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As promised in yesterday’s Interview with WeeWar’s most popular cartographer , here are Stirling’s map balancing tips. This is a must read if you want to make good playable maps that people will enjoy:
Chess is pretty balanced. Same units, same starting positions, no income. The balance is broken when 1 player moves first and the other second. So given an even start the most unbalancing factor is player skill and a mapmaker can only do so much to balance player skill. I actively consider poor players in the design of my maps. I arrange the starting set up to give players hints about how to begin the game. Beyond that there is only so much you can do to balance player skill, so on to balancing maps.
1) Balance the turn order advantage. For example: Play against yourself and count total income until all bases have been activated, which includes conquering opponent bases. Once income is generated at least once for each base list it for all positions. The total income from all turns played to that point should be slightly in favor of the last player and slightly out of favor for blue: Yellow total income 2400, Purple total income 2200, Red total income 2000, Blue total income 1800. This might be supposing that each player ends up with 400 income per turn.
1a) Another way to balance turn order is shown by Stirling’s Lotus http://weewar.com/map/24524 which is based on Mo’s Rubicule http://weewar.com/map/22505 .
1b) Both are fun maps, but non-base space is extremely limited on Mo’s rubicule and it is likely that yellow, green and white won’t get any their fair share of space. Both maps are dominated early by zerks and the more non-base space you have the better you’ll do even if you are sticking infantry into sand to "Reserve" that space for a later turn zerk. So give everyone a chance to do well in as equal measure as possible. I do like Mo’s Rubicule and hence the digs in the article.Play Mo’s Rubicule!
1c) Stirling’s Lotus gives every player a starting infantry in their corner. Then I added infantry to every base that blue could cover on the first turn so that no player would have another player step on their base unless a player chooses not to protect their own bases. Same for red and so on. Then I upgraded the units to raiders or tanks or zerks depending on the future need of that base. The income is really high on that map, so all players would have a good chance to try different strategies.
1d) The easiest way to balance turn order advantage is shown on Botanic Gardens http://weewar.com/map/2 . Yes it is literally map 2. Red activates the 3rd and 4th bases before blue so red ends up with 100 credits more than blue.
1e) The second easiest is by giving later colors more and better quality starting units like in Stirling’s Lotus. The advantage is proportional to the income. Red with 5 infantry and blue with none but both starting with 2,000 income per turn is an insignificant way to balance it.If you balance the income/starting units then you have done the most to balance the game. Some maps such as Middle East Theater http://battleground3.weewar.com/map/27537 are great looking maps, but the starting units are way out of line. Blue could easily dominate. I like the map and the concept so I started fixing it http://weewar.com/map/27971 .
2) Take a screenshot of your map using the 2 buttons in combination: Alt-Print Screen. Paste the picture into a picture editing program such as Paint that comes installed on most PCs. Don’t know if it still is. Then figure out which players will definitely get which bases. If a great player can get it from a noob, then it isn’t definite is it. Each player should have the same number of bases that they can definitely get. All remaining bases are "middle" bases that are up for grabs. These middle bases are prizes or rewards for playing well. Too many middle bases and the game is unbalanced or tippy. So if each player gets 5 definite bases, then it is reasonable to add 1 middle base per player.
2a) Stirling’s Cityscape started as http://weewar.com/map/19250 . It has 5 bases per player and 8 middle bases. The map is deceptively simple and caters entirely to the players who appreciate mobility and flanking maneuvers . It doesn’t play the same way twice and it is hard to lock down an opponent.3) Stirling’s Europe map gives purple a fast quick income because to do anything outside the UK it has to be done by expensive units such as hovercraft instead of infantry. Similarly it is hard to attack the UK. So consider what it takes for a player to activate their bases and to gain the middle bases and attack opponents.
4) Middle bases are not based on numbers of hexes. They are based on how many turns it takes for units to get there.
Suppose a map has a single base in each corner, is 35×35 in size and is a four player map with no starting units. The game will never end with equally skilled players because you have to have enough firepower to conquer the "next" base given that the opponent will build reinforcements and you are delayed in traveling to the target. Ok the game will end in boredom and it won’t be fun for anyone.
There are some maps that take too long to get from point A to B and that’s fine but if and only if the players are given enough income to deploy against the target and get it there in time to make a successful attack.
5) So I recommend that the size of the map fits the income.
6) Historical maps. Make them. Make them as they were. Then make a playable version of it and put a link in the description to the historical version and vice versa.
7) The Air Raid map http://weewar.com/map/22715 is one of those maps that I playtested against myself more than a dozen times and I had recommendations on changes that I couldn’t incorporate because I didn’t have enough space for maps. I’m running out of space again. The Air Raid map illustrates that you can achieve balance from a non symmetric start. If you want to learn how to use aircraft really well, this is a good map to do it on as blue. Blue should be able to take me [as red] to equal bases once all bases have been activated.
So how do you make a fun map? An intriguing map? Lots of different terrain and lots of options for various types of allowable strategies.
The key to balancing harbors is to count the attack range of a new battleship and a new destroyer. Each player should have at least one harbor than is not threatened by the opponent forces. Middle harbors are good, they entice players to move towards them and try to conquer them. The "prizes" or middle bases and harbors, but not airfields are generally what cause players to initiate battle against each other. And once they start war follows.
9) If airfields are part of the game, each player should have one that is not easily or immediately threatened by opponent aa guns, jets or destroyers. Other airfields can be scattered or placed probably by whim.
