Initial Game Balancing

[jalexcrawford]

Game developers will create a balancing system to ensure the user has a good and uniform experience throughout the game

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• [x] Contracts provide a reasonable amount of money.
• [x] Contracts don't take too long
• [x] Contracts don't take too short
• [x] Contracts don't require more engineers than can be hired
• [x] Contracts require at least one engineer
• [x] Contracts may require parts
• [x] Engineers can't instantly complete contracts
• [x] Engineers don't work for free
• [x] Engineers have a maximum salary ($500k?)
• [ ] Infinite parts can't be stored
• [x] Can loans be provided if income is low
• [ ] Is there some other way to generate income besides contracts.

[jalexcrawford]

Design Doc here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/128oP3x8nwsGP5DG1OqUCxYwpKH9JaoGg2RMcdu-QI5Q/edit?usp=sharing

[jalexcrawford]

Capturing status on 10/24: Artemis Fission Game Balancing Section 1 - Project Description Project Artemis Fission, a project for COMP 350 at CSUCI. Description This document describes the balancing for the Artemis Fission game for COMP 350.

Contents Artemis Fission Game Balancing Section 1 - Project Description Project Description Revision History Section 2 - Overview Purpose Scope Section 3 - Balancing Employee balancing: Contract balancing Contract / Employee balancing

Section 2 - Overview Purpose This document will collect ideas for how to balance the ingame resources of Money, Time, Morale, and Parts. These resources will be consumed by employees to complete contracts. These contracts will require a certain amount of “effort” from employees. This document will set out maximum and minimum awards from contacts, maximum number of employees per contract, and maximum pay for employees. Scope This document will cover all balancing aspects of the game. Section 3 - Balancing

Employee balancing: The user’s character should be the most efficient character and should be able to complete small contracts by themselves. There should be at least 3 ability levels for employees: low, average, excellent. Different difficulty levels should have more levels, but for now we’ll stick to these levels. A low ability employee should have a 0.75x effort multiplier, average ability should have a 1x effort multiplier, and excellent ability should have a 1.25x multiplier. When specialization is implemented the following table should be followed:

No Specializations Primary specialization Secondary specialization Low 0.75x effort 1x effort n/a Average 1x effort 1.5x effort 1x effort Excellent 1.25x effort 2x effort 1.5x effort

Ability may not be needed in the initial version of the game.

Each employee should have a set of specializations: electrical, mathematics, physics, or mechanical. Low employees should only have one specialization, average should have 1 primary and 1 secondary specialization, excellent employees should have at least 1 primary and at least 2 secondary specializations. Though just primary specializations could be enough for the base game.

Initial compensation for employees should start at $60k / year and be paid out bi-weekly or $2,500 / 2 weeks. The player should be able to offer different salaries to start the employee off with higher initial morale levels.

Contract balancing There should be 3 different sizes of contract: small, medium, and large. Small contracts should be completed within 6 weeks and then award enough for 1.5 employees to work that time. Medium contracts should be completed within 12 weeks and then award enough for 2 employees to work on that contract full time. Total effort points should be 24. Large contracts should be completed within 18 weeks and then award enough for 4 employees to work on that contract full time. There should be 4 different types of contracts: System Bus (electrical), Navigation (mathematics), Payload (physics), propulsion (mechanical).

Parts Balancing There should be 4 different types of parts corresponding to the different contract types. Employees with the right specialization can take other parts and add / change their specialization to that part type. Parts can be purchased for $10 each, though boxes of 10 parts, and pallets of 10 boxes are available for purchase. Supply should start out infinite, but it might be interesting to have parts regenerate every 3 months or so. Contract / Employee balancing If all employees have the correct primary specialization, an additional 1.25x effort multiplier should be applied to the contract. If all employees have the correct primary and secondary specializations then a 1.1 multiplier should be applied.

Section 4 - Game Ending Failure - Run out of Money If the player’s balance goes below 0, then the game ends and a screen describing bankruptcy pops up. There could be an option to have a bank make a loan to the player that needs to be repaid depending on contract status. Though this is not necessary for the initial game. Failure - Run out of employees This may be an interesting idea, but have a group of employees generated at the beginning of each year and if all employees quit without any to replace them, then the game ends with bankruptcy.

Success - Player has too much money If the player earns more than $100 million dollars, then the game ends with a screen describing how the company’s success led them to be acquired by another company and the player is spending time on vacation in Fiji.

Success - Player completes enough contracts If the player completes enough contracts (maybe like 500?) then the game ends with a screen describing how the company got acquired and the player gets to go on vacation.