Game Mechanics Balancing Buffs/Powerups

[Will]

In my game, combat is driven by your powerups. There are 11 that can be combined with each other, giving 55 total possible effects.

As it stands now, the effects simply stack. For example, if Powerup A gave the character x2 damage and x2 movement speed, while Powerup B gave the character x2 damage and x2 fire rate, if these were paired the character would deal x4 damage, have x2 movement speed and x2 fire rate. This system works fine tehnically, but I can't help but feel like the player can be dealing too much damage and have too many powerful effects on at once and it is ruining the challenge of the game.

I am thinking of implementing a system that would do something along the lines of Powerup A and Powerup B combined giving a final outcome of x3 damage, x1.5 movement speed and x1.5x fire rate. The character has multiple effects, but they are weaker because more are equipped.

In your opinion, which do you think is the generally better approach? I understand this might be a difficult question without knowing much about the game, I can give more details on request. If I were to implement the second system, what might be the best way to do the math? And what would be the most efficient way of finding out what pair is made currently? Right now I just have it check the powerup slots individually and multiply stats based off of those.

Thanks for your help and input in advance!

 

[RangerX]

There's no good or bad answer here.
Both ideas are good and have their advantages. The first one is easier to program and understand probably both for the player and you. The other one is more complex therefore might be harder to debug and less intuitive for the player.
None of those systems will influence your game being "fair" or not, being too easy or difficult though. Challenge isn't balanced because of your game mechanics or game concepts, its balanced when the challenge you created with those mechanics ends up feeling fair.

 

[Yal]

One idea to keep stacking effects that alter the same stat balanced is to have "tier" variables that represent the number of powerups towards that stat in particular. So you'd get a "Power tier +2" effect rather than an "power x2" effect. And then you check the tier variable and compute the right actual power multiplier from that, with diminishing returns. Tier+1 might be x1.6, +2 means x2, +3 x2.25, +4 x2.5 and so on. This is how Pokémon handles buffs and debuffs, for instance.

Another approach you could use is to dynamically adjust the difficulty - The Binding Of Isaac has all items being assigned a 'goodness' value, and the game will spawn additional extra good items if there's been several bad ones in a row or vice versa, so you'll more likely end up with somewhat balanced power near the end. There's still some very powerful combinations you can get, but most of them are situational in nature and in the end it boils down to player skill more than luck.

 

[Will]

@Yal, the "tier" system might actually be what I've been looking for. I played a lot of competitive Pokémon a while ago, so I've got an understanding of how the numbers work already. The Isaac-style dynamic difficulty wouldn't work best for my game, as specific enemy placement is important to some puzzles in the game. Thanks for your suggestion, I will be definitely be trying it out!

@RangerX, you're right about the fairness. I do want my game to be challenging, but not totally unfair.

 

[stainedofmind]

Just glanced through really quick, but perhaps either individually or when stacked you can introduce a weakness or penalty to the powerups to offset the unbalanced issues. Just an idea.

 

[Will]

Just glanced through really quick, but perhaps either individually or when stacked you can introduce a weakness or penalty to the powerups to offset the unbalanced issues. Just an idea.

Thanks for the suggestion.

What I've ended up using is what Yal said, a Pokémon style tier system. With no powerups, all "tiers" are set to 1. Powerups will increase one tier, and sometimes decrease another. Tiers cannot be lower than 0 or higher than 5. If a tier is 1, the stat it represents will have 1x its regular effect. At 0, it will be x0.6. At 2, x1.5, 3 will be x2.25, 4 is 2.6, and 5 is x3. 5, however, will require very specific powerup combos and is hard to achieve. I have found this system works great for my game and I am working on balancing enemies and the character's core (only changed through stat points/levels) accordingly.