The Triangle Of Balance-Food For Thought

[noveltyhero]

Hey guys,

 

Another thread discussing certain aspects of the game from me here today, but before I begin please acknowledge that this is based on personal opinion.

 

So let's begin, what is the triangle of balance? The triangle of balance refers to a logical sense of balancing.

Maybe I can explain this a bit better using a picture:

 

Remember old school RPGs focused around Mage vs Knight vs Archer/Ranger? The way it worked was:

Mage>Knight because they can debuff him and keep him at a distance as the knight needs to be up close

 

Archer>Mage because they don't need to be upclose and can volley them from a safe distance

 

Knight>Archer because they can protect themselves from the physical projectiles, thus moving into close combat rather quick

 

 

Anywho, in Warframe it should be like this:

Grineer>Infested because of primary slash damage and usually large ammo pool as well as fast projectiles

 

Infested>Corpus because they have slow projectiles and can move in quickly on them, also plasma isn't as effective as 500 rounds fired at them per second XD

 

Corpus>Grineer because of the hard hitting rounds that can render the Grineer's armor obsolete

 

 

Now, why am I bringing this topic up? Because I fear that with more and more additions we are moving away from this safe triangle which can be good but more often than not it isn't. The basics of balancing remain the same regardless of how many factions and/or damage types you add in. Basically I fear that some things may be getting balanced without consideration of other things which may or may not be affected.

 

Such as the Toxic Aura, it was added without consideration for how players could counter that without "GTFO" :/

 

What do you guys think?

 

EDIT:

To clarify:

My base point is that things should not be balanced without looking at the bigger picture first, be it enemy, frame, weapon whatever...

Edited October 6, 2014 by noveltyhero

[AM-Bunny]

I'm not trying to be rude, but isn't this argument only relevant if the factions fought each other primarily? Why would we (the tenno) care how effective grineer are at beating infested?

[Sidathe]

You're missing the circle where the Tenno reside in the middle and completely dominate everything else. :P

[noveltyhero]

I'm not trying to be rude, but isn't this argument only relevant if the factions fought each other primarily? Why would we (the tenno) care how effective grineer are at beating infested?

It is the basics of it basically. That's how they work, our frames are to some extent balanced around each placement. The factions presented are mere examples of how it would work ideally.

 

i.e put Mag in place of Corpus, Ash in place of Grineer and Saryn in place of Infested. Yes they may or may not counter each other in other ways but in the basics my point is that balancing should not be done individually but rather looking at an item, zooming out of it, looking at it again and so on so it fits within the picture.

 

 

Sorry kind of hard to explain

You're missing the circle where the Tenno reside in the middle and completely dominate everything else. :P

I left it out cause that's not supposed to happen XD

 

But good point

[Angius]

Grineer and Corpus were long enemies, that's why Grineer have Impact-focused weaponry and Corpus has puncture-based. They were fightting even before Tenno awoke.

 

We - Tenno - were fightning mainly Infested, even before Grineer or Corpus, during the times of Old War, during Orokin Era - that's why our weaponry is either balanced, or slash-focused.

[Lost_Cartographer]

Well... Tenno weaponry is puncture focused or the plurality of the damage is slash.  I'm assuming this means the Sentients didn't really rely on shielding.

[noveltyhero]

Well... Tenno weaponry is puncture focused or the plurality of the damage is slash.  I'm assuming this means the Sentients didn't really rely on shielding.

Grineer and Corpus were long enemies, that's why Grineer have Impact-focused weaponry and Corpus has puncture-based. They were fightting even before Tenno awoke.

 

We - Tenno - were fightning mainly Infested, even before Grineer or Corpus, during the times of Old War, during Orokin Era - that's why our weaponry is either balanced, or slash-focused.

 

 

To clarify once more, I am not talking about pure damage and actual balance points. I am talking about logical balancing sequences i.e Why is that thing this weak? Well because it is this strong against that.

 

I am writing this because I see many points and people asking for "balances" and whatnot without taking into consideration the rest of the board.