✅ Balance changes without patches

The problem is that rules are objective, while whether or not a “way to win is boring” is entirely subjective. You can’t reconcile the subjective with the objective without providing specific limitations on the subjective component, or by introducing inconsistency into the rules.

Some people consider Bastion, no matter what, fun. Other people consider him the most boring hero to play.

That’s where it becomes a bit more like an art, then a science.

2 Likes

If they added a hero that could instantly one shot any hero without aim skill and would kill all 6 members of a team in under a second it would still take them a month to “analyze data” and nerf them.

Seriously. Hotfixing needs to be a thing. Make a minor change. Make another one. Keep tweaking until it works perfectly.

Or, if they make a really dumb change, they could reverse it in minutes, instead of the better part of a month.

You forget they are on 2 - soon to be 3 consoles.

This hotfix feature works on all platforms.

Also because it’s technically not a patch, it doesn’t need to go through the slow certification process for consoles.

A good example of this imbalance is present in Starcraft with the Zerg race. Although the Zerg race units are more or less balanced by cost compared to other races, they are much easier to produce and use in terms of player time. In large part due to this characteristic, the Zerg race was the dominant race in tournaments and competitions for roughly 6 months following Starcraft’s release.

Here’s something from that article that I was talking about. Why easily executable strats/mechanics, should be “punished.” On paper “to Zerg” is balanced, but when you look at the real world implications, it all goes out the window.

That’s why, for 97.999% of balance changes should be around “win percentage.”

Does it really matter if Reinhardt has a 50000hp shield? No, not if he’s only winning 20% of his games. And I actually think they do mainly look at win percentage when balancing. It’s really the only way to do things.

Well, the ones the devs have, but the publicly available ones, because those don’t represent mirror matches that well.

I’m willing to assume that Overbuff is pretty close to accurate. Maybe not at GM though.

mirror matches are fine, because they don’t add or take away from the overall math.

I address mirror matches in my idea, but only to dislodge obscurities such as GOATs. How to Perfectly Balance the Game

Well, I’m pretty sure the devs have better winrate stats.
Heck, they have map specific, and objective specific winrates.

yeah I saw your balance post. My personal viewpoint is, “I can’t offer balance suggestions because I don’t know the win rates.”

I can offer cool and different mechanical abilities, like Sym infinite Tele. But I wouldn’t know what to do with Sym’s DPS after that was implemented.

I’d wager role queue has thrown a spanned in the works.

So what rank are you balancing around?