Balance
From GenieWiki
Balance is a termed used to describe the difficulty when playing. It is most often used in scenario design, in both single and multiplayer scenarios. and is one element of a review score for a submission. Balance is also an element in random map scripting, AI design and general gameplay. Its use in general play is also perfectly acceptable, though some players will use the term difficulty instead. Balance is made up of two factors - the AI and outside factors such as the layout of the map. AI design itself focusses entirely on the AI aspact, while balance in random map scripting depends entirely on other factors such as placement of resources. Scenario design and general play bring these two aspects together.
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Scenario design
A scenario that is well balanced will be a good challenge, requiring some skill and thought and perhaps some time to get used to the task, but not being so hard that it frustrates the player to the point of giving up.
Difficulty dynamics
Balance depends on the player's skill level, which will vary greatly. A well balanced scenario should therefore allow players of a variety of skill levels to play it. This type of scenario would be 'difficulty dynamic', which means that the player can choose how difficult it will depending on things like the difficulty level they set before playing, choices they make in the game, and possibly other factors as well.
Reviewing
Balance is one of the criteria when reviewing a scenario. It is important to understand that balance entirely refers to how difficult a scenario is, not the balance of other things. For example, a scenario with too much eye candy would not be penalized for balance, because although this may be a bad balance of units on the map, this is not the meaning of the word in the context of a review.
A scenario that is perfectly balanced will have been fairly difficult for the player. Scenarios that are too easy or too hard will lose points in this category, depending on how much easier or harder they were than the optimal balance. If the player finds it quite easy to beat, for example is able to beat a scenario on the first play without even thinking about saving, it will probably not be able to get a high score. Similarly, if a scenario is extremely hard, with unfair odds that even a skilled player cannot win against, then it will also be unlikely to score well. Reviewers often tend to be a little too generous with this category, for example saying the scenario was straight foward and easy to win, but still giving it a 3.0 for balance. A 3.0 should be for scenarios that are not as hard as they could be, but are still fairly challenging, i.e. in between perfect and terrible balance
See also
External links
- Review Guidelines at AoKH - Official guidelines for Age of Kings Heaven
- Level Dynamics by watchwood (Tsuniversity) - Article on difficulty dynamics for AoK
