That's right, visibility balance.
This is my old Yeller.
There are a lot of rules regarding visibility. But I have been spending a lot of time. Simplifying the summary of this.
And perhaps it is best to deal with the parts of the problem, one at a time.
***
I use a hexagon board with 7 different terrain types.
There are also combinations of these 7 terrain types, resulting in 28 different terrain in total.
For easy game play, important numbers are printed on the hexagons.
One of those numbers is visibility. 0 to 6 can be printed. And this is also a die roll.
Of course, 0 and 6 themselves don't need a die roll.
In fact, if even one 0 is to be found between 2 hexagons. The entire dice feast is cancelled.
On average, the visibility is 5/7th for each hexagon. All normal weapons have this, and I have given them the weigh factor of 5...?
***
The problem lies in the effect of the visibility.
At a distance of 1, the effect is 5/7th.
At a distance of 2, the effect is 5/7 x 5/7 = 25/49th.
At a distance of 3, the effect is 125/343th.
It grows exponential!
The basic game uses this effect. And is "balanced".
When I add different weapons for different visibility. The balance is gone.
I could talk about air, sub terrain and sub marine weapons. But they have their own dimension if you will. I think, the best example would be the rail gun.
This weapon ignores all terrain effects.
And thus has a weigh factor of 7. Or 140%
However, the true value over distance would be:
1 - 1.4 - 1.96 - 2.74 - 3.84 - 5.38 etc.
Then we have a sonic wave. This weapon looses energy over distance. And could have a minimum weigh factor, that is 1. Or 20%.
1 - 0.2 - 0.04 - 0.008 etc.
These 2 are the most extremes. And I think that if I get these 2 balanced in weigh. About 90% of the advanced part for the game is saved.
***
I immediately figured out that range is part of the balance problem. More range is better and has a higher weigh factor. For the normal game, this is "balanced".
But this same balancing technique doesn't work for the advanced weapons.
Simply multiplying with the factor of 1.4 or 0.2 on top of it, doesn't work. I know I need to work exponentially.
But after doing that, the game lacks balance.
I thought I did it right. But I am missing something.
Thus far, I also tried using the exponential numbers. But then the ranges in between caused imbalance.
Then I tried using the exponential numbers for each range individually and used an average.
But that didn't work either.
What am I missing?
Or how do I have to think?
Your summary is correct.
And yes, it is a war game. Along the lines of C&C meets Starcraft.
Every weapon is indeed treated the same way in rules. In fact, I do not use special rules limited to one weapon.
Players can compile their own army as if it is MtG in that regard. Every unit is limited in numbers.
***
It has been play tested with some simple choices at first. Limited to one choice at first to see a global game play.
It gives the game more of a "HaHaa!!" feeling at some points.
Which is something we liked a lot.
While at first, the choices where limited to one unit design. But as time progressed, having multiple designs in one army showed that these weapons are actually overkill.
Something that we haven't seen since the last removal of imbalance of the basic game.
Clearly I failed somewhere in "calculating" the "balance".
I tried to nerve it too, with a bit help of weigh factors. But then the designs amass showed amass weakness. After tweaking some calculations, the range showed overkill and weakness along the same line. Or vice versa. But that only results in using 50% of the designs. And thus only the overkill designs are used by players.
The new weapons used amass should be equal in all ranges, compared to a basic army.
***
If I go even further back into the basics of my game.
All factors in the game serve a double purpose. They are strong and weak at the same time. This also counts for ranged weapons.
Short ranged weapons are to be used up close. Units need to move closer.
Medium ranged weapons have a small advantage compared to short ranged weapons.
Long ranged weapons have the same small advantage compared to medium ranged weapons. But they have the most disadvantage by terrain effects. And are limited in where they stand.
The short ranged weapons beat the long ranged weapons, through weigh factors. Only when using fairly normal maps. I got a natural RPS system here.
And perhaps this system is cracked when using the "new" weapons. After all, the higher the range, while ignoring terrain. The more damaging the unit is until a short range unit is close enough to return fire.