I make this post so there can be some discussion around balance. Not necessarily specific balancing decisions that are coming but the idea behind balance. For whom should balancing be for? Skill floor, vs skill ceiling.

Skill floor, skill ceiling

Ideally, at least for me, a good mmo or game has stages of enjoyment. There's the entry/very casual stage, the intermediate hey I'm getting pretty good stage, and the tryhards who really care about getting that extra 1% better.

If you're not familiar with the terms skill floor and skill ceiling let me explain. Skill floor means there's a low barrier to entry. You can be serviceable at the game without that much effort or time. Skill ceiling means there are a lot of ways to express skill, nearly always there's small minute details that you can improve on to do that just little bit extra performance.

Tibia in general in my opinion has been for at least about a decade been a fairly high skill floor and a high skill ceiling. In other words I mean I think it has a lot of room to improve and get better and you'll see those differences in skill all the way to the top. While the skill floor being too high means it's too punishing and difficult for new players.

Changes I like to see in general lower the skill floor, allowing newer players greater margin of error to play the game without sacrificing the skill ceiling. This does not mean every single change to the skill ceiling is bad, just that it's something you should keep in mind when making changes for the lower skill/new players.

If there is a change that can be made that solves an issue that doesnt impact one of the other categories of players much that's the best result.

Who should balancing be for?

As unfortunate as it is not everyone can get everything they want. You can't balance for everyone in every stage of the game. So who should you listen to when deciding to balance a game? Should you listen to your casual fanbase that makes up the majority of your playerbase or should you listen to your dedicated players who spend much more time playing?

Each are going to have different opinions on where they think the game ought to go. In my opinion I think cipsoft should "cater" more to the mid levels more so than either the low levels or even very high levels.

That doesn't mean they should not listen to newer players it's valid. For example mages have always been the most difficult vocs for new players because of the low health pool. For twenty five years it's been that way and everyone will just tell you to get good or play a different voc.

For very high levels often times they are playing the game the most, they have experienced all or nearly all of the content of the game. They have valuable insight to give regarding the end game and how vocs interact at the absurd levels. Where I would caution listening to very high levels is that past a certain point in tibia it's actually better for you if everyone got nerfed across the board. Let's take a lvl 3k team for example. Let's say everyone gets massive nerfs, spawns get nerfed ect... That lvl 3k team is going to do the exact same thing they're doing now with worse numbers yes, but the gap betweem them and everyone else increases.

Sorry for the long tangent. My main point is that mid level range players are the backbone of the game, it's where most players reside. They're firmly in the hey I'm getting better at the game and I'm trying out new stuff category. They may not know all the details about the game but theyre who you should be balancing for. If there's a massive voc Imbalance at lvl 3k but everythings perfectly balanced at 500-1500 I would argue no change is better than a change that would destroy that.

What are your thoughts on balancing design?