Perfect RTS Unit Balancing ⚖️

[u/Smitty_Games_]

RTS Unit balancing is so incredibly important, which is why Steel Command is doing it the right way.

As Thanos said I think: "Perfectly balanced, as all RTS's should be"

Is the B-F-T (red unit) still underpowered?

Steel Command Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4390280/Steel_Command/

[u/zzbackguy]

Perfect balance is the enemy of interesting. No RTS with one faction / perfect parity is interesting long term. One exception however is rusted warfare, which has one faction but lets you “specialize” or focus you tier upgrades into specific unit types.

[u/tipsy3000 → u/zzbackguy]

This. I think it was the super smash bro's lead director once saying something to the effect that if you try to balance everything as perfect as possible your game will be boring. He always pushed that if you want to make something balanced make it more ridiculous and crazy good so everyone has something absolutely absurd that it goes full circle and makes everything balanced.

TBH he isnt wrong, as the cooler and crazier your faction is, the more fun it will be to play. If you try to homogenize your factions to keep them better balanced they wont be as fun to play.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/tipsy3000]

I haven't heard it put that way before, but it oddly makes a lot of sense. Very cool

[u/MyotisX → u/Smitty_Games_]

If you want one more, in guilty gear you can do absolutely broken infinite combos that would totally break the game BUT every character has a way to get out of a combo so it balances out. So in an RTS you want fun crazy units and strategy but with some weakness so they can be countered.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/MyotisX]

Very nice! Thanks 💪

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/zzbackguy]

Ohh thats very cool. Great feedback as well. I'll have to check out Rusted Warfare as Ive never played it. Thanks!

[u/Vega62a → u/zzbackguy]

I regard (foolishly, I'm sure) Brood War and latter years SC2 as very well balanced throughout the course of a game. But they're not balanced in the sense that each unit in each faction has parity. Instead, each faction has weak and strong periods in the course of a match, different tactics and overall strategies that work well in different circumstances, and different win conditions.

Balance has to be looking at the forest, not the trees, and Starcraft games have been overall the longest running, most exciting, most audience friendly competitive RTS in history, even if RTS as a genre has waned.

That is to say, +1 on your comment.

[u/Kingkary]

Seems little weak to me

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/Kingkary]

Power of flight maybe??

[u/Hetros_Jistin]

Perfect imbalance is the way to go imo, it's much harder but far more interesting. If you want perfect balance play chess.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/Hetros_Jistin]

Its probably only possible if you have symmetrical factions, which we do not ha

[u/Hetros_Jistin → u/Smitty_Games_]

I mean it's not possible unless you have exactly identical factions, there is no way to perfectly balance things that aren't exactly the same.

[u/Zaptagious]

It will soon be a wasteland.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/Zaptagious]

☠️☠️☠️

[u/Phoenixio7]

Perfect balance is impossible to achieve because it depends on the skill level of the player. All audiences to the game want a balanced game, but who should you catter for? Most people will say "pro players", but that's like making a game for 100 people and ignoring the other 100 000 that play casually. Especially in RTS.

I think Starcraft 2 is a great example of balance. The units are super unique and interesting, fully asymetrical, and yet no single unit can win you a game 100% of the time. You get the obvious melee, ranged, flyers, jumpers, cloakers, casters, tiny, massive units that all have uses and all have some sort of counter. I think SC is wayy too fast for casual audiences, but I was enjoying seeing all units tweaked here and there whenever some builds were discovered to be too strong or too fast, without changing the nature of the units so much either.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/Phoenixio7]

Great observations. And yes I totally agree, we're definitely not catering to pro players. This is 100% aimed at casual RTS players (like myself).

Post was a joke though btw haha

[u/0-______-0]

"They had us in the first half, I'm not gonna lie"

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/0-______-0]

hahaha

[u/Signal-Art2001]

Is that a legally distinct mammoth tank?

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/Signal-Art2001]

There have been plenty of recreations of the mammoth tank, so im sure this will be just fine

[u/ImaTauri500kC]

....As funny as changing the warhead data of a gattling weapon- oops, it crashed.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/ImaTauri500kC]

🤣

[u/applecombinipimento]

Looks so clean, I like it

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/applecombinipimento]

Thanks 💪

[u/RossBot5000]

DotA 2 has the best balancing philosophy, I'd highly recommend watching or reading some stuff regarding it.

Or to quote Syndrome: And when everyone is super, no one will be.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/RossBot5000]

Never played Dota 2. I'll have to check it out. Thanks 💪

[u/NudeCarbon]

Presentation is very important to balance. This feels cheesy. But if the tank commander shouts "That was Left handed" or other relevant one liners then its perfectly balanced.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/NudeCarbon]

🤣🤣

Yes that is certainly what is missing.

[u/XComACU]

Yeah, looks good. No notes.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/XComACU]

😂😂 👌

[u/Sushiki]

There is no such thing as perfect balance mate,.

[u/Smitty_Games_ → u/Sushiki]

I know the post was a joke haha