A Leaner Economy, a Field Three Times Larger

The last two days went into foundations. Little of it shows in a screenshot, but all of it changes how a match plays. And none of it has reached a release yet: it is held back to ship at once, after the balance is redone on top of the new rules.

An economy that was too rich

We measured the pace of our matches against what we expect from a game of this genre. Troop production was right. The money was not: the game ran 3.5 to 4 times richer than it should, and every match turned into a flood. So we tightened the economy:

• Quick construction: 2 seconds for troop buildings, upgrades and specials, and 20 for towers.
• A tighter start: 250 gold, 125 lumber and 5 income from the castle, instead of 300 and 14.
• Income dies with the building. A destroyed building used to keep paying. Now losing your base really hurts.
• A reward for building first: the first four players to finish a building get 20, 15, 10 and 5 gold.

Some of these values are still provisional and flagged for review after testing.

An AI that upgrades on time

We reviewed the 66 relations in our upgrade tree one by one, and the tree held up. The problem was the AI, which upgraded too late and at random. Experienced players take the first upgrade as soon as they can, and that is what the AI learned. With that policy, the new AI beats the old one in 77 to 78% of matches.

Hits that vary

Each hit now deals a base damage plus a variation, instead of a fixed value. Reviewing the tables, we found about 150 troops whose minimum damage sat one point below what we intended. On some, like one of the water elementals, the weakest hit came out at almost half strength. We fixed the damage of every faction and reviewed 35 ability numbers that were still estimates.

A field three times larger

The playable field went from 96 × 27 to 160 × 47, nearly three times the area, and all 14 arenas were redrawn from scratch under the same names.

The inspiration is the classic strategy map: paved roads, dense groves, lakes, fords, terraces and landmarks in the background, such as temples, mossy monoliths and floating crystals. The relief is visual only. Troops still move on a flat plane, but everything drawn follows the ground. And one new rule: no troop walks through a piece of scenery. If it looks solid, it is solid.

What is left

Each of these changes, on its own, throws the factions off balance. Tuning them one at a time would mean redoing the work at every step. So the order is: finish rebalancing the factions with the new economy, AI and field, run the full battery of lab matches, rework the Training lessons that lost their timing, and only then ship it all together.

— The Castle Arena Team