Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenoith
Specific stuff.
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See, this is the kind of discussion that needs to be going on instead.
Server-wide account resets and 'new versions' of servers don't always solve these problems if they are inherently built into the game.
One thing that can definitely help with balancing statistics alone is the use of 'spreads.' What this means is that you take a 'total' amount of points that you want to be available on items, and then create variance between them by distributing stats in a different way.
Let's say we want a piece of armor to have a maximum of 10 stat points on it, but we don't want it to be superior to all other armor pieces in the game. Rather than just doing a lot of guess work, the 'spread' of points can be used to determine the relative power of each item for easy comparison.
Consider the following:
Iron Helmet
Strength +2
HP +5
Armor +3
Bandit Mask
Agility +4
HP +3
Armor +3
Wizard Hat
Magic +7
HP +2
Armor +1
These non-existent items
are slightly unbalanced, but their composite stat totals always equal 10. So although they are very different from each other, they still have the same amount of points distributed between them.
Absolutely perfect balance can make for a very dull game, and there needs to be a little bit of wiggle room for imbalance. But when classes, items, skills, and so on are too far out of balance, it creates gameplay issues later on down the road.
It's very good practice to look many different aspects of the game and ask questions like:
"Are the numbers getting too out of control? Does the math work out?"
"Is there something about this particular skill that makes it less useful? Is it redundant?"
"How long could a player survive this amount of damage?"
"How long would it take for a player to earn this? Is that amount of time reasonable?"
"Do these rewards merit the amount of time put into earning them?"
"Is there too much currency in the hands of players? Is that affecting item prices?"
"How can we make sure money is regularly destroyed to avoid impossibly high item prices and inflation?"
And so on.
Once a server has been launched it needs to be maintained and revised, not continuously knocked down and rebuilt. It's counter-productive.