Core Combat Attributes

Buried deep within every game system, whether paper & pencil, console, or MMORPG is the engine that drives combat. Hardcore mathematicians spend countless hours discussion these core mechanics. Testers spend even more time helping to perfect the exact details and values of the base line numbers. But, when you strip away all the superfluous additions, addendums, discussion, and even testing, what remains are 4 core concepts; Avoidance, Mitigation, Chance, Damage. While their names are subject to the whims of game designers, these four fundamental attributes form the utmost basis of good game design. Each one is juxtaposed by another, and it takes a great deal of work to have all four in perfect balance.

In any given combat, it all starts with an act . . . something, somebody desires to do. Whether that somebody is a computer controlled object or a player, all combat starts something initiating a combat maneuver. Regardless of the genre, game system, graphics, professions or any other details, every single game uses something to represent a degree of success in that act. For lack of a better term, that is the Chance. Depending on the game mechanics, this could involve hundreds of variables, but when all is said and done, a random number generator fires off and the result checked against that Chance.

Avoidance is the counter to Chance and is perhaps the easiest to understand. Like all four attributes, numerous mathematical computations can take into account the ability of the object (object being any given person or entity within a game) to deflect, dodge, duck, parry, weave, jump, and other such verbiage to describe an objects desire to just not be hit. Depending on the desire of the core team, this could represent either a reduction in the chance to hit, or even another randomized chance representing a complete negation in the successfully determined hit.

After determining if a combat action has indeed connected with its target, how much damage the initiator inflicts on the target must be calculated. Damage is the simplest of the four. It is the raw amount of damage being inflicted and can be affected by several factions including, but not limited to skill, weapon type, weapon size, weapon construction, training, hit location, or any thing game designers can imagine. Here to, a balance must be achieved in determining the overall damage by taking into account the rate of damage attempts versus the potential value range. Large possible damage values have a lower frequency rates. The massive, but slow two handed sword as apposed to the small but quick dagger.

Having determined if the combat action succeeds and how much potential damage is, the last stage is to determine the amount, if any, of mitigation occurs. This fourth statistic reduces to incoming damage to reflect the ability of the target to absorb the incoming blow rather than deflecting it. Mitigation is to Damage what Avoidance is to Chance to hit. Some games use a general damage allocation system and bundle Avoidance and Mitigation in a single statistic. Some even adjust the mitigation factor by damage type to achieve combat harmony. In game design, good game design, the lower the Mitigation the higher the Avoidance.

In any given game system, there are far more factors that those listed above; however, these attributes form the core of the mathematical combat engine. Balancing these attributes is among the hardest to perfect and consume large amounts of test and design time. If not perfectly in tune, a game system can collapse. In practice, perfection is never fully achieved, but it is a goal the designers strive for nonetheless.

Game Balance

There is already a great deal written about game balance, such as how to achieve it, its importance, and even the pitfalls in dealing with it. Game balance is one of the most difficult areas of game design. Both paper & pencil and on-line multiplayer games need to ensure that each class or profession is balanced. This is vital to the overall health of a game and while it may be an impossible goal, it is a goal the designer must strive for nonetheless.

Game balance imperfections do not often show up during theoretical discussions or even during internal testing. Games are often pushed into a live environment with flaws that make a class out of balance with the others. With the dynamic nature of MMORPGs, changes can be made and pushed live as a patch. When such a change occurs and a given class is reduced in ability to bring it in line to other classes, the term used is "nerf".

While the hard-core role-players might pick their class based on a preconceived idea and not on the over/under powered nature of a given class, the out of balance nature of a class cannot be ignored. When these nerfs appear, players affected cry and whine in frustration demanding to understand why the change occurred, and more importantly, why even bother with game balance. A select few even try to argue that their out of balance character really wasn't and instead of reducing the ability of the out of balance class, the other classes should be raised to compensate. So a class was more powerful than one or more classes (or all of them), what is the harm in that?

At its most fundamental level, when one class possesses the ability to outstrip other classes in terms of advancement potential players will flock to that class. The other classes cease to serve a purpose. To look at it another way, you have 2 very distinct and different classes, each with a different set of abilities. A third class can do both just as effectively, why would anybody run the other two. In order to balance the "draw" of the third class, its ability to mimic the other 2 classes need to be reduced. Yes, this third class can do both, but at the expense of the other specialized professions. Raising the ability of the two specialized classes can set a bad precedent. It encourages even more whining by the player community and serves to increase the overall power level of the game, requiring even more powerful opponents, something already a problem in long term games as an aspect of mudflation.

When a game possesses a player versus player combat option, the need for class balance is even more pronounced. There has to a check and balance. Each class should have something it can defeat and something it cannot – someother class must do that.