Balancing Missions

[Ghost113 10]

Hey everyone,

Something that I run into quite a bit when making a mission is deciding how I'm going to balance it for the amount of players we're going to have. It's probably one of the most challenging things to accomplish I feel like. Does anyone have any good tips or suggestions?

Varying the skill level of each units? Number of armored units. Making less squad leaders in groups.. etc.

We run a smaller squad of 3 to 5 guys most of the time.

[kilrbe3 37]

This is something I wouldn't mind knowing as well. Are you talking about scale though? Like, depending on amount of Human players, depends on the amount of AI units generated? If that is your question, I have exactly the same.

Now if you are talking about balance, making it not too easy & not too hard for your group. Than best advice I can give for that from personal opinion, is trial & error. Mostly by just playing it a few times. But not too much that you are starting to turn your friends into zombies and are already getting burned out from just testing it during development phase. Also ask for honest feedback of how they felt playing it. Also by making sure you have the right equipment in place to handle the Enemy. EX: If you have tanks, make sure you have a Launcher crate, OR, if you have a ton of guys in a town and you cant clear it alone on foot than you may need to delete some units or add in CAS/Arty. Etc etc

There is a AI skill parameter script I have used before, that you can set in the Lobby screen. Link here; http://www.tacticalgamer.com/script-bin/170660-script-mission-parameters.html

Hope that helps, and I'll check back as well.

[Ghost113 10]

You bring up a good idea. I was really looking at the balance part, but that would be a cool script to have that places a certain amount of AI on the map depending on how many players you have. I might look into that!

Trial and error is my current way and I get it balanced for the most part. I just like my squad to be surprised by the mission and not have to constantly play it till it's right. Thanks for the input, very helpful! I'm going to try out that script as well and add it to my favorites, will defiantly come in handy.

[kilrbe3 37]

You bring up a good idea. I was really looking at the balance part, but that would be a cool script to have that places a certain amount of AI on the map depending on how many players you have. I might look into that!

Trial and error is my current way and I get it balanced for the most part. I just like my squad to be surprised by the mission and not have to constantly play it till it's right. Thanks for the input, very helpful! I'm going to try out that script as well and add it to my favorites, will defiantly come in handy.

What I do is once I am ready to play test it with friends, I run the mission solo a few times, with just me and friendly AI. I know I am going to struggle a little, because, well, Friendly AI. Nuff said. But, long as I can complete it somewhat successfully, than I know it can be done completely with humans. Another tip is, once you have your mates play it. Just tell them the objectives / task, and thats it. Let them run the show. You just sit back & shut up and take their orders really :) Let them be surprised. As you made the mission, you know everything is going to happen & when & where, amount of enemies, etc etc. Just let them discover whats to come. Plus, with them running it. You can get feedback on how other players across the community would feel as well. As your friend(s) running it, are completely new to the mission and have no idea what to expect. Same as a person would as they first downloaded it.

And

I was really looking at the balance part, but that would be a cool script to have that places a certain amount of AI on the map depending on how many players you have. I might look into that!

Yup, I want to explore that more as well.

[iceman77 18]

I'm not so sure I understand fully, but DAC has a parameter you can set, where the AI will scale to the amount of players. Also, you can set skills randomly of any AI on the map by

{_x setSkill ["aimingAccuracy",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["aimingShake",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["aimingSpeed",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["endurance",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["spotDistance",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["spotTime",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["courage",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["reloadSpeed",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["commanding",random 1]} forEach allUnits;
{_x setSkill ["general",random 1]} forEach allUnits;