Dev Log: How is the Balance Adjusted?

Balance has always been a tough issue for a competitive game. We have spent a lot of effort on the balance of Auto Chess in the past year. Here, we are taking a look at the work behind balance adjustments, and reveal the fundamentals of the balance and

some of its difficulties.

1.The basis of balance adjustment

We record the battle data of all matches in the background and decide to adjust the balance of all chess pieces based on the performance of players using chess pieces in all matches. Currently, the players are divided into two categories:

-Players whose rating points are lower than 2800 (Rook Rank or lower)

This group of players accounts for about 80% of the total number of players. Since this group of players do not have a super deep understanding of the game, we will extend the balance data of them slightly. Generally, if a chess piece in this group does not have a winning rate higher than 65%, and the effect of a synergy combination does not exceed a winning rate of 60%, then we consider this strength reasonable.

Winning rate: refers to the outcome of a round of battle in a game, usually, it is 50%

-Players whose rating points is higher than 2800 (Rook Rank or higher)

This group accounts for about 20% of the total number of players and can be considered as the advanced players or even top players. Since their understanding of the game is very deep, the appearance of new chess pieces or the adjustment of chess piece values will lead to the changes in the battle strategy in the game.

Therefore, they are more sensitive to the changes in balance. Regarding the battle data presented by this group of players, we take them more cautiously. In addition to the winning rate, we also keep track of the selection rate, retention rate, synergy selection rate, the relationship between the winners and losers of each synergy, etc.

2. Adjustment direction for balance

If there is a problem with the statistics of the chess pieces or synergy, we will make some adjustments. The direction of the adjustment can include changing the pieces/lineups that deviate from the standard, changing the pieces/lineups that counter them, or are countered by them to achieve a relative balance. Balance adjustment is determined by a numerical value, mechanism, and restraint.

The method of update is determined by effectiveness. Take the Assassin class as an example, the purpose of its adjustment was mainly to counter Mages and Hunters, who have been strong for a long time. However, when simply modifying the value can not achieve the expected effect, then we adjust the mechanism while trying to stay mindful of other variables.

3. Recent problems with balance

We have added a brand new effect to Assassins, which is “the first normal attack of each round must have a 100% crit chance”, in order to strengthen the Assassin, and thus counter the Mage lineup. However, this adjustment lead the winning rate of Assassin and Abyssal Crawler to increase greatly.

At present, it seems that the intensity of Assassin’s new effect is a bit too high, and because of the characteristics of Abyssal Crawler’s skills, this chess piece naturally carries assassins.

In the previous update, we nerfed Abyssal Crawler. We are now in the process of nerfing Assassins and expect to adjust the balance again recently.

4. Future balance work

In the past year, we did not do a good job of balancing new chess pieces. We are now continuously enriching the reference database and dimension of balance, and designing system functions related to balance. In the following adjustments, we will evaluate all the chess pieces and synergy comprehensively to ensure that the future chess pieces will not be too strong or too weak for a long time after the release.

As a competitive game, we want to keep improving the balance, and continue developing the game to create a more enjoyable experience. We believe the balance adjustment should be taken importantly and seriously, so thank you for your comments and suggestions.

We will continue moving forward with providing a better game experience.