[RampantCoyote]

So how do you test the late-game balance of your games?

I created a script that just auto-levels my party (and should, soon, give them appropriate equipment), but it still feels like guesswork at this point. Once the entire game is playable from start to finish things should be a little easier - maybe I can make a script that can dump out my party stats at each point for future retrieval. But I wanted to ask how you guys handle it.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Mattias Gustavsson]

[RampantCoyote]

Especially when your game is 20 - 30 hours (or more) in length --- rough-tuning the late-game can be extremely time consuming. So I'm looking for better shortcuts for that stage.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[tcaudilllg]

Well one thing you can do is level off your weapon strength. You can also use AC variables to keep the damage level consistent throughout the whole game: if they don't have the levels to do the damage, the no damage done. Don't do it like Final Fantasy... they don't do it well at all. Set up a per-quest pattern for character growth, and keep with that pattern throughout the entire game. If you must, use level caps.

Keep in mind that due to differences in player intelligence (relatively speaking), not all players will be able to complete the game if you limit their ultimate growth potential. Some people will adapt and pin every last little bit to their advantage, and some won't.

[RampantCoyote]

Yeah, I really don't want to use level caps in the mid-game,either... being able to grind out a couple of extra levels is a wonderful crutch for players having a tough time of it. Definitely a last resort measure.

I've modified some of the combat rules along the lines that you suggest. Just for the sake of my own sanity.

Right now the tools I have available to me is an AutoAdvance(level) command in the console window which advances the party to a certain level, giving them a lot of default choices. And I can automatically teleport them with a Teleport() command to anywhere I have a teleport node set up.

But that doesn't set appropriate quest triggers. Nor does it allow for me to experiment with different customized options for leveling. What if the player decides to have all the characters pursue healing magic? What if they are all optimized with bows? All I can think of is adding an extra parameter to the AutoAdvance command for the different variations I come up with.

I'm also thinking of creating a test arena level, where I can set up custom encounters in-game. Hmmm... maybe I can have a vendor there who sells every item in the game for free or something, too. That might make it easier to at least evaluate combat.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Hajo]

I used saved games from players who were playing for a long time, and tried to analyze and continue those, to see if the players found loopholes or exploits, and how the gameworld has evolved at that time.

That was a simulation game, though, and not an RPG, but I guess analyzing saved games will help. I got saved games from people who had been spending months of real time on the game and there were interesting to discover like a rollover of a variable after 800 years of game time ... well, crazy stuff happens :)

[df]

I use a spreadsheet...

its one of the best dev tools around!

I know what battles the player should have survived at various points, roughly what equipment would be available to the player and so forth... I know what range of damage enemies will do and what weapons they wield..

but at some point you really just have to play it through many times, make lots of saved games at different points.

[Malignus]