Balancing the Battles of Medieval II: Kingdoms
by Palamedes at Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:02:17
When balancing the battles in Medieval II there are many factors to keep in mind, not least the way in which our fans play the game. Some players prefer a realistic simulation; some players want a tactical balanced game and prefer good sprites over realistic animations; and the majority want a bit of both. This makes balancing the battles rather challenging because most of the people we hear from via fan sites and the community are at the two extremes so as a designer, you sometimes need to be prepared to make assumptions about the majority that are unseen or unheard. If you assumed the population of Total War fans was like any other then you could assume that the two extremes would give you an approximation of those that sat in the middle, this is the approach we took when it came to balancing the battles in Kingdoms.
M2TW was an interesting game to balance due to how far it had pushed the simulation, the battles looked amazing. When it came to the way they played out, the initial focus was to get the global feel right in terms of speed of combat, introducing personal space so players couldn’t squeeze 100’s of troops into small spaces for combat advantage, balance morale so that whole armies wouldn’t rout on impact and ensure the basic paper scissor rock balance was evident. Following the release of M2TW, the subsequent updates addressed certain mechanics and tried to find a middle ground on cavalry. Kingdoms was our chance to make another significant step in terms of improving balance on the battle map.
As a fan turned developer, I understood the value of our lead customers in the community. Lead customers are those that work for the game and see it as an experience to share with others rather than a box product that sits on the shelf. They manage fan sites, run tournaments, organize clans, make mods, teach others how to make mods but most importantly, they understand the difficulties faced in games development and wanted to be part of the solution rather than make demands. I knew that if these people were engaged in the balance design process effectively, amazing things could be done. The question was, how could they get involved.
During the development of M2TW we had made significant moves to establishing stronger relations with the community, in particular the modding and multiplayer community. This ensured that there were lines of communications open and that the fans had the capacity to modify many elements of the game that they previously couldn’t. In addition, at the studio, we made a conscious effort to walk in the shoes of the fans. We ran an internal mulitplayer ladder and tournament and we had meetings exchanging knowledge about competitive multiplayer play and some of us even started to make our own M2TW mods. This process revealed exactly “how” we could involve the community in the next stage. By developing our own balance mods we had moved closer to the community which meant the modders could get involved in this work. Together we could create the best balance mods possible and get the community to play and provide constant feedback. We could then use this feedback to quickly make the desired balance changes to the mods and then play some more.
There was never one absolute mod version everyone played early on as the strength in numbers needed to be supplemented with strength in ideas. At the end of the process we still didn’t totally agree but common ground was found. In the last week, the design team looked at all the variations and found that middle ground that could appease the ardent fans but could also provide a suitable balance for all M2TW fans – that version became the Kingdoms battle map balance. I’m personally very happy with the final product and I know Lusted will be providing a blog in the near future that delves deep into what has changed. However as always the proof will be in the word of mouth that spreads throughout the community post release.
There’s no doubt that this process has directly benefited the battlefield balance in Kingdoms. But also, it’s significant that we found an effective means of working with the community that doesn’t require lots of red tape to go through, has a fast and efficient process, utilizes the community’s strengths in a manner they feel comfortable with and most importantly makes significant improvements to game play in quick time.
I would like to pass on a special thanks to the following people who played a part:
http://downloads.sega-europe.com/dow...Celtiberos.JPG
The guys at Celtiberos – Special thanks to: Carlos “CeltiberoMordred” Sánchez; Luis “CeltiberoLerend” Lasso de la Vega; and Jordi “CeltiberoThrandhuil” Caymel. Celtiberos has always been consistently one of the best TW clans in TW history. You guys know the in’s and outs of the multiplayer game like few others but best of all you keep it fun for all your members all the time. My deepest regret was that I couldn’t speak Spanish so couldn’t effectively be part of your party over there in Spain. For those out there that are considering clan life and can manage their away around the Spanish language look no further than:
www.celtiberos.net. Here is a picture of some of the guys getting together for a few laughs.
Celtiberos Rulz!
The guys at Devoti Custodes – Special thanks to Juan Luis “Ergion” Barahona.
Man these Spanish players have cool names; makes Jason “Palamedes” Turnbull seem rather drab!
Jack “Lusted” Lusted – Your constant dissatisfaction and need to explore further kept the process seeking new avenues and insights. It’s great news to see you have become part of the developer team in the UK, keep the community torch burning ever brightly mate.
Thomadis “Darth Vader” Nick – I don’t know what planet you come from or which “Side of the force” you use but there are few that can contemplate or see what you do they just have to try and see.
Richard L. Webb – Your insights into engaging and managing the community effectively have been inspirational to the whole process. Thanks again good friend and here’s to doing more and more innovative things in the future.
Számadó “RTKLional” Szabolcs – As always the rock of reason and a source of deep insight into the core of the Total War experience.
Stefan “Alpaca” Reutter – Just when I thought we were done you turned up to throw something else into the decision making process. Thanks again - it made sure that we all took a breath and reassessed.
All the best gents and I bet you can’t wait to see Kingdoms and check how much of you became part of it.
Regards
Jason
