If some of the tools were gated so you couldn’t get to them until later, how would you gate them?
Just like any other RTS, with a tech tree? Just make tool creation resource constrained. For example, if instead of starting with a saw and a knife, the group started with a pick axe and a saw, then the other tools could require harvested materials to be created. Maybe players get iron, and then can make some tools. Then the blacksmith levels and he can create steel items. I don’t think getting deep and super realistic fits with the style of the game, but that’s the general idea.
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Balancing things, though, doesn’t necessarily need to be hard-coded. Some things, such as damage or frequency of spawning, etc., can be put in editable files that are read by the code. Taking a file-based approach makes it easier to mod, too – modders need only edit or add files for what they want to add and the game treats it no differently than the stock classes or items.
This also means the devs can make everything work from a, well, working perspective, then balance things from a gameplay perspective.
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Some things, such as damage or frequency of spawning, etc., can be put in editable files that are read by the code.
Agreed. But there is an underlying metaphysics that is more difficult, often times “impossible” to modify.
It’s important to understand that when making a game metaphysics affect hedonics. Historically, 99% of video game developers ignore this, board games and CCGs are generally more attuned to this reality.
No amount of parameter tuning could fix the broken economics of the auction house in Diablo III, for example. I agree that spawn rates are a good thing to parameterize. The issue with that is there is a chain of implicit relations that are derived from spawn rates. In games with robust economies it is extremely difficult to tweak spawn rates without having significant and difficult to predict downstream consequences. From my armchair, the solution in this case is to keep the economics extremely simple.
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I believe that for now it is fine but when more items are available for crafting it should be tweaked. To me it makes little sense that villages can build ladders but not fences.
Idea 1
Perhaps the carpenter should make skilled things like doors gates etc.
Idea 2
The parts for fences are made by a carpenter then a regular citizens can then use to place fences with a drag out system similar to ladders.
So even ladder parts would require a leven 0 carpenter but normal citizens can use them or place them as u can now
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My point is, a lot of balance things are not things that must be done hardcoded (just to clarify a bit).
In addition, a lot of balance is not possible to work on until all the major elements are in and can be tweaked. How long it takes to grow flax versus getting it from a shepherd, and how to make the shepherd balanced with the other evolution of the Trapper, can’t be done until the other evolution of the Trapper and all the other sources of string are in the game.
Balance things that involve what is available at any given time can also be parameterized, as they can be linked to levels, i.e. how certain things are not craftable until the Carpenter achieves level 3. This can be done by, in the parm file for, say, a quilt-top bed, that it cannot be crafted by a craftsman under level 3.
All that’s needed then is a flexible enough backbone that can take all the different varieties of parameter and description and turn these into full behaviors. This backbone includes functions such as AI core, that then takes information to define how the AI should handle an actor’s actions.
I do not know enough about the Diablo 3 auction house and why/how it broke in order to say anything about that.
For single player economies, basing off of the trading economies from the classic tabletop RPG Traveller seems to work well for most games, and has been used in trading games since the 1980’s space trading game Elite, if not earlier. It could probably be adapted to larger scale trading such as you might have in a game such as this, and could probably even be adapted to multiplayer.
Anyway, to tie back to the original thing we were discussing to avoid being too off-topic, the balance issues that the original poster is having, regarding spawn rates and times to finish crafting things and requirements for an attack to happen are primarily parameterizable balance issues, as are the related but not explicitly mentioned balance issues of how long it takes to get resources vs how fast the community of Hearthians grow.
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