I have been seeing some cool projects going on around here, and one of them has
lots cool vocations (
Necronia, I'm looking at you). And besides how awesome all of these fresh concepts sound, this keeps echoing in my head: "How do they balance it out? Do they
have to be balanced?".
Well, since you referred to my server here, I'd be glad to share some insight on how we deal with these things on Necronia.
When you have a lot of vocations to deal with, you have to make sure that they are balanced in all aspects, not just the power ratio (formulas and stuff). For example, 2 vocations might have 10 spells each, and on an average, these spells deal the same amount of damage (on same skill levels, levels, mlvl, etc.)
That is okay. But if one vocation has spells with difficult and complex mechanics, synergies, and combo requirements, and the other one is straight hotkey-spam with no skill required - this is not balanced at all.
In the same sense, we're trying to give each vocation a lot of uniqueness and separation from the other ones, so that playing each vocation feels like a completely new experience, all the while maintaining their power and utility on the level that is required to bring balance to the entire roster.
For example, you have a Saint and a Shadowstriker. Two completely opposite vocations - one is a top support and healer while the other one is a massive DPS dealer & assassin. They will never have the same amount of power in terms of damage output, but if you forge them around a list of characteristics thought out for each vocation, to create a balance between them, then you're on a good way to having a healthy middle ground.
This way you can create a ton of different vocations, and make sure that each of them is as useful in some situations as they are useless in other ones. This gives each vocation a specific role, and with a wide variety of choices, you give players a lot of freedom and selection (which is always a positive thing, since players prefer to "manipulate" the game to their liking as opposed to having a game in which everything is pre-set).
And then, by grouping up and creating teams, they can fill the gaps of each of their vocations and remove their cons once they work together as an unit. However, you must also account for the fact that not all players like to play in a team, so you offer a possibility (a vocation) that can operate on its own without too significant losses.
Perhaps the best,
easiest start is to make a list of pros and cons for each vocation, and see if they balance and cancel each other out, then work your way from there and carefully plan a list of abilities for each of them, to make them fit a role better.
In my mind, such a thing involves so many parameters: "how does this vocation make enough money, and if it doesn't, how does it make up for that?", "if a particular vocation hits less per second than the others, does it defend more? How much more?"...
Do you guys come up with formulas or just keep testing your ideas until you're satisfied with the results?
Formulas are a vital part of this entire scheme, but they come at the end, after all the planning. The best way to start (in my opinion) is to take the "weakest" ability of each vocation, and determine some average value of damage/healing it is going to put out. Then, as spells upgrade and become stronger, their formula should evolve from that
basic formula that you picked on the beginning. That way, you're always sure that the higher level spells will be more efficient than the lower level ones.
Of course, this might not be your goal. It all depends on what kind of a game you're making and what your goals with the vocations are.
And in the end, of course, there come countless hours of testing and probing which extend themselves until the moment you decide "
ok, this feels good, we'll leave it this way". Even after that, you will always get complaints or suggestions about changing this & that. These complaints should not be overlooked, but you shouldn't instantly heed to
correct things either. Once you receive a complaint about some spell or vocation being OP, do your best to track that complaint to its core.
What exactly made this player say that about Dragonfire Breath?
How come nobody else complained about this spell before?
Have I made some changes to other vocations that might've put this one in an unbalanced spot?
Does that player still have the beginner gear that doesn't power him up?
Is he skilled enough to be dealing as much damage as he thinks he should?
...
...
But in its essence, balancing is nothing but: creating a plan, initially executing it, testing testing testing, collecting feedback, making changes, testing testing, collecting new feedback, etc.
I hope my views on balancing will help you answer some of those questions that have been bothering you.