Regnum Online Balance project

[niclam]

What we refer to "Balance" when we talk about Regnum Online?

Balance is a term considered as an important subject on a great deal of games out there. In most cases, it's a hint that there is a problem with parts of the game or a uncalled consequence from a design decision.

When we talk about balance in Regnum Online in particular, there is no simple spot to look at but it's more like a set of areas that need to be in equilibrium to maintain a fun experience to all.

NGD Studios, balance and the community

During 2008 we have destined resources to improve several aspects of the game, which are beyond the scope of this thread but you can check on the public changelog.
Using our own means, we have come to realize that one of the most sought after areas of the game was balance in general.

We've been quiet about it creating this misconception that we didn't care about this important part of the game, in which case we'd like to apologize for being so silent about it.

Having learned the lesson, we are finally glad to inform you that after months of research we feel ready to start dealing with several balance issues. Please bear in mind that implementing a solution is not something that you will see overnight, but more like an iterative process.

Unfortunately, we cannot give any dates in advance for each issue because the solution depends on too many variables that we'd fall prey to false promises (Including to ourselves).

Staff

At the beginning of this year, we finally incorporated several new members into the team. Some of them were given the task to investigate on all the balance issues that plagued Regnum Online, from a technical perspective as well as the player's experience.

Thanks to this research project that has been ongoing and sporadic for the last few months, we feel confident that our staff can now make the correct decisions and implement whatever is needed to fix the problems.

We are now also able to replace the former person in charge of Balance, combat and formulas, Megrim (Altough he continues to work at NGD Studios and remains available as a consultant).

The project

Soon enough we'll start communicating which areas will be worked upon and the proposed solutions.

Some issues that were already approached this year:

- Realm population balance mechanisms (Realm bonus)
- Mechanisms to discourage camping of key places
- Several errors found on certain spells. These problems caused some spells to not work as expected.

Regards
Regnum Online development team