We balance the mechanics in games

In the games industry, the user usually receives the finished product, but with the condition that the composition of the "candy" will always be hidden. You can twist the candy in your hands to hear the rustle of the wrapper. Or put on the table and get aesthetic pleasure from a combination of colorful patterns on candy with the color next to the cup. But whatever the user does with this candy, he will not be able to try, perhaps not always sweet, but the real taste of the filling.

On the Internet, you can find a lot of decent information on how to properly package products and what color should be the patterns. But I want to give you a taste of the candy itself.

Let's talk about the balance in the games. For example, we wanted to create an unpretentious RPGMMO-shech "WoW Killer", and we are almost done, we have already imagined what a cool battle mechanics and skills system will be in the game. The matter remains for small - to transform abstract thoughts into concrete values. Moreover, in some way, the combination of these values ​​should convince the user that the phrase “balance is shit” absolutely cannot be a descriptive characteristic of our mechanics. I dare to give my interpretation - "How to do it!".

Impacts

Game interactions, if you don’t go into great detail, are a set of parameters that change their values ​​under the influence of any phenomena (entities). If one object has the “Damage” parameter, and the other object has the “Health” parameter, then we can create the game process “The object makes an attack on another object” and as a result, the “Health” parameter changes its value by the “Damage” parameter value.
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Thus, it turns out that the impact (in this example, the impact of damage to health) is the cause of changes in the parameters of the object. For a deeper understanding, let's try to classify the effects. They are instant or temporary:

• Instant impact changes the value of the parameter immediately and irrevocably;
• Temporary impact only temporarily changes the value of the parameter, and at the end of its action returns the normal value of the parameter;

Surely this article has attracted mostly people to play and that means that you have heard such terms as buff, debuff, dot, hot, etc. In different games, these terms can take on different names (gifts, curses), but the essence remains the same - some long-term essence that changes the parameters of the characters during their time of action.
Summarizing the essence, let's call them effects.

Effects create interactions between game parameters. From the interactions formed game mechanics. A mechanic controls the gameplay.

The effect is a “container” for effects. Inside this "container" may contain both instant and temporary effects:

• Instant effects are triggered periodically by a timer (example: cause damage every n seconds);
• Temporary effects change the parameter during the effect;

An important characteristic of exposure is intensity. In simpler terms, intensity is the quantity by which we change a parameter. The effect also has a duration that determines the lifetime of the effect. Together, these two characteristics determine how important the effect is for the player (balanced).

Increasing the duration of the duration or intensity, we enhance the effect. It follows that at the intuitive level (and indeed at the practical level too) the significance of the effect can remain the same if you simultaneously change the duration and intensity in different directions (for example: increase the intensity and decrease the duration). Let's call this axiom “Balance Rule No. 1” .

Here we come to the first problem of balance - to find for each effect the value of duration and intensity, and in such a way that at least mathematical formulas create the illusion of balance, not to mention the perception of live players.

States

There is a separate type of effect - a state.
If an effect changes the totality of the characteristics of an object and gives it new properties (example: invisibility, immobility, stunning, etc.), then this effect is called a state. Intensity, as a characteristic, is absent in the effects of the state.

We balance the effects

In an attempt to find a relationship between the two characteristics of the effect (intensity and duration) such that the effect is considered “balanced”, we can come to an infinite number of options that satisfy the balance rule No. 1. To do this, you can increase one parameter (for example: intensity) and reduce another (for example: duration):

• Slow down the target by 50% for 5.0 seconds;
• Slow down the target by 60% for 4.0 seconds;
• Slow down the target by 70% for 3.0 seconds;
• Slow down the target by 80% for 2.0 seconds;

On the vskidku without details, we can assume that the options presented are equivalent (from time to time the utility varies slightly).

But such ratios of intensity and duration can be offered infinitely many.

Reduce the number of ratios

You can solve the problem of endless options if you divide all effects into 2 types:

• Variable only in duration (the intensity is either absent or always constant);
• Variable only in intensity (the duration is always constant);

Now we are allowed to change only one of the characteristics of the effect, and, therefore, we can conditionally find the template values ​​of the variable parameter for all effects.
What does template values ​​mean? Imagine that there is such a ratio of the magnitude of the intensity of the effect that, with an equal duration, the effects will be perceived by the players as equivalent. Fairy tale?

We compile a table where all possible impacts (in our spherical vacuum game) get one single value: changeable in duration get the value of the patterned duration, and changeable in intensity always have the specified duration and get the value of the pattern intensity.


Any home begins with a foundation. That balance must begin with him. This list is our foundation, which we will eventually adjust to the reality and needs of the players.

From the table we can draw some conclusions. If we need to create a skill for the player and this skill should apply a “balanced” effect, then theoretically it does not matter which of the effects to choose, since they are equivalent (template). If they are not, then their template values ​​need to be corrected.

For a theoretical global balance, there is no difference whether the ability to inflict damage of 600 units, stun by 4 seconds, or apply an effect that changes the attack by 30% for n seconds, since we created a table of template values ​​and made an assumption that these values ​​are equivalent.

In the future, players will tell you what impact is incorrectly evaluated in terms of balance. In this case, it will be necessary to change the value of one parameter in the table and the harmony will be restored again , as editing will immediately take place in all the places where this influence is used. After all, our mechanics is repelled by patterned values!

This is where balance rule No. 2 appears - balance adjustments should be global, not point-like. Point and local changes create exceptions that lead to chaos in the system, and if the system is large enough, then chaos becomes uncontrollable and destructive.

To be continued…