5 replies to this topic

[Tennex]

PGI's balancing method still needs refinement.

They make a balance change every 2-5 months. These are changes to many balance problems that have accrued over the 2 months time.
and as such they think they need to make drastic balance changes. And then go into testing for another month.

There are many problems with this method.

1. The long period between balance changes, forces players to play in unpleasant meta.
2. The long periods allows small problems to accrue such that root issues are masked.
3. Changing many issues at a time causes wide swings in meta, and unpredictable interactions.
4. Due to the human element [Hu]. Internal testing of these drastic balance changes, cannot possibly predict a weapon's behavior/use in live servers.

Suggested solution.
1. Make balance changes every patch.
2. Fix problems as they arise
3. Try to keep changes small
4. Allow the players to test small changes (dps,heat,proj speed, range), only internally test big changes/mechanic reworks.

Here is an example of a game balancing done right http://na.leagueofle...s/release-notes
notice there are balance changes in every single patch.

Edited by Tennex, 30 May 2013 - 07:43 PM.

[Nauht]

No thanks. One person's idea of "balance" is different to anothers and usually aligns with their own agenda.

I don't want major changes one patch, adjust to that, play, maybe not play for a few days only to come back and the game is totally different again.
The constant changing would only be a big turn off for me. I'd just get fed up and take the view of not playing the game until the dust settles. But for an online game the experience will be ever changing but there has to be some stability.

[FupDup]

Nauht, on 30 May 2013 - 06:36 PM, said:

No thanks. One person's idea of "balance" is different to anothers and usually aligns with their own agenda.

I don't want major changes one patch, adjust to that, play, maybe not play for a few days only to come back and the game is totally different again.
The constant changing would only be a big turn off for me. I'd just get fed up and take the view of not playing the game until the dust settles. But for an online game the experience will be ever changing but there has to be some stability.

Because waiting months and months for half-a$$ed fixes to gamebreaking issues is so much better.

[Tennex]

Nauht, on 30 May 2013 - 06:36 PM, said:

No thanks. One person's idea of "balance" is different to anothers and usually aligns with their own agenda.

I don't want major changes one patch, adjust to that, play, maybe not play for a few days only to come back and the game is totally different again.
The constant changing would only be a big turn off for me. I'd just get fed up and take the view of not playing the game until the dust settles. But for an online game the experience will be ever changing but there has to be some stability.

the point is not to wait. that way there won't have to be major changes.

and will be a bunch of smalle rchanges with no wild swings.

if you actually read the OP, instead of just posting after reading title

[Taemien]

I'd be on board with this. If they were undocumented. Changes to OP weapons shouldn't even be mentioned, let people experience the changes without knowing the change and see if they change their setups.

For buffs you can say which weapon was changed, but not how. I think that would give us a more balanced spread over all in how the game is playing.

Announcing that LRMs got this this and that buff is going to make people flock to them and not give us any real idea how they play against other builds. Same thing on the flip side. If they suddenly said ER PPCs do 15 heat, everyone would immediate discard the weapon. Let people find out the hard way.

Of course I wouldn't do drastic changes and do them instead over time. Like in the above example, if they were to make 15 heat ER PPCs, I'd start with making them 12, then 13, then 14 over a set period of a few weeks in order to wean people into them.

[Sybreed]

yes please, these changes can be reverted every other weeks if things go bad and I'm sure they don't take long to implement, just try them and we'll see how things go. PGI doesn't even want to use the test servers to test weapon balance anyway... for now at least.