Obsessive Compulsive Game Design

I would say that your issue here is that you think consistency is required to achieve balance. I don't think it is. You don't need 12 different unit types for each army. Imagine this simple example:

1 army has 2 different units, each with 3 special abilities.
1 army has 3 different units, each with 2 special abilities.

Inconsistent, but balanced. Theoretically, anyway... the abilities themselves would have to be balanced as well, but that is an issue for playtesting to discover.

Have you tested the game at all yet? It might be that you are getting ahead of youself... try developing two armies and seeing if the whole thing works, is balanced, and most importantly, is fun to play. (man sometimes I develop a whole game and realize that I forgot that last one... ) Then start adding armies... I am working on a similar game to yours and I found that this was the best way to proceed... Sure, I have tons of great ideas for the armies that are undeveloped as yet, but they will keep just fine on notepaper until I am sure that the game itself works. Achieving balance is easier with fewer elements (ie armies) and once you have achieved it (or APPROACHED it, let's be real) it's much easier to duplicate the "weight" for newer armies instead of trying to decide upon weights for everything all at once.

Just my thoughts

~Josh

Here is a few tip from my experience. First of all, don't do the whole game design from head to tails. Write some idea or make a vague draft of the rules. Work on it for a few weeks then pass to something else not related to this game. If you come up with a few idea you add it but you don't develop them. A few month later, ( when you get back in the mood to develop your game again)you read your design again.

By rereading your game design, you will find a few bug or stupid idea and you will come up with new idea. Rewrite or complete the rules you have written. If it is not complete, leave it for a month or two and refine your game design again util your game is complete.

It might look that it takes a long time but it allows you to get each time a different point of view about your game. It will also make sure that you never get bored and always have fun desinging the game.

Finally, sharing the game rules with other players is essential to see their point of view. They will see things that you did not.

I'm with you, PT. I do the same thing a lot, knowing full well that it's not necessarily good game design -- just something that "should" be done. It's really the mark of OCD: when you feel like things should be a very certain way, even though you know full well that there's no logical reason for it, and in fact the world doesn't come to an end when it doesn't turn out that way. Yet nonetheless you are compelled.

I've managed to overcome it with most of my designs. There are times when that symmetry is absolutely essential, especially things hidden from the players. For example, if you have 3 types of goods someone can buy for later resale, and there's nothing in the game system that indicates which goods are more valuable or rare, but in fact the odds are skewed and one good is more available, another comparitively rare, you're screwing the players and they don't know it. The guy who chose corn may have lost simply because the system is balanced against corn winning, yet this is unrevealed. In cases where you're going to be asymmetrical, you've gotta make it clear to the players that the asymmetry exists, and what the impact is. And not just in the rules.

But you know that. I'm borderline OCD, I suspect, but am "lucky" to have a brother who is full-blown OCD, so I can tell just how close to the border I really am. :)

-- Matthew

I am kind of relieved that I am not the only one here with this problem. (BTW FastLearner, I am diagnosed with OCD, it isn't that bad unless I don't take my meds, or if I am super stressed, my brother has it MUCH wrose than I do.)

Yeah they're are different levels of OCD as with many 'mental ailments'. What I think is interesting is that sometimes you can use these diseases to your advantage. For instance, I have ADD. I work at a job where I have to constantly switch from one task to another, never able to really complete any task in a single sitting. I'm not sure I would do as well as I do if it weren't for the ADD. With OCD, you may find you excel at jobs where it is very important to pay attention to detail (of course, I am stereotyping OCD people a tad here). I have a few friends who are borderline OCD (in my eyes) who are really good computer programmers. So take the lemons that life has given, and by God make some lemonade!

-Darke
(and now we return to our normally on topic thread).