someone else
Arcane
In paper games we have a game master who match enemies and loot to characters but in computer games we have scaling:
1) Geographical scaling - The traditional scaling, old games whether western or eastern do it. As you progress in the game you travel to new dungeons and towns, the monsters and equipment you find get progressively stronger. The wolf who does 2 points of damage gets replaced by the Death Dire Wolf who does 200 points of damage. Likewise the shopkeepers upgrade from shortswords and cloth armour in the first town to greatswords +10 by the time you reach town no.12.
Sure traveling back to old areas will have time wasting boring combat, the game world doesn't make any sense, but this is the easy to balance and some people get a kick out of mowing down those evil slavers which you couldn't previously defeat but now I have power armour and missile launchers hoo yah. If you are playing roguelikes make sure you have X resist before entering into Y zone, cost monster A spawns in zone Y.
2) Level scaling - Don't open that chest at level 2! Open it at at least level 10 where the loot list will have the diamond sword. Make sure you have a cure for blight before you reach level 12 cos blight rats starts spawning, as well as a weapon that can damage normal resistant monsters before reaching level 7 where those undeads start spawning in tombs.
You will constantly be challenged by appropriate monsters but this is extremely difficult to balance. Tying monster levels to character level? Character level may not represent your character's combat ability, nor does it take into account other factors like your equipment and spells. Leads into meta-gaming where you maximise your character power and minimize your character level. Also you get made fun of on the internet when you made a poor build and got killed by a level-scaled bear.
3) Time scaled - Robots taking over the galaxy? Don't worry, in 30 years time we will have the technology to defeat them! Can't afford to buy those new fangled Atomic Destabilizers? Not to worry! Quests will pay more in the future as well! The fedex quest that paid you 3,200 Galactic Credits in 2405 will pay 3,200,000 Galactic Credits in 2435!
Why play the game now when you can start playing 30 years later when you have better shields,further jumpdrives and fuel, more variety in weapons and more importantly moar money!
In a race against time game, time scaling for equipment does work, where you are limited in your resources initially. You know, like they only sell pistols and flak vests on-line in the first few days.
4) Quest scaled - Progress in the game will unlock new monster, new equipment, new areas and maybe respawn some areas as well. Excuse me while I clear out the entire game world in Chapter 1 so I can get moar xp and loot when they respawn in Chapter 2 where I will be overpowered. I am further encouraged to do this as certain benefits may vanish when progress further in the game.
Some games do a combination of these. In the real world I believe in making things simple, designing a game is the same, simple = easier to balance.
One game has a time-scaled NPC store, with geographically generated enemies, enemies that spawn with time, game progress triggers, resources that produce infinite money that can be be captured by the player, a percentage drop of loot, all in a dynamic campaign and the game turned out to be quite balanced.
1) Geographical scaling - The traditional scaling, old games whether western or eastern do it. As you progress in the game you travel to new dungeons and towns, the monsters and equipment you find get progressively stronger. The wolf who does 2 points of damage gets replaced by the Death Dire Wolf who does 200 points of damage. Likewise the shopkeepers upgrade from shortswords and cloth armour in the first town to greatswords +10 by the time you reach town no.12.
Sure traveling back to old areas will have time wasting boring combat, the game world doesn't make any sense, but this is the easy to balance and some people get a kick out of mowing down those evil slavers which you couldn't previously defeat but now I have power armour and missile launchers hoo yah. If you are playing roguelikes make sure you have X resist before entering into Y zone, cost monster A spawns in zone Y.
2) Level scaling - Don't open that chest at level 2! Open it at at least level 10 where the loot list will have the diamond sword. Make sure you have a cure for blight before you reach level 12 cos blight rats starts spawning, as well as a weapon that can damage normal resistant monsters before reaching level 7 where those undeads start spawning in tombs.
You will constantly be challenged by appropriate monsters but this is extremely difficult to balance. Tying monster levels to character level? Character level may not represent your character's combat ability, nor does it take into account other factors like your equipment and spells. Leads into meta-gaming where you maximise your character power and minimize your character level. Also you get made fun of on the internet when you made a poor build and got killed by a level-scaled bear.
3) Time scaled - Robots taking over the galaxy? Don't worry, in 30 years time we will have the technology to defeat them! Can't afford to buy those new fangled Atomic Destabilizers? Not to worry! Quests will pay more in the future as well! The fedex quest that paid you 3,200 Galactic Credits in 2405 will pay 3,200,000 Galactic Credits in 2435!
Why play the game now when you can start playing 30 years later when you have better shields,further jumpdrives and fuel, more variety in weapons and more importantly moar money!
In a race against time game, time scaling for equipment does work, where you are limited in your resources initially. You know, like they only sell pistols and flak vests on-line in the first few days.
4) Quest scaled - Progress in the game will unlock new monster, new equipment, new areas and maybe respawn some areas as well. Excuse me while I clear out the entire game world in Chapter 1 so I can get moar xp and loot when they respawn in Chapter 2 where I will be overpowered. I am further encouraged to do this as certain benefits may vanish when progress further in the game.
Some games do a combination of these. In the real world I believe in making things simple, designing a game is the same, simple = easier to balance.
One game has a time-scaled NPC store, with geographically generated enemies, enemies that spawn with time, game progress triggers, resources that produce infinite money that can be be captured by the player, a percentage drop of loot, all in a dynamic campaign and the game turned out to be quite balanced.