side has to accept for the match to begin).  Or, just have players enter a queue and automatically match players of approximately equal level (or skill) together to make teams of a fixed size.

 

[Eschaton]

I think what it all boils down to is balamcing class levels with enemy stats agains expected damage outcomes. In short: how many hits per enemy at this given time do I reasonably expect the player to do? Balance around that: number of hits it takes to kill an enemy; how many hits an enemy needs to kill the player.

 

[lolshtar]

Is this a game done with one of the RPG Makers? If yes, which one?

This is NOT a fan forum, it's the company-owned official forum for the RPG-Makers and a few other programs distributed by Degica, and as such we do not provide support or allow discussions of non-Maker programs.

Holy ****, you're the reason why l don't come here often.

As for the question, l always liked that stats are not making characters that strong.

Also, it makes balance easier with small numbers and separate enemies tier vs equipment/level tier in game parts.

So when you fight tier 1 enemies, most of your party should be level x and have tier 1 equipment.

Also playtest your own game a lot.