[Wesnoth-dev] balancing proposal

[Richard S .]

In response to Dave's email asking for a person to lead the balancing 
discussion, Bartek Waresiak (Dragonking) and I have discussed among 
ourselves and we would like to be granted opportunity to undertake this 
role. We are both avid multiplayer members; Between the two of us we 
have over 2000 games of experience of either playing or watching 
matches, and have been active within the greater wesnoth community on 
balancing issues. Although Dave did ask for a single person to do this, 
Bartek and I would like to work together on this because we complement 
each other's abilities well, and that together we can put forward a 
balanced unit list for the launch of the v 1.0.

This is primarily how we would like go to about it. We will conduct 
extensive playtesting and canvas as many opinions as we can. In 
particular we want a very good dialogue with all parties involved. We 
in multiplayer didn't like when changes were presented to us without 
any sort of discussion, so we will not do the same to other parties. In 
particular we think a good dialogue with the single player community is 
necessary to put out the best version of wesnoth holistically. Although 
the basis of the balancing will be multiplayer, we believe that if we 
can explain the logic behind these changes, campaign designers will 
know what they are working with and can design their campaign around 
the new balance. We will try to aid in this process as well.

However the same time we do believe that firm action is needed to push 
through a stable and balanced version of the units to make a balanced 
version of wesnoth. We think there has never really been a question 
about balancing, as there has always been a consensus among the core 
players of the multiplayer community as to the general issues that need 
to be dealt with. What we want to do is to finally push through these 
changes that have been discussed for such a long time. We have included 
here a provisional list of the major issues we would like to address.

Saurian Skirmisher (completely overpowered for its  cost)
Ulfzerker (do I need to start on this?)
Ranger (too powerful melee attack)
guardsman (unbalanced due to steadfast)
Troll  (too low xp)
Zombie (5 gold is too little compared to the goblin)
Fencer (too high cost)
Thief (12 gold unit that can do 12-3 at night and has elusive foot?)
Skeleton archer (costs too much compared to its contemporaries)
Gryphon (too high at 25)
Deathblade (it should not be a leader option, also has other issues 
that need examination)
Masterbowman (low hp)
Pikeman (9-3 first strike compared to 8-4 for the swordsman, or 
Javlineer at 8-3 and 11-2 ranged)
Mermen/Naga issues (this needs a lot of work)

We have some ideas in mind on how to solve these problems, but we'd 
like to discuss and  test them out extensively before we do commit 
anything into stone.  We would also like to use the development forum 
as a place where we will list the major changes that we intend, so that 
they are clearly stated. If serious opposition is to be had, we will 
discuss it and take it into consideration.We will also try to maintain 
a constant flow of information to the developers via the email list. By 
adhering to this method we believe we can put out a balanced version of 
wesnoth in the time allotted.

We hope that you will look on our proposal favorably.

Richard and Bartek.