Race Balancing

[CYBER]

Hey axiom, first of all, complements on the good post. Although this same subject has been touched upon many times before, I'm actually genuinely happy that you posted your case in a well written format, and didn't simply go on a rage wagon to scrap the strong races.

That being said, let me tell you something.
WCS is NOT balanced. It will never be. But that's just the beauty of it.
There is no ONE race that overcomes all of them. It is true however that there are races that are indubitably stronger than other races in SOME aspects.
It all falls under the "Perfect Imbalance" concept.
See here and you'll see exactly where we stand:



This is VERY obvious to notice in our server when you see people going to races with immunities, or buying laces and so forth to counter vagas.
Heck, if im playing a molecule, and half the other team decided to jump on shadow hunter? I'd definitely consider swapping my race because no amount of anti_wards would ever be sufficient. Not to mention that shadow hunters can shoot through your 100% invulnerable state.

If all the races are equally strong, there's no point of swapping races and working harder to unlock new ones (unless you want to be a level-ranking whore).
And that's really the core of our server: changing tactics and races to counter everyone else.
If a perfect balance is reached, it will just be a game of grinding instead of true genuine tactical gameplay.

ANOTHER concept we need to touch on here is taking into account the PLAYER using a race. As a game designer, it is VERY hard to take into account WHO's using that race, due to the fact that there are infinite possibilities of using each race in each player's own gamestyle.

For example, try to see how many players who've had Vagabond and Vagalion unlocked AND maxxed since forever, and yet are easily destroyed by other players.
The race ITSELF is not OP, but put it into a decent player's hands, with their own gameplay, and you have yourself a problem for the poor bastards.

For example, take that same vagabond and put it in Spasm or Masskid or Blamm's (or *humbly* even my) hands and you'd be hating on vagabond for the rest of the game. Heck Shady might do well against noobs, get owned by a few. However, vaga vs vaga, me and shady will bash heads forever, not because one of us is better than the other or better than the other players, but because we know each other as players and we READ each other's gameplay constantly. Another case of Player vs Player, not race vs race.

Vagabond is considered to be a stronger and more survival-ish race than vagaLION, however, put me against Wolfenstinger as a Bond vs Lion, and I can already admit to you that I'd get my ass whooped from mondays to sundays...

Heck, I've seen Brett MASSACRE people with Undead, Wolf holding an entire hostage room ALONE vs 7 other players (including humans, vagabond-me, and nebulas) only with a "crappy" genocide.

So to answer your question : is wcs unbalanced? Oh hell yeah. Is it TOOO unbalanced? Not really, only if you underestimate the races you play.

Sure rapscallions are argued to be weak, but holy fuck do these fuckers help at getting those "op" vagas stuck out of the blue. You just need to know how to play each race, and that can only come by getting your ass kicked daily until you change your OWN gameplay to fit the race.
You do NOT change the race to fit every player's gameplay, even if the gameplay itself is a universal tactic used by many.

Also, you need to take into account the people you are playing with. Most of the bitching that comes from the server is no longer a problem with the races, but the team distributions of those players USING those races. Swap a couple players around? And i can ASSURE you that the Vaga or human or molecule that was DESTROYING said team will have a harder fucking time keeping up.

There are times where I'd be wrecking an enemy team with a vaga because no one is countering me, and some random faggot i've never heard of starts flanking me and owning me. I check the hidden player names and I discover it's Tom Erdenay that just joined and playing solely to counter my ass. Surely enough, my team loses their first round... ONE player can make a difference, no matter what race they're on. Because he plays support and synergies with his team flawlessly.

Heck, playing a magician on a winning team will most likely get you killed and be counter intuitive. Put a couple bird-proccing magicians and a "camping" bloodmage on that team, and that OP vaga and molecule or even spidey will have the hardest time catching up to those birds...

tl/dr:
Chill on this thought for now: There is no one race that you can play all the time unless you wish to be countered all the time. Counter the counters. Play smart. And... well... hope that you'll find a loophole in the enemy's team structure.... And fyi, that loophole changes every game and every round. Be vigilant, and most importantly: enjoy the imbalanced game. It's more of a challenge than grinding...
How many games of the perfectly balanced Tic-Tac-Toe can you play before you figure out that if everyone was playing with optimal strategies, no one wins. There's no challenge or fun in it.
And this is why our servers will always be amazing.
Peace. and Thank you for your post, and for reading this, i hope.