The concept of "Lagom" is the epitome of Swedish simplicity. When things embody lagom, they are not perfect but rather perfectly balanced—just right. Picture a tea that isn't too hot or too cold on a rainy day—lagom! Imagine a color that effortlessly complements the occasion—lagom!

Now, let's set aside our admiration for Swedish culture and apply the concept of lagom directly to the realm of video games: balance is a sensitive field, and striving for improvement doesn't necessarily bring us closer to perfection.

Join me, Sky_Linx, in exploring the delicate art of achieving the perfect balance in developing Steel Hunters.

"POWER! UNLIMITED POWER!!!"

This iconic line by Emperor Palpatine just before he unleashes the full power of the dark side on Mace Windu (yep, proud nerd here!), takes on a unique meaning when applied to our Hunters. Ever faced an excessively overpowered Hunter? Had fun? Probably not. Ensuring our Hunters remain enjoyable to both play and go up against goes beyond the commonplace practice of turning to the dark side and tweaking your stats to 99 in every category.

Our Hunters boast diverse abilities and unique properties, providing players with strategic advantages or disadvantages on the battlefield. Simply "nailing it directly from the start" is not an option, unless you possess the ability to see far beyond numbers and statistics. If everything could be calculated, my dog would be square (because he's perfect just the way he is).

Every time a Hunter's ability is changed, it impacts their win rate. How much? That's hard to pin down. While we can make educated guesses, certainty is elusive. We, the players, are inherently unpredictable! And this unpredictability is crucial in understanding that balance in the game is achieved not solely through calculations, but also—and perhaps more importantly—through extensive playtesting.

Nonetheless, calculations do lay the groundwork for this balancing act. Let's delve into how we approach it.

Metrics, Metrics, Metrics, Metrics

In our quest to determine whether individual Hunters might possess a theoretical, unfair advantage, our Dev Team focuses on specific metrics. Steel Hunters, being a methodical and tactical battle shooter, places considerable emphasis on high-level metrics—measurable values that chart overall performance. An example of this is TTK or "time to kill," which essentially measures how long it takes for one Hunter to completely destroy another—in theory.

TTK is one of the most important metrics for us. This chart shows how even small changes from picking up cores enhance the durability or boost the power of a Hunter.

Another key term often considered is DPS or "damage per second." Controlling the damage output of Hunters ensures that players can immerse themselves in the game and take on the role of their favorite Hunter without facing disadvantages. At least, that's the idea. However, the potential to deal a certain amount of damage per second and the ability to effectively apply it in-game are two different things. You can't apply that kill shot if you don't get to shoot at all, innit? When we develop a new Hunter, DPS is undoubtedly one of the fundamental values we consider immediately, but we also extend our focus to a more general definition of the Hunter: Glass cannon? Ability nuker? Tank? What fits the game best?

Average damage dealt per match by Hunters in v0.29–v0.31.
Please keep in mind that average damage varies a lot by type of Hunter: Taurus might charge in close combat to end a game in one go, while a mid- to long-range Hunter like Prophet often deals with situations where his opponents hide behind cover and recover their health, leading to him having to deal more damage overall to kill off an enemy.

Let's Talk About Momma Bear...

In the realm of gaming, characters like our esteemed Ursus represent a unique blend of formidable attributes. Equipped with the robust, tank-like Glacial Armor and long-range F.A.N.G. rockets, her overpowering nature was strikingly evident during our initial playtest sessions. This apparent overpowered status demanded a thorough analysis, necessitating a deep dive into aspects such as the extent of the damage zones on her armor, the rate of damage she inflicted, and the spread of her Auto Shotgun.

Traditionally, the process began by evaluating Ursus' most potent skill against her weakest, aiming to harmonize her strengths and vulnerabilities toward a balanced equilibrium. Yet, there was an instance during playtesting where, despite meticulous calculations and adjustments, Ursus' dominance remained inexplicably pronounced.

Ursus displayed remarkably high win and survival rates in Version 0.28, which became more balanced in Version 0.29.

This conundrum was reminiscent of a minor miscalculation in a formula leading to unexpected outcomes, a scenario familiar to anyone who has ever tried to experiment baking a yeast-dough recipe. A single error drives other factors out of control, leaving my kitchen counter overwhelmed by an avalanche of Swedish cinnamon roll dough (true story)—a far cry from the Swedish concept of lagom!

So, just like that, a small change can influence other factors and mess up things pretty heavily.

How do we iterate after a character is released? How do we patch up the Hunter? Well, it boils down to three words: feedback, data, and experts. By examining our data and comparing it to player feedback, alongside our experts revisiting their insights with the balance team, we make careful, gradual adjustments. However, it doesn't always work out perfectly at first.

Another discovery we made was in understanding why it was incredibly difficult to defeat Prophet. You might think this isn't surprising, given his God complex, but rather than some supernatural mystery, we found that Prophet was actually balanced as intended. His weak spots, however, were smaller than those of other Hunters. Logically, smaller weak spots meant less critical damage received, thus a longer survival time in the game. Consequently, he appeared unkillable in our metrics—spooky, but solved.

But isn't Prophet overall a popular character? Unsurprisingly, even the popularity of Hunters can give developers an early indication of how systems need to be adapted and modified to keep gameplay consistent. If people lean toward picking a certain Hunter over another, it ends up entering the Arena two or three times more often, meaning we have to prepare for these Hunters abilities to occur more often in the game.

After we corrected Prophet's "near-invulnerability," see how his kill/death ratio gradually decreased from V0.19 to V0.22.

Glass… Breaks

In gaming terminology, a character with high offensive capabilities but low defensive strength is often described as a "glass cannon." This term acknowledges the delicate yet destructive nature of such characters that embody a precarious balance between formidable attack power and vulnerability. In Steel Hunters, we have a well-defined and balanced framework, which simplifies the introduction of new characters. Why is it simpler? Because we already have a solid understanding of where the stats of a new Hunter should be to fit into our roster of Hunters.

But doesn't this approach potentially compromise the uniqueness of a Hunter? This brings us to a crucial aspect of balance development: of course all Hunters cannot have the same stats, as it would take away the unique experience each provides, and uniqueness is one of the most important characteristics for each of our Hunters.

This is why we also rely on additional features to enhance the unique bond players create with their Hunter. There's a significant psychological aspect involved, too. Hunter preference can vary widely based on personal preference for aesthetics, playability, or background story—or from a developer's perspective, things like gun handling, falloff, etc.

What can lead to a Hunter feeling overpowered or underpowered is often how strong your bond has become—meaning how well you've learned to team up with the machine. Whether the specific Hunter already acts like an extension of yourself or if you still have problems keeping them under control, and also how quickly you hit your skill ceiling or how adept you are at handling the character in the game. So, knowing we believe this game has received some fine work on balance, which should make it a lot of fun, the question is: how good are you really at taming your Hunter?

Remember, a professional racing driver might beat you to the curve even in a much slower car. Never forget that!

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

This is the wise advice our governments and environmentally concerned NGOs give us to help protect the environment; however, this has little to do with what we need to consider on our post-apocalyptic battlefields in Steel Hunters. Creating the environment is about crafting the experience. As a slow-paced shooter, environmental balance is crucial in determining whether we can include gameplay elements like snipers and "hold-out" play, or if we should focus on full-on clashes. It influences the size of our maps and the number of destructible objects on them. We always have to ask the question of whether the map favors certain gameplay styles or provides a fair shot at victory for everyone.

And If Nothing Works...

...eventually, it will. With time, experience, dedication, data, feedback, formulas, and so on. But doesn't progress sometimes seem incredibly slow? If we already know everything, why does it take so long to achieve balance? The simplest answer: we're only human, and since none of us has yet transcended into their Hunter-form, bonded with Starfall, or become a super AI, we must tackle things one at a time. Changes aren't only made at the balance level every time we test; sometimes we test for different aspects. One thing at a time, that's how it goes.

But the truly inspirational aspect of balance is that it somewhat resembles life itself: to achieve perfect balance, you must allow for a certain degree of imbalance. We have players with varying skill levels, Hunters with different abilities, and a game heavily reliant on tactics. Impactful creation allows players to learn how to master the strengths of their Hunters, and therefore, we must allow weaknesses to exist.

And that's why, in the end, even with all the calculations, there's nothing quite like testing a game in a real-life scenario, in playtests, with a formidable fan base of engaged players like you.

Sounds "lagom" to me!