BuildingScenariosBalancing - Revision history

Jmichael: /* Unexpected reinforcements */

2015-06-19T19:42:21Z

‎Unexpected reinforcements

Jmichael: /* Player's recall list */

2015-06-19T19:37:43Z

‎Player's recall list

Jmichael: /* Terrain */

2015-06-19T19:31:40Z

‎Terrain

Jmichael: /* Varying the difficulty of a tactical problem presented to the player in a scenario */

2015-06-19T19:28:49Z

‎Varying the difficulty of a tactical problem presented to the player in a scenario

Loci: /* Items */ spacing

2012-10-02T23:43:23Z

‎Items: spacing

Loci: /* Distribution of villages */ update

2012-10-02T23:41:47Z

‎Distribution of villages: update

Loci: /* AI recruitment list */ update

2012-10-02T23:11:23Z

‎AI recruitment list: update

Loci: /* WML effects */ update

2012-10-02T22:54:01Z

‎WML effects: update

Loci: /* AI income */ sp

2012-10-02T08:30:01Z

‎AI income: sp

Loci: /* AI income */ edit

2012-10-02T08:29:24Z

‎AI income: edit

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 Reinforcements, either friendly or hostile, can significantly complicate the tactical problem. They are a surprise that the player must accommodate with already deployed troops. Unfortunately, reinforcements often become [[tomato surprise]]s, meaning the best course of action for the player is to replay the scenario with foreknowledge of the "surprise". To avoid that result, reinforcements should generally be either foreshadowed, appear early in the scenario, or appear in moderation.
-As an example, the scenario '''Crossroads''' in HttT introduces enemy enemy reinforcements that randomly appear in hill tiles. These reinforcements are explained near the beginning of the scenario, and the enemy units appear in moderation (a few at a time, and only when the player moves onto hill terrain). The scenario '''Drowned Plains''' in EI uses the same code, but adjusts the type of ambushing units depending on the difficulty level. On the other side, many scenarios give the player a few friendly units near the beginning, with the number and type adjusted for difficulty.
+As an example, the scenario '''Crossroads''' in HttT introduces enemy reinforcements that randomly appear in hill tiles. These reinforcements are explained near the beginning of the scenario, and the enemy units appear in moderation (a few at a time, and only when the player moves onto hill terrain). The scenario '''Drowned Plains''' in EI uses the same code, but adjusts the type of ambushing units depending on the difficulty level. On the other side, many scenarios give the player a few friendly units near the beginning, with the number and type adjusted for difficulty.
 ====Time of day====

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 ====Player's recall list====
-A player's recall list is vital to the balance of the scenario, however the designer has little control of it. Because recalled troops are available at a ''significant'' discount, they can easily turn the tide of battle, especially against lower-level enemies. Unfortunately, as with the player's starting gold, the recall list is generally unbalanced: the accomplished players will have multiple high-level units, while the struggling players will have few. The situation is further complicated by another wrinkle: playing on "hard" often provides significantly more experience points than playing on easy, with the result that the "hard" recall list often has more high-level units than the "easy" list.
+A player's recall list is vital to the balance of the scenario, however the designer has little control over it. Because recalled troops are available at a ''significant'' discount, they can easily turn the tide of battle, especially against lower-level enemies. Unfortunately, as with the player's starting gold, the recall list is generally unbalanced: the accomplished players will have multiple high-level units, while the struggling players will have few. The situation is further complicated by another wrinkle: playing on "hard" often provides significantly more experience points than playing on easy, with the result that the "hard" recall list often has more high-level units than the "easy" list.
 At the beginning of a campaign, it is reasonable to assume few recalled troops (and those that are generally aren't too unbalancing). At the end of a mid-length campaign it is reasonable to assume that most of a player's troops will be level 3 and balance accordingly. In the middle of the campaign, however, it is nearly impossible to find a balance that suits all players. Some campaigns try to limit the player's recall list (such as '''Evacuation''' in EI), however they are rarely entirely successful (and often annoy players).

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 ====Terrain====
-If the map is predominantly a terrain that favors either the player's forces or the ai's forces, it will have a huge effect on the difficulty of the battle. For example, a player whose units are broadly loyalists will have a disasterous time trying to root Elves out of woods. The terrain is, however, generally fixed by the nature of the scenario (i.e. the designer can't really make a whole new map for each difficulty level). I would submit, however, that 80% of the actual
+If the map is predominantly a terrain that favors either the player's forces or the ai's forces, it will have a huge effect on the difficulty of the battle. For example, a player whose units are broadly loyalists will have a disastrous time trying to root Elves out of woods. The terrain is, however, generally fixed by the nature of the scenario (i.e. the designer can't really make a whole new map for each difficulty level). I would submit, however, that 80% of the actual
 fighting in a typical scenario occurs in less than 10% of the hexes. It is possible to change only one or two hexes and have a dramatic effect on the outcome of the battle if you can identify those "chokepoint" hexes.
-This can either be done my having three different maps (which I suspect is more work) or by using the WML tag [terrain].
+This can either be done by having three different maps (which I suspect is more work) or by using the WML tag [terrain].
 For example, the code:

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 ===Varying the difficulty of a tactical problem presented to the player in a scenario===
-Considering the above factors, it is easy (if time consuming for the designer) to present tactical problems of differing difficulty in a single scenario. For most of the above factors, I'll give and example and explain in a sentence how if affects the tactical problem:
+Considering the above factors, it is easy (if time consuming for the designer) to present tactical problems of differing difficulty in a single scenario. For most of the above factors, I'll give an example and explain in a sentence how if affects the tactical problem:
 ====Terrain====

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 ====Items====
 Items can modify the attributes of one of the player's units, often providing an extra advantage. Some typical items are "Holy Water" (changes melee weapons to ''arcane'' damage) and "Storm Trident" (adds ranged ''fire'' attack), while WML allows for very detailed customization. Even adding a few hitpoints, an extra movement point, or resistance to a specific type of damage can sway the balance of a close engagement.
 ====WML effects====

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 ====Distribution of villages====
 Using the [terrain] WML tag you can easily alter the distribution of villages in a scenario. Move the distribution towards the player, and things get easier. Move it towards the enemy, and they get harder.
 ====Unexpected reinforcements====

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 ====AI recruitment list====
 Restricting the enemy to a certain class of units (i.e. melee-only, ranged-only, impact-attacks-only) can simplify the tactical problem immensely. Consider an enemy who can only recruit thieves and thugs facing a predominantly loyalist force, who can recruit Bowmen and Spearmen.  Bowmen are very good against thugs and thieves because they have a strong ranged attack. If the enemy can also recruit poachers and footpads, the tactical problem becomes more difficult because the player must balance the effectiveness of the Bowmen against the thieves and thugs with their (relative) weakness against footpads and poachers.
 ====Player's recall list====

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 ====WML effects====
-This is sort of a catch-all entry. For example, '''Unexpected Appearance''' in EI uses WML to force the ''chance-to-hit'' to 100% at the beginning of the scenario (to prevent the player from losing if the RNG is mildly uncooperative). Making significant and unexplained modifications to the behavior players have come to expect in Wesnoth should be avoided, but used sparingly WML offers exceptionally fine-grained control for balancing a stubborn scenario.
+This is sort of a catch-all entry. One typical use is via the [http://www.wesnoth.org/macro-reference.xhtml#file:side-utils.cfg LIMIT_CONTEMPORANEOUS_RECRUITS] [[Macro]], which prevents the AI from over-recruiting one specific type of unit. As another example, '''Unexpected Appearance''' in EI uses WML to force the ''chance-to-hit'' to 100% at the beginning of the scenario (to prevent the player from losing if the RNG is mildly uncooperative). Making significant and unexplained modifications to the behavior players have come to expect in Wesnoth should be avoided, but used sparingly WML offers exceptionally fine-grained control for balancing a stubborn scenario.
 == See Also ==

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 ====AI income====
-Income provides a steady stream of gold, allowing the AI to mount a continued offensive. Income can be generated from villages, or supplied directly by the scenario designer using WML. A steady stream of income can help provide a more balanced challenge, instead of deciding the battle directly upon the first engagement. Extra income is generally less unstablizing than larger amounts of starting gold, making it a good candidate for fine-tuning scenario balance.
+Income provides a steady stream of gold, allowing the AI to mount a continued offensive. Income can be generated from villages, or supplied directly by the scenario designer using WML. A steady stream of income can help provide a more balanced challenge, instead of deciding the battle directly upon the first engagement. Extra income is generally less destabilizing than larger amounts of starting gold, making it a good candidate for fine-tuning scenario balance.
 ====Player's recruitment list====