The Lost Art of Class Balancing

GamePro has a look at the delicate touch needed when balancing classes in a Massive title. From the article: "Bad class balancing has been an endemic problem to MMORPGs--unfortunately especially in games where PvP is a major component. Dark Age of Camelot tanked the usability of the original classes with the emergence of Vampiirs in the ill-reputed Catacombs expansion. Users were incensed when Creature Handlers ruled the universe in Star Wars Galaxies--then angered even more when the class was beat down with the nerf bat in subsequent patches."

Comments

Re:Just take a minute...

[nacturation]

Here's a crazy idea, having been immersed in the world of SpamAssassin lately. What about some kind of bayesian or other statistical algorithm to automatically adjust certain parameters of the game? Given the number of combinations and permutations inherent in a complex game, it's difficult to determine ahead of time how all those interactions will play out and whether a certain combination of things will lead to a player having a huge advantage over another player who does the same things, but with perhaps a different class.

So set the system up so that you define boundaries for each character. If it turns out that a certain combination of things exceeds the predetermined boundaries, automatically adjust some attributes so that it's within the expected range again. I haven't thought through how this would be implemented, but some kind of adjustable constraints system based on expected damage/whatever would likely be better than the crude and broad hand-tweaking that goes on. And if the system does micro-adjustments throughout the game, players would likely not even notice it happening... so everyone's happy.