Hello, I am working on a 4X strategy game. There are going to be 5 different types of races. After the player chooses a type, they get to customize their race by modifing different attributes (somewhat like Stars! if you ever played it). I am wondering how balanced the different race types seem. Here is part of my help file that descibes the different race types (I find that using a help file for documenting/designing a game works nicely): Humanoids This type of race is human like. Land is the only place where humanoids can live without building special structures. Also, they need food and water to be able to live and grow. Average Age: 75 Years Working Ages: 14 - 70 Strengths: * None, just average. Weaknesses: * None, just average. Electroids This type of race is made of pure energy. Electroids cannot live on land or in water without building special structures. They live above the land and water because they can float. Without special shields, they cannot come into contact with water, this also includes humidity and water weapons, because it will short them out and kill them. They need electricity to be able to continue to live and to grow. Average Age: Infinite Working Ages: All Strengths: * Over all, has more space to work with because they live in above. * Doesn't need any kind of food. * Doesn't naturally die. Weaknesses: * Can easily be destroyed by water and water weapons. * Slower growth rate than all other kinds of races. * Due to their non-physical nature, they have a hard time producing things. Androids This type of race is part mechanical and part humanoid. Like humanoids, androids can only live on land unless they build special structures. Unlike humanoids though, they require water and silicon to live and grow. Average Age: 60 Years Working Ages: 10 - 60 Strengths: * High physical strength. * Quick thinkers (Research current tech faster). Weaknesses: * Doesn't think 'out of the box' very well (Research new tech slower). Aquaoids This type of race is similar to the humanoids because they need water and food to live and grow. However, Aquaoids can only live in water unless they build special structures. Average Age: 30 Years Working Ages: 2 - 30 Strengths: * Highest growth rate of all race types. * The best of all the race types at researching because of their ability to pass knowledge to their children through birth. Weaknesses: * Slightly lower than average physical strength. * Lowest average age of all race types. Trophicoids This type of race is autotrophic. That means they only need water and light to live and grow. They only can live on land unless they build special structures. Average Age: 200 Years Working Ages: 25 - 200 Strengths: * Doesn't need any kind of food. Weaknesses: * Low physical strength. * Slower movement than all other kinds of races (Less production and research points).

Water is a conductor, It would be weak to electricity. The only time that the water would be stronger, but still would be average attack against elec, would be if the water is 100% pureified because it would be free of minerals or if they body of water is thousands of times larger then the electricy. eg you would still be ok if a lightning bolt struck a lake that you were in.

I think it will be easy to defeat the Electroids because if you know you are fighting them, and this is a traditional (real-time) strategy game you can just only build "water warriors".

Also it seems that the average age is too high, I mean do you in any way prevent the player from killing creatures above the working age? Since it will be pretty annoying to have to keep creatures after they cant work.

Also wont it be difficult for a land-only race like humanoids or androids to fight water-only races like aquaoids?

EDIT:

Also the trophicoids seems weaker than the other species, I mean the only advantage is that they don't need food (just like electroids, which have other advantages too)

Wouldn't the Electroids require some kind of energy source to survive? Suppose they fed off the electricity generated in the clouds and when they do things like cast lightning bolds or generate magnetic fields to manipulate things it drains their "life energy" so they need to find a cloud or something to absorb energy from.

Technically, aren't they species rather than races?

To me, Trophicoids seem way too underpowered compared to the other species. They get the huge drawback of slow movement, production, and research, with their only strength being no need for food.

The Electroids have all that and more, plus they never die.

Can you explain the role of lifespan, working age range, growth rate, individual education in the game and how do they affect game balance?
Eternal youth, for instance, is very important for Electroid philosophy, society etc., but how does it help or hinder the Electroid player or influence his strategies?
Most stats you give are one or two steps removed from what usually matters: the totals, by planet or maybe city, of population, support costs, production and research output.

Before devising cool races, you should define rules in detail.
With a firm grasp of rules, you can imagine the gameplay differences caused by race features; then you can design the stats of races which would have interesting and different gameplay and match race concepts to your requirements.

I'm just going to leave this piece of advice: No amount of statistical balancing on paper will make up for prototyping this and play-testing it. By all means try to ensure your races (species?) are balanced, but be prepared to do some play-testing and change things; things often become apparent during gameplay that aren't obvious just by looking at the rules and stats.

I have to agree with Kazgoroth and LorenzoGatto. It's very hard to get a good idea of the game balance without actually playing the game, let alone without even knowing the rules.

The best thing to do would be to not worry too much about balance to begin with. Just make them so they look balanced to you, but make sure that they are easily edited. This way you can tweak them as imbalances show up during playtesting.

For a 4x you could probably quite easily prototype it with pen and paper, and thus be able to get some playtesting done without even writing any code. This could help you iron out issues with the rules as well as gross imbalances between the races.

Thank you all for the great criticism.

CTar: "I mean do you in any way prevent the player from killing creatures above the working age? Since it will be pretty annoying to have to keep creatures after they cant work." Thats a good point. I think I will change it so that after the minimum working age, they can work no mater how old they get. Suporting useless population would be anoying.

Kevinator: Ya, species is what they realy are. Thank you for pointing that out. I'll also find a way to balence Trophicoids and Electroids.

LorenzoGatti: Good idea. I'll work on the rules.

Kazgoroth: Ok, I'll do that. I'll work on balencing it once the game is more finished.

Oh man I'd be the aquaoids every day!

I played stars pretty heavily and they sound like the tri-immune 6% HE race ;) tri-immune = live anywhere, 6% growthrate = very low (could go up to 20%) and HE = double growthrate.

The better the planet the more of your growthrate you got and in this case you get 100% everywhere (tri-immune) so have a flat 12% growthrate up to 25% max capacity.

Faster tech + Faster Growth for aquaoids :OOOOOO

You'd take over the galaxy in seconds if played right.

I'm assuming lots here though and I guess the whole water/land thing is like the hab ranges in stars.

Androids look like AR... not a threat to start with but you'd be a fool to leave them.