Weapon price balance (WARNING CONTAINS MATH)

null · Post by **null** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:38 pm

*** GEEKY POST WARNING ***

I had too much time on my hands and wanted to put my A.I. and math knowledge to fun* use, so I collected some data on the prices, required levels and attacks of right handed weapons in game and used a few machine learning algorithms on it and tried to come up with a way to predict required levels and prices for new weapons. Results will be provided upon request but skipped at this point.

* for geeky values of fun

(left is the name of the Y axis and above is the name of X axis)

Plot that shows relationships between prices, required levels and attacks for the 17 weapons.

Following things caught my eye:
The prices for high end (high attack) weapons are surprisingly cheap (should be more expensive in my opinion).
A few weapons don't fit the required level curve as much as they could.

I think that with a little work a formula for calculating required levels and prices of a new weapon could be made. This could help you when adding new weapons. Example: by my calculations The Ultimate Sword of Ultimate Destiny with a required level 50 would have an attack of 263 and would cost around 5000.

Hopefully Game! and science mix and I don't end up looking like a total nerd.

Post by **Mad Merlin** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:39 pm

Math is good times.

The prices for anything you can't buy in a store isn't of a whole lot of significance though, because how often do you sell an Ultimate Sword of Ultimate Destiny? The price you can fetch via the Market is expected to be (significantly) higher than the regular sell price.

null · Post by **null** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:21 pm

True. Sell prices for unbuyable objects is meaningless. But calculating attack or defense for objects can be helpful. You could even throw in a up to X% random error so its not totally predictable.

Price predicting could still be useful for new spells or skills.

As I see it Game! is quite balanced in every way and I'm sure this was not simple to achieve.

I suggested math formulas for calculating item/spell/skill properties just as a tool to help you sustain this balance and/or help you to add new items quicker and/or easier.

BTW does 263 attack for a lvl 50 weapon sounds like it would fit in the Game! or is it way off? Just to know if this numbers could be of some use.

Post by **Mad Merlin** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:12 pm

263 attack for a level 50 weapon sounds within reason, yes. For item stats, I normally just eyeball the stats on items with similar level requirements, and then toss something in for the new item.

For spell and skill costs, they're based on the expected gold earned by the time the purchase is available to you, though the actual value there can stray a fairly long ways depending on the particular path you take.

But you're right, balance is definitely tricky, and usually just taken for granted.

kariloy · Post by **kariloy** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:30 am

Hmm maybe I should disguise my work data as some awesome game data and make you analyze it

null · Post by **null** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:10 pm

If you can disguise it in a way that it looks fun to analyze or that it becomes actual game data and gives me the Ultimate Sword of Ultimate Destiny when I analyze it, than sure why not. ^_^