|
I had an idea for a custom melee map that involves shrinking units to create a "miniature" effect on some of the best 4/8 person maps. I'm trying to make a checklist of various balance considerations that I should account for. The original idea:
* Shrink units to 30-50% of their original size (all units would be scaled by the same amount, the actual amount would be decided by some testing)
* Shrink the radius of all splash/AOE mechanisms
* Cut the cost of all units by 50%
* Double the supply cap
Since I had the original idea, a number of balance considerations came up in my head. I want to know if you can think of some more. Here's what I got:
* Vision radius of units would be quite large
* Unit speed would be unrealistically fast for their size
* Range of units would encompass much larger spreads than they currently do, however if range were simply cut to 30-50% it would essentially negate the concept of the map - does this require buffs for shorter range units? (does it all even out if unit speed stays 100%?)
* Considerably more surface area for all units on buildings (Shrink buildings too? Quadruple building health? What about repair?)
* Effectiveness of defensive structures?
* Splash/AOE would perform much differently on existing maps, but this is rather central to the concept (tiny units on "tiny" maps = big maps, but consequently large chokes, etc.)
* Should capacity of drop vehicles be changed? (They're smaller too, but...)
* Rate of gathering shouldn't theoretically be altered if units retain the same speed, since size is irrelevant
* With cut cost of units, 1 base income becomes much higher than standard 1 base income, which means that individual unit producing structures (to include the hatchery) become less effective at spending available resources
- Does this have major race-specific considerations based on the above? Yes, probably, but what exactly?
This type of custom map seems like a pretty interesting balance challenge. I mostly just want to see how things would feel if everything was tiny!
|
that would actually be pretty cool.
|
In order:
Yes it would
Yup.
Range wouldn't change all that much - but ranged units would be able to bunch up more and hold off more melee units. Alternatively, you could cut range and speed, but this would lead to slower games.
You thought PFs were bad before lol... I'd suggest adding a diminishing return system for repair.
defensive structures would be just as effective.
Splash/AOE wouldn't really change if its radius is cut also.
Not if the units are also smaller. I'd play around with leaving ships the regular size, and doubling transport space 
Correct.
If you cut cost of structures as well, shouldn't be a huge problem
|
Wouldn't Zerg have a significant advantage because the map is now really large and has a lot of open room, considering the units are shrunk?
Good idea though, but you might need to make miniature maps too for it to work.
|
The map being large has more to do with speed than unit size. And if all units are small, surface area still works against lings.
|
One problem I can see is that it favors Zerg slightly. I've seen Zerg surround a building or destructible/backdoor rocks with zerglings before, and still taken a while to bring it down. This isn't necessarily a make-or-break problem, but one to be aware of. The other races are probably fine in terms of building surface area: I've never had a problem with it as Protoss, and Terran would be least affected, due to their ranged-heavy arsenal.
|
Technically the rate of gathering would be slightly slower, because the collision radii of both the minerals and units would be smaller so it would take slightly longer for them to actually get in range of the minerals.
But it'd be such a minute difference it shouldn't even matter.
Also, reducing collision size tends to make Zergling pathing a lot glitchier, in my experience.
|
If you make units cheaper, would they also build faster? You might want to consider adjusting the spawn rate for larva for zerg in either case, or zerg will have to make additional hatcheries just to spend all of their money. Although, if you only make the units cheaper, but build times the same, the other races would also have to make more production structures. This definitely seems like an area that you would want to look into for balance reasons.
|
Minature units, it reminds me alot of the scrapstation reaper/ colossus glitch.
|
no offense but wont you run into the problem, if you scale EVERYTHING down such as the range and vision, that the game will play excatly as it does now? just with smaller models...
|
My original plan wasn't to scale down buildings or any map features. I may have to scale down buildings or otherwise adjust their health to accommodate greater surface area.
|
gogogo, can't wait to visit said future map(s).
Love the concept, however you must early decide if you want it to remain somewhat similar (gameplay wise) to sc2 or if you just wanna get to see a new game come out of your mod (and both opinions are valid and exiting). I foresee a lot of work in order to make sense of it all if you try to reach back to sc2's current data stat gameplay.....
Again, good luck, super good idea and lot's of work ahead.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
