Counterplay is King in PvP Balance
I've recently been taken in by Dungeonborne , a fantasy loot extraction game where you pick a combat class, then try to escape an area populated with hostile creatures and other players. If you die during a match, you lose any gear you entered with, plus any loot you picked up along the way. With these stakes, and PvP as a key aspect of the game, class balance is a top concern of players. Examining this game has kicked off a lot of thoughts about how to balance asymmetric PvP, mistakes I often see, and lessons I've learned over the years. Metrics Can Be a Trap Let's start with a contrived example. We've made the game Hardcore Craft Battles. It's a 1v1 PvP brawler where you queue up as one of three classes: Rock, Paper, or Scissors. You match against another player and fight to the death. Let's say every class has equal representation, so you have an equal chance to match against any other class. In our game, Rock always wins against Scissors, which always wins...
