Damaging items was RE: [MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[msew]

At 22:02 02/25/2001 -0800, Brian Hook wrote:
>At 04:20 PM 2/25/01 -0800, msew wrote:

>> <tangent>
>> This same concept of: some classes are affected by the mechanic more
>> than others.  works for damaged equipment.  tanks get their equipment
>> just absolutely beat on, and will have a higher cost to repair their
>> items and their items will be destroyed more often than non tanks.
>> </tangent>

> This is simply a balancing issue.  Just because the obvious items
> will be damaged/need repair doesn't mean that casters can't have a
> similar drain placed upon them.  Just as melee classes have a
> constant money drain (repair), casters could have something similar
> (magic enhancing items wear out and need to be recharged, etc.).
> The item dependency issue of casters vs. non-casters is exaggerated
> quite a bit in Everquest.  This can be solved reasonably trivially
> without too much hassle if it's made a goal early on by the
> designers.

I agree in theory with that :-) but from the muds I have played on
they tried and tried to get it "balanced", with either holy symbols
that cost $$ and had structure and components for the magic using
classes.  Even with those drains in, the tanks would also have more of
a burden on them.

Now I fully agree it is just solving some equations and some integrals
and maybe those folks didn't have those skillsets.  *shrug*

I raised this question like 2 years ago I think and will raise it
again now :-) (as not many answers were put forth)

What tools, mechanisms, strategies, do people use for balancing their
games?  Which benchmarks?  How to implement changes in the game:
Bottom up?  Top down?  Massive spreadsheets?

msew

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