Malte Langkabel
f8028a6ca2
Playtest 1 (first two pushes, ~40 min game time — pacing on target) found the railgun_s-spam-cruiser meta and confirmed the repair tool as overpowered (second signal after the persistent arena escort margin): - repair_tool 9 -> 4 HP/s: the arena only prices in-fight sustain; real runs add free between-wave top-offs across the whole swarm - railgun_l range 100 -> 130: now outranges stations (120), buying the siege role the capital ladder promises - railgun_m 14 -> 16 dmg, range 70 -> 80: concentration tax softened so the ladder reads "pay some DPS efficiency for reach", not "strictly worse" - new tracked arena: railgun_s-spam cruisers vs default cruisers Module costs untouched, so all threat values stay valid. Docs updated (derived.md, history.md playtest record, README status). Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01DyCu8vwChKMbLJQ3xosYEN
Balancing Documentation
Everything about balancing Dota Factory, separated by role:
- rules.md — the design rules and principles. Timeless; changes only when the design changes.
- targets.md — the base numbers (roots/anchors) chosen by design. Change these first; everything else re-derives.
- derived.md — the current tuned state of all derived numbers, mirroring the configs. Updated whenever configs change.
- process.md — how balancing is done: the pass order, tuning discipline, tools, and the checklist for the next round.
- history.md — chronological record of decisions, findings, bugs, and arena rounds.
Related: game content (hull grids, footprint gating, tree design and fiction) in ../content_design.md; rules with REQ-* ids in ../requirements.md.
Status
First full balancing round complete (2026-07-06): targets → tree →
numbers → threat-calculator parity → combat stats (arena-converged) →
pacing. Playtesting in progress: playtest 1 (first two pushes) found the
railgun_s-spam-cruiser meta and confirmed repair as overpowered — combat
stats adjusted, see history.md. Next: re-run the arena suite against
the adjustments, then continue playtests against the run-shape targets
in targets.md.
Open action items
Agreed changes that require edits to requirements.md, the code, or the
configs. Completed items are removed (their outcomes live in
requirements.md, history.md, and the git history).
- Fill unfillable schematic slots with artifacts. With duplicates removed, the schematic drop pool can run dry — previously unreachable. Decision: every slot in the choice dialog that cannot be filled with a schematic because the eligible pool is exhausted is filled with an artifact option instead (in addition to any artifact option granted by the regular artifact roll). A push therefore always awards a full dialog. Update REQ-DEF-SCHEMATIC-DROP.
- Confirm wave scaling in playtests.
threat_rate_formulais the only time-scaling axis; verify the tuned curve (seederived.md) produces the intended difficulty race in real runs. - Gate shortcut-recipe drops on their inputs. Extend the assembler recipe schematic pool eligibility in REQ-DEF-SCHEMATIC-DROP: in addition to the existing station-level and output-item checks, all of the recipe's input item types must be implicitly unlocked as well.
- Resource deposits. Add a terrain deposit layer per the Resource
deposits rules (
rules.md): deposit patches generated in expansion columns (deterministic content per expansion, randomized placement within the new columns), deposit rendering, and a miner condition (a resource recipe is selectable only if the miner's footprint overlaps at least one matching deposit tile). Touches REQ-BLD-MINER ("every asteroid tile is equivalent" no longer holds), REQ-GW-ASTEROID-EXPAND / REQ-EXP-*,world.toml, andvisuals.toml. Until this lands, quartz mines anywhere and the mid-game is knowledge-gated only.