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Balancing Issues

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Anonymous

In the theme park game I am creating, some types of guests are easier to satisfy than others (particularly the families edit: who are easier to satisfy because they enjoy all rides, and the thrillseekers who are more difficult to satisfy because they only enjoy two types of rides). The way I am balancing this out right now is through event cards that affect every player, such as "Lawsuits" (lose $2 for each Family in your park and those families leave your park) and "ThrillCon" (If you have thrill seekers in your park, you can remove all other guests to attract two more thrillseekers and collect $2). Even so, I don't really like the way the event cards usually end up making the game work (wait until the Lawsuits cards go away, scramble for the family audience) so I was thinking of two things:

1: Once all the copies of a card are out of the event card deck, shuffle them back in

2: Scrap the whole event cards mechanic and somehow make families more troublesome (i.e. more than one need per turn in terms of rides and facilities)

3: Reward players with VP for attracting and satisfying more difficult audiences, making Families the money makers, but other audiences the reputation builders and tickets to victory.

Which of these sounds the best?

IngredientX
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Re: Balancing Issues

Dr_1010 wrote:
In the theme park game I am creating, some types of guests are easier to satisfy than others (particularly the families edit: who are easier to satisfy because they enjoy all rides, and the thrillseekers who are more difficult to satisfy because they only enjoy two types of rides). The way I am balancing this out right now is through event cards that affect every player, such as "Lawsuits" (lose $2 for each Family in your park and those families leave your park) and "ThrillCon" (If you have thrill seekers in your park, you can remove all other guests to attract two more thrillseekers and collect $2). Even so, I don't really like the way the event cards usually end up making the game work (wait until the Lawsuits cards go away, scramble for the family audience) so I was thinking of two things:

1: Once all the copies of a card are out of the event card deck, shuffle them back in

2: Scrap the whole event cards mechanic and somehow make families more troublesome (i.e. more than one need per turn in terms of rides and facilities)

3: Reward players with VP for attracting and satisfying more difficult audiences, making Families the money makers, but other audiences the reputation builders and tickets to victory.

Which of these sounds the best?

Games are best when they're "self-balancing" - that is, game issues are rectified by a goal of the game, rather than an arbitrary rule that is tossed in to correct an imbalance. These arbitrary rules usually come out feeling "fiddly."

With that said, I'd say the third option is the best to go with. You really want the game balance to come from other players' actions, not from a rule in the game. Adding value to the non-Family audience sounds like it would create strategic tension through an alternate path to victory - always a great thing in my book!

Good luck!

Anonymous
Balancing Issues

Since the event cards have other functions, I'm probably just going to remove the cards that previously made up fo the imbalance and leave the other ones in... I'll have to see if this makes the game too "stuff-heavy" as with the cards the game would include a lot more randomness, but is it the good kind (changes the game experience each time) or the bad kind (one player wins based on random happenings and not skill)... I'll have to figure that out...

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