Class Balance

[Monkey Boy]

2:00 AM, Slept 4 hours the other day. This topic isn't going to be much.

But really, theres always the same classes in every fighting game.

Melee - Power, Somewhat good
Mage - Rarely worked on, not many spells for. Unbalanced
Range - Unbalanced, not many bow's
(Healer) - About 2 healing spells, and a melee attack. Completely unbalanced.

Talk about Class Balance and how to fix it here.

[Bobosk]

What do you mean "Fighting game"? Cause when i think of that, i think "Tekken" or "Mortal Kombat" >.<

[Monkey Boy]

I mean by every game with fighting using the CTRL key in it made by Eclipse.

[Bobosk]

Well now see, that's a completly different thing than "Fighting" genre games… xD

Anyways, more on the point; Eclipse-- like most 2d oRPG's isn't exactly thought out to incorporate all these different classes.. don't get me wrong, Eclipse is great, but there's just not to much of a way to balance them without building from the ground up(Not only the source, but re-thinking these classes entirely)

[Anna Comnena]

One other thing, is you can't really balance your classes until your game is going; really I guess you never, or rarely, ever have perfect balance; MMOs are constantly changing by nature.

You can balance classes in an Eclipse game; actually the simplicity of Eclipse's 4 stats is helpful in this regard. But you have to usually keep in mind some things:

Recovery of player's health; potion potency and availibility, importance of magic healing and cooperation, auto-regeneration or not, and general cost of general survival. Stamina and MP or the equivalent should be considered as well. I've found that sometimes it's better to not have automatic regeneration of HP, or have a method where you only recover if you eat or are in a special "rest" mode. MP and stamina work the best if they have automatic regeneration however.

Items and equipment; consider the power, range, cost, and duration/durability of weapons and equipment. Maybe consider charged weapons that shoot magic bolts for mages and healers, as it doesn't make them warmongers, it gives them a little bit of combat options (since combat is the main method of growth in games like this).

Maps and movement; classes that depend on range are highly dependent on their environment, and even melee characters can use maps to their own advantage to limit their damage; like chokepoints, cover, etc. If everything on your map is just "block" then you can't shoot over and across it. With this you also have to make sure not to give too much advantage either (like spots where a ranger can just camp and kill super monsters with no risk.

Quests and options; sometimes having quests to allow rewards and growth that come from events not related to combat; like a healer can carry healing supplies to a frontier camp, or a mage can make some potions, instead of fighting monsters (which is the obvious bread-and-butter of the fighter).

The main thing it comes down to is cost. Since monsters and combat are the primary method of growth (both wealth and experience), you have to view things in that regard. Does it cost a mage a lot more to kill X amount of monsters then a fighter?