Update 10/19/2014

Hail Wanderers!

Another shortish one this week. We spent most of this week working on changing and re-balancing the game systems due to the feedback we are getting from testing. In addition to that, I've been working on making excel sheets that show the numerical relationships between the systems and can be used to compare the efficiency of various units. Creating that document has actually yielded some interesting insights which I will discuss in a moment. First though, we've made some rather significant changes to the overall game.

First off, we are in the process of changing the events from being random occurrences to being player spawned. This is done to increase the number of strategic options that the player's have open to them and, more importantly, make the game more fair and balanced than it was previously. There will probably still be a few random events or event portions, but now the main gameplay systems will all be player driven.

Secondly, we've changed the turn order. Before, one player would go and then the game would calculate damage and energy gain before the next player would take their turn. The issue with that is that the second player could easily rebuild any destroyed trees, thus causing a stalemate. Now, the turn order goes: build phase 1 > damage phase > build phase 2 > energy phase > next player's turn. The idea is to encourage the player to split their resources between offence and defense and also provide them the ability to take advantage of any holes they create in their opponent's defenses. This system may be adjusted in the future, but it should cut down on the number of stalemates we've been seeing, especially against the AI.

Lastly, a few of the more interesting things that I've discovered about the systems. Interestingly enough, on a unit versus unit basis, our main damage dealing unit (the deaver) is actually very inefficient as it has an upkeep cost. This, however, is balanced out by the fact that the deaver attacks the area around it, something that is surprisingly vital to using them effectively. Furthermore, the lumberjack is just as efficient (when turns needed and energy spent are both taken into account) as the much less damaging beetles, at least when it comes to tier one trees. Yet, because the beetles have no upkeep cost and a very low startup cost, they are actually still rather efficient against high tier trees, though it takes a very long time for them to deal any real damage.

All told, the design doc has revealed some interesting things about the game that I haden't even realized. That being said, the balancing process is well under way, and the game doesn't seem to have any major balance issues. The main focus now, at least from a balancing standpoint, is to ensure that there are no exploits or vastly superior strategies and that all the systems are balanced against each other and have a unique niche to fill.

Until next time,
Guardian Soul