07-13-2004, 04:01 PM
DAoC was set up on Rock Paper Sissors originally. It worked terrible(not that DAoCs balances is perfect now).
There are several reasons, here are a few.
1 Some classes are inherently popular for reasons unrelated to power/balance( I guess you could blame "roleplaying".) The classes which the favorite has and adavanatge to ends up being decimated, because of the population imbalance. This problem often leads to a second issue where the ddevs respond by making the unpopular class overpowered.
2 Gank groups will kill everything. People will find a few special set ups where the select classes working together gives them a big advanatge. Players are smart and will do this quickly. The devs will quickly see that 1 on 1 balance is minor compared to group and large group balance.
My point is you cant choose a paradigm to balance on instead you have to be smart and work hard and keep a wide perspective. Trying rock, paper sissors is bad, just like trying to make everyone perfectly balanced is bad.
There are several reasons, here are a few.
1 Some classes are inherently popular for reasons unrelated to power/balance( I guess you could blame "roleplaying".) The classes which the favorite has and adavanatge to ends up being decimated, because of the population imbalance. This problem often leads to a second issue where the ddevs respond by making the unpopular class overpowered.
2 Gank groups will kill everything. People will find a few special set ups where the select classes working together gives them a big advanatge. Players are smart and will do this quickly. The devs will quickly see that 1 on 1 balance is minor compared to group and large group balance.
My point is you cant choose a paradigm to balance on instead you have to be smart and work hard and keep a wide perspective. Trying rock, paper sissors is bad, just like trying to make everyone perfectly balanced is bad.