How Do The Developers Balance Our Weapons?

[PhantomRen]

I'm genuinely curious as to how this company balances their game. But, one of the most important aspects is balancing the player. Specifically, his or her equipment. How much power should one weapon have, does it work as the developers intended, what does the community think about it, etc.

 

Now so far from what I can tell, every weapon is viable. Or rather, should be. It feels like the developers of Warframe want every weapon to stand on or near the same grounds. We have our "jack of all trades" weapons, our sidegrades and just about everything we need for specialization in our arsenal outside of the modding system. I have quite a few weapons in my arsenal, and I'm content that many of them synergize with each other.

 

Let's get straight to the point. What I'm wondering is how the developers work with balancing the player's equipment, how they picture the system functioning, what truly affects balance, and what is done to justify a weapon being put in it's place. Why is weapon X what it is, what were the devs thinking when they made weapon X, how weapon X is balanced, and so on. Very basic stuff, really.

 

Now, I will list a few basic factors that are used to create balance in video games.

 

- Resource/Utility balance

- Skill/Power ratio

- Generalist/Specialist balance

 

What I'm trying to say here is that balance is an equation. Ideally, anything that has high power should also take high resources, regardless of skill. Anything with high skill should have high utility, regardless of power. Anything that's good at everything should be great at as few things as possible, whereas anything that's amazing at any one thing shouldn't be able to handle every situation. This is how balance works in Team Fortress, Counter Strike, Quake, and DOTA 2. And I think all video games should function with this equation, however everything is unique not only in the gaming industry, but the medium in itself.

 

Now, I would like to see Warframe's way of calculating balance, including a set of rules and important factors to note when tweaking weapons. In other words, how exactly does weapon balance work here? I want to know everything there is to know when this company and it's developers simulate balance in Warframe. It would be great if the players had a better understanding of how balance is meant to work in Warframe, so we can accurately tweak our equipment and focus on what NEEDS to be changed, rather than putting effort into lesser threats, or things that shouldn't be touched.

[The_Diabetes]

You can figure out what the developers are going for just by having some game knowledge and paying attention. All high dps weapons besides shotguns have great rate of fire/terrible efficiency and will run out of ammo if spammed. Thats their balancing factor which is also part of the reason I laugh to myself whenever people who use these guns post topics wanting more ammo to drop for those guns. All the slow firing/ high damage ammo efficient weapons besides shotguns have less dps, long reload times and suck for bosses or hordes of enemies.

 

Notice how for both of these shotguns had to be excluded? Explains some of the recent changes.

 

Some weapons are also better/worse vs one of the three enemy types.

 

The game is probably balanced around you deciding between each weapon you pick based on its merits. For my character, I like the Scindo purely because of how it looks. The Scindo does triple damage against infected so I have that covered. Now I need a weapon for the other 2 enemy types. The Lex has good ammo conservation is accurate at long range and does good all around damage. Its great against Corpus with the flying shield robots that make your life hell unless you down them fast. Thats 2 enemy types down now all I need is a gun for Grineer that can also double as a boss killer. I went with the Boltor since it wrecks Grineer with its innate armor ignoring and has good boss dps.

 

If you ever find yourself not switching from one weapon to another because the weapon you have is the best for every situation you face thats a good sign something is wrong and that a nerf is coming. Within the 3 weapons you choose each should clearly be better than the other based on the situation. Assuming you have a smart loadout.

Edited May 2, 2013 by The_Diabetes

[Gregio]

I'm not sure if the players need to know that much technical information.
The fun of the game is to try out the weapons that seem interesting to you, mod them for their strenghts/to your liking and find a set/some sets you really enjoy.

The kind of balance they try to have for frames and weapons is fairly apparent with all the nerfs/buffs/changes we see them applying every hotfix and other.

[PhantomRen]

You can figure out what the developers are going for just by having some game knowledge and paying attention. All high dps weapons besides shotguns have great rate of fire/terrible efficiency and will run out of ammo if spammed. Thats their balancing factor which is also part of the reason I laugh to myself whenever people who use these guns post topics wanting more ammo to drop for those guns. All the slow firing/ high damage ammo efficient weapons besides shotguns have less dps, long reload times and suck for bosses or hordes of enemies.

 

Notice how for both of these shotguns had to be excluded? Explains some of the recent changes.

 

Some weapons are also better/worse vs one of the three enemy types.

 

The game is probably balanced around you deciding between each weapon you pick based on its merits. For my character, I like the Scindo purely because of how it looks. The Scindo does triple damage against infected so I have that covered. Now I need a weapon for the other 2 enemy types. The Lex has good ammo conservation is accurate at long range and does good all around damage. Its great against Corpus with the flying shield robots that make your life hell unless you down them fast. Thats 2 enemy types down now all I need is a gun for Grineer that can also double as a boss killer. I went with the Boltor since it wrecks Grineer with its innate armor ignoring and has good boss dps.

 

If you ever find yourself not switching from one weapon to another because the weapon you have is the best for every situation you face thats a good sign something is wrong and that a nerf is coming. Within the 3 weapons you choose each should clearly be better than the other based on the situation. Assuming you have a smart loadout.

Thank you, that was very insightful. I only have about 50 hours in this game, but I feel as if there's still a lot for me to learn. And I have to agree with everything you've said, from the shotgun nerfs to having a balanced loadout and everything in between. I used to only use my Strunn before, and look what happened to it now. Anyway, thanks for reminding me how balance really works here. I hope that the devs make the right decisions when tweaking our equipment in the future.