Comments on: Don’t Balance Based on That

By: Please Balance Based on That at Kill Ten Rats

Please Balance Based on That at Kill Ten Rats — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:03:15 +0000

[...] Last time, I suggested that The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ PvMP should not balance based on the idea that the creeps will eventually (and then forever) be high rank, since it will take most people years and years to hit rank 9. I failed to note that freeps gets their comparable abilities, and more of them, in weeks rather than years. [...]

By: The Ease of the Blue Team at Kill Ten Rats

The Ease of the Blue Team at Kill Ten Rats — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:42:32 +0000

[...] and I earned 2300 infamy. That means I hit rank 2 on my first night. That estimate I had about how long it takes a creep to rank? If I can keep this up, and I think I can do better, cut those times by 75%. I died 0 times the [...]

By: Thallian

Thallian — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:02:35 +0000

Ok gonna post it in the forums and link to here.

By: Zubon

Zubon — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:56:08 +0000

Scaling is a different issue. Creeps do not scale. They are always level 50. They get new abilities when they rank up, mostly in a binary fashion with a few +1-5%s.

By: mutantmagnet

mutantmagnet — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:08:42 +0000

Your example sounds similar to the situation in WoW where skills are being changed because they scale at different rates (among other reasons)

Due to the different scaling as you collect higher ilevel gear faster scaling skills overcome low scaling skills in usefulness.

What you fail to realize here is the choice developers like Blizzard have when designing skills.

-Make skills static so you can control the variables better and create a more balanced situation between skills.

-Makes skills variable so players are given more options to explore with their ingenuity game mechanics.

Trying to figure out which of these two leads to a more fun gaming environment is hard to do without rigorous studies so developers go by gut and the overwhelmng majority believe option B makes games more fun.

By: Zubon

Zubon — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:55:55 +0000

Thallian, re-post or link as you like. For various reasons, I am not presently active in the The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ official forums.

By: Yeebo

Yeebo — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:43:58 +0000

For the sake of argument let’s just assume that you get four times as much infamy on a higher ranked creep each night. That’s still over a year to hit rank 11. That’s a bit insane.

The grind up to rank 7 or so seems pretty reasonable, but I think they balanced it pretty poorly after that. Two or three months should be more than enough for anyone to max out a creep. You almost never see anyone over rank 8.

By: Thallian

Thallian — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:53:34 +0000

Yeah you do jimmyhc, its just a bit slow at first. I dunno about level 11 but my bro hit rank 5 and 7 seven with his creeps in two months. I have been closer to Zubon’s pace tho. Some nights are a bonanza and others I don’t feel like hitting the moors.