Competitive Balance: Difference between revisions

m
Fixed Headers
No edit summary
m (Fixed Headers)
 
(2 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1:
{{trope}}
 
 
[[File:CBalance 2050.jpg|frame|Coming to a theater near you, "[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly|The Balanced]], [[The Munchkin]], and the [[Lethal Joke Character]]."]]
 
{{quote|''You know what does equal power? Power. Power equals power. Crazy, huh? But the type of power? Doesn't matter as much as you'd think. It turns out, [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|everything is oddly balanced]]. Weird, but true.''|'''Xykon''', ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' }}
|'''Xykon''', ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' }}
 
In any game that offers the player a selection of multiple options to play as (whether it be characters in fighting games, cars in racing games, [[Faction Calculus|factions in strategy games]], or whatever), '''Competitive Balance''' comes into play. Since these options are meant to compete directly against each other, they need to be roughly equally powerful, or else you run into the problems with [[Character Tiers]]. For each advantage, a balanced character will have a [[Necessary Drawback]].
{{quote|''You know what does equal power? Power. Power equals power. Crazy, huh? But the type of power? Doesn't matter as much as you'd think. It turns out, [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|everything is oddly balanced]]. Weird, but true.''|'''Xykon''', ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' }}
 
In any game that offers the player a selection of multiple options to play as (whether it be characters in fighting games, cars in racing games, [[Faction Calculus|factions in strategy games]], or whatever), Competitive Balance comes into play. Since these options are meant to compete directly against each other, they need to be roughly equally powerful, or else you run into the problems with [[Character Tiers]]. For each advantage, a balanced character will have a [[Necessary Drawback]].
 
 
Many types of these characters are based on their performance in various areas:
Line 62 ⟶ 59:
* ''[[Virtual On]]'', a [[Vehicular Combat]] game with [[Humongous Mecha]].
** More specifically, one can generally find the [[Jack of All Stats]] in the Temjin and Apharmd lines, with the former being simply well balanced and the latter being absolutely brutal at close range. Representing the [[Fragile Speedster]] are the Viper and Fei-Yin series, both of which are smaller and agile, but can't take hits very well. In early games, the Belgdor and succesors offer examples of [[Glass Cannon]] designs, being somewhat fragile but possessing great hitting power. Bal series are [[Squishy Wizard]], with overall low stats but have nasty trick for those who can master their [[Attack Drone]] ([[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|including AI]]). Finally, the Raiden and Dorkas are clear [[Mighty Glacier]] most of the time, being among the largest and most powerful but least maneuverable designs in the series.
* The ''[[Armored Core]]'' series sees just about every possible facet of this system, and (at least, after a bit of trial-and-error with regulations files) it generally avoids [[Game BreakersBreaker]]s.
** However, in 4 and FA, just about every AC can be considered a [[Lightning Bruiser]] in comparison to previous games due to the fact that they typically have at least two or three times the AP of their predecessors, much more powerful weapons, and ridiculous speed (this was taken to [[Super Robot Genre]] heights in FA).
 
== [[Puzzle Game]] ==
 
* [[Mr. Driller]] has a total of 7 characters, each one with their own stats; it varies from characters with slow speed but slow air cost, to speedsters with fast air cost rate.
* The (currently) 40 usable planets in ''[[Meteos]]'' differ in nearly every aspect, from the types and quantity of [[Falling Blocks]] present and the speed they fall to playing field width and quantity of garbage blocks both sent and received. There are many more differences dealing with game mechanics specific to the series, but suffice to say that separate strategies are needed playing as and against each planet. Each game to date has illustrated this by having the blocks take different appearances for each planet. In the original DS game, for instance, [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|Freaze's]] blocks look normal but are frozen over, while [[Death World|Gigagush]] takes on an 8-bit style with animated blocks resembling [[Space Invaders]]. By ''Meteos Wars'', every planet has been pretty well balanced with a few exceptions, under normal circumstances.
Line 96 ⟶ 92:
 
 
=== Non-video game examples ===
 
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* [[Lady of War|Erza Scarlet]], [[Fairy Tail]]'s resident [[Magic Knight]], uses her magic like this by swapping out various types of armors [[Crazy Prepared|according to whatever the situation calls for.]] So far we've seen [[Lightning Bruiser]] armor ([[Shock and Awe|literally]] at one point), [[Mighty Glacier]] armor, [[Fragile Speedster]] armor, and [[Stone Wall]] armor.
* The Servants of ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' are balanced in principle, but it's generally acknowledged that Knight-class Servants are a bit ''better'' balanced. Mages find ways to stack the deck in their favor, particularly the Einzberns, who are consumed with Heaven's Feel preparations for decades.<ref>This example could go under video games, if there are enough examples in the genre to warrant the category.</ref>
 
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
* The multiple forms of Heisei-era [[Kamen Rider]]s (and the various Riders summoned by ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'') work this way in a [[Live Action Television]] version of this trope.
* ''[[The Amazing Race]]''. The early seasons heavily favored physically strong teams, however, as the producers have gotten much better at designing courses, the Race is now much more balanced, even slightly favoring intelligent teams [[Muscles Are Meaningful|(though most fans still tend to think that the big, strong teams have a huge advantage)]].
 
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'': generally clerics are stone walls, fighters are almighty glaciers, rogues are fragile speedsters, and sorcerers and wizards are squishy wizards. Outside of the four "basic" classes barbarians and monks are lightning bruisers, paladins and rangers are magic knights, and bards and druids are jacks-of-all-stats (and masters of none) to different extents. There's quite a bit of room for customization in there though.
** In terms of actual balance though this falls apart very quickly depending on the edition. In 3.5 the archetypes are quite well represented, but mean nothing because the Wizard, Archivist and Erudite classes exist relegating everything else to the role of porters. In 4th edition the archetypes were the basis for the class system's design, which lead to everything being equal in balance, but a loss in the diversity of classes being based on: Melee guy who chops, melee guy who gets chopped, Guy at Range With Weapon, Guy at Range With Magic, Healbot.
 
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* The four bending arts in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' work this way according to [[Word of God|numerous]] [[All There in the Manual|sources]].
** [[Fragile Speedster]]: Airbending
Line 123 ⟶ 119:
** [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Optimus Prime, Megatron and Skyquake (the latter two being generally kept out of fights by various plot devices due possessing [[Game Breaker]] level strength)
 
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* [[Truth in Television]]: Equipment and fighting styles in Roman [[Gladiator Games|gladiator matches]] were highly regulated to ensure an entertaining fight, and it was very common for a gladiator of one school to go against one of another—provided the two were compatible. For example, a common matchup had a retiarius—a [[Fragile Speedster]] armed with a trident and net—up against a secutor—a [[Mighty Glacier]] with a huge shield and small sword.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Power At a Price]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/Fighting Game]]
Line 132 ⟶ 129:
[[Category:Video Game Characters]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]