I see people complaining a lot about balance in game, in the forum, on discord and pretty much anywhere. People needs to understand that Wmaster's job at balancing the game was
very well done and i hope that with this post and comments everyone can understand that. If you disagree, read the whole thing. If you still disagree, you can comment down bellow. I'll also review any balance chages suggestions and mainly point out why they (probably) don't work.
First of all, the biggest challange with Zerg Hex balance is the skill gap between players in a lobby. Try to compare this to ladder, can you make a bronze league have a balanced game against a grand master or even a lower league player like gold? ZHex works similarly: you have inhouse games, in which people have very similar skill level, and you have public lobbies, in which a infinite combination of skills is possible, from a 6 noobs terrans vs 2 noob zergs, to noob terrans good zergs, good terrans bad zergs, one good zerg and a bad one, etc. My point is, it's pretty much impossible to make the game balanced in all of those cenarios. In my opinion, zerg hex can only be truly balanced if all the players in the lobby have similar skill level.
Is zerg too weak? Yes and no.Zerg can be overpowered on a few ocasions. For instance, a unexperienced zerg when against a 'pro' player, can capacity upgrade all spawners and go for full agression on 1 terran, making it impossible to hold, pretty much
no matter the terran's skill. That strategy in a lobby full of noob terrans will work, because there will be no one to punish them. Also, in a noob zerg vs noob terran scenario, the zerg can also have the upper hand, because new terran players struggle a lot handling pressure and specially taking down big spines.
On the other hand, zerg is weak when there are enough experienced terran players in the lobby,
no matter what the zerg's skill level is.Finally, there are a few scenarios in which the game is actually balanced. On normal game rules, if there are only 3-4 good terrans on the lobby, good zergs can take them down. In clangame rules, we figured out some basic rules to make the game also pretty close to balanced - specially because the
teams are balanced.
So is the game balanced?Yes, the game is balanced around a scenario in which there are good and bad players in the lobby, but because the skill difference among players is so big and unpredictable,
the specific scenario in which the game is balanced is unlikely to happen.How can the game be balanced then?Well, sorry to say this but it can't, not for all the scenarios. There are some very interesting balance changes proposed on Turbo's post (it compiles his suggestions and other people's too) that manage to increase the scenario range in which the game is balanced and playable, but even so, there are a few lobbies in which it won't work, and that's just how it is. And that's how it's supposed to be, there shouldn't be a way for 6 noob terrans beat 2 good zergs or 6 good terrans loose to 2 noob zergs (unless they're trolling). In my opinion, changes that try to expand that "balanced scenario" are the way to go, but the game should be mainly balanced around "pro" meta, just like ladder games. Also, if there was a better ranking system, it would be easier to create balanced teams and therefore a more balanced match/lobby, so maybe thats one way to kind of balance the game, just like ladder games xp.
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Discussing actual balance nowBefore going down to suggestions that in my opinion won't work, i need to say a few important concepts and maybe a few exemples:
Field of change: every change will affect different parts of the game, I will separate them into main categories
- Economical changes. These are the hardest ones because it will majorly impact the whole game. A small change will affect a lot, as i discussed on one of the "Hex Science" posts. For instance, reducing the zerg's first supply cost by 200 will have a huge impact, because then every supply will be 200 minerals cheaper, so in 10 supplies that's already 2.000 minerals. Besides, as eco grows so fast for the zerg, that can make the eco difference to what it is right now so big, that it breaks the entire game
- Unit changes: These generally have less impact on the game, but still, changing a unit can completely shift the meta, wether it is from zerg or terran, so gotta be careful with the consequences of it. For exemple, if you buff roaches, terrans will be encouraged to do way more t1 pushes (armory first), before zerg has eco to get roaches.
- Defensive and offensive value changes: These are the changes that affect the most differently players at each skill level. Lets say you buff the big spine, increasing zerg's defensive value. That probably wont affect most noob terrans as they never push into the big spine anyway or noob zergs, as they usually build all spawners in the front and don't transfuse it anyway, but for high level play, that can change a lot.
- Others. Can't put everything in boxes, exept when there is a "outside the boxes" box xD.
Time of affect: For what period of the game is the change ment for, early game, mid game or lategame?
Well, even though a change can have a main period in which that changes, it will change all of the other ones too. For instance, if you make zerg's early game stronger, you end up affecting midgame too, as the terrans could be weaker in that stage, the zerg's eco might be higher, etc. Also, affecting the lategame, will also change early and midgame too, because players will make different choices knowing that the lategame now works differently.
Non intended consequences: sometimes you want to change something specific, and by doing that, you will break another part of the game by accident. Let's say you nerf terran's lategame to balance that stage of the game and it works, now the zerg has the upper hand on lategame. But with that, you encourage the terran not let the game reach that point, making t1 and t2 pushes relatively stronger by accident. It's a dumb exemple but should be enough to understand.
Ok, now it will be simpler to understand how a balance change will interact with the game. I will review changes if you guys put on the comments - this is a discussion so other people can also help. I might also suggest a few and also analyse them.
At last, i'd like to say again that this is just my opinion and i'm open to discussion and for you guys to prove me wrong
PS: Wmaster if you're reading this and you're willing to make balance changes, contact me and i'll gather a team of "pros" to respectfully discuss with you
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