[TM] Balancing an Economy

posted on March 9th, 2020, 7:14 pm

In the world of RTS games, it is very rare for a game to have only a single resource for players to gather and spend. Having a set of multiple resources is almost a given for the genre, but the in-game balance of those resources varies wildly from one game to another. In Fleet Operations, we have a mild division between Dilithium, which serves as a production resource, and Tritanium which is a tech resource. I call this a mild division since everything in the game requires at least a small amount of both, as opposed to a game like Starcraft where some units require only one resource.

Ships and technology in Fleet Operations are priced according to a complex formula that takes onto account every aspect of a ship, with stats such as Offense and Defense contributing slightly more to its Di cost while special abilities and System value contribute to its Tri cost. For the most part, ships cost more Dilithium, meaning that a player that mines both resources equally will build up a surplus of Tritanium which he can then spend on upgrades and special ability research. This does result in a small number of special cases where a surplus of Di moons is preferable, which has affected map design in subtle ways, such as on the map Duel 2 which has an extra Di moon in the center.

As I overhaul the economy in Tryptic's Mod to better match the changes I have made, my method of analyzing it has gradually changed. I've begun looking at the economy in terms of resource streams: a Di moon in TM produces 10 Di per second, while a yard may build ships at a rate of 6.5 Di/second. This means that one moon pair supporting one yard will have roughly 3.5 Di/second excess, while 2 moon pairs can just about support 3 yards building constantly, regardless of which ship is being produced. There are many exceptions to this rule, but it provides a baseline for keeping the economy consistent for the players' sake.

As for Tritanium, I have normalized many of the costs and cut out the extreme cases. Ships that used to cost drastically more Di or Tri have had their costs adjusted so that the Tri cost is always within 1/3 and 2/3 of the Di cost. Since Tri is mined at exactly 2/3 the speed, to get the real numbers you can multiply every Tri cost by 3/2. This means that the most Di heavy ship uses twice as much Di, while the most Tri heavy ship uses the same amount of both. Or to put it yet another way, a player with balanced mining who produces Di heavy ships will slowly build up "half" the tri cost of each ship while a player building Tri heavy ships will not build up any Tritanium. Furthermore, a player who builds only Di heavy ships can get away with an extra Di moon, although this will limit his important tech options later on.

In base Fleet Ops, some races had a different balance than others. Klingons in particular had very high Di costs for their ships but high Tri costs for their technology. This led to them being able to use an extra Di moon more effectively than other races by skipping a few techs. Once TM is polished, I want any race to be able to function with a Dilithium surplus or even a Tritanium surplus as long as they build the appropriate ships.

The next step I'm facing is to determine which ships are appropriate for which role. Ships like Sabers and Rhienns can be Di heavy as they represent low technology; a player can either mine evenly while building them and store up Tritanium for the next stage, or he can skip getting a Tri moon in order to maximize his early aggression. Command ships and more specialized ships will use slightly more Tri, making them require a more balanced economy.

Several other things in the game will need to be tweaked as well. For example, tech buildings currently cost twice as much Di as they do Tri, or in adjusted terms, their Tri cost is 3/4 of their Di cost. I am considering raising their Tri cost, but I'm still on the fence as the technologies they research cost large amounts of Tri. Supply buys cost equal amounts of both resources, which means that the Tri cost is actually higher. Many of these things will need another look since I've changed the balance surrounding them.

My eventual hope is that this will open up the game to more variety in maps and more intuitive decisions for the players. Similar to how the Romulans do well building Griffins and Leahvals to balance their Di/Tri costs, or how Klingons can operate off of 3 Di/2 Tri in base Fleet Operations, I want every race to be able to keenly predict how their economy will turn out using various build options and moon counts. In some cases such as Assimilate Borg, this may result in Tritanium no longer being associated with high System value such as blue-beam Assimilators, but instead with higher tech units such as Diamonds. This way, a map with extra Dilithium moons doesn't restrict a player from using blue beams and Holding Beams.

P.S. If you are wondering, "why is Dilithium the production resource when it's an energy source, but Tritanium is a metal! Shouldn't it be the other way around!?" ...well, you're somewhat right. I think part of the reason I because "Di and Tri" is better to say than "Tri and Di". However if you need a more satisfying explanation, you can simply say that the dilithium is used to power Replicators that turn bulk materials into common ship components, while the Tritanium us an advanced alloy that can't be replicated and needs to be specially refined for use in advanced components. There, that's why it's the higher tech resource in this game.