Major Balance Update

Hello everyone!

Here's a look at what I've been working on lately.

A few days ago I released a major update focused on fixing the balance of NPCs, classes, and equipment, while also removing a lot of tedious manual work from the game creation process.

Completely New Stat System

Stats are one of the foundations of game balance. They determine damage, defense, movement speed, critical chance, and much more.

In the previous version, every stat could be entered manually. While having no restrictions sounds great on paper, in practice it created complete chaos. Without any reference points, how do you know whether 100 damage is a lot or a little? When you're creating your twentieth NPC, who remembers whether its stats are actually balanced against the previous nineteen? Will your classes be able to defeat it, or will it end up being overpowered? Or perhaps it'll die in a single hit?

The new stat system no longer allows entering raw values directly.

Instead, every stat now uses a familiar 0-10 rank system. You simply decide that a character should have 4/10 Attack, 8/10 Defense, 1/10 Dodge, and 10/10 Health, and your tank is ready.

Behind the scenes, each stat follows a carefully balanced progression curve. The actual values are calculated automatically for every level using the same formula across every creature in the game.

New Class Balance System

Balancing NPCs was already difficult, but balancing classes took it to another level.

Classes don't just have their own base stats - they also wear equipment that modifies those stats. Previously, balancing a class required manually calculating the combined result of the faction base, class base, and every equipment slot separately.

The new system works exactly like NPCs.

Simply choose a rank for each stat, and everything else is handled automatically. Part of each stat is assigned to the class itself, while the remaining value is distributed across its class equipment. Once the full equipment set is worn, the class reaches exactly the balanced power level you defined through the stat ranks.

Automatic Equipment Generation

Imagine your game has 8 classes, and you want equipment for every major progression tier - for example every 5 levels from level 1 to level 50.

That's:

8 classes × 10 equipment slots × 11 equipment tiers = 880 individual items

...all of which would normally need to be created and balanced manually.

That's simply insane.

The solution is the new Equipment Set Builder.

Now you only create a single set for a specific level and rarity, and the game automatically generates every equipment piece for every class.

Even better, if you later add a ninth class, all of its equipment is generated automatically as well.

Truly Class-Specific Equipment

At first glance, "class equipment" sounds simple - items that only one class can use.

But it's more complicated than that.

Suppose both your Tank and your Spell Sword use swords. The Tank doesn't need Spell Power on its weapon, while the Spell Sword shouldn't have bonus Health. And what happens if an Assassin equips two of those swords? Does it suddenly become overpowered?

Item stats have been completely redesigned to match the new balance model.

Every item can now specify its target class, and all stat values are generated specifically for that class.

As a result, each class receives exactly the stats defined in the Class Editor when wearing its own equipment set - nothing missing and nothing unnecessary.

Classes cannot equip another class's gear if it's stronger than their own. However, they can temporarily use weaker equipment from other classes.

All of these restrictions are calculated automatically, removing another layer of manual balancing.

Item Rarity Editor

Item rarity already existed before, but it couldn't be edited and had virtually no gameplay impact beyond displaying a different line in the tooltip.

Now it finally does.

You can create your own rarity tiers or completely replace the default ones.

Each rarity also has a Quality value that directly modifies the stats of every generated item.

The Class Editor displays stats assuming 0 Quality (the baseline), so equipment with negative Quality will be weaker than the reference values, while higher Quality equipment will become proportionally stronger.

Stat Distribution

A common question is:

"Which stats will actually appear on generated equipment?"

The new Stat Distribution settings answer exactly that.

The game comes with sensible defaults, but if you want helmets to grant Attack instead of Defense... who am I to stop you?

Automatic Item Updates

"What if I decide my Assassin shouldn't have Dodge anymore? Do I now need to manually edit every existing item?"

Not anymore.

Whenever you change class balance, stat distributions, or item rarities, every affected item is automatically recalculated.

A new Items Update window also shows a convenient before/after comparison so you can instantly review every generated change.

Unique Items

"Can I still create completely unique items?"

Absolutely.

Manual item creation isn't going anywhere.

You can still create fully custom items that aren't tied to equipment sets. They also follow the new balance model - you simply choose the level, rarity, and target class, and all base stats are calculated automatically.

From there, you can customize each stat using its rank, allowing you to make an item stronger or weaker in specific areas while still staying within the overall balance framework.

And More

Alongside these major systems, I've also made numerous bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements throughout the project.

Several existing windows have received visual updates, and a number of new windows have been added as well.

Developing a project of this size alone while also working a full-time job is incredibly challenging.

If you'd like to support me and the project's development - and get access to the latest work-in-progress version of the game - you can do so on Patreon.