RTS balencing

[Supermj]

RTS Balancing by: Supermj

This tutorial will teach you how to do pricing for custom units to make all unit balanced. Rather than just setting a price ad hoping it's balanced, this will tell you how to price it. Let's get started.

The first thing you need to do set your variables. The first thing you will need to do is set a damage variable, d. You will need to know the damage done by a unit and the speed in between attacks. If your unit always does one number of damage, the formula should be:

Example:
You're unit could do 12 damage with a 2 second cooldown:

So... in that case: d=6
​

Now let's say that your unit does a random number between two number's. You would use this formula:

Example:
Your unit could do 8-12 damage with a 1.5 second cooldown:

d=72​

Let's move on to the next formula. It's much simpler:

Let's keep the last d we used (3; the old one) and solve it if the unit's movement speed is equal too 185:

so s=61.6666666666...
which we round to
s=62​

The next two formula's are:

and

-note: The one above is only existent if missile homing is off, and projectile type is missile (splash)

Try to make splash no greater than min damage of 180​

Those two are pretty self explanatory. Now let's combine all of these:

That should give you how to do one price.

You can do something like that to get a second one. (x=whatever you want!!)
This system should make all units balanced.

Now I shall use this to show an alternate pricing for a footman!

d=113
s=2
r=6
p=0

[

So it could cost 8 and be balanced. If that is too low, you could do something like:

which would still be balanced.​

Formula review:

-note: The one above is only existent if missile homing is off, and projectile type is missile (splash)

-supermj

 

[DigitalDemon]

Nice!

I like it! It's useful for custom battle systems ( I was wondering how to calculate the damage dealt ). Try to improve it by adding screenshots in the editor!

 

[PurplePoot]

It's ok in some regards, but the formulae don't cover many things - attack/armour types, armour, potential upgrades, the fact that move speed matters much more on ranged units than on melee for some things and vice-versa for others, flying units, food cost, the fact that some resources may be less accessible than others, etc, etc.

 

[Supermj]

I'll make a more complex one later, right now, this was just an idea.

 

[PurplePoot]

Also, the formula for a damage range isn't practical. You should take the average, because the current one will make a skewed result: eg; a unit that does 8-12 damage will be considered the same as a unit that deals 4-4 damage.

 

[Supermj]

Your right *changes*

 

[Steel_Stallion]

Why do you have to bring math into video games?

Nice tut btw.

 

[Dreadnought[dA]]

Attack animation can play a role as well.

 

[underscore]

Let's do Math now. It's like the Rate, Percentage, Base thing y'all now that already right? Good Tutorial.

 

[Krynn]

Math Time

Let's do Math now. It's like the Rate, Percentage, Base thing y'all now that already right? Good Tutorial.

Hahah man.. You're right. It is math and the lesson is Base , Rate, percentage.

 

[Doron]

Why do you have to bring math into video games?

Math is a very important subject in gaming: programming, mapping, modding etc.

Without math it'd be hard to do any of those (I'm not very good at math, but I need to use it in some of my maps)

 

[PurplePoot]

d is horribly skewed for averaging, still.

It should be min+max/2as, not min*max/2as. (72 DPS for someone who does 8-12 every 1.5 seconds?)